Fear & Loading: Top 10 TSA Guns

If you’ve flown recently and someone sneezed 20 rows back, you know how effective airplanes are at incubating and spreading cultures. I recommend you get some rest, drink plenty of fluids and find a surgical mask vending machine before your next flight.

There’s a lot to remember before flying and when you add all those little things up, including disease, it’s easy to forget something. For those of us who carry, overlooking the handgun that rides daily in our bag or on our side would be disastrous and carries a potential of a $13,066 fine—per violation—when TSA discovers it.

It still happens to some, unfortunately, even with the fatiguing repeated and loud warnings. To put things in perspective, though, it’s no epidemic. TSA processed 771.5 million passengers last year and discovered only 3,957 firearms. That’s one person who forgot their gun for every 194,971 people coming through a checkpoint.

Yes, this blog is yet another reminder, but at least it’s more digestible than an airline snack. Here are the top 10 handgun makes TSA confiscated at security checkpoints for the two-week period between March 19 and April 1 (data that’s only been posting since last month, for some unexplained reason).

Naturally, there are assorted inert grenades, mortars, knives, snow globes and munchies, many of which you can view at the TSA blog. The weirdest stuff from 2017 is highlighted in the organization’s top 10 video blog.

And one more thing: Even if you’re an NFL wide receiver heading to Hawaii with a female friend, never, ever, ask if she remembered to pack the explosives while you’re checking in. I heard a rumor she was enjoying the beaches of Waikiki with a cabana boy named Joey. Odds are you haven’t heard that rumor either, because I’m not very practiced at spreading them—yet.