Thread: TSA Week in Review: 34 Firearms Discovered This Week (30 Loaded)

Friday, September 6, 2013

TSA Week in Review: 34 Firearms Discovered This Week (30 Loaded)

Loaded Gun Discovered at ORF

34 Firearms Discovered This Week – Of the 34 firearms, 30 were loaded and eight had rounds chambered. See a complete list and more photos at the bottom of this post.

(L-R) Knife Concealed Under Lining of Bag (CLE), Knife Discovered COncealed in Small of Back (BUR), Credit Caard Knife (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.

• A credit card knife was discovered at Albuquerque (ABQ).
• A folding knife was discovered concealed in the lower back area of a passenger who alarmed the advanced imaging technology at Burbank (BUR).
• A knife was found concealed in the lining of a bag at Cleveland (CLE).
• A stun gun disguised to look like a smart phone was discovered in carry-on bag at Billings (BIL).

Stun Guns discovered at (L-R) ATL, ATL, BIL, DEN, JAX, MDW, ORD, RDU, SAN

Stun Guns –12 stun guns were discovered this week in carry-on bags around the nation. Two were discovered at Atlanta (ATL) and the other ten were discovered at Billings (BIL), Nashville (BNA), Denver (DEN), Jacksonville (JAX), Chicago Midway (MDW), Chicago O’Hare (ORD), Raleigh-Durham (RDU), San Diego (SAN), Baltimore (BWI), and Sacramento (SMF).

Inert Grenade Discovered at ORD

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 - real or not. 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 and here on why inert items cause problems.

• Two replica grenades were discovered in carry-on baggage at Phoenix (PHX). One was a belt buckle, and the other was a gear shift knob.
• An inert grenade was discovered in checked baggage at Chicago O’Hare (ORD).

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…

Survival Knife and Firework-type Large Smoke Grenades in Carry-on at PWM

(Top to Bottom / L-R) Knives Discovered at LGA, EWR, BUR, BNA, JFK

Firearms Discovered This Week in Carry-On Bags

(L-R / Top to Bottom) Guns Discovered at MYR, ATL, AUS, BNA, CLT, LYH, PBI, PDX, PHX, SMF

(Top to Bottom / L-R) Guns Discovered at DFW [last week], PNS, CHA, IAH, PHX, MCI, ATL

(Top to Bottom / L-R) Guns Discovered at BNA, LAX, CLT, FLL, FLL, RDU

*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.

Follow @TSABlogTeam on Twitter and Instagram!

Bob Burns
TSA Blog Team

If you have a travel related issue or question that needs an immediate answer, you can contact us byclicking here.

http://blog.tsa.gov/2013/09/tsa-week-in-review-34-firearms.html

Tuesday, September 10, 2013

TSA Travel Tips Tuesday: Leave Your Grenades at Home

All of the Grenades Pictured Were Discovered This Year (2013)

After reading the title of this post, your first thought probably was, “That’s obvious.” Not always so. Year to date, our officers have discovered:

• 43 grenades in carry-on baggage.
• 40 grenades in checked baggage

The majority of these grenades were inert, replica, or novelty items, but a few were live smoke, flare, riot, and flash bang grenades, which can pose major safety issues to aircraft and also violate FAA hazmat regulations.

Some have asked us why inert grenades are dangerous since they are dormant. The answer is that they are not dangerous. The issue with inert grenades is that they look like live grenades during screening. When a potential explosive is detected, we must follow protocols that can cause screening areas and even terminals to be closed and evacuated. When checkpoints are closed, flights are delayed and sometimes missed causing the airline and travelers frustration. Another reason all inert grenade related items are prohibited is the panic that could ensue if a passenger were to reveal a grenade while in the cabin of an aircraft.

So remember, real or not, if it looks like a grenade or any other type of explosive device, it cannot be packed in your carry-on or checked baggage. Grenade shaped belt buckles, lighters, soap, candles, MP3 players, paperweights, inert training grenades, and other items can all look like the real item on the x-ray monitor. Please leave these items at home, or find another way of getting them to your destination.

Did you Know: Our officers at Dallas Fort Worth (DFW) discovered a live 40mm high explosive grenade in a carry-on bag in 2012?

See you next week with more travel tips!

Bob Burns
TSA Blog Team

Follow @TSABlogTeam on Twitter and Instagram!

If you have a travel related issue or question that needs an immediate answer, you can contact us byclicking here. http://blog.tsa.gov/2013/09/tsa-travel-tips-tuesday-leave-your.html