Last year's figures have soared once again as TSA agents at DFW and Love Field found themselves quite busy disarming passengers, the pair made the top ten list for firearms intercepted at airport security checkpoints with DFW snagging the second spot with 378 firearms and Love Field in tenth with a not-to-be-snuffed at 125.
Air travel may be returning to its pre-pandemic bustle, but some travelers seem to be flying a little too close to the wind, particularly in Dallas where forgetting to leave your gun at home seems to be a perplexing trend, the total count of firearms caught by TSA officers at checkpoints hit a new record of 6,737 in 2023, edging out the previous year's tally, and most worryingly, a whopping 93 percent of those were loaded, according to NBC DFW.
"We are still seeing far too many firearms at TSA checkpoints, and what's particularly concerning is the amount of them loaded, presenting an unnecessary risk to everyone at the TSA checkpoint," TSA Administrator David Pekoske said. He reminded passengers that "Firearms and ammunition are strictly prohibited in carry-on baggage," emphasizing the correct procedure involves packing an unloaded firearm in a locked, hard-sided case within checked luggage after declaring it at the airline check-in counter, according to Audacy.
The list of top ten airports for firearm discoveries reads as a who's who of busy hubs, spearheaded by Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport alongside others like George Bush Houston Intercontinental and Phoenix Sky Harbor. Even with the bump in numbers, the TSA did note that the rate per million passengers dropped slightly from 8.6 per million passengers in 2022 to 7.8. This stat while a tad reassuring, doesn't divert from the stark fact that loaded guns at checkpoints remain far too common a sight with local police being notified to deal with the armed would-be passengers in such instances.
