WASHINGTON -- The Transportation Security Administration is on pace this year to again set a record for the number of guns intercepted at airport security checkpoints, underscoring a persistent challenge for security officials amid brisk gun sales in the United States.
So far this year, TSA officers have already discovered more than 4,600 guns at airport checkpoints, and about 87% of them were loaded, according to the agency. Last year, the TSA found nearly 6,000 guns at airport checkpoints, which itself was a record.
TSA agents have found 25 guns so far this year during security screenings at Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport/Adams Field in Little Rock, with 33 found last year, 22 in 2020 and 23 in 2019, said Patricia Mancha, spokeswoman for TSA's Southwest Region, which includes Arkansas and Texas.
At Northwest Arkansas National Airport in Highfill, agents have found 11 guns and a gun barrel so far this year, said Andrew Branch, the airport's chief operating officer. That compares with 21 in 2021, six in 2020 and 11 in 2019, Mancha said.
The number of guns discovered at security checkpoints has been trending upward for more than a decade, with the only decrease coming during the pandemic.
The slew of guns found at the nation's airports this year has come as air travel in the United States is nearing a return to pre-pandemic levels. Gun sales in the country have surged in recent years, suggesting that some travelers might be unfamiliar with the rules for carrying firearms while traveling by plane.
"Entering a checkpoint with a firearm, particularly a loaded one, is an expensive mistake," said Carter Langston, a TSA spokesperson.
When a gun is found at a checkpoint, the TSA does not seize it. Instead, agents are instructed to call law enforcement to handle the situation.
There is no federal criminal penalty for passengers caught with a gun at a checkpoint, but the TSA can impose a fine of up to about $14,000 and the loss of PreCheck membership -- which allows for expedited security screening -- for up to five years.
When TSA agents find a firearm during a security screening at Clinton National Airport, Little Rock police officers at the airport respond and are tasked with determining if the traveler had criminal intent in bringing their gun through security, department spokesman Sgt. Eric Barnes said.
Usually, people simply forgot they had a gun in their bag, and so long as they own the weapon legally, they can often return it to their vehicle, Barnes said.
Northwest Arkansas National Airport's policy toward travelers found with a weapon hasn't changed.
Last year, Russell White, the airport's chief of police, said officers typically transport both the firearm and its owner to the police department where "basic checks" are done to make sure the passenger isn't a felon and that the person can legally possess the weapon, as well as to determine whether the firearm isn't stolen.
"If everything's good with it, what we do is either let them take it back to their car or we will hold it and they can pick it up when they come back," he said.
However, police do provide information about the person to the TSA, which determines whether to impose a civil penalty, White said.
Potential criminal charges, if any, vary by state.
In recent years, police at Clinton National Airport have reevaluated their procedure in handling these incidents, Barnes said, adding that the charge of carrying a weapon, a misdemeanor that travelers who can legally own a gun could face in these instances, requires evidence of criminal intent.
If there is evidence of a crime, people are taken to the Pulaski County jail and booked, Barnes said.
Penalties for having loaded firearms, or unloaded firearms with accessible ammunition, in a carry-on bag range from $3,000 to $10,000 the first time and $10,000 to $13,910, for repeat violations, Mancha said. For unloaded firearms, it's $1,500 to $2,475.
In Texas, law enforcement officials often tell travelers to get out of line, lock their guns in their cars and return to try to catch their flights. In New York, however, the discovery of a gun at a checkpoint will most likely end with the passenger in handcuffs.
The severity of any criminal charges can also differ based on whether the person has a permit to carry a concealed weapon.
In Florida, for example, someone with a concealed-carry permit stopped at an airport checkpoint can be charged with a second-degree misdemeanor. A passenger without one could face a felony for carrying a concealed weapon.
WHERE THEY WERE FOUND
Guns were discovered at 268 of the country's airports last year, according to the TSA, and the 10 airports with the largest number of them were all in the South or the West. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport led the nation with 507 guns found.
Last year, a gun was accidentally discharged at a checkpoint at the Atlanta airport, causing a panic among travelers. U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., was briefly detained by police this spring after trying to bring a loaded gun through airport security in Charlotte -- the second time in a just over a year that he had been found with a gun at an airport checkpoint.
While guns cannot be brought onto planes in carry-on baggage, they are allowed to be transported in checked baggage. Those firearms must be unloaded and locked in a hard-sided case.
Aidan Johnston, the director of federal affairs for Gun Owners of America, a gun-rights group, said that many passengers found with guns at airport checkpoints were in a stressed state because they were traveling and might not have been thinking about the location of their gun. He suggested that the increase in guns found at checkpoints could be driven in part by first-time gun owners who may not be familiar with the rules of traveling with a firearm.
Johnston said he did not support states' punishing travelers for an honest mistake, but he encouraged gun owners to take on the responsibility of educating themselves about the TSA's requirements.
"I think gun owners should go out and learn the rules for how to take a firearm from one place to another and how to take a firearm through an airport," Johnston said.
Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action, a gun control group, said the rise in guns found at airports was "the logical result of record gun sales and states weakening gun safety laws with extreme policies like permitless carry, which encourage guns anywhere, for anyone, no questions asked."
The TSA has tried to do more to keep guns from getting past security checkpoints. In March, the agency announced that it was investing about $780 million in CT scanners that would help it better detect weapons, explosives and other objects by creating 3D images of carry-on items.
The issue has also come under scrutiny on Capitol Hill. At a hearing in February, Rep. Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-N.J., called for the TSA to explore additional ways to deter travelers from bringing guns to airport security checkpoints. She said the increase in unruly passengers and the rise in guns at airports were a "toxic combination."
Watson Coleman, the chair of the House Homeland Security Committee's subcommittee on transportation security, has proposed legislation intended to address the uptick in guns found at checkpoints. Her bill would establish minimum fines for repeat or serious violations and require increased signage at airports to warn passengers against bringing firearms through security screening.
In a statement, Coleman cited the incident at the Atlanta airport last year and added, "If nothing is done, it is only a matter of time until tragedy occurs and lives are lost."
Information for this article was contributed by Mark Walker of The New York Times, by Grant Lancaster of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and by Ron Wood of the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.