firearms

A monkey, a missed meal and guns

Animals, Food, Security, , , ,

Some of the guns found at airport checkpoints Aug 5-11

I’m on fill-in duty this week on the Today in the Sky blog over at USA TODAY and having fun working up a variety of both serious and off-beat stories relating to airports and airlines.

Monday’s line-up:

An update on the “monkey on a plane” story that was all over the news last week;

A story about British Airways replacing a second meal service with tiny chocolate bars and other small snacks on some longhaul flights between London and the east coast;

And a look at the new record set by TSA for most firearms found at airport checkpoints in one week.

TSA & the things they bring

Air Travel,

TSA GUNS

The TSA publishes a report each week on the number of firearms and other prohibited items people try to take with them through security checkpoints at airports.

Last week, March 11-17, 2016, for example, 62 firearms were discovered in carry-on bags at airport checkpoints around the country. 50 of those firearms were loaded and 14 had a round chambered.

Passengers don’t just try to guns with them onto planes. They take inert grenades, really big knives and one person tried to take this with them onto a plane at JFK International Airport in New York:

TSA JFK suspicious can 3-16-16

Looks like something that might explode, right?

According to the TSA Blog, the “organic mass and protruding wires… “ended up being what the traveler described as abstract art.”

TSA’s 2015 gun tally

Security, , , , ,

For the Runway Girl Network, I put together a year-end review of the guns, weapons and assorted odd items discovered by TSA at airport checkpoints during 2015.

TSA GUN

In 2014, the TSA reported that it had discovered 2,122 firearms in the carry-on bags of passengers. That was an average of six firearms per day and was a 22 percent increase over the number of firearms (1,813) found in 2013.

TSA’s official 2015 Year in Review is due out any minute, but my unofficial tally taken from the weekly reports on the TSA Blog adds up to 2,495 firearms found at airport checkpoints this past year – which is yet another new record.

Of course, prohibited items found by Transportation Security Officers in carry-on bags and on passengers passing through security checkpoints aren’t limited to firearms.

Last year TSA found, 40 pounds of marijuana in one man’s bag at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, a meat slicer at Southwest Florida International Airport and a knife concealed inside a souvenir replica of the Eiffel Tower, found at Oakland International Airport.

Meat Slicer found in a carry-on bag at Southwest Florida International Airiport_edited

And, in the same week in March that the TSA found 55 firearms (51 loaded; 13 with a round chambered) and 13 stun guns, a Chihuahua was discovered inside a checked bag at New York’s LaGuardia Airport.

How did that happen?

“Apparently, the dog climbed in while its owner was packing her suitcase. TSA worked with the airline to identify the owner, and the two were happily reunited,” the TSA reported.

Knife concealed in an Eiffel Tower replica - found at Oakland Airport_edited

Chihauhua found in carry-on bag at LaGuardia Airport_edited

Check your suitcase for Chihuahuas

Pets, Travel tips, , ,

On the TSA Blog each Friday you’ll find a report on the firearms, weapons and other prohibited – and often really strange – things found at airport checkpoints and in checked bags.

TSA MEM

This week, for example, the TSA found 55 firearms at airport checkpoints. 51 of those firearms were loaded and 13 had rounds chambered.

The fact that so many people just ‘forget’ they’ve got a gun, especially a loaded gun, in their carry-on is always alarming. But Friday’s report that TSA officers at New York’s LaGuardia Airport found a chihuahua inside a checked bag is mostly amusing.

According to the TSA, officers found the dog inside the suitcase while they were resolving a checked baggage alarm. TSA had the airline track down the suitcase owner, who said she had no idea the dog was in there and that the dog – a 7 year old chihuahua – must have climbed into the suitcase as it was being packed.

Bets? How many firearms will TSA find at airports?

Guns, , ,

ATL GUNS

Each Friday, before I close my office and head to Happy Hour, I check the TSA Blog for the Week in Review posting of the number of firearms (loaded and unloaded) and other prohibited items (inert explosives, big knives, anti-tank weapons, etc.) discovered at airport checkpoints.

You should too.

