While people often choose to travel because of cheap traveldeals, such as cheapairplane tickets, discount hotel rooms, and cheap vacation packages,passenger safety continues to be of upmost concern. The good news is that guns are being stoppedat airport security checkpoints. The badnews is that people are trying to get guns beyond these checkpoints in recordnumbers.
Over 1,500 guns year to date have been discovered atairport checkpoints compared to the prior record (set in 2012) of 1,500 gunsfound over an entire year. Based ontrends, United States airports are expected to discover over 1,800 guns thisyear.
Through November 1st, Transportation SecurityAdministration (TSA) agents have found 1,531 guns, of which 1,286 were loaded,and 424 had a bullet in the chamber. Allguns were found either in passengers carry-on bags or coat pockets.
TSA has acknowledged that its procedures relating to thediscovery of passenger guns have not changed.
In addition to guns, the TSA routinely discovers stun guns(nine the last week of October), cartons of bullets, and knives, which arefrequently disguised in canes, belts, books, and other places.
In a continuing trend, most weapons this year have beenfound in states that allow residents to legally carry concealed weapons and aremore likely to carry guns on a daily basis. Texas has six cities in the top 21 of cases where passengers try to getguns past airport security and Florida has five.
Given that Atlanta is the countrys busiest airport, it isnot surprising that it is number one in gun seizures (91 through the end ofOctober). Interestingly though,Chicagos OHare, which is the nations second most trafficked airport, hasdiscovered only twelve guns in the first ten months of the year.
New York Citys three airports together only have 14 gunsdiscovered so far this year. BothChicago and New York City have strict gun regulations.
Most discoveries of guns at airport checkpoints do not endwith an arrest or jail time given that they tend to happen in jurisdictionswhere guns are legal. TSA has no powerto arrest. It can only notify local lawenforcement who then deals with the situation.
TSA does fine select passengers in amounts ranging from$250 to $11,000 for repeat offenders. Violators can be prohibited from signing up for TSAs PreCheck or theState Departments Global Entry program for a period of time.
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