WASHINGTON – Now there’s another reason to be polite in the airport security line – the traveling public is armed to the teeth with loaded pistols, hidden swords, and bazooka ammo.
These items were just part of a concealed arsenal that some passengers tried to slip through security in 2013, wittingly or unwittingly, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
The TSA confiscated 1,813 guns over the year, according to a TSA blog post Friday. Eighty one percent of them were loaded.
But other well-armed travelers had more creative weaponry.
A passenger at Chicago’s Midway Airport was caught with a heavy mace that looks like it came from the Middle Ages. “This wasn’t a plastic mace; it was solid wood and metal,” according to the TSA.
Over at the busy O’Hare airport, agents discovered an inert World War II-era bazooka round.
Agents at an Indianapolis airport found an suicide vest stocked with 30 electric matches, a bag of potassium chlorate, titanium powder, and other chemicals. It turns out it was a training device used by an explosives instructor.
“We’re all too familiar with instructors and other people in this type of business needing these sorts of items for their jobs,” according to a March posting.
Some of the sharpest and most dangerous items that got confiscated were designed to elude detection from the naked eye, though it’s hard to imagine how they would make it through an imaging machine.
TSA agents snagged numerous canes containing hidden swords.
In St. Louis, authorities grabbed a stun gun made to look like lipstick. Another was disguised as a pack of cigarettes. They also found a brush with a hidden dagger, a long, sharp weapon called finger spikes.
Note to travelers: fake explosives make poor carry on items. Agents took away 136 inert or replica hand grenades last year.
The most confounding finding were human skull fragments seized in clay pots that were checked as luggage at Ft. Lauderdale’s airport.
“While the fragments weren’t a security threat, they did slow screening down a bit since the area quickly became a crime scene!” the TSA reported.
The agency reported a 16.5 percent increase in firearm discoveries compared to 2013.
The TSA, created after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, is the focus of frequent public complaints because of intrusive tactics.
But the confiscations the agency posted on its Web site reminded the public of the challenges of the job.
“It is difficult work, requiring patience, stamina, and great attention to detail. It requires extensive training and constant vigilance. This year’s tragic incident reminds us that being on the frontline also comes with a great risk. It is a risk that the men and women of TSA undertake willingly knowing that in doing so they are serving a higher cause, and a noble one – protecting the men and women of the United States every day.”