Nearly 40 handguns had been confiscated at airport safety checkpoints in New York and New Jersey this 12 months, a big leap from final 12 months.
Transportation Security Administration spokesperson Lisa Farbstein says there are authorized and protected methods to convey firearms onto flights with you, however extra and extra persons are doing it incorrectly.
“The wrong way to do it is to bring it to a security checkpoint,” mentioned Farbstein. “Nobody should have access to a firearm during a flight.”
Farbstein says the uptick in folks attempting to convey weapons by means of TSA checkpoints is alarming, including that on Jan. 17, somebody tried to convey and automated airsoft gun onto a flight at John F. Kennedy International Airport.
Eleven weapons alone had been confiscated at LaGuardia in 2022, in comparison with simply 4 in 2021. Newark Airport noticed a slight improve in weapons confiscated, whereas JFK Airport noticed a slight dip.
These numbers pale in comparability to different cities with much less strict gun legal guidelines, like Atlanta, which had 448 weapons confiscated in 2022.
Over 6,500 weapons had been eliminated at TSA checkpoints throughout the nation final 12 months.
“That set a record,” mentioned Farbstein. ”That’s essentially the most weapons ever caught in a single calendar 12 months. That’s not the report we wish to set. We’d wish to see it head in the opposite route.”
Farbstein did say that a lot of the confiscated firearms had been legally owned.
