A Transportation Safety Administration employee screens baggage at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Sept. 26, 2017. The TSA says it discovered a report variety of firearms at airport safety checkpoints final yr.
Spencer Platt/Getty Photos
conceal caption
toggle caption
Spencer Platt/Getty Photos
A Transportation Safety Administration employee screens baggage at New York’s LaGuardia Airport on Sept. 26, 2017. The TSA says it discovered a report variety of firearms at airport safety checkpoints final yr.
Spencer Platt/Getty Photos
The Transportation Safety Administration says it discovered a report variety of firearms at airport safety checkpoints in 2023. A complete of 6,737 have been intercepted — or a median of 18 firearms per day — 93% of which which have been loaded, the company says.
The quantity surpassed 2022’s report of 6,542 firearms discovered.
”We’re nonetheless seeing far too many firearms at TSA checkpoints, and what’s significantly regarding is the quantity of them loaded, presenting an pointless danger to everybody on the TSA checkpoint,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske mentioned in a press release Wednesday.
Passengers are allowed to journey with firearms in checked baggage so long as they’re unloaded and transported in a locked hard-sided container. TSA says passengers should declare their firearm and ammunition to the airline when checking their luggage on the ticket counter.
Not surprisingly, the nation’s two busiest airports topped have been additionally those the place probably the most weapons have been discovered: Atlanta’s Hartsfield–Jackson Worldwide, with 451, and Dallas Fort Value Worldwide, with 378.
The No. 1 cause the TSA hears from passengers is that they merely forgot their firearms have been of their carry-on bag. ”It additionally displays a wider development in the direction of elevated gun possession and state and native legal guidelines,” TSA spokesperson Alexa Lopez mentioned.
Upon discovering a firearm at a safety checkpoint, the TSA doesn’t confiscate it, however as a substitute instantly contacts native regulation enforcement to take away the passenger. The passenger could also be arrested or cited, relying on native legal guidelines.
Such passengers are additionally topic to a fantastic of as much as roughly $15,000, having their TSA PreCheck eligibility revoked for a minimum of 5 years and enhanced screening.