Despite strict rules on everything from the volume of liquids you can carry to how much of your face you can expose, passengers are still breaking the most simple rule of flying: don’t bring loaded fire arms through security. This year is on track to be the worst year for guns in the airport — a number that has been on the rise for a decade.
The agency reported a five percent increase in the number of guns found by agents from 2018 to 2019. In 2020 the TSA broke a 19-year-long record with 4,432 firearms seized from passengers or from their carry-on luggage, despite a 25 percent drop in air travel due to the pandemic. Last year wasn’t any better, with more than 5,700 found as travel rebounded to pre-pandemic levels.
Now it’s only mid-September, and we are almost within sight of last year’s seizure rate at more than 4,600 — 87 percent of which were loaded at the time. That’s not just an increase in weapons seized, but a five percent increase in live weapons coming through security. The problem is particularly bad at Atlanta’s busy International Airport, which tops the list of airports finding weapons at 507 guns found in 2022. That’s 2.5 weapons found every day so far this year.
When a gun — loaded or unloaded, neither can be brought through security — is found, the checkpoint officers don’t seize the weapon. TSA officers aren’t really law enforcement. When a gun is found in a carry-on bag, they call in some real cops. It only gets worse for the strapped passenger from there. From the New York Times:
“Entering a checkpoint with a firearm, particularly a loaded one, is an expensive mistake,” said Carter Langston, a T.S.A. spokesman.
When a gun is found at a checkpoint, the T.S.A. does not seize it. Instead, agents are instructed to call law enforcement to handle the situation. There is no federal criminal penalty for passengers caught with a gun at a checkpoint, but the T.S.A. can impose a fine of up to about $14,000 and the loss of PreCheck membership — which allows for expedited security screening — for up to five years.
Potential criminal charges, if any, vary by state. In Texas, law enforcement officials often tell travelers to get out of line, lock their guns in their cars and return to try to catch their flights. In New York, however, the discovery of a gun at a checkpoint will most likely end with the passenger in handcuffs.
The severity of any criminal charges can also differ based on whether the person has a permit to carry a concealed weapon. In Florida, for example, someone with a concealed-carry permit stopped at an airport checkpoint can be charged with a second-degree misdemeanor. A passenger without one could face a felony for carrying a concealed weapon.
So, keep those guns in your checked luggage my firearm-toting friends. It must also be unloaded and locked in a hard case as well (but not a case that is so well locked it’s impossible to access... clear as mud TSA) and you’ve got to the tell the airline you’re transporting the weapon before checking your bag.
Or just leave them at home! Flying is already stressful enough. I don’t know about you, but I start internally flipping out in the security line if someone forgets to take their shoes off or puts a laptop in a bin with other items. The kerfuffle over a loaded gun would cause at security would send me to the dentist over ground down teeth and a severely bit tongue.