By Sean O'Driscoll
Senior Crime and Courts Reporter
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Staff at Honolulu airport had to evacuate a checked baggage room on Friday morning after an anti-aircraft round of ammunition was found in luggage.
The .50 caliber anti-aircraft round of ammunition was found at Daniel K. Inouye International Airport. Officials said Transportation Security Administration (TSA) staff flagged a checked bag or a potential security threat around 5:30 a.m.
Airports across America are struggling with more passengers trying to carry guns and ammunition onto planes as post-9/11 restrictions ease. The TSA at Pittsburgh International Airport said on Friday that the number of passengers carrying guns is now an epidemic, with the body adding that the national total of guns confiscated is reaching record figures.
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In a statement on December 8, the TSA said officers have prevented more than 6,000 guns from getting through security checkpoints so far this year.
Last year, 6,542 firearms were caught at checkpoints nationwide, and the agency is on track to surpass the record-setting number of guns caught nationwide in 2022. Newsweek sought email comment from the TSA on Saturday.
TSA officers and an agency explosive specialist reviewed the X-ray image of the anti-aircraft round and notified law enforcement, Hawaii News Now reported.
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The Hawaii State Sheriffs, Honolulu Police Department bomb squad and U.S. Air Force Explosive Ordnance Disposal responded to the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport alert and evacuated the room.
Officials said the suspicious item was identified as a .50 caliber anti-aircraft round of ammunition. TSA said the item was removed from the area, and all operations returned to normal around 7:30 a.m.
For the third day in a row on Friday, the TSA at Pittsburgh International Airport caught a passenger trying to get on a plane with a gun.
"A Pennsylvania man on Wednesday (Dec. 6), a Massachusetts man on Thursday (Dec. 7) and an Ohio man today, on Friday (Dec. 8) were all caught with handguns at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) security checkpoint at Pittsburgh International Airport," the TSA said in a statement.
"The three guns caught this week increased the tally of guns caught by TSA officers at the airport's checkpoints to 43 so far this year, eight more than the previous record of 35 firearms caught in 2019," the TSA added.
"At this point, it's an epidemic in terms of the frequency in which we are seeing travelers bringing guns to our checkpoint," said Karen Keys-Turner, TSA's Federal Security Director for the airport.
"When someone purchases an online ticket, they are required to acknowledge that they have read a screen, which states guns are prohibited. We have large signs in the terminal that indicate no guns are permitted. And there is a tablet at the checkpoint that offers a final warning that guns are not permitted."
Keys-Turner said it is "absolutely irresponsible of these gun-toting individuals to ignore the warnings over and over again. The result in these cases was that the two individuals on Wednesday and Thursday who did not have proper firearm permits were each arrested by the police.
"The man who was caught today was not arrested by police because he had the proper permit. However, all three face a stiff federal financial civil penalty that will cost them thousands of dollars," Keys-Turner added.
On Thursday, TSA officers at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington, Virginia, prevented a local man from carrying a 9mm handgun loaded with 13 bullets onto his flight.
It was the 34th gun that TSA officers at the airport have detected at one of the checkpoints so far in 2023. This is the most guns caught in a single year and "follows a national trend in seeing a spike in the number of travelers who are bringing guns to airport checkpoints across the country," the TSA said.
"The gun was caught as the man entered the security checkpoint. The X-ray unit alerted the TSA to take a closer look inside the carry-on bag. The Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority Police confiscated the gun and cited the man on a weapons charge. He told officials that he forgot that he had his loaded gun with him," the TSA added.
The penalty for carrying weapons can reach a maximum of $15,000, the TSA said.
Passengers are permitted to travel with firearms only in checked baggage if they are unloaded and packed in a hard-sided locked case. This then should be taken to the airline check-in counter to be declared.
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