FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2014

TSA Week in Review – 29 Firearms Discovered This Week (25 Loaded)

Loaded Firearm Discovered at IAH

29 Firearms Discovered This Week – Of the 29 firearms, 25 were loaded and 10 had rounds chambered. See a complete list and more photos at the bottom of this post.

Inert Ordnance and Grenades etc. - We continue to find inert hand grenades and other weaponry on a weekly basis. Please keep in mind that if an item looks like a realistic bomb, grenade, mine, etc., it is prohibited. When these items are found at a checkpoint or in checked baggage, they can cause significant delays in checkpoint screening. While they may be novelty items, you cannot bring them on a plane. Read here on why inert items cause problems.


  • Three inert detonators were discovered in a checked bag at Colorado Springs (COS).
  • Two replica grenades were discovered this week in carry-on bags at Phoenix (PHX), and San Juan (SJU).


Comb Knife (EWR), Credit Card Knife (ABQ), Sword Cane (OMA)
Artfully Concealed Prohibited Items – It’s important to examine your bags prior to traveling to ensure no prohibited items are inside. If a prohibited item is discovered in your bag or on your body, you could be cited and quite possibly arrested by local law enforcement. Here are a few examples from this week where prohibited items were found by our officers in strange places.


  • Six credit card knives were discovered: Two were discovered in separate incidents at Charleston (CHS); the remainder were discovered at Albuquerque (ABQ), Grand Forks (GFK), Kansas City (MCI), and Minot (MOT).
  • A cane sword was discovered at Omaha (OMA).
  • A lipstick stun gun was discovered at Sacramento (SMF).


Miscellaneous Prohibited Items - In addition to all of the other prohibited items we find weekly, our officers also regularly find firearm components, realistic replica firearms, bb and pellet guns, Airsoft guns, brass knuckles, ammunition, batons, and a lot of sharp pointy things…

Batarang (Throwing Star) (BUF), Spear Gun (EWR), Whip (EWR)

Lipstick Stun Gun Discovered at (SMF)

Stun Guns – 13 stun guns were discovered this week in carry-on bags around the nation. Two were discovered at Denver (DEN), two more at Sacramento (SMF), and the remainder were discovered at Dallas (DAL), Detroit (DTW), Florence (FLO), Greensboro (GSO), Jackson (JAN), Las Vegas (LAS), Los Angeles (LAX), Chicago Midway (MDW), and Palm Beach (PBI).
Firearms Discovered This Week in Carry-On Bags

Firearms Discovered at (L-R / T-B) LAX, BWI, SAT, BUF, MCO, AEX, CAE


*In order to provide a timely weekly update, date is compiled from a preliminary report. The year-end numbers will vary slightly from what is reported in the weekly updates.

However, any monthly, midyear, or end-of-year numbers TSA provides on this blog or elsewhere will be actual numbers and not estimates.

You can travel with your firearms in checked baggage, but they must first be declared to the airline. You can go here for more details on how to properly travel with your firearms.

Firearm possession laws vary by state and locality. Travelers should familiarize themselves with state and local firearm laws for each point of travel prior to departure.

Unfortunately these sorts of occurrences are all too frequent which is why we talk about these finds. Sure, it’s great to share the things that our officers are finding, but at the same time, each time we find a dangerous item, the throughput is slowed down and a passenger that likely had no ill intent ends up with a citation or in some cases is even arrested. The passenger can face a penalty as high as $7,500.00. This is a friendly reminder to please leave these items at home. Just because we find a prohibited item on an individual does not mean they had bad intentions, that's for the law enforcement officer to decide. In many cases, people simply forgot they had these items.

If you haven’t seen it yet, make sure you check out our post highlighting the dangerous, scary, and downright unusual items our officers found in 2012. The 2011 list can be found here.

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Bob Burns

TSA Blog Team

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http://blog.tsa.gov/2014/03/tsa-week...-firearms.html