The blog (and TSA’s Instagram account) offers an informal course on the wide variety of items TSA deems too dangerous to be allowed on airplanes, yet which travelers continue to bring to airports.

TSA find _ Keychain is actually a punching weapon prohibited on planes by TSA

The numbers don’t spike on particular holidays or on Mondays but the tally of firearms, especially, keeps going up.

On June 4, 2014, for example, TSA reported that 18 firearms were discovered in carry-on bags around the country, breaking the previous record of 13 found in one day, set in 2013.

In early November, another record was broken. With two months still to go in the year, the number of firearms discovered at checkpoints had reached 1,855.

That blew 2014’s tally past the overall 2013 total of 1,813. By the close of business on December 15, this year’s tally had grown to 2,097.

“I think the rate is increasing because more and more people are carrying [weapons] throughout the country. It can actually be difficult for people who carry all the time because the gun becomes an extension of them, just like their cell phone and wallet,” said Jeff Price, author of Practical Aviation Security.

“Oops, I forgot that was in there,” is the most common explanation given by passengers found with firearms in a carry-on bag. But there are people, like the guy nabbed this week at JFK Airport with parts of a disassembled .22 caliber firearm hidden inside a PlayStation 2 console, who certainly know what they’re toting. “Some of these people are just tools trying to get one over on TSA and the system, but there are also those who may be affiliated with terrorist groups that decide to test the system to see what they can get through,” said Price.

TSA_GiantScissors

Thanks to ever-more-sophisticated technology, TSA is confident it is catching 100 percent of all the firearms coming through checkpoints. But Todd Curtis, founder of AirSafe.com, pegs the find rate at closer to 90 percent.

“The technology TSA has isn’t perfect,” said Curtis, “But in most cases, if someone is dense enough to try to take a weapon through the checkpoint they’ll be caught.”

Whenever TSA does spot a firearm in a carry-on bag at a checkpoint, the screening process stops until law enforcement responds and retrieves the weapon. And it’s local laws, not the TSA, that determine if any criminal charges are filed against a passenger.

Criminal charges or not, passengers found with firearms at airport checkpoints are subject to civil penalties, ranging from $1,500 up to $11,000. In 2013, TSA assessed nearly $1.7 million in civil penalties for firearms discovered in carry-on bags nationwide.

What happens to the firearms also depends on local laws. While local law enforcement allows TSA to photograph firearms (and other prohibited items) discovered at checkpoints, “TSA doesn’t take possession of any firearms,” said TSA spokesman Ross Feinstein, “Local law enforcement might confiscate the weapon as evidence or give it back the passenger to return it to their home or to put it in their vehicle.”

Beyond firearms, of course, TSA officers encounter an extremely wide variety of other prohibited items at airport checkpoints, including machetes, hatchets, swords, giant scissors, brass knuckles, cannonballs, bear repellant and, this past October, an unloaded cannon.

“Maybe someone has a lucky inert grenade they brought back from some war, or a nice cane was given to them and they forgot that the thing is actually a sword,” said Price, “It’s the people that are carrying stuff like chainsaws that make me wonder.”

(This story first appeared on the Runway Girl Network in a slightly different version.)

Heading to the airport? Where’s your gun?

Airports, Security, ,

ATL GUNS

The numbers seem a bit boggling: despite the fact that firearms, ammunition, firearm parts, and realistic replicas of firearms are prohibited in carry-on baggage, an increasing number of passengers continue to show up at airport checkpoints with these items.

In fact, according to the Transportation Security Administration, at the end of the day on November 4, 1,855 firearms had been found at airport checkpoints. 1,471 (79 percent) were loaded.

That number exceeded the 2013 total – 1,813 – by 42. And it’s just November.

Here are the airports where the most firearms have been found in carry-on bags: Dallas/Fort Worth International (DFW) – 104 Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International (ATL) – 90 Phoenix Sky Harbor International (PHX) – 66 Houston George Bush Intercontinental (IAH) – 62 Denver International (DEN) – 61 .

