MPR News Chief Meteorologist Paul Huttner signs off

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

The number of people flying on commercial jetliners is down 75 percent from last summer, but the rate of those getting caught either inadvertently or deliberately trying to bring a gun on board is soaring.

Transportation Security Administration officers are finding guns in carry on bags at security checkpoints at a rate three times higher than they did last summer. And 80 percent of those guns are loaded.

The TSA reports that officers seized more than 300 guns from backpacks, shoulder bags, purses and other carry on baggage in July, a rate of 15.3 guns for every 1 million people screened. That's compared to a rate of 5.1 guns per million people screened in July of last year.

The rate is "particularly alarming, given that TSA screened about 75 percent fewer passengers in July 2020, over the previous year's volume," the agency said in a news release.

"Even more concerning is that 80 percent of the firearms coming into the checkpoint are loaded," TSA Administrator David Pekoske said. "It's just an accident waiting to happen."

The number of people going through airport security screening checkpoints hit a five-month high this past weekend, with nearly 832,000 people screened across the country on Sunday. That's the most people passing through TSA checkpoints since March 17, but it's still close to 70 percent fewer people than on the same Sunday last August.

Officers found 27 guns in carry on baggage at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport in July, 13 at Denver International Airport,13 at Dallas-Forth Worth, and 12 at Nashville's airport.

 at airport security checkpoints, an average of about a dozen a day.

One of the reasons more guns are being detected at airports could simply be that more people have guns. The FBI conducted 3.6 million background checks for firearms purchases last month, up 79 percent from July, 2019. That follows a 70 percent increase in background checks in June, and the number of background checks on gun buyers has topped three million in four of the last five months, according to The Associated Press. The last time gun buyer background checks surpassed the three million mark was December of 2015.

But it could also be that with far fewer travelers going through screening, TSA officers are missing fewer guns in checked baggage. 

 in the INFORMS Journal on Applied Analytics suggests TSA officers may miss hundreds, if not thousands, of firearms at airport security checkpoints each year.

The study's author, University of Illinois professor Sheldon Jacobson, finds that between 2016 and 2018, close to 65 percent of weapons hidden in carry on baggage were not detected by TSA screeners. He says TSA screener distraction and fatigue are the likely cause of such errors. 

Jacobson suggests that with up to 94 percent fewer people passing through security checkpoints during the pandemic, (75 percent fewer in July), "officers working standard lanes are more focused, so miss less." 

Crime, Law and Justice

David Schaper

Author

While screening 75 percent fewer people at airports this summer than last, the security officers discover guns hidden in carry-on bags at a rate surpassing last summer. And 80 percent of those guns are loaded.

TSA finds 3 times usual rate of guns at checkpoints, despite drop in air traffic

Go Deeper.

Like this?

News you can use in your inbox