TSA Week in Review: Record 65 Firearms Discovered In Carry-on Bags (54 Loaded)
Friday, May 24, 2013
TSA Week in Review: Record 65 Firearms Discovered In Carry-on Bags (54 Loaded)
Record 65 Firearms Discovered This Week – This beats our previous record of 50 guns. Of the 65 firearms, 54 were loaded and 19 had rounds chambered. See a complete list and more photos at the bottom of this post.
Firearm Strapped to Prosthetic Leg of Passenger – A passenger at Salt Lake City (SLC) received a pat-down after an anomaly was detected during advanced imaging technology screening.During the pat-down, officers discovered a fully loaded .22 caliber firearm inside his boot and strapped to the prosthetic leg.The passenger was arrested by Salt Lake City Airport Police on a state charge of “Carrying a Concealed Weapon in a Secure Area.”
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. I know they are cool novelty items, but you cannot bring them on a plane. Read here and here on why inert items cause problems.
- Three inert/replica/novelty grenades were discovered across the nation this week in carry-on bags at: Atlanta (ATL), Las Vegas (LAS), and Salt Lake City (SLC).
Stun Guns – 12 stun guns were discovered this week in carry-on bags around the nation: two were discovered at Las Vegas (LAS), two at Sacramento (SMF), and the others at Albuquerque (ABQ), Baltimore (BWI), Detroit (DTW), Washington Dulles (IAD), Phoenix (PHX), San Francisco (SFO), San Juan (SJU), and St. Louis (STL).
Items in the Strangest Places –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, 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 in strange places.
- A multi-tool was discovered inside the lining of a bag at Guam (GUM).
- A 3-inch knife blade was found concealed inside a DVD case at Newark (EWR).
- An anomaly was detected during advance imaging technology screening at Tampa (TPA). During the pat-down, a razorblade was found concealed in the lining of the passenger’s undergarment.
- A razorblade was discovered concealed in the sole of a shoe at Dayton (DAY).
What Not to Say at an Airport – Statements like these not only delay the people who said them but can also inconvenience many other passengers if the checkpoint or terminal has to be evacuated:
- While presenting his identification to a travel document checker, an Orlando (MCO) passenger stated: “I also have a bomb.”
- During additional screening, a Houston (IAH) passenger told the officer that the bottle of water in his bag was a bomb.
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…
Firearms Discovered This Week in Carry-On Bags
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.
*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.
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.
Bob Burns
TSA Blog Team
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http://blog.tsa.gov/2013/05/tsa-week-in-review-record-65-firearms.html
