guns at airports

TSA’s firearm tally hits a new record

(‘No Guns on Planes’ photo courtesy TSA)

Pop quiz: Can you take your gun on a plane in your carry-on bag?

The answer is no.

But the message isn’t getting through. No matter how many times and in how many ways the Transportation Security Administration crew tries to remind travelers of that fact.

In 2023, TSA officers found 6,737 firearms in carry-on bags at airport security checkpoints.

That’s up from the 6,542 firearms detected in 2022. And it’s a scary new record.

Even more alarming: of all the guns TSA found in carry-on bags at airport checkpoints nationwide in 2023, approximately 93 percent were loaded.

The TSA didn’t share how many of those loaded guns had a bullet in the chamber. (They used to).

  

Top 10 list of airports where TSA found the most guns

In 2023, firearms were caught at 265 airport checkpoints.

Here’s a TSA chart showing the 10 airports where TSA found the most guns. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) tops the list with a total of 451 firearms. Three Texas airports are on the Top 10 list.

Top 10 airports with guns caught by TSA at checkpoints in 2023
RankAirport (Code)Total
1Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)451
2Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW)378
3Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH)311
4Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX)235
5Nashville International Airport (BNA)188
6Denver International Airport (DEN)178
7Orlando International Airport (MCO)164
8Tampa International Airport144
9Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL)135
10Dallas Love Field (DAL)

The numbers have been climbing. This chart shows firearms caught by TSA at checkpoints from 2008 to 2023

YearNationwide
20236,737
20226,542
20215,972
20203,257
20194,432
20184,239
2017 3,957
20163,391
20152,653
20142,212
20131,813
20121,556
20111,320
20101,123
2009976
2008926

Can you take your gun in your checked bag?

The answer is yes. But.

TSA says travelers may pack firearms in checked baggage if they are unloaded and packed in a locked hard-side case.

Ammunition must be in its original box and can be packed inside the hard-side case, next to the firearm. Even if the box of ammunition is not full, the bullets must be in their original case. The case with the firearm should be brought to the airline check-in counter to be declared to the airline representative.

TSA finding more guns than ever

GUNS AT AIPORTS. Sadly, that’s a thing.

Looks like the Transporation Security Administration (TSA) is on its way to breaking yet another record.

And it’s not for the number of passengers screened at U.S. airports. Although those numbers are up.

This record is likely to be for the number of firearms found at airport security checkpoints.

As of the end of September, 5,072 firearms have been found in carry-on bags, or on passengers, at airport security checkpoints. That’s just for the first three quarters of the year.

In just this third quarter, TSA screeners spotted 1,820 firearms at checkpoints, an average of 19.8 per day. More alarming: 94% (!) of all those firearms were loaded.

If you follow any of the TSA social media feeds (and you should, the posts are sometimes very funny and corny) you’ll see that, despite efforts to remind passengers that firearms are not allowed in carry-on bags, more firearms are found every day.

So at this rate, it’s a good bet that last year’s record of 6,542 firearms will be surpassed before the end of the year.

Want to bring your gun on your flight?

While firearms aren’t allowed in carry-on bags, they are allowed in checked luggage. Under certain conditions. They need to be unloaded in a locked hard-sided case. And they must be declared to the airline when you check that bag in at the ticket counter.

What happens if you ‘forget’ and bring your firearm to the checkpoint?

Try to remember: firearms are prohibited at security checkpoints, in the secure area of an airport, or in the passenger cabin of an aircraft.

That’s the rule even if you have a concealed carry permit or are in a constitutional carry jurisdiction. 

TSA tells us that most people found with firearms in their carry-on bags say “Oops, I forgot that was in there.” But with so many firearms being found, the weapons department of Stuck at the Airport finds that hard to believe.

So, what happens if you’re found with a firearm at an airport security checkpoint?

Per TSA:

If a passenger brings a firearm to the TSA checkpoint, the TSO will contact local law enforcement to safely unload and take possession of the firearm. The law enforcement officer may also arrest or cite the passenger, depending on local law. TSA may impose a civil penalty of up to almost $15,000, and passengers who present with a firearm at a security checkpoint will lose TSA PreCheck eligibility for five years.  

Bottom line: leave your firearms at home.

What happens if you have a loaded gun in your carry-on in Australia?

Courtesy Australian Federal Police

A hat tip to “Three Shots McGee” for sharing a story about what happens in Australia when someone is found with a loaded gun in their carry-on. As he says, having a passenger show up at an airport checkpoint with a loaded gun is an “Aussie airport event that almost never happens.”

