The number of guns confiscated at U.S. airport security gates in the first quarter of 2013 was up 14% over last year, with a huge jump in January a key contributor, according to an analysis of Transportation Security Administration data by National Security Zone.
A total of 364 guns were confiscated by TSA agents at U.S. airports from Jan. 1 to March 31 as passengers tried to carry them aboard — 45 more than the first quarter last year. That is an average of four a day.
The year is still young (and we won’t get this week’s data until late tomorrow), but so far this year, 112 guns — most of them loaded — have been confiscated as their owners tried to carry them past airport security.
That said, we’ve officially launched our 2013 TSA gun data dashboard, where you can see weekly and daily totals by airport, along with indication of how many were loaded (guns that is, not passengers!).
UPDATE 2/1/13: Full-month data for January shows a substantial 40% increase over January 2012 — 135 guns this year vs. 96 a year ago. The percentage that was loaded were about the same — 78% vs. 80%.
Our complete 2012 dashboard is still available as well, of course.
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 past 1,500 for the year, data compiled by Medill National Security Zone shows.
Through Dec. 31, 1,525 guns had been found. (View interactive graphics of weekly totals and individual incidents by date and airport). 
The pace of confiscations nationwide was up in the second half of the year compared to the first — 832 since July 1 vs. 693 from Jan. 1 to June 30.
The total this year is an increase of 16% over 2011 and 36% over 2010.
National Security Zone, 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 was released to National Security Zone on Thursday.
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 (97); Dallas/Fort Worth (80); Phoenix (53); Houston Bush (51) and Fort Lauderdale (42).
Those top 5 airports accounted for 25% of all guns.
The first gun of 2013 was found on Wednesday at Atlanta airport, the TSA reported this week.
A full list of the Top 15 airports is below; a sortable list of each incident by day and by airport is available here.
SOURCE: Medill National Security Zone compilation and analysis of TSA data.
We’ve added a weekly interactive visual of the number of loaded and unloaded guns confiscated each week by the Transportation Security Administration at airport security points. We try to update the chart weekly.
We’ve updated our popular database of gun seizures at Transportation Security Administration airport security checkpoints though Sept. 6. You can find a chart of the data here, along with a link to download a CSV file for your own analysis.
(Thanks to Medill National Security Zone assistant Natalie Jones, who has taken over data entry responsibilities).
(Photo: TSA.gov)
OTB hasn’t flogged its regularly updated database of gun seizures at TSA check-ins for a few weeks, so consider it duly flogged anew. View and download the latest data, through April 26. You can sort the columns below by clicking on the column labels. Click arrow at bottom to scroll to the next page of data.
Below are the top airports for number of handguns seized by the Transportation Security Administration at security checkpoints during the first quarter of 2012. Data source: On The Beat analysis of statistics released by the TSA each week. See the complete data for the first quarter, plus the first week of Q2.
