In 2015, Transportation Security Administration officers at Raleigh-Durham International Airport stopped thirty travelers attempting to bring guns onto their flights. We’re a little over eight months into 2016, and already thirty-seven travelers have been discovered trying to fly with their guns. The majority of those guns were loaded, the TSA noted in a release yesterday.
Here are a few other bewildering facts about travelers at RDU:
More than 1,200 pounds of VAP (Voluntarily abandoned property consisting of prohibited items such as knives and brass knuckles) and more than 9,000 pounds of HazMat (hazardous materials such as household chemicals) were stopped by Transportation Security Administration officers at RDU last year. These items have included stun guns, grenades, brass knuckles and martial arts tools.
The TSA’s release was intended to remind people that it’s not OK to bring dangerous weapons on planes, that you will face fines up to $11,000 regardless of whether you are arrested by law enforcement, and that it’s probably a good idea to sign up for TSA Pre in the interest of avoiding super-long lines caused by idiots who bring guns to the airport.
The increase in guns being confiscated at airport checkpoints is not limited to RDU. The Tracereported last month that the TSA busts an armed traveler every three hours, on average, and that, as of mid-August, the “total number of guns seized in 2016 from carry-on baggage [was] 1,908 — or slightly more than eight firearms per day. That’s almost 400 more weapons seized than this time last year, when 1,575 guns had been discovered.”
