National Guardsman arrested in DC for carrying pistol without permit

The guardsman told police during a traffic stop that his firearm was registered in his home state of Oklahoma.

By Patty Nieberg

Published

Add Task & Purpose (opens in a new tab)
U.S. National Guardsmen with the Arkansas National Guard, assigned to Joint Task Force-District of Columbia (JTF-DC) in support of the DC Safe and Beautiful mission, patrol Columbia Heights, Sept. 12, 2026 in Washington. About 3,100 National Guard members are supporting the mission, providing critical assistance to the Metropolitan Police Department to help ensure the safety of residents, commuters, and visitors throughout the District. (U.S. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. Carlos Parra)
A National Guardsman from Oklahoma was arrested in Washington, DC for carrying a pistol without a permit. Army National Guard photo by Sgt. Carlos Parra.

An Oklahoma National Guardsman deployed to Washington, D.C. was pulled over for an expired car registration, where police then found a pistol that wasn’t registered in the district. The guardsman was arrested this week and charged with a felony.

Jakob Noonan, 22, was charged Tuesday with carrying a 9mm Canik pistol without a license, according to court records. Noonan told police he was deployed to D.C. with his National Guard unit. 

“He stated that Oklahoma is an open-carry state and that the firearm was registered to him in Oklahoma. He acknowledged that he did not possess a valid District of Columbia concealed-carry permit,” according to a federal affidavit filed in the D.C. Superior Court.

Under D.C. law, carrying a pistol without a permit outside of a home is a felony and carries a penalty of a fine or up to five years in prison.

According to the affidavit, Noonan was originally arrested for carrying a pistol and 12 rounds of ammunition without a permit. The final charges only list the pistol.

The charges came after a Metropolitan Police Department officer pulled Noonan over on Monday for registration that expired in May. During the traffic stop, Noonan informed officers that he had a firearm in his car. 

Noonan was arrested Tuesday and brought to the police station. He was out of D.C. jail custody as of Friday, according to an online inmate search tool.

Officials with Joint Task Force-District of Columbia, which oversees the multi-state military deployment to the capital, did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Department of Defense-released photos from last month identified Noonan as a specialist with the Oklahoma National Guard.

More than 3,000 National Guard troops remain deployed to the nation’s capital as part of an August 2025 mobilization ordered by President Donald Trump. Trump cited crime prevention as the basis of mobilization, though crime in the city was at a 30-year low before Trump took office, and the guard patrols have mostly kept to low-crime, tourist-heavy areas in the city with little impact on crime.

According to JTF-DC, as of mid-September, 56 Oklahoma guardsmen are part of the DC mission.

Add Task & Purpose as a preferred source on Google to see more of our reporting.

Patty Nieberg Avatar

Patty Nieberg

Senior Reporter

Patty is a senior reporter for Task & Purpose. She’s reported on the military for five years, embedding with the National Guard during a hurricane and covering Guantanamo Bay legal proceedings for an alleged al Qaeda commander.

Loading comments…