The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) not only stops travelers from bringing dangerous and prohibited items onto airplanes, but it also tallies the finds.
And the agency shares information about some of the more unusual items that show up at the security checkpoints on social media.
For some reason, many travelers pack guns in their carry-on bags. And the number keeps going up.
In the first quarter of 2023, TSA officers found 1,508 guns at checkpoints. That’s 10.3% more than the same period in 2022.
BREAKING NEWS: The number of guns caught at checkpoints by @TSA officers in the first quarter of 2023 (1,508 guns) represents a 10.3% increase over the same period in 2022 when @TSA stopped 1,367 guns at airport security checkpoints.
— Lisa Farbstein, TSA Spokesperson (@TSA_Northeast) April 20, 2023
Fake guns and ammunition – even replica versions can’t fly either
This is not the fashion statement to make at a @TSA checkpoint. No ammunition (or replica ammo) is permitted through a checkpoint. The traveler was allowed to return the belt to his vehicle at @EWR this morning. Spoiler alert: His pants did not fall down. pic.twitter.com/pH6ACuoTxA
— Lisa Farbstein, TSA Spokesperson (@TSA_Northeast) April 18, 2023
Stop it with all those sharp things
It’s not just guns. Check out these sharp objects travelers tried to bring on airplanes, and TSA’s cutting remarks about them.
A TSA officer detected this sword concealed inside the staff of a cane at a TSA security checkpoint at @EWRairport yesterday. Unfortunately bringing swords to checkpoints just doesn't cut it. Good catch on the sharp eye of the @TSA officer who was clearly on point. pic.twitter.com/jIvOy2KQ1A
— Lisa Farbstein, TSA Spokesperson (@TSA_Northeast) April 26, 2023
A traveler flying out of @EWRairpot "axidentally" left his axe in his carry-on bag. @TSA officers performed an "axe" of kindness and worked with the man to place the axe in his checked bag, where it could safely be transported to the traveler's destination. pic.twitter.com/afJMnb9aGL
— Lisa Farbstein, TSA Spokesperson (@TSA_Northeast) April 24, 2023
Here’s a packing tip: check your pockets, your purse, your briefcase, duffel, or carry-on bag to make sure you aren’t taking your gun – your loaded gun (!) – with you to the airport.
As travel returns to ‘normal,’ the Transporation Security Administration reports an uptick in the number of guns, and – we repeat – loaded guns – being discovered at airport checkpoints.
😯 Second firearm find of the day at the checkpoint by @TSA officers at @iflyboise. This loaded 9 mm Springfield Armory Hellcat with 9 rounds of ammo should have traveled in checked baggage. TSA will fine this traveler. 💸 Grateful to those who keep security threats off planes! pic.twitter.com/GcBzBn8fuu
Gun owners tell us that responsible gun owners always know where their gun is located. TSA says most people found with a gun in their carry-on say “they forgot” they had that gun on them.
Or, depending on local laws, TSA may just tell you to (properly) put the gun in checked luggage. Or leave it behind.
But we’re headed for trouble. Last week TSA reported that in the first 6 months of 2022, TSA officers have already found more than 3,000 guns at checkpoints around the country.
That’s an average of 17 guns per day. And at this pace, TSA will surpass the previous record of 5,972 guns found at airport checkpoints in one year. That record was set in 2021, a year when far fewer people were traveling.
Any ideas for how to stop this?
BREAKING: In first 6 months of 2022, @TSA detected more than 3,000 guns at checkpoints nationwide. On average, TSA is stopping 17 guns at checkpoints daily. At that pace, the number of guns detected will pass the current annual record of 5,972 guns stopped, which was set in 2021. pic.twitter.com/vJglJvKIdV
— Lisa Farbstein, TSA Spokesperson (@TSA_Northeast) July 6, 2022
Winter weather and pandemic-related staffing issues are creating a nightmare for travelers.
Thousands of flights have been canceled or delayed – or delayed and then canceled – over the holiday weekend and now into this week.
