Thread: TSA Week in Review: 38 Firearms Discovered This Week (30 Loaded)

Friday, July 12, 2013

TSA Week in Review: 38 Firearms Discovered This Week (30 Loaded)

Loaded Firearm (MEM)

38 Firearms Discovered This Week – Of the 38 firearms, 30 were loaded and nine had rounds chambered. See a complete list and more photos at the bottom of this post.

Stun Guns Discovered at (L-R) IND, LAS, DEN, BOI, LAS, DTW, MCI, PBI, ORD

Stun Guns – 13 stun guns were discovered this week in carry-on bags around the nation. Two were discovered at Las Vegas (LAS), two at Salt Lake City (SLC), two at Denver (DEN), two more at Detroit (DTW), and the remainder at Boise (BOI), Denver (DEN), Kansas City (MCI), Chicago O’Hare (ORD), Palm Beach (PBI), and San Francisco (SFO).

Knife Concealed in Pillow (MAF), Belt Buckle Knife (FLL)

Items in the Strangest Places –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, 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 in strange places.

• A knife was discovered inside a passenger’s pillow at Midland (MAF).
• A belt buckle knife was discovered after a passenger walked through the metal detector at Fort Lauderdale (FLL).
• A one-inch blade was detected concealed within a shoe at Spokane (GEG).

What Not to Say at an Airport – Statements like these not only delay the people who said them but can also inconvenience many other passengers if the checkpoint or terminal has to be evacuated:

• A passenger at Lubbock (LBB) approached checked baggage screening, dropped off his bag and stated, “There are two pounds of C-4 in there, be careful...” He later stated it was an “off-handed comment.” His off-handed comment resulted in his arrest and the closure of the terminal for over two hours while the bomb squad ensured the airport was safe for travel.

Fireworks Discovered at (L-R) SNA, ATL, BUF, ABE

Knives Discovered at (Top to Bottom) LAX, AUS, HNL, BWI

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…
Firearms Discovered This Week in Carry-On Bags

Discovered at (L-R) SMF, DTW, SEA, TPA, SDF, GNV, RNO, SAT

Discovered at (L-R) LAS, ATL, LAS, DAL, FLL, UNV

Discovered at (L-R) ATL, FWA, MCI

Discovered at (L-R) ATL, MDW, LIT, MSP

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.


*In order to provide a timely weekly update, I compile my data from a preliminary report. The year-end numbers will vary slightly (increase) from what I report in the weekly updates. However, any monthly, midyear, or end-of-year numbers TSA provides on this blog or elsewhere will not be estimates.


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/2013/07/tsa-week...-firearms.html