Record number of firearms found in carry-on bags at US airports last year (and 83% of them were LOADED)
- TSA officers screened 738,318,26 passengers in 2016 and found 3,391 firearms
- The number of guns detected in carry-on luggage across US is up 28% on 2015
- Officers seized 198 firearms at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International
Over 3,000 firearms were discovered in carry-on bags at US airports last year, according to startling figures released by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
And despite it being illegal to pack guns in hand luggage, of the 3,391 weapons intercepted, a shocking 2,815 (83 per cent) were loaded.
TSA officials have also revealed the country’s top 10 airports with the highest number of firearm discoveries.
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TSA shared this image on its Instagram page of the 3,391 weapons intercepted at US airports in 2016
TSA officers screened 738,318,26 passengers, more than two million, per day in 2016. This was some 43,255,172 more fliers than in 2015.
Staff at checkpoints across the country detected 3,391 firearms in carry-on bags, a rate of nine guns a day, in 2016.
These detection numbers were a 28 per cent increase on 2015 where 2,653 were found.
In addition to screening the passengers, 466million checked bags and 24.2million airport employees were also monitored.
In 2016 the TSA detected 28 per cent more firearms than in 2015
For the third year running, the top five airports for guns being found in hand luggage contained the same names - though not in the same order.
Last year Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International saw the most passengers in the country with guns in their hand luggage with 198 firearms seized.
In second place was Dallas/Fort Worth International with 192 weapons detected, followed by George Bush Intercontinental at Houston where 128 were found.
Rounding out the top five is Phoenix Sky Harbor International with 101 guns and Denver International with 98.
Showing the most improvement of all US airports was Greater Rochester International Airport where no travellers brought firearms to the airport’s checkpoint in 2016 compared to five in 2015.
Conversely, Buffalo-Niagara International Airport seized six guns in 2016 compared to just two detected in 2015.
Transportation Security Administration rules prohibit guns in carry-on bags, but they allow passengers to ship guns if they are unloaded, put in a hard-sided, locked container that only the owner has the ability to unlock, and placed in a checked bag.
Explosive or flammable ammunition such as gun powder is banned, but bullets are legal if carried in checked baggage.
Firearms are not the only shocking finds discovered by officials in fliers' hand luggage.
MailOnline recently reported that TSA has shared the ten most unusual finds at checkpoints in 2016, with a bright pink gun, replica suicide vest and fake corpse among the more surprising items.
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