After a two-year wait for the Transportation Security Administration to release data on how many weapons and dangerous items it had confiscated, the Salt Lake Tribune got the data and discovered “huge holes in that TSA data that raise questions about the information’s value in charting the effectiveness of airport security.”

The data for 2005-2010 showed signifcant fluctuations in what was — and wasn’t — counted from year to year, including guns for three years. 

Net net? Likely a case of garbage-in, garbage-out if one is trying to find trends. From the Tribune’s story: 

“The hit-and-miss data show TSA does not know how many total prohibited items are surrendered, so it cannot accurately track rates of such activity nationwide or at specific airports.

” “If TSA is continually changing the parameters of how they test, truly they have no idea of how they are doing,” said Douglas Laird, head of an aviation-security consulting firm. He is the former security director of Northwest Airlines and a former Secret Service agent.”

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SOURCE: Salt Lake Tribune

A little TSA humor in the funny pages today. Click on the image for the complete version from The Argyle Sweater. (I’ll skip the pun about cranky people “wining” about the long lines, OK?)

While we at On The Beat focus largely on the guns that are confiscated at the nation’s airport security checkpoints, there are a lot of other scary objects that passengers try to sneak through. The TSA blog has a detailed racap of the dangerous — and just plain bizarre — booty, from chastity belts and eels, to a live grenade (right), live cannonball and various containers of gunpowder (including a powder horn) .

And for the holidays? Jingle Bells Shotgun Shells. 

Related: Digital Trends put together its list of fave confiscated items.

Passengers caught trying to carry handguns past security at O’Hare and Panama City airports on Dec. 21 pushed the total number of gun confiscations by Transportation Security Administration screeners to over 1,500 through Dec. 27, data compiled by On The Beat shows.  (View interactive graphics of weekly totals and individual incidents by date and airport). 

The pace of confiscations nationwide is up in the second half of the year compared to the first — 822 confiscations since July 1, compared to 693 from Jan. 1 to June 30.

On The Beat, part of the Medill National Security Journalism Initiative, compiles its own running database based on a weekly list of confiscations posted on the TSA Blog on Fridays. Data for the final few days of the year are expected by the end of next week. 

Of the guns confiscated, 85 percent have been loaded — and 26 percent were loaded AND had a bullet in the firing chamber. 

Airports with the most confiscations so far this year: Atlanta (96); Dallas/Fort Worth (80); Phoenix (53); Houston Bush (50) and Fort Lauderdale (42).

It is illegal to carry a handgun aboard a commercial airliner; guns must be part of checked baggage and meet certain guidelines. The TSA notifies local authorities when a gun is found at security checkpoints; the local authorities determine if an arrest is made, a ticket issued, or what other action is taken.