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Rep. Madison Cawthorn to Stand Trial in January for Allegedly Bringing Loaded Gun to Airport

The court case relates to the second time the GOP congressman allegedly took a loaded gun to an airport.

Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC) will appear in court on Jan. 13 to answer charges relating to an incident in which he allegedly took a loaded handgun into an airport. The Mecklenburg County District Attorney’s office on Tuesday told reporters that the date had been set in relation to a charge of possession of a dangerous weapon on city property over the incident at Charlotte Douglas International Airport in April. The 27-year-old Republican congressman was released in line with standard protocol after officers confiscated the Staccato 9mm handgun at the time. Cawthorn is yet to enter a plea for the charge, but he apologized on Instagram after the incident. “I made a mistake yesterday, no excuse for it, just a flat out mistake,” he wrote. The April incident was the second time Cawthorn allegedly took a gun into an airport. In February 2021, TSA agents at the regional airport of Cawthorn’s hometown of Asheville, North Carolina, found him with a Glock 9mm pistol, but no criminal charges resulted in that case.