Record 6,542 guns intercepted at airports, and Atlanta leads way

ATLANTA - The Transportation Security istration intercepted a record 6,542 guns last year at airport checkpoints across the country, and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport was at the top of the list.

That should come as no big surprise, since it’s the world’s busiest airport in of engers.

Guns have been intercepted literally from Burbank, Calif., to Bangor, Maine. But it tends to happen more at bigger airports in areas with laws more friendly to carrying a gun, TSA David Pekoske said.

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Besides Atlanta, the top 10 list for gun interceptions in 2022 includes Dallas, Austin and Houston in Texas; three airports in Florida; Nashville, Tennessee; Phoenix; and Denver.

At Augusta Regional Airport, nine guns were seized in 2022, up from five in 2021.

Here’s a look at the Georgia numbers:

Seized guns at Georgia airports in 2022.(Contributed)

With the exception of pandemic-disrupted 2020, the national number of weapons intercepted at airport checkpoints has climbed every year since 2010.

Experts don’t think this is an epidemic of would-be hijackers — nearly everyone caught claims to have forgotten they had a gun with them — but they emphasize the danger even one gun can pose in the wrong hands on a plane or at a checkpoint.

Pekoske isn’t sure the “I forgot” excuse is always true or whether it’s a natural reaction to getting caught. Regardless, he said, it’s a problem that must stop.

Here’s a look at the national numbers:

Top U.S. airports for gun seizures in 2022.(Contributed)

Atlanta’s airport, with roughly 85,000 people going through checkpoints on a busy day, had the most guns intercepted in 2022 — 448 — but that number was actually lower than the year before.

Robert Spinden, the TSA’s top official in Atlanta, says the agency and the airport made a big effort in 2021 to try to address the large number of guns being intercepted at checkpoints.

An incident in November 2021 reinforced the need for their efforts. A TSA officer noticed a suspected gun in a enger’s bag. When the officer opened the suitcase the man reached for the gun, and it went off. People ran for the exits, and the airport was shut down for 2 1/2 hours, the airport’s general manager Balram Bheodari said during a congressional hearing last year.

Officials put in new signage to catch the attention of gun owners. A hologram over a checkpoint shows the image of a revolving blue gun with a red circle over the gun with a line through it. Numerous 70-inch television screens flash rotating messages that guns are not allowed.

“There’s signage all over the airport. There is announcements, holograms, TVs. There’s quite a bit of information that is sort of flashing before your eyes to just try to remind you as a last-ditch effort that if you do own a firearm, do you know where it’s at?” Spinden said.

For the TSA officers searching for prohibited items, it can be jarring.

In Atlanta, Janecia Howard was monitoring the X-ray machine when she realized she was looking at a gun in a enger’s laptop bag. She immediately flagged it as a “high-threat” item and police were notified.

Howard said it felt like her heart dropped, and she was worried the enger might try to get the gun. It turns out the enger was a very apologetic businessman who said he simply forgot. Howard says she understands travel can be stressful but that people have to take care when they’re getting ready for a flight.

“You have to be alert and pay attention,” she said. “It’s your property.”