But the passenger, an American, had an American excuse:

“The man claimed he had forgotten the weapon was in his luggage but this situation could have had deadly consequences for other travelers, even if it had discharged accidentally during the flight,” said Det. A/Supt. Sykes.

Meanwhile, in the United States, TSA officers found 5,972 firearms at airport security checkpoints in 2021. That is a significant increase from the 3,257 firearms found in carry-ons in 2020 when travel was down due to the pandemic. But it’s a serious spike over the 4,432 firearms found at airport checkpoints in 2019, pre-pandemic.

One of the most common excuses people give TSA officers is “Oops, I forgot that was in there.”

In the U.S., some people face fines and criminal charges when found with guns in their carry-ons. But in many cities and in many states, due to local laws all TSA can do is tell people to put the gun back in their car, put it in their checked bag, or give it to someone (ideally, someone they know…) to take home.

Alarming & heartwarming TSA Tweets

We’re still missing the corny communications TSA’s Blogger Bob Burns once shared with the public, but Lisa Farbstein and the team on duty now are doing a great job of keeping the public informed with light but serious messages about what can and cannot go through airport security checkpoints.

The tweets about the guns and other weapons people try to take through airport security checkpoints always alarm us, but this Tweet and the story of a TSA officer finding and returning a lost diamond is very heartwarming.

TSA: 2018 was record-breaking year for guns found at airports

TSA’s Year in Review came out today with the (still somewhat unofficial) final stats on the number of guns TSA officers found in carry-on bags at airport checkpoints last year.

The total for 2018 is a record-setting 4,239 firearms found in carry-on bags at 249 of the more than 400 TSA-controlled airport checkpoints around the country.

That’s up more than 7 percent from the 3,957 firearms TSA officers found in carry-on bags in 2017.

And that averages out to 81.6 firearms a week and 11.6 firearms a day.

The break-down gets more alarming when we look at the stats on the number of guns found to be loaded.

Of the 4,239 firearms found last year, more than 86% (3,656) were loaded (another record) and almost 34% (1,432) of the firearms found had a round chambered.

Why do so many passengers show up at airports with guns?

“I think the biggest reason is that people go buy these things and then completely forget they have them, which is dangerous in its own right,” said aviation security expert Jeff Price, the owner of Leading Edge Strategies, “I imagine when they get the gun, at first they are always aware of it because they feel safer. Then, after a period of time, it works its way to the bottom of the bag and next thing that happens is its discovered at a screening checkpoint.”

Price also suspects that because more people are carrying guns these days and carry those guns in purses and laptops, they are aware they have the guns, “But in the hustle and confusion of preparing for a trip, they forget to take the gun out. “

TSA’s Year in Review also lists the top 10 airports for firearm discoveries in 2018.

Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) the Top 10 list with 298 firearms found. (253 loaded.) That’s an increase of 53 compared to 2017.

ATL also set the record for the airport with the most firearms discovered in one month: In August 2018, 32 firearms were found at ATL checkpoints.

Here’s the rest of TSA’s Top 10 list of airports for firearms discoveries in 2018:

Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport (DFW): 219 (193 loaded)

Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport (PHX): 129 (120 loaded)

Denver International Airport (DEN): 126 (95 loaded)

Orlando International Airport (MCO): 123 (112 loaded)

George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH): 117 (115 loaded). Some good news here: this is a decrease of 25 compared to 2017.

Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL): 96 (80 loaded)

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS): 93 (76 loaded)

Dallas Love Field Airport (DAL): 89 (83 loaded)    

Nashville International Airport (BNA): 86 (80 loaded)

In a year when TSA also screened a record number of travelers (813.8 million; a 5.5 percent increase over 2017), the agency’s officers also found a wide variety of prohibited items and ‘artfully concealed’ objects other than firearms in carry-on bags, including inert grenades, a bottle of lighter fluid, fireworks and knife combs.

TSA’s week in review also notes the loss in 2018 of Curtis “Blogger Bob” Burns, the charmingly corny TSA employee who chronicled the agency’s odd finds on the TSA blog, on Twitter and on Instagram. Burns is featured in quirky videos highlighting TSA Top 10 Most Unusual Finds in 2016 and in 2017.

TSA’s Year in Review promises that a video highlighting 2018’s most unusual finds will be released soon.