TSA:
2,212 firearms were discovered in carry-on bags at checkpoints across the country, averaging more than six firearms per day. Of those, 2,212 (83 percent) were loaded. Firearms were intercepted at a total of 224 airports; 19 more airports than last year.
There was a 22 percent increase in firearm discoveries from last year’s total of 1,813.
The TSA has often been rightly derided as “security theater” but this catalog of various weapons confiscated from traveler’s carry on luggage is a little bit terrifying. And I will likely read too much into the fact that, out of the top ten airports for gun catches, eight of them were in the South.
It needs to be said: these weapons would also have been caught before the TSA existed. X-ray machines and metal (and explosive!) detectors were in use for a long time prior to 9/11. The TSA exists only to humiliate us and make us servile.
“And I will likely read too much into the fact that, out of the top ten airports for gun catches, eight of them were in the South.”
I have a Forrest Gump phrase roaring around in my head now.
It’s still security theater — these firearms would have been caught via the same X-ray machines in use since the ’70s.