Airport Forecast for 2014: More Guns, Faster Security
An official newsletter run by a small group of Transportation Security Administration employees – THE T.S.A. Blog, offers a nice window into what is most likely ahead in air travel.
Expect to find more fellow travelers packing more than bags for the airport this year, as more firearms than ever are turning up at T.S.A. checkpoints. In 2013 they had another record year: 1,813 firearms (1,477 of them loaded) were found in passengers’ carry-on bags at T.S.A. checkpoints.
“There was a 16.5 percent increase (257) in firearm discoveries from last year’s total of 1,556,” the T.S.A. Blog reports. The tone is evenhanded, and seems calculated to avoid giving unnecessary offense to the national gun lobby and the growing “right-to-carry” movement, while at the same time stressing that, hey, passengers are not allowed to bring guns onto airplanes in their carry-on bags. (Penalties vary depending on state and local gun laws, ranging from simple admonishment, the most common penalty, to arrest.)
Read more at: http://www.nytimes.com/
