As a Congressional committee held a hearing this week on the increase in guns being confiscated at airport security checks nationwide, lawmakers and airport executives said the blame for those incidents falls squarely on gun owners.
“In Atlanta, the great majority — 90-plus percent — are, ‘Oh, I forgot,’” Balram Bheodari, the General Manager of Hartsfield-Jackson airport, told the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee.
For the past six years, Atlanta’s airport has been No. 1 for the wrong reasons — as Hartsfield-Jackson has led the nation in guns confiscated from the carry-on bags of air travelers.
“We contend that the increase in firearm confiscation is a function of an individual gun owner’s lack of responsibility,” Bheodari added.
Whatever the reasons, Transportation Security Administration officials have been alarmed by the recent increase in gun seizures at airports.
“To me, this looks like a gun epidemic,” said Gerardo Spero, TSA’s Federal Security Director at the Philadelphia International Airport, where five guns were found in January — including one carried by a Georgia man on Jan. 28.
In that case, the man claimed his .40 caliber handgun was a training weapon — but the TSA said it was an ‘actual functioning firearm.’
“Guns and airplanes don’t mix,” Spero added.
The TSA has been churning out press releases on gun seizures this year, accompanied by photos of loaded handguns and ammunition magazines confiscated at airport checks.
Just in the last 2 weeks, TSA agents found guns in carry-on bags in Boston, Newark, Roanoke, Philadelphia, Rochester, Buffalo, Washington, D.C., and Milwaukee.
“What percentage of bags may have guns that we don’t even detect? That to me is more concerning,” said U.S. Rep. Carlos Giminez, R-Fla.
“The vast majority of the cases are people that have forgotten,” Ralph Cutié, the head of Miami International Airport told Congress, labeling them ‘inadvertent carry-ons.’
Echoing the assessment from Atlanta, Cutié also pointed the finger of blame at gun owners, saying there are “a lot of people out there that are not experienced in owning a gun.”
More than 500 firearms were stopped at Hartsfield-Jackson in 2021, including the incident last November, when a passenger grabbed his gun as a TSA agent was checking his bag, accidentally firing a shot, and sending travelers scrambling for cover.
Lawmakers said the TSA should step up its public warnings to try and get through to gun owners who don’t remember to leave their weapons at home.
Getting caught with a firearm in your carry-on bag can be expensive, with possible fines of up to $13,910.
And the penalties seem to work.
“If you’re caught with a gun, we don’t have repeat offenders,” Bheodari said.
Jamie Dupree has covered national politics and the Congress from Washington, D.C. since the Reagan administration. His column appears weekly in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. For more, check out his Capitol Hill newsletter at http://jamiedupree.substack.com
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