Friday, August 31, 2012

TSA Week in Review: 35 Firearms Discovered in Carry-on Bags This Week

Firearms - 35 firearms were discovered in carry-on baggage since I posted last Friday. 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. See the spreadsheet and photos below.
Items in the Strangest Places –It’s important to check your bags prior to traveling. If a prohibited item is discovered in your bag, you could be cited and possibly arrested by law enforcement. Here are a few examples from this week where prohibited items were found in strange places.

  • An 18” sword was found inside a walking cane at Memphis (MEM).
  • A dagger brush was discovered during a bag check at Palm Beach (PBI). The handle pulled apart from the brush to reveal the dagger.
  • A stun gun disguised as a smart phone was discovered during a bag check at Detroit (DTW).




Stun Guns – 8 stun guns were discovered in carry-on bags at checkpoints around the nation: Los Angeles (LAX), Ontario (ONT), 2 at San Francisco (SFO), Detroit (DTW), Baltimore (BWI), Oakland (OAK), San Juan (SJU), and Chicago O’Hare (ORD). The stun gun at DTW looked like a normal smart phone, but after a closer look on the X-ray, our Officers knew what it was, and prevented it from making it onto the plane.
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. Just to mention a few…







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. 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.

Bob Burns
TSA Blog Team

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The TSA Blog: TSA Week in Review: 35 Firearms Discovered in Carry-on Bags This Week