TSA head on record guns at checkpoints in 2022: 'Reflects what we’re seeing in society'
FILE - A TSA security screening checkpoint is pictured at an airport in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. (Photo by: Jeff Greenberg/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images) ATLANTA - The woman flying out of Philadelphia’s airport last year remembered to pack snacks, prescription medicine and a cellphone in her handbag.
But what was more important was what she forgot to unpack: a loaded .380-caliber handgun in a black holster.The weapon was one of the 6,542 guns the Transportation Security Administration intercepted last year at airport checkpoints across the country.
The number — roughly 18 per day — was an all-time high for guns intercepted at U.S. airports, and is sparking concern at a time when more Americans are armed."What we see in our checkpoints really reflects what we’re seeing in society, and in society there are more people carrying firearms nowadays," TSA administrator David Pekoske said.RELATED: TSA stops passenger with assault rifle, ammunition at New Orleans airportWith the exception of the pandemic-disrupted 2020, the number of weapons intercepted at airport checkpoints has climbed every year since 2010.
Experts don't think this is an epidemic of would-be hijackers — nearly everyone caught claims to have forgotten they had a gun with them — but they emphasize the danger even one gun can pose in the wrong hands on a plane or at a checkpoint.Guns have been intercepted literally from Burbank, California, to Bangor, Maine.
United States
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Cases: 46 252 513
Deaths: 750 423
Recovered: 0
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India
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Cases: 34 321 025
Deaths: 459 652
Recovered: 0
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Brazil
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Cases: 21 835 785
Deaths: 608 235
Recovered: 0
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United Kingdom
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Cases: 9 215 683
Deaths: 141 607
Recovered: 0
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Russia
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Cases: 8 494 589
Deaths: 237 619
Recovered: 0
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