SAN DIEGO — Transportation Security Administration agents at San Diego International Airport seized 30 guns at security checkpoints last year, the same number confiscated the prior year, according to numbers obtained by CBS 8.
Meanwhile, nationwide gun seizures at checkpoints reached a record high in 2022, with a total of 6,542 firearms found and confiscated at U.S. airports last year.
According to the TSA, agents at the Atlanta-Hartsfield Aiport confiscated the highest number of firearms last year with 448. Agents a Dallas-Fort Worth seized the second-highest number with 385 firearms confiscated in 2022.
And while some of the nation's largest airports made the top ten airports for firearm seizures, a few smaller international airports also made the list.
TSA agents at Nashville International Airport confiscated a total of 213 firearms last year, the fourth highest in the country despite the fact that, according to gettocenter.com it is the 38th largest airport in the country. Meanwhile, Austin-Bergstrom had the 8th highest number of firearms confiscated last year despite being the 39th largest airport, and finishing right behind massive airports in Orlando and Denver and Phoenix.
At the same time, agents at San Diego Airport, which is considered to be the 30th largest airport in the country, confiscated 30 firearms in security checkpoints last year, the same number that were seized in 2021 and only 8 more in 2018, prior to the pandemic.
In response to the rise of firearms at airport security checkpoints, the TSA has implemented new measures to dissuade airline passengers from bringing firearms in their carry-on luggage.
Passengers who are in possession of firearms will not be eligible for TSA pre-check for five years. In addition, passengers face an increased fine of up to $15,000 for firearm violations.
Lori Dankers with California's TSA said, "There's absolutely no reason to bring your firearm in carry-on luggage through a checkpoint because there is a process by which you can bring your firearm onto a commercial aircraft."
Dankers said passengers need to put any firearms "in a hard-sided case. Lock it up, and make sure you use non-TSA-approved locks. We only want the owner of the firearm to have access to the case. If it needs to be inspected, we can call the firearm owner back."