The actual loaded folding rifle taken off a passenger at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in September(TSA)
The Transportation Security Agency, which runs America’s most heavily armed blog, says its agents have been record-breaking busy this year.
According to the Department of Homeland Security today, TSA agents have collected 1,892 firearms in 2014 — and that’s with two months to go in the year. And, of course, Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport tops the pops. According to the TSA, 105 firearms were seized at the local airport, including just yesterday, when someone was arrested at D/FW for carrying a weapon through security. Thirty-nine firearms have been taken off Dallas Love Field passengers in 2014.
TSA spokesperson Ross Feinstein says 61 firearms have been discovered in November alone at airports nationwide — including seven on Monday and three so far today.
Nationally Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International comes in second on the hit parade, followed by Phoenix Sky Harbor International, Houston George Bush Intercontinental and Denver International. Most were found in purses and carry-on bags, but some passengers had their pieces on their person.
And here’s what makes this year’s big number even more significant: In all of 2013 TSA agents seized 1,813 firearms. Also, notes the TSA, of the 1,892 firearms taken off passengers in 2014 so far, about 80 percent of them were loaded.
The number of seized firearms has been on the increase for years. Says here that in 2010 agents seized 1,123, and the 2013 number was a 20-percent jump from the 2012 figure. Per The Los Angeles Times today, there’s probably a very good reason for the annual jump: “One factor in the increase may be the rise in passenger volume, which grew 2.3% in the first seven months of the year compared with the same period in 2013, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.”
The TSA can hit a passenger with a fine of up to $11,000 for bringing a firearm to a checkpoint. But those seizures seldom lead to arrests.
“We never take possession of a firearm,” says Feinstein. “Local charges [and] further action is at the discretion of law enforcement” at the airport. Adds the TSA press secretary via a series of tweets to The News, “Law enforcement respond and remove the firearm from the x-ray. Screening stops until they arrive/remove the firearm from the x-ray machine.”
Officials at D/FW Airport say it will take several days before they can provide The Dallas Morning News with arrest numbers for 2014.