TSA on record pace for firearms
Agency is poised to collect about 4,000 guns from travelers at airports this year, up from 3,391 in 2016.
Security officers at U.S. airports are on pace to confiscate nearly 4,000 firearms from travelers in 2017, surpassing a record set last year by nearly 15%.
The Transportation Security Administration on its blog publishes a weekly tally of weapons found. As of Christmas Eve, 3,888 firearms had been discovered in passengers’ possession at U.S. airport checkpoints for the year.
The final week of the year, when travel is busiest, is likely to push that total close to 4,000, according to TSA officials.
At the end of 2016, the TSA reported it had taken 3,391 firearms from passengers, a 28% increase from the previous year.
Although the latest numbers show that the rate of increase in firearm seizures is slowing, other aspects remain about the same.
For instance, the share of guns found loaded over the last three years has held steady at 83%.
The three airports that have led the nation in most guns uncovered have been Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport and George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.
The size of the airport doesn’t seem to be a factor in the number of guns uncovered. Los Angeles International Airport, for example, is the nation’s secondbusiest but hasn’t been in the top five for firearms for the last few years, according to the TSA data.
Both Texas and Georgia allow people to openly carry handguns with a permit. California doesn’t.
Most of the guns have been found in carry-on bags but some have been concealed in stuffed animals, potted plants and mixed in with tools, according to the TSA.
Federal law prohibits airline passengers from carrying firearms or other weapons into the cabin of a plane. If a TSA agent uncovers such a weapon, the traveler can face a civil fine ranging from $330 to $13,000 and be turned over to local police for prosecution under local gun laws, which vary by state.
More airports are going to the dogs Airports across the country increasingly are turning to therapy dogs to help relieve the stress of flustered fliers.
But confusion and even conflict can result from the growing packs of pooches, after dogs used by security agents and emotional support animals traveling with passengers are factored in.
Therapy dogs can now be found in at least 46 of the nation’s largest airports, including LAX, with dog programs most recently launched at the Hollywood Burbank Airport as well as airports in Connecticut and Colorado.
The dogs roam the terminals with their volunteer owners, reducing stress by letting passengers pet and socialize with the animals.
Therapy dogs have been deployed at airport terminals since the 1990s, but more and more airports have been requesting such dog programs in the last six years, said Billie Smith, executive director of the Alliance of Therapy Dogs, the largest nonprofit group that organizes volunteers and their dogs to visit airports.
“There are a lot of different types of dogs frittering around the airport now,” Smith said.
The growth of therapy dog programs has come at the same time that airport police and agents from the Transportation Security Administration have mobilized more dogs to sniff out explosives and drugs.
In addition, more fliers are traveling with emotional support animals, which are allowed by airlines into the cabins of planes with proper documentation.
“At Christmastime, I would say I saw 10 to 12 dogs traveling with passengers,” said Heidi Huebner, program director for the dog therapy program at LAX, known as Pets Unstressing Passengers or PUP. It employs more than 74 dogs.
There have been no reports of dog fights, bites or injuries because of dogs intermingling at airport terminals nationwide, but Smith and Huebner blame poorly trained animals traveling with passengers for barking and snapping at their therapy dogs.
“Dogs don’t like other dogs in their faces,” Smith said.
The added number of TSA and airport police working with canines also makes it difficult for fliers to know which dogs they can pet and which they should leave alone. That’s why Smith said her therapy dogs wear vests, identifying them as friendly to humans.