Please stop trying to bring loaded guns onto planes, TSA boss says — after a record number of firearms were caught at airport security in 2023

• 6,737 firearms were intercepted at TSA checkpoints last year, beating records set in 2022.
• And the vast majority, 93% of them, were still loaded.
• The TSA Adminstrator said it was "particularly concerning" and posed an "unnecessary risk."

A record 6,737 firearms were intercepted at airport checkpoints last year, the Transportation Security Administration announced Wednesday.

While firearms and ammunition can be put on an airplane in the US, they are only allowed in checked baggage, not carry-on. They must be in a locked, hard-sided case and unloaded.

93% of the firearms that TSA intercepted at security last year were loaded.

And in the fourth quarter, an average of 18 firearms a day were stopped at TSA checkpoints.

Last year's statistics exceeded the previous record of 6,542 firearms intercepted in 2022.

Alongside the figures, TSA boss David Pekoske issued a plea for passengers to follow proper rules regarding bringing guns on planes.

"We are still seeing far too many firearms at TSA checkpoints," said the TSA administrator.

"What's particularly concerning is the amount of them loaded, presenting an unnecessary risk to everyone at the TSA checkpoint," he added.

Pekoske went on to note that passengers can carry guns on planes, but must follow a specific set of rules.

"Passengers are only allowed to travel with an unloaded firearm, and only if they pack it properly in a locked, hard-sided case in their checked baggage and first declare it to the airline at the check-in counter," he said.

The TSA said that when a firearm is found at a security checkpoint, law enforcement will be contacted and remove the passenger from the area.

In addition to any action taken by local law enforcement, passengers who bring a firearm to a security checkpoint face a fine of up to $15,000.

In one incident last October, a Washington state senator was arrested in Hong Kong after bringing a gun in his carry-on luggage.

Jeff Wilson said neither he nor baggage screeners noticed the weapon when he passed through security at Portland International Airport.

And he said he only realized he'd mistakenly packed the firearm after rummaging in his briefcase for some chewing gum.

In December, bomb disposal was called to Hawaii's Daniel K. Inouye International Airport after officials found antiaircraft ammunition inside a thermos.