TSA found record number of guns at airports in 2022, but O'Hare and Midway saw fewer firearms
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Transportation Security Administration officers caught a record number of guns at airport checkpoints in the U.S. in 2022.
TSA officers caught 6,542 firearms at airport checkpoints last year, breaking the previous record of 5,972 firearms stopped at airports in 2021. According to the TSA, 88% of those firearms were loaded.
While the number of guns caught at TSA checkpoints nationwide was up last year, both O'Hare International Airport and Midway International Airport saw slight declines in the number of firearms stopped at security checkpoints. TSA officers caught 85 guns at O'Hare and 38 at Midway in 2022, compared to 91 and 42, respectively, in 2021.
"Bringing a firearm to the checkpoint is an expensive, dangerous mistake that far too many people are making," Illinois TSA Federal Security Director Dereck Starks said. "Our TSA officers are doing a fantastic job preventing weapons from making their way onboard to aircraft, but the responsibility falls to passengers to pack smart and keep prohibited items out of their baggage."
The most common reason travelers gave for having a gun at the airport was they forgot they had it.
"That's pretty lame, in my opinion, because the number one rule of gun safety is know where your weapon is," said former TSA administrator John Pistole.
Airports in Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Nashville, and Phoenix led the nation in the number of weapons seized in 2022.
The maximum fine for bringing weapons to the airport is $14,950, depending on the circumstances. Passengers caught with a firearm at the airport also can lose their TSA PreCheck eligibility for at least five years.
Travelers can have unloaded firearms in their checked baggage, if they are packed in a locked hardback case, separate from any ammunition, and declared at the airline check-in counter. Firearms, ammunition, firearm parts, and even replica or toy firearms, are forbidden in carryon luggage.