Of course, this hasn’t stopped people from bringing guns to the airport in their carry-on bags…

TSA

TSA: 99 firearms at checkpoints in 3 weeks

Security, ,

One thing we missed the past few weeks was the TSA Week in Review, which includes a report of the firearms and other prohibited – and sometimes really wacky – things TSA officers find at airport security checkpoints.

On Friday, we got a round-up that covers September 17, 2013 through October 17th, 2013 (dates inclusive of the partial government shutdown) and learned that during the past three weeks 99 firearms were found at airport checkpoints.

Of those 99 guns, 84 were loaded and 29 had rounds chambered.

SEA firearm 10-16 (2)

Courtesy TSA

What other prohibited items did your fellow passengers try to bring on board airplanes the past few weeks?

Fireworks, stun guns, daggers, inert hand grenades, brass knuckles and assorted other items.

Read the full list here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not TSA-approved. Ever

Guns, History, Museums, , , ,

Multi-bladed folding knife 3

The TSA’s plan to allow passengers to once again carry small knives on board airplanes got nixed a while back.

But even if it had gone forward the knife pictured above would never had made the, uh, cut.

Made around 1880 as an advertising item for a store window in New York City, the knife’s 100 “blades” include a cigar cutter, a button hook, a tuning fork and pencils.

Look closely and you’ll even spot a .22 pinfire revolver.

That tiny revolver is why the knife is on display at the Cody Firearms Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming.

The knife is on loan to the museum until 2015 along with 63 other historically significant firearms from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History, which began collecting firearms in 1876.

Along with the many-bladed knife, the items on loan include a rifle made for Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia with a velvet cheek piece so that her royal face would not rest directly on the stock.

Catherine the Great rifle 2

(All images courtesy the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center, via Buffalo Bill Center of the West)

TSA tally: 40 guns among items found at airport checkpoints

Security, , , ,

Geeky, I know, but I really look forward to reading the TSA.gov weekly blog post offering a round-up of items TSA officers find at airport checkpoints. The list is always scary, alarming, puzzling and just plain sad. How can so many people just “forget” they’ve got a loaded gun and a large quantity of bullets in a purse or travel bag?

According to the TSA blog, last week 40 firearms – 29 loaded – were found in carry-on bags at airport checkpoints around the country. Some of the people carrying the guns received citations; others got arrested.

Other items on the list this week include 11 stun guns, including one that looks just like a cell phone, and a live blasting cap, a bomb component which TSA’s Blogger Bob Burns helpfully explains, is “a small explosive charge that sets off a larger explosive charge.”

Photos courtesy TSA.

The TSA’s Top Ten List for 2011

Airports, ,

Everywhere you look right now there are Top 10 lists. So it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise that the TSA’s “Blogger Bob” put together one too.

Here are his picks for 10 ‘catches’ that were dangerous, looked dangerous, caused major delays or were “just plain weird.”

 

Snakes, turtles, and birds were found at Miami (MIA) and Los Angeles (LAX).

A science project shut down a checkpoint at Omaha (OMA).

A concealed non-metallic martial arts weapon known as a “Tactical Spike” was found in the sock of a passenger at Pensacola (PNS) after being screened by a body scanner.

Inert landmines were found at Salt Lake City (SLC).

A stun gun disguised as a smart phone was found at Los Angeles (LAX).

A flare gun with seven flares was found in a passenger’s carry-on bag at Norfolk (ORF).

Two throwing knives concealed in hollowed out book were found at Washington National (DCA).

Over 1,200 firearms were discovered at TSA checkpoints across the nation, many loaded with rounds in the chamber that most passengers said they “forgot” they had a gun in their bag.

A loaded .380 pistol was found strapped to passenger’s ankle with the body scanner at Detroit (DTW).

Small chunks of C4 explosives were found in passenger’s checked luggage in Yuma (YUM).

Blogger Bob also listed some honorable mentions, including Invisible Space Aliens detected at checkpoints, five inert grenades found in passenger’s bag at Newark (EWR) and 240 live fish found swimming in 4 checked bags at Los Angeles (LAX).

That’s quite a list…. Let’s hope the things the TSA picks up this year are not truly dangerous but just “plain weird.”