FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 2014

TSA Week in Review – 37 Firearms Discovered This Week (34 Loaded)

Loaded Gun (HOU)

37 Firearms Discovered This Week – Of the 37 firearms, 34 were loaded and 15 had rounds chambered. See a complete list and more photos at the bottom of this post.

Inert C-4 (TPA)
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.


  • Six blocks of inert C-4 were discovered in a checked bag at Tampa (TPA).
  • Six inert grenades were discovered in checked baggage this week. Two were discovered at Dothan (DHN), one at Tucson (TUS), and the other two at Cincinnati (CVG).


Left - Right: Inert CS Grenades (CVG), Inert Pineapple Grenades (DHN)
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.


  • An 18” sword cane was discovered at Ontario (ONT).
  • Three credit card knives were discovered this week. Two at Albuquerque (ABQ), and the other at Charlotte (CLT).
  • A knife concealed in a pen was discovered at San Jose (SJC).
  • A hairbrush dagger was discovered at Sacramento (SMF).
  • A knife was detected on a key chain at Albuquerque (ABQ).


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…

Cane Sword (ONT)
Top - Bottom / Left - Right: Key Chain Knife (ABQ), Key Chain Knife (CAK), Pen Knife (SJC), Starter Pistol (JAX), Credit Card Knife (ABQ), Bear Mace (OMA).


Discovered at GSO
AIT Discovery: A knife was discovered in the sock of a Greensboro (GSO) passenger after an anomaly was spotted with imaging technology

Stun Guns – 15 stun guns were discovered this week in carry-on bags around the nation. Three were discovered in Atlanta (ATL), two in Denver (DEN), two more in Sacramento (SMF), and the remainder were discovered at Birmingham (BHM), Nashville, (BNA), Houston, (IAH), Los Angeles (LAX), Omaha (OMA), Portland (PDX), Santa Ana (SNA), and Yakima (YKM).
Discovered At (L-R) SMF, YKM, OMA, ATL, PDX, ATL

Firearms Discovered This Week in Carry-On Bags

Guns Discovered at (Left - Right / Top to Bottom) LAX, SAT, TYS, MOB, PHX, MIA, DHN




*In order to provide a timely weekly update, date 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.

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/2014/02/tsa-week...-firearms.html