TSA Found 6,678 Unauthorized Firearms Among 904 Million Passengers in 2024

During the year 2024, the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) discovered 6,678 firearms in the baggage of 904 million people who were screened at TSA checkpoints in the calendar year. This was slightly lower than the 6,737 firearms discovered in 2023 when 858 million people were screened.

The rate of people who were found to possess firearms at airport security checkpoints was down from .0000785% to .0000739%, a minor reduction in the tiny percentage of firearms discovered at airport security checkpoints.  The reduction amounts to 59 fewer firearms discovered, a bit less than 1% of the total.

Given the hundreds of millions of passengers screened and the tens of millions of passengers who may legally carry concealed weapons, the few thousand found show overwhelming obedience to the law and care in people checking their baggage.

All people make mistakes. In the USA, about 21 million people legally carry concealed weapons with concealed carry permits. 47 million people live in states where no permit is required to carry a concealed weapon. Those states are:

Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida (permitless), Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

A survey conducted in 2023 found that 15.6% of voters in general elections carried concealed handguns.

About 155 million people voted in the 2024 election. If the survey was correct, there would be about 24 million voters in the United States who carry concealed handguns on a regular basis. That is about 7.3% of the total population. If we assume the percentage of legal concealed carriers is the same among the population of passengers screened at airport checkpoints, the number of screenings of legal concealed handgun carriers would be 7.3% of 904 million. 7.3% of 904 million amounts to 66 million passengers who legally carry concealed handguns who were screened in 2024.

To clarify, there were 904 million screenings at TSA checkpoints. The 904 million number is the number of passengers who were screened. One person could be screened multiple times as they were a passenger on different flights throughout the year. It appears 66 million of those screenings were of passengers who routinely, legally, carry concealed handguns.

Most people who are discovered to have a firearm in their carry-on luggage violated the law without intending to do so. If 100% of the incidents occurred without the intent to do so, then 6,678 out of 66 million passengers who normally concealed carry,  made serious and terribly inconveniencing mistakes when getting ready to fly. It amounts to .01% or about one of every ten thousand such people.

Everyone makes mistakes. Mistakes are not intentional. They are often the result of a combination of events that result in an unexpected situation.

Here is a hypothetical example:

A husband normally carries a small semi-auto in a small pocket of a travel bag/briefcase. He is getting ready for a trip. In his home office, he removes the pistol and sets it on his desk. At that critical moment, his young daughter appears in his doorway and excitedly exclaims: Brandon fell in the pool! The man rushes to the pool to see what is going on.  His wife now enters the office, and sees the pistol on the desk, next to the open briefcase. Knowing where the pistol is normally kept, she replaces it in the small pocket which is reserved for it in the bag.

Because of the excitement at the pool, and the need to take a child to urgent care, the normal routine is disrupted. On returning, the man finishes packing the bag for carry-on. He is running late. He knows he removed the pistol, but time is short. In the rush to get to the airport on time, he does not check the bag again, as is his normal custom.

At the checkpoint, the X-ray machine shows the pistol.

When people do things often enough, the rare and unusual events will happen. People have expressed this as Murphy’s law: If anything can go wrong, it will.

When 99.99% of people follow a law, it is an incredible success. This is what is seen on the rules for carrying firearms on commercial passenger aircraft. This fact reinforces the research showing people who legally carry firearms are incredibly law abiding and responsible.

About Dean Weingarten:

Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of Constitutional Carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.