TSA Found 6,678 Unauthorized Firearms Among 904 Million Passengers in 2024

AmmoLand ^ | February 4, 2025 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

During the year 2024, the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) discovered 6,678 firearms in the baggage of 904 million people who were screened at TSA checkpoints in the calendar year. This was slightly lower than the 6,737 firearms discovered in 2023 when 858 million people were screened.

The rate of people who were found to possess firearms at airport security checkpoints was down from .0000785% to .0000739%, a minor reduction in the tiny percentage of firearms discovered at airport security checkpoints.  The reduction amounts to 59 fewer firearms discovered, a bit less than 1% of the total.

Given the hundreds of millions of passengers screened and the tens of millions of passengers who may legally carry concealed weapons, the few thousand found show overwhelming obedience to the law and care in people checking their baggage.

All people make mistakes. In the USA, about 21 million people legally carry concealed weapons with concealed carry permits. 47 million people live in states where no permit is required to carry a concealed weapon. Those states are:

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida (permitless), Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

A survey conducted in 2023 found that 15.6% of voters in general elections carried concealed handguns.

About 155 million people voted in the 2024 election. If the survey was correct, there would be about 24 million voters in the United States who carry concealed handguns on a regular basis. That is about 7.3% of the total population. If we assume the percentage of legal concealed carriers is the same among the population of passengers screened at airport checkpoints, the number of screenings of legal concealed handgun carriers would be 7.3% of 904 million.

[bobbo666]

I call horseshite. For every year since its inception this boondogle of security theater has failed to find bombs planted — by the FAA. They, like face masks, miss 95% of the time.

So, we are to be impressed that if yah screw around enough passengers you find guns? Uhh, so how many hundreds of thousands did you miss?

[redfreedom]

No I was not joking. I said “when traveling through”, as in by motor vehicle, not “traveling over” as with by plane. I should have made it more clear we travel armed by car.