Travelers Are Bringing Guns on Planes by Getting Them Past TSA

Travelers Are Bringing Guns on Planes by Getting Them Past TSA

There have been past reports on how TSA misses weapons when screening passengers.  The TSA has also confiscated a large amount of weapons at security checkpoints.  But a troubling new survey shows that there’s a pretty sizable amount of passengers bringing guns and other weapons on commercial aircraft.  The worst part is that TSA doesn’t notice.

A new survey by Stratos Jet Charters Inc. examined the amount of contraband passengers bring on aircraft.  The results of the survey are troubling.  While some items are less harmful — like marijuana — others actually bring weapons on board.  This should not come as a total shock given the amount of stories involving the TSA confiscating a weapon.  Just recently, a man blamed his mother when he was stopped with a gun at BWI.  This was the 26th such confiscation at BWI this year.

The results of the survey found that 15.2% of men and 8.5% of women admitted to bringing prohibited weapons and ammunition on airplanes.  Those people actually get the weapons past security.  In some cases, it occurs through accident.  Other times, people are openly defying TSA rules to bring the weapon onboard.  An astounding 36.4 percent said their reason for bringing a prohibited item onboard was simply because they wanted the item on their trip.

TSA Failure

This says a lot about the TSA and its failure of actually securing America’s air transportation.  While it’s fair to say the TSA will never be 100% successful, they have a record of falling short.  A test in 2015 found that the TSA failed to find 95% percent of prohibited items when tested in 2015.

What’s even more astounding — and speaks volumes of public perception of the agency — is peoples’ willingness to risk getting caught in order to smuggle prohibited items onboard.  This essentially demonstrates that passengers view their odds of getting items past security as pretty good.  That’s troubling because the agency is completely failing a vital aspect of its supposed mission.

Final Thoughts

The TSA is a terrible government agency in many ways.  Most shockingly is just how terrible they are at doing their job.  It’s probably been more luck than actual skill that has prevented something bad from happening on a flight.  The survey finds that people are shirking TSA, and we should worry that perhaps one day it won’t be somebody innocent who gets a weapon onboard past the TSA.  The agency needs reform and to be held accountable for its rampant failures.