More passengers showing up at airports with guns

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wfgodot

wfgodot

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More air passengers show up with guns. (AP/azcentral.com)
WASHINGTON — Several times every day, at airports across the country, passengers are trying to walk through security with loaded guns in their carry-on bags, purses or pockets, even in a boot. And, nearly a dozen years after 9/11, it’s happening a lot more often.

In the first six months of this year, Transportation Security Administration screeners found 894 guns on passengers or in their carry-on bags, a 30 percent increase over the same period last year. The TSA set a record in May for the most guns seized in one week — 65 in all, 45 of them loaded and 15 with bullets in the chamber and ready to be fired.
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Last year TSA found 1,549 firearms on passengers attempting to go through screening, up 17 percent from the year before.
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Of the 12 airports with the most guns last year, five are in Texas: Dallas-Fort Worth International, 80 guns; George Bush Intercontinental in Houston, 52; Dallas Love Field, 37; William P. Hobby in Houston, 35, and Austin-Bergstrom International, 33. Hartsfield-Jackson in Atlanta had the most for any airport, at 96. Others include Phoenix Sky Harbor, 54; Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International in Florida, 42; Denver International, 39; Seattle-Tacoma International, 37; Orlando International Airport in Florida, 36, and Tampa International in Florida, 33.

When expressed as a proportion of airport traffic volume, small airports in the West and South led the way. The airport in Roswell, N.M., had 8.5 guns intercepted per 100,000 passengers last year; Cedar City, Utah, and Provo, Utah, both 6.5; Longview, Texas, 4.9; Dickinson, N.D., 4; Joplin, Mo., 3.8; Twin Falls, Idaho, 3.4; Fort Smith, Ark., 3.3, and Walla Walla, Wash., and Elko, Nev., both 2.9.
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Click to expand...
much more at the link
 
Most of those who are stopped with guns are reluctant to talk about it afterward. One who didn’t mind was Raymond Whitehead, 53, of Santa Fe, N.M., who was arrested at Newark Liberty International Airport in New Jersey in May after screeners spotted 10 hollow-point bullets in his carry-on bag. Whitehead, who is completely blind, also had a .38 caliber Charter Arms revolver in his checked bag that he had failed to declare. He said in an interview with the AP that he was unaware of the specifics of the rules for checking guns, or that hollow-point bullets are illegal in New Jersey.

Whitehead acknowledged that it seems “counterintuitive” for a blind man to have a gun but said he keeps a loaded gun handy for protection from intruders. In such a situation, he said, he would call out a warning that he had a gun and spray bullets in the direction of the noise if the intruder didn’t leave.

“I have five shots, and if I fan it out I’m going to hit you,” said Whitehead, a National Rifle Association member who owns five guns.
Click to expand...

Yeah, and shoot through a window and hit an innocent passer-by.
 
I'm a bit curious as the city's just up the road about this "Joplin airport, 3.8 guns per 100,000" thing. Who's good at math? It's old info now but Wiki lists Joplin - a small regional airport - as having emplaned, in 2010, all of 4,078 passengers. Volume may be slightly higher now but not so much. How many guns would Joplin need to get a "3.8" figure for last year?

ETA:
Well, wait, I could be wrong ("it happens"). Now it appears Joplin Regional is a bustling hive of activity:
However, during March 2011 to February 2012, the first full year of American Eagle service, more than 53,000 passengers came through the airport - an increase of about 600%.

http://kfjx.membercenter.worldnow.c...irport-sees-big-increase-in-passenger-traffic
Click to expand...
So that would be possibly 26,000 to 27,000 boarding.
 
According to Stockam in 2010, the last full year of Great Lakes service in Joplin, the airport saw about 7,800 inbound and outbound passengers.

However, during March 2011 to February 2012, the first full year of American Eagle service, more than 53,000 passengers came through the airport - an increase of about 600%.
Click to expand...
http://kfjx.membercenter.worldnow.c...irport-sees-big-increase-in-passenger-traffic

53 000 is 53 % of 100 000. 53 % of 3,8 is about two.
Edit: these figures were for both outbound and inbound passengers. Are the gun statistics "100 000" for only those passengers who are boarding from the airport or the whole volume of the traffic, inbound and outbound?
 
wfgodot said:
Pretty sure I read about one arrest in the Joplin Globe. May have missed a second. (Or the person may not have been arrested.)
Click to expand...

It might be that one person brought two guns or else the number of guns is 1 because only the outbound passengers should be counted.
 
I'm still boggled by the apparent 600% increase in traffic. Sounds like books have been cooked - although, post-tornado, an awful lot of business people, construction, builders, those sorts of folks were probably making use of the airport. They've done great work there I know - new control tower, that new (to them) airline, nifty internet site. Wow, I remember long ago, having to pick up my aunt there when she flew in from Texas in a tiny airplane that seemed more suited to crop-dusting. If it held over twelve I don't know where they put them all.
 
Dunno, I never set foot in the place but the history on the airport site says there used to be over 66,000 passengers in the seventies.
By 1978, two airlines served the Airport; Ozark, with jet service east to St. Louis, and Frontier, with jet service to Kansas City and Denver. In 1978, these two carriers combined to enplane 66,842 passengers.
Click to expand...
http://www.joplinmo.org/index.aspx?nid=694
 
I am guessing the VAST majority are permit holders who simply messed up and forgot. The states with the most incidents in that report are TX, GA, and FL. All three of those have the highest number of permit holders (by volume), TX and GA have about half a million each and FL has 1 million.

States like CA only have 35k.

I personally have had nightmares about boarding a plane and then realizing I had a firearm with me. I wonder how many people actually HAVE done that and of course never said anything afterwards! You can easily declare your weapon and fly it along with you in checked baggage.
 
Donjeta said:
Dunno, I never set foot in the place but the history on the airport site says there used to be over 66,000 passengers in the seventies.

http://www.joplinmo.org/index.aspx?nid=694
Click to expand...
Interesting. Had no idea. Fetching the aunt was in the early '70s. Plane usually arrived just before dusk and there'd be, maybe, two people deplaning from her flight (which went from Corpus to Dallas to Tulsa to Joplin). Airport itself was sort of a twilit place with very few people milling around waiting for flights.
 
66,000 people per year is about 180 per day - 90 incoming, 90 outgoing?
7,800 people per year is about 21 per day -11 leaving and 10 returning or so.

Either way it's just a small number of small planes each day.
 
Has anyone seen the full TSA list? It may be right in front of my nose but this epic bout of insomnia is prohibiting me from finding it. In the Top 12 I see only one airport I've flown into and out of a lot - Love in Dallas. Was wondering where Tulsa and Kansas City ranked. And San Antonio.
 
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