On Tuesday, more than 1,000 flights across the country were canceled, while thousands more experienced delays. When we checked late Tuesday evening, FlightAware was already showing more than 650 flight cancelations for Wednesday and it’s a good bet that more will be canceled overnight.
We hope you are not caught up in the mess.
“Artfully Concealed” Knives
TSA has some alarming images and statistics about ‘artfully concealed’ and not-so-artfully concealed weapons that people try to bring through airport checkpoints.
Incredibly alarming are the knives discovered on Monday sewn inside a kid’s stuffed animal at Philadelphia International Airport (PHL)
“The stuffed animal, which appeared to be a black bear in a space-age technology suit and cape, triggered an alarm as it entered the checkpoint X-ray machine,” TSA said in a statement. “The X-ray image indicated something concealed inside the bear and upon closer inspection, TSA officers noticed that the back of the bear showed signs it had been re-stitched.”
When the stitching was removed, two knives were found inside the bear’s stuffing.
The mother of the boy carrying the toy told officials that the bear is a comfort toy for her son. But TSA says the mom will likely face a Federal civil penalty for this violation.
Lions and tigers and bears–oh my! Oh no, no, no! @TSA officers at @PHLAirport detected two knives concealed inside a child’s stuffed animal yesterday. TSA officers noticed the back of the bear appeared to have been resewn. Toy belonged to a 9-year-old boy traveling with his mom. pic.twitter.com/RaLfy7jaBQ
— Lisa Farbstein, TSA Spokesperson (@TSA_Northeast) December 28, 2021
Meanwhile, right before the Christmas holiday, TSA shared that so far this year its officers have found more than 5,700 firearms at security checkpoints. That is a 20-year record.
It was alarming to learn that during 2017, the Transportation Security Administration found a record setting 3,957 firearms in carry-on bags at airport checkpoints.
That was 16.7 percent (556 more) firearms than found in 2016, when ‘only’ 3,391 firearms were found.
Will 2018 see a dip in the number of firearms passengers bring to the security checkpoints?
Not likely: It’s only February and another record has been broken: between February 5th and 11th, TSA found a record breaking 104 firearms in carry-on bags. Of those 104 firearms, 87 were loaded and 38 had a round chambered.
The previous week-long record? 96 firearms found during one week in July 2017.
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.
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.
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.
Signs like this are now posted at airports in Houston.
There’s a new “open carry” gun law in Texas that allows legally licensed handgun owners to openly carry a holstered gun in public.
But, as the Houston Airport System memo notes, “there still are some restrictions in certain locations, including at airports.”
A statement outlining what the new state rules mean for passengers and employees at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), William P. Hobby Airport (HOU) and Ellington Airport (EFD) – and other airports in the state – reminds travelers that gun owners with properly licensed and displayed guns (as well as gun owners with licenses for concealed weapons) “can have their gun in public areas only, like baggage, ticketing, garages and public sidewalks or walkways.”
Federal law still prohibits passengers from bringing weapons to or past airport security checkpoints and the TSA is permitted to issue fines to travelers found with loaded or unloaded guns.
But an amendment to the Texas handgun licensing law that went into effect in September says a passenger found with a licensed gun at an airport checkpoint won’t be subject to felony charges as long as the gun was taken to the airport by accident (the explanation the TSA says most everyone caught with a gun at an airport seems to give) and as long as the passenger immediately takes their gun away from the secure area when it’s found.
The TSA issues a weekly report of the number of firearms (and other prohibited items) found at airports checkpoints and does an annual year-end tally.
Three Texas airports – DFW, and both George Bush Intercontinental and Hobby Airport in Houston – were in the TSA’s list of “Top 10 Airports for Gun Catches in 2014.”
Open carry laws in many other states already permit licensed gun owners to bring firearms into the public areas of airports and in June a man dropping his daughter off at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International made national news by walking through the airport carrying an AR-15 rifle.
