FRIDAY, AUGUST 21, 2015

TSA Week in Review: 51 Firearms and More

51 Firearms Discovered This Week– of the 51 firearms discovered, 39 were loaded and 15 had a round chambered. The firearm pictured above was discovered at LBE.
Inert Ordnance and Grenades etc. – We continue to find inert grenades and other weaponry on a weekly basis. Please keep in mind that if an item looks like a real bomb, grenade, mine, etc., it is prohibited. When these items are found at a checkpoint or in checked baggage, they can cause significant delays because the explosives detection professionals must respond to resolve the alarm. Even if they are novelty items, you are prohibited from bringing them on the aircraft.

  • Five inert/replica grenades were discovered in checked bags this week. Four were discovered in one bag at Albuquerque (ABQ), and the other was discovered at Glacier Park (FCA).
  • Five inert/replica grenades were discovered in carry-on bags this week at Denver (DEN), Fort Lauderdale (FLL), Seattle (SEA), Spokane (GEG), and Orange County (SNA).


Left - Right - Inert grenades discovered at ABQ, SEA, FCA, SNA and GEG

Artfully Concealed Prohibited Items – Artfully concealed is a term used to describe an item that is intentionally hidden. It could be anything from a knife sewn into the lining of a bag to a sword hidden inside of a walking cane. If a concealed prohibited item is discovered in your bag or on your body, you could be cited and possibly arrested by law enforcement. Here is an example from this week where an artfully concealed item was discovered by our officers.

Left: A concealed knife was discovered in the battery compartment of a flashlight at Phoenix (PHX). Right:
A sword cane was discovered in a traveler’s carry-on property at Pittsburgh (PIT).

Miscellaneous Prohibited Items – In addition to all of the other prohibited items we find weekly, officers also regularly find firearm components, realistic replica firearms, bb and pellet guns, airsoft guns, brass knuckles, ammunition, batons and many other prohibited items too numerous to note.

A flare gun, seven flares, a surgical razor, two pocket knives, two flex-finger saws, two rounds of .357 ammunition and three rounds of .38 caliber ammunition were discovered in a traveler’s carry-on bag at Denver (DEN).

Stun Guns - 29 stun guns were discovered this week in carry-on bags around the nation. Four were discovered at Dallas Love (DAL), three at San Francisco (SFO), two at Chicago O'Hare (ORD), two at Denver (DEN), two at Jackson (JAN), and the remainder were discovered at Atlanta (ATL), Boston (BOS), Columbia (CAE), Dallas/Fort Worth (DFW), Detroit (DTW), Idaho Falls (IDA), Indianapolis (IND), Kansas City (MCI), Las Vegas (LAS), Little Rock (LIT), Milwaukee (MKE), Nashville (BNA), Norfolk (ORF), Pensacola (PNS), Portland (PDX), and San Juan (SJU).


Ammunition – When packed properly, ammunition can be transported in your checked baggage, but it is never permissible to pack ammo in your carry-on bag. The box of 25 shotgun shells pictured was discovered in a carry-on bag at Houston (IAH).
Clockwise from the top left, these firearms were discovered at: BIL, YNG, RSW, PHL, BNA and SDF

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 line 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 $11,000.

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.

*In order to provide a timely weekly update, this data 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.


Read our 2014 Year in Review post! If you haven’t read them yet, make sure you check out our year in review posts for 2011, 2012 and 2013.

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Bob Burns
TSA Social Media Team

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Posted by Bob Burns (TSA Blog Team) at 8/21/2015 08:03:00 PM

http://blog.tsa.gov/2015/08/tsa-week...-and-more.html