About 30% more guns were confiscated at airport security gates in the first half of 2013 than that same period a year ago, a Medill analysis of federal data it aggregates from the Transportation Security Administration shows.
Atlanta, Dallas-Forth Worth and Phoenix airports topped the list, with a combined 15 percent of the 899 guns confiscated by the TSA at 168 domestic airports. Half of the top airports were in Texas and Florida. (See interactive map below).
About 84% of the guns were loaded, slightly higher than a year ago, and a third of those that were loaded had a bullet in the chamber ready to fire.
Confiscations averaged five a day compared to four a day in 2012. June was the highest, with an average 6.3 guns per day; February, the lowest at 3.7. May and June were record months overall and the week of May 15 set a weekly record, with 65 found. Confiscations during 2012 were 17% higher than 2011, data that TSA shared with the Associated Press showed, so the rise in confiscations is on at least a two-year incline.
The most popular guns: 380 and 9mm, which made up nearly half of the weapons confiscated. (See graphic below).
Medill National Security Zone maintains a database of the confiscations by transcribing information from weekly blog postings done by the TSA. It has data going back to the start of 2012. The data is available for download and reuse, as long as credit is given.
It is illegal to bring a firearm aboard a plane, even if the passenger is licensed to carry it. Guns must be packed in checked baggage following TSA guidelines. When a weapon is found at the security check-in, TSA agents turn the matter over to whichever local authority that is in charge of law enforcement at that airport. Some are arrested, others are not.
The data does not take into account monthly or longer fluctuations in the number of passengers screened or changes in the number of people flying.
Top airports
Click each marker for statistics about the airports with the highest number of confiscations. Red markers denote the top two — Atlanta and Dallas-Fort Worth.
COMPARING 2013 TO 2012
[field name=”monthly-comp”]
SIX-MONTH COMPARISON 2012 v. 2013
[field name=”yoy”]
Types of guns
BROWSE BY DAY
Click on column label below to sort that column. There are 30 records visible at a time; click the arrow key at the bottom to see the next (or previous) set of records.
[field name=”daily”]
Thanks to NSJI’s Natalie Jones for help with data entry.
