Last week, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) announced increased penalties for firearms violations after intercepting a record number of guns from passengers' carry-on luggage at airport security checkpoints in 2022.
In one of this year's wiliest attempts to sneak a firearm through airport security, a traveler was found last week with a revolver carefully stowed inside his video gaming console as he attempted to clear a TSA checkpoint at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. Security officers had to break the machine open in order to impound the revolver, local news outlet WXIA reported.
In a punny Instagram post, which showed a security scanner image of the gun secreted inside the unnamed traveler's electronic device, TSA said that its officials, "powered down this passenger's poor packing choice."
"It's never an idea rated E for everyone to pack firearm parts or guns in a carry-on bag," the post reads. "We're not about to console anybody's feelings on this topic either. Without going into graphic detail, gun parts, firearms and ammunition must be placed in checked bags. You'll control your travel destiny by declaring these items with your airline and ensuring they are packaged properly."
TSA regulations state that firearms are only allowed to be brought aboard commercial flights if they are, "unloaded, packed in a locked, hard-sided case and placed in checked baggage." The same rules apply equally to replica weapons.
When transporting a weapon in checked baggage, passengers need to go in person to the airline ticketing counter at the airport, and there declare the firearm, ammunition and any of the gun's ancillary parts. An officer told WXIA that travelers are advised to check state laws in their intended destination to ensure that they will be in compliance upon their arrival, and that this is something they should also confirm through their airline.
Of the 6,301 firearms seized by airport TSA officers this year (through December 16), the most laughable might have been the handgun someone tried to conceal inside a frozen chicken), as though the act in itself of carrying a raw poultry carcass onto a plane wasn't bound to raise any red flags.
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