Former NC Rep. Madison Cawthorn pleads guilty in loaded gun at airport case, receives fine

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Former North Carolina U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn pleaded responsible Friday to a misdemeanor after his loaded gun was discovered final 12 months in his carry-on baggage at Charlotte Douglas Worldwide Airport.

Mecklenburg County District Court docket Decide Cecilia Oseguera ordered a $250 tremendous however allowed Cawthorn to maintain the 9 mm handgun that Transportation Safety Administration brokers seized at a checkpoint in April 2022, information shops reported.

Prosecutors had wished Cawthorn to must relinquish the gun, however Oseguera mentioned she noticed nothing within the cost of possession of a harmful weapon on metropolis property that required him to present it up.

“I am very pleased and grateful that the decide gave a very clear ruling that sides with the legislation,” Cawthorn advised reporters after the listening to.

Cawthorn, a Republican who served one time period representing the eleventh Congressional District within the mountains, beforehand admitted to having the gun on the airport and wrote on social media there was “no excuse” for his mistake.

Cawthorn additionally was discovered with an unloaded gun in 2021 whereas attempting to get on a aircraft at Asheville Regional Airport. Airport police confiscated the gun however allowed him to board.

Cawthorn, from Henderson County, gained election to Congress in 2020 at age 25 and have become one among former President Donald Trump’s strongest supporters on Capitol Hill. He misplaced his 2022 GOP major to Chuck Edwards, who went on to win the overall elections.

Cawthorn advised reporters Friday that he thinks he’ll return to politics in the future however has no particular plans.

“I benefit from the place I am in now,” mentioned Cawthorn, who now has a house in Florida. “The world actually is the oyster for the younger.”

–Featured video is from earlier report–