FRIDAY, JANUARY 17, 2014

TSA Week in Review – 42 Firearms Discovered This Week (37 Loaded)

Loaded Firearm (ATL)

Keep an eye out next week for the 2013 TSA Blog Year in Review Post! If you haven’t read them yet, make sure you check out our year in review posts from 2011 and 2012.

42 Firearms Discovered This Week – Of the 42 firearms, 37 were loaded and 13 had rounds chambered. See a complete list and more photos at the bottom of this post.

Grenade Simulator (PWM)
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.

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.

  • A credit card knife was discovered at Albuquerque (ABQ).


Machete (LGA), Throwing Knives (EWR), Punch Dagger (BWI), Firecrackers (MKE)
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…

Stun Guns – 25 stun guns were discovered this week in carry-on bags around the nation. Six were discovered at Las Vegas (LAS), three at Denver (DEN), two at Birmingham (BHM), two at San Jose (SJC), and the remainder were discovered at Amarillo (AMA), Atlanta (ATL), Burbank (BUR), Baltimore (BWI), Cedar City (CDC), Detroit (DTW), Kansas City (MCI), Milwaukee (MKE), Oakland (OAK), Portland (PDX), San Diego (SAN), and San Francisco (SFO).



Firearms Discovered This Week in Carry-On Bags
Left to Right - Top to Bottom: Guns Discovered At HOU, JAX, TLH, SBN, ROC, ATL, AUS, ATL, FLL




*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.

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Bob Burns
TSA Blog Team

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http://blog.tsa.gov/2014/01/tsa-week...-firearms.html