No balloons fell from the ceiling last week when the U.S. Department of Homeland Security celebrated the fact that over 500,000 travelers have handed over personal data – and $85 – to join the Transportation Security Administration’s expedited airport screening program since the first public enrollment center opened at Indianapolis International Airport in December 2013.
Today, the Global Gateway Alliance, a group that advocates for improvements at the New York metropolitan area airports, released a report offering TSA advice on how to push the PreCheck enrollment numbers higher.
There are currently about 300 PreCheck application sites nationwide processing, altogether, more than four thousand new applications a day. Twenty-eight of those sites are in airports (LAX and ATL each have two), with many others co-located at pre-existing sites in strip malls, office and industrial parks, and a few chiropractic offices contracted to do credentialing for airport and railroad workers and for truck drivers hauling hazardous materials to and from port facilities.
As examples, GGA notes that of the three enrollment centers in New Jersey, two are in suburban commercial buildings that don’t stay open past 4:30 p.m. on weekdays. “The third location, in Newark, is almost 9 miles from Newark Airport and not near the Central Business District,” the report states, while the TSA pre-application site in Lackawanna, N.Y., is adjacent to a gun shop and a firearms training store and located inside a private investigation office.
The range of off-airport sites “makes it easier for the traveling public to apply for TSA PreCheck,” said TSA’s Feinstein. But putting enrollment centers “in places where people actually congregate, which can be conveniently accessed, would raise awareness and participation the program,” the GGA suggests.
In the New York area, the TSA currently has enrollment centers at Terminal C at LaGuardia and in Terminal 4 at JFK. GGA’s report urges TSA to expand throughout area airport terminals “to reach travelers at the point when they are most likely to be thinking about airport security.”
Have you applied for the PreCheck program? How did it go?
(My story about TSA Precheck centers first appeared on USA TODAY).
Friday night the details of how – and why – a man showed up at Los Angeles International Airport with a rifle and shot his way through Terminal 3 are still being pieced together.
The man doing the shooting has been identified as 23-year-old Los Angeles resident Paul Anthony Ciancia.
A TSA officer – 39-year-old Gerardo I. Hernandez – was killed and perhaps a half dozen other people, including two other TSA officers, were injured.
And thousands of passengers at LAX and other airports around the country had a travel day seriously disrupted.
More than 700 flights were canceled or delayed. Close to 50 were diverted to other airports.
And pretty much everyone is shocked and freaked out.
Here’s a link to a story from by Brian Sumers and Larry Altman that does a really good job of describing the events of the day. Sumers was one of the reporters on-site and tweeting from LAX most of the day.
A lot more details will surely be revealed in the days ahead and we’ll be horrified by them all.
In the meantime, as it does most every Friday afternoon, the TSA released a tally of the number of guns found – but luckily not fired – at airport security checkpoints this week.
This week 29 guns were discovered at airport security checkpoints. 27 were loaded. 9 had rounds chambered.
And, as we know, one loaded rifle was used to wreak havoc at LAX airport.
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.
(All images courtesy the Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center, via Buffalo Bill Center of the West)
In fact, according to a press notice the airport sent out on Wednesday, during 2012 more firearms were confiscated at ATL than at any other airport. This year ATL leads the pack as well, with 67 firearms found so far.
That’s not the list the airport wants to be leading, so on Thursday airport officials and representatives held a press conference/refresher course on the right and wrong ways to travel with firearms and the legal consequences for violating the federal and local laws.
“If you attempt to bring a gun through these checkpoints, you will be breaking federal law, and you will be arrested,” said Hartsfield-Jackson General Manager Louis Miller, who explained that violators will miss their flight, be taken to jail and be subject to prosecution and fines up to $7,500.
Want to see what kinds of – and how many – guns are found at this airport and others each week? The TSA Blog presents a weekly review of the firearms (including a count of those found loaded and chambered) and other prohibited items discovered.
The list of what people simply ‘forget’ they have in the carry-on bags is often quite alarming.
