There Transportation Security Administration (TSA), responsible for the US airport securitysaid she intercepted nearly 20 unauthorized weapons per dayputting the agency on track to beat its annual record for seizuresdepending on the channel ABC.
Last year, the TSA intercepted a record 6,542 firearms. Since the start of this year, it has already confiscated more than 5,000 firearms. And in the third quarter alone, its agents found more than 1,800 firearms in carry-on bags, 94 percent of which were loaded, the TSA said.
As the agency noted, the number of guns seized at airports in the United States has increased over the past two years: 5,972 guns in 2021 and 6,542 in 2022. With already 5,000 guns confiscated over the past two years, of the first nine months, 2023 is expected to break a new record and would represent the third consecutive increase.
Since the recovery in post-Covid travel demand, the TSA screens more than 2 million passengers per day at airports nationwide. In the vast majority of cases, offenders simply forgot that they had a weapon with them, at the bottom of their luggage, the agency explained. Several airports such as Miami have deployed measures, such as messages on screens and holograms, to remind travelers that firearms are prohibited in the cabin.
In the United States, the law allows gun owners to fly with their firearm, provided that it is unloaded, placed in a closed box separate from ammunition, and transported in a suitcase. recorded in the hold.
