TSA finds average of 4 guns each day at airports, with number continuing to rise since 2007

Shell casing, fake revolvers, a machete and a cutlery set confiscated by TSA agents at JFK airport.

A body-scan image of a gun tucked into someone's pants, similar to the image a TSA officer would see in an airport scanner.

Despite enhanced security at the nation’s airports, more people are trying to bring guns on board, usually because they “forgot” they were armed, says the Transport Security Administration (TSA), according to USA Today.

The weapons are usually found at the security checkpoint, inside carry-on bags.

Last year the TSA reported finding 1,238 firearms at airport checkpoints, which works out to an average of almost four guns per day.

“More than 10 years after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, people are still trying to bring deadly weapons into the cabin of the airplane,” said TSA administrator John Pistole when he addressed Congress in November.

“Just the fact that we are getting four to five guns every day indicates that there are people who are not focused on the security protocols.”

Since 2007, the number of guns found at airports has been increasing.

Passengers are permitted to travel with unloaded guns when flying, but all firearms must be declared and stored in a “locked, hard-sided container,” and inside a checked bag, according to the TSA’s website.

On Jan. 4, a California politician was cited for trying to carry a loaded gun onto a flight at Ontario International Airport, the Associated Press reported.

Assemblyman Tim Donnelly was detained when the TSA discovered a Colt .45 with four rounds inside his carry-on bag.

Donnelly, a strong advocate of gun rights, said he had been carrying the weapon since receiving death threats, and forgot it was in his briefcase.

“I do tend to always be armed,” he said. “The issue is strictly one that I completely forgot, coming back to work this morning, that it was in that briefcase.”

On Friday, an Indiana man was arrested when a handgun was found in his luggage at O’Hare International Airport, the Chicago Tribune reported. Mark Tarner, the owner of a chocolate factory, said he had forgotten he was carrying the gun.

Similar instances in which passengers claimed to have forgotten they were armed also have been recently reported in Atlanta and Detroit.