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TSA Set to Confiscate 4000 Firearms from Travelers in 2017

Robert Farago - comments No comments

“The Transportation Security Administration on its blog publishes a weekly tally of weapons found,” latimes.com reports. “As of Christmas Eve, 3,888 firearms had been discovered on passengers at U.S. airport checkpoints for the year.” If so, that’ll be up  nearly 15 percent over 2016. Despite the Times’ shock horror, and the obvious indication of ongoing gun owner irresponsibility, I take it as a good sign . . .

I highly doubt that the average intelligence of the average American has increased — I mean decreased — in the last 12 months. I’m equally skeptical that the TSA’s blue-shirted buffoons have become better at intercepting firearms at their “show us your papers” chokepoints. And airline passenger traffic isn’t up significantly this year.

So the double-digit rise in confiscations must reflect the increasing number of [otherwise] law-abiding Americans packing heat.

Yay! But as heartening as this stat is, it represents a slackening of the three-year pace . “At the end of 2016, the TSA reported it has taken 3,391 firearms from passengers, a 28% increase from the previous year,” the Times reports.

While we’re doing the math thing, U.S. airports accommodated some 832 million “enplanements” in 2016. Which means that one out of every 245,355.352 airline passengers experience the thrill of talking TSA agents about firearms and their defective memory. Don’t be that guy!

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Robert Farago

Robert Farago is the former publisher of The Truth About Guns (TTAG). He started the site to explore the ethics, morality, business, politics, culture, technology, practice, strategy, dangers and fun of guns.

0 thoughts on “TSA Set to Confiscate 4000 Firearms from Travelers in 2017”

  1. Burocracy at its finest. Now, I have seen,more than once, Arizona state police on Live PD release people with medical marijuana and a firearm as long as they had their medical card on them and wern’t under the influence. Seems to me that good ol’ Jeffy Sessions isn’t going to be doing either people of the bud or gun any favors this year. What a useless turd that guy is. Congress is no better….buncha double-talking useless lawyers. Is there anything worse?

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  2. The problem here is that the states are subverting the federal government’s authority to regulate interstate commerce (even if it’s for compassionate reasons) and conning people into thinking that it’s lawful. The United States Supreme Court already decided in 2005’s Gonzales v. Raisch that the federal law on the matter is constitutional sound and binding on the states. While the states are in the wrong, very few people in Congress—Republican or Democrat—want to tackle the issue of legalizing the substance as they sit back like cowards and prohibit enforcement of the law. This has led to a strong proliferation of it’s medical and recreational usage which is highly regulated. See https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/545/03-1454/opinion.pdf

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  3. So does this mean TSA missed about 80-90 times this many…or are they getting really good at finding guns?
    Further…when was the last time you read/heard about a gunshot on a plane…anywhere…

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  4. Just got the 4.75″ convertible model for Christmas. Took it to the range the other day and loved it! The Ruger being fairly well out of my current budget, the Rough Rider at less than half the price was a pleasant surprise. The approximate 5 lb trigger pull with no take up, and reasonable accuracy make it pleasant to shoot. It is much less expensive to buy ammo for than my 9mm. I can see this becoming one of my favorite guns.

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  5. If the ‘Chore Boy’ material functions essentially like a suppressor baffle, since it helps ‘baffling’, what’s to stop them from ruling ‘cable pulling gel’ as a baffle in its own right since it aids suppression of the muzzle’s blast?

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  6. Seeking “public comment” ??? Please…it’s all a sham. They don’t care what any of us think. They just need to go through the motions to uphold legalities and appearances. Another govt agency run amok, staffed by bureaucratic idiots on a power trip using poorly worded “laws” to make “rules” that we are forced to live by.

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  7. For those of you that don’t follow comics, Marvel just fired the editor in chief that enabled the rabid liberal fan-hating non-sense. While the new guy seems fairly normal as far as comic fans go (On Twitter his primary interests are food, comics and anime) and he quickly canceled some of Marvel’s worst offenders, the inertia of his predecessor and contracts mean things won’t normalize for (at least) half a year. The use of characters who were canceled in the ads for this is proof it’s the work of the old regime

    Still weird they use The Punisher in advertising for something that bans guns and death.

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  8. I don’t get you guys… Daniel Shaver should not have been shot. Philip Brailsford should have been convicted regardless of the inscription on the gun. The instructions Shaver was commanded to obey were completely ridiculous. Watch the bodycam video and get on the floor and try to do them yourself without ever moving your hands to steady yourself or catch yourself. The whole situation is a serious miscarriage of justice. Not because of some overzealous DA, but because of a trigger happy cop and a commanding officer who’s a complete DB barking nonsense “orders” to shaver.

    Philip Brailsford is not an innocent victim being railroaded by a DA over the inscription on his gun. This sort of complete tone-deaf nonsense take on the situation isn’t going to bring people to the side of POTG.

    With that said, a lot of people are stupid. Many of those stupid people find their way onto juries. A trial is basically competing theater between the prosecution and the defense. Facts don’t rule the day. Some trivial cosmetic feature could sway the feelings of some jurors. I have no doubt you’d fare better with many juries shooting someone in self defense with an older wood stock hunting rifle than a brand new shiny AR-15 even though it should make no difference.

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