More than 4,200 airline passengers attempted to pass through security checkpoints at U.S. airports with guns in 2018, marking a new all-time high, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
The agency announced Thursday its officers seized 4,239 firearms from passengers and their carry-on baggage last year, for an average of nearly 82 guns per week.
Of that number, 86 percent of guns — 3,656 — were loaded, according to a news release. One-third of the total number of guns had a round in the chamber, an indication the gun was ready to be immediately used.
The number was up 5.5 percent from 2017, when nearly 4,000 firearms were nabbed. In 2016, 3,391 guns were found.
Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport saw more gun seizures than any of the 440 airports TSA officers work: 298. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Denver International Airport, Orlando International Airport, and Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport all followed, with at least 100 guns seized at each location.
TSA has previously attributed yearly spikes to increases in passengers, not necessarily underlying terror threats.
“The number-one excuse that people give us for why they have their gun with them at a checkpoint is that they forgot that they had their gun with them. The second-most common excuse is that their husband or wife packed their bag. Neither of those excuses fly,” TSA Acting Director of Media Relations Lisa Farbstein previously told the Washington Examiner.
Air travel in 2018 crept to a new high of 813 million passengers from 771 million passengers in 2017.
The number of loaded and unloaded firearms apprehended by officers has increased every year over the past decade. In 2007, the Department of Homeland Security agency documented 803 guns discovered at airport checkpoints. That number ticked up a few dozen in the first year, then began climbing a few hundred each year after. By 2014, TSA reported 2,212 gun seizures and then 2,653 in 2015.
Firearm possession laws vary by state and locality. However, firearms must be unloaded and locked in a hard-sided container and transported as checked baggage.
All parts, including ammunition, must be declared at the airline ticket counter during the check-in process. Those who do not follow the law can be arrested and fined up to $13,333.
Other dangerous items TSA officers found on passengers and in baggage included smoke grenades, lighter fluid, fireworks, and replica mortar shells.
[Also read: Police body armor-piercing bullets could trigger congressional action]
