TSA Confiscated Record Number of Guns In 2022

Above, a plane being readied at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Back in the good old days, when airline travelers were able to lock their suitcases before checking it in at the check-in counter, I would sometimes have my pistol (unloaded, of course) inside my luggage. 

Since 9/11, the TSA requires all check-in luggage to be unlocked unless a TSA-approved lock is used. One can still bring their firearm(s), but it is under certain guidelines. Since this, I have not brought a firearm with me on trips. I am more fearful that a not-so-honest baggage handler might steal it.

CBS News reports that 6,301 guns, some loaded, have been confiscated by the TSA for not following the rules in 2022, so far.

They wrote:

Transportation Security Administration officers have confiscated 6,301 firearms from airport passengers so far in 2022 – the highest number recorded since the agency's inception. Of those guns taken at airport security checkpoints, 88% were loaded, the agency announced Friday.  

The TSA said that it expects to have confiscated about 6,600 firearms by the end of year, which would mark a 10.5% increase from the 5,972 firearms seized in 2021, which was also a record. 

The agency also reported Friday that it was raising the maximum civil penalty for a firearms violation from $13,910 to $14,950. 

The top 5 airports for firearm stops so far this year, according to TSA, were: 

1. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport – 438
2. Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport – 371
3. Houston's George Bush Intercontinental Airport – 286
4. Nashville International Airport – 203
5. Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport – 184

Nashville had the highest rate of firearm confiscation per capita, according to a TSA spokesperson.

To read more, go here. 

Summer's "Sticker Shock" of Travel Prices

Above, Cleveland Hopkins International Airport. Photo by Armand Vaquer.

Earlier this year, I bought airline tickets for my ex-roommate for her visit here in July and for myself for a trip to Los Angeles for my high school's 50-year reunion in September.

The prices were reasonable for the round trips (around $300). It pays to buy as early as you can.

It looks like I bought them in the nick of time as airline prices, along with everything else, have soared.

The Santa Fe New Mexican posted an article that warns people to prepare for summer "sticker shock."

They begin with:

DALLAS — Airlines and tourist destinations are expecting monster crowds this summer as travel restrictions ease and pandemic fatigue overcomes lingering fear of contracting COVID-19 during travel.

Many forecasters believe the number of travelers will match or even exceed levels in the good-old, pre-pandemic days. However, airlines have thousands fewer employees than they did in 2019, and that has at times contributed to widespread flight cancellations.

People who are only now booking travel for the summer are experiencing the sticker shock.

Domestic airline fares for summer are averaging more than $400 a round trip, 24 percent higher than this time in 2019, before the pandemic, and a whopping 45 percent higher than a year ago, according to travel-data firm Hopper. “The time to have gotten cheap summer flights was probably three or four months ago,” says Scott Keyes, who runs the Scott’s Cheap Flights site.

To read more, go here.