FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 2014

TSA Week in Review – 28 Firearms Discovered This Week (20 Loaded)

Loaded Firearm (TPA)

28 Firearms Discovered This Week – Of the 28 firearms, 20 were loaded and five had rounds chambered. See a complete list and more photos at the bottom of this post.
Left - Right: Discovered at MEM, MFR, EWR, MDW, OTZ, EWR

Stun Guns – 17 stun guns were discovered this week in carry-on bags around the nation. Two stun guns were discovered at each of the following airports: Denver (DEN), Newark (EWR), Las Vegas (LAS), and Minneapolis (MSP). The following airports each discovered one stun gun: Columbia (CAE), Washington Dulles (IAD), Chicago Midway (MDW), Memphis (MEM), Medford (MFR), Kotzebue (OTZ), Reno (RNO), Santa Barbara (SNA), and St. Thomas (STT).
Credit Card Knives (ABQ)

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.

  • Three credit card knives were discovered this week. Two were discovered at Albuquerque (ABQ), and one was found at Mobile (MOB).

Knife Discovered Using AIT (DAL)

AIT Discoveries:

  • A double-edged knife was detected in the front right pocket of a passenger at San Francisco (SFO).
  • A pocket knife was discovered in the front waistband of a passenger at Dallas (DAL).


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…

Knives - Top to Bottom: CLT, SAT, DEN

Throwing Knives & Stars - Left to Right: DEN, LAS, JAX, PIT, LIT


Firearms Discovered This Week in Carry-On Bags
Firearms - Left to Right - Top to Bottom: LBB, RSW, TRI, TUL, IAH, MOB, DTW


*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.

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/2014/01/tsa-week...-firearms.html