TSA found nearly a dozen guns a day at US airport checkpoints in 2019

Reptile

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Nearly a dozen guns a day were discovered in carry-on bags or on passengers at airport checkpoints across the country, resulting in 4,432 firearms in total in 2019, according to a report released Wednesday by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

“The continued increase in the number of firearms that travelers bring to airport checkpoints is deeply troubling,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said in a statement. “There is a proper way to travel safely with a firearm. First and foremost, it should be unloaded. Then it should be packed in a hard-sided locked case, taken to the airline check-in counter to be declared, and checked.”

 
Let's put the 2a rights part of this discussion aside for a moment, step back, and just ask......"are there that many people in the USA with their head so far up their ass that they go to an airport with a loaded gun in their carry on"?

I mean......seriously.....I carry daily.....and I get "accustomed" to it and it becomes normal........but if I'm heading to the airport I don't have a loaded fire arm in my carry on!

People are just f***ing stupid.
 
Let's put the 2a rights part of this discussion aside for a moment, step back, and just ask......"are there that many people in the USA with their head so far up their ass that they go to an airport with a loaded gun in their carry on"?

I mean......seriously.....I carry daily.....and I get "accustomed" to it and it becomes normal........but if I'm heading to the airport I don't have a loaded fire arm in my carry on!

People are just f***ing stupid.
The FAA estimates that there are ~2.7 MILLION people flying in US airspace every day.

Even if the 12 guns found a day were a paltry 5% of the guns actually located in carry-ons, that’s still less than 1% of 1% (8.88e-5, or 88% of 1% of 1%) of all passengers doing it.
 
I'm still betting 10-11 out of those 12 are people that had a complete brain-fart. As reported above, 2.7M people, 12 guns.

I'd bet there were were 100's of people who "identify as non-binary" in those 2.7M - just to put that in perspective.

Figure 1 gun every 225K passengers. (2.7M/12) A domestic flight fits about 225 passengers. One moron per 1,000 flights?? Seems like a small # to me.
 
But not really, Jack. Say a full 1/3 of travelers are gun owners. And the average dolt flies 6x a year (because some of those people fly WEEKLY. I fly annually, if that.)

2.7Mx365*.333/6 = 54M people a year. 4300 guns. Sounds like a pretty small group to me. Hell, I've met a higher % of "scary clueless gun owners" at the range than that!

440 airports that have TSA coverage. 12 a day??? Less than one a month per airport covered. If you don't think people can brain-fart this often, you are giving human beans too much credit. LOL
 
So, 4432 firearms in a year. And, let's say it is true that they only catch 5% of them. I'll be generous and say 10%. So, that means 44320 guns, minus the 4432 found, is 39888 guns that got through. Yet... no harm was caused to anyone! Amazing. Or, people with guns aren't as evil as the media and politicians would have everyone believe.
 
At Midway I see some really funny stuff, some things I wouldn't even post here...

Over the winter two TSA agents, one younger guy explaining to someone else like the other guy is in training, showing him the image of what looks like a carry pistol packed in someone's luggage, explanation entailed why it wasn't going to be an actual gun when he opened the bag up. Out comes this gold plated looking thing that would have had me fooled, don't know if it was a lighter or paperweight or just bling or what. TSA puts it back in the bag, tells traveller (gang banger looking Mexican guy) they really shouldn't travel with it, traveller goes on his way. Whatever it was they apparently see a lot of them, metallic fake guns basically. I'm sure that doesn't help the situation.
 
There's been a 300% increase since the pandemic began:


I think it’s funny that the article says they’re finding more guns, when if you read the article and do the math out, they’re actually finding fewer (assuming 5/M at 100% normal traffic vs 15/M at 25% traffic)

I have to wonder if the TSA’s detection rate is less awful than usual with the light traffic.
 
They auction off the knives they confiscate, when is the gun auction?
 
Further question: There's that guy at teh gun shows that sells confiscated TSA pocket knives and such at a discount. Where's the guy at the gun show selling the confiscated firearms at deep discount prices???
 
"Back when" I would fly from Boston to Newark to go pheasant hunting with a friend who had a farm In NJ. My shotgun was in a soft case and the ammo in my carry on. I would board the plane and give the gun to the pilots to keep in the cockpit. No problem.
 
Pre-1971 of course, eh Jack????

Negatives to DB Cooper - hard to fly with guns. It's just a PITA. Forget carrying - it's a hassle to lock, drop off, pick up, worry about them getting stolen, etc.,

Positives to DB Cooper - a fat FloridaMan can't shoot a hole in your luggage b/c he leaned too far during a beer-fart that his crappy floppy holster caused an AD.
 
So, 4432 firearms in a year. And, let's say it is true that they only catch 5% of them. I'll be generous and say 10%. So, that means 44320 guns, minus the 4432 found, is 39888 guns that got through. Yet... no harm was caused to anyone! Amazing. Or, people with guns aren't as evil as the media and politicians would have everyone believe.

That's my takeaway from this. How many of those guns found were going to be used to interfere with the flight somehow? They didn't save anyone from anything, they just caught a bunch of people who weren't paying attention to what they were doing.
 
Never to be seen again [popcorn]
 
Never to be seen again [popcorn]
I need to work for the TSA...10 for me, 1 for the books.
If you follow the MA link to Auctions international they have a hydraulic cylinder for $10. Seems like a pretty good deal if you want to build a big log splitter.
 
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Never to be seen again [popcorn]

The MA Surplus Property List - why do they have pedestals for their large african-american girlfriends and why are they getting rid of them????? Dept of Industrial Accidents in Lowell.

And why does the Ethics Commission have a belt-driven firewood buzz saw???? WTF????
 
"Back when" I would fly from Boston to Newark to go pheasant hunting with a friend who had a farm In NJ. My shotgun was in a soft case and the ammo in my carry on. I would board the plane and give the gun to the pilots to keep in the cockpit. No problem.

That's the way it worked in 1976. I went from Seoul Korea to SeaTac and then to Boston, 2 non stop flights. Handed the pilot a cased .38 at the boarding gate, they handed it back upon arrival at destination. Four boxes of ammo in my carry on bag.
 
I'd like again to thank Dan Cooper, but we'd have these regs today even if he didn't hijack a plane and die of exposure jumping out over the PNW forests.
 
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