Firearm seizures soar at Atlanta airport

ATLANTA — Federal officials are reporting a spike in firearm seizures at Atlanta’s international airport, part of a record year for the number of guns detected at security checkpoints.

The Transportation Security Administration says it seized 391 firearms at Hartsfield-Jackson, one of the nation’s busiest airports, in the first nine months of 2021. That’s up from 220 last year when passenger counts were down significantly because of the pandemic, yet it’s a big jump from 2019, when 323 firearms were seized in Atlanta.

Across the nation, the Transportation Security Administration said it had stopped 4,495 people from carrying firearms onto their flights by Oct. 3, surpassing the record of 4,432 caught at checkpoints in all of 2019.

Passengers caught with firearms face a civil penalty. The Transportation Security Administration says firearms may be allowed in checked baggage when they are unloaded and packed in a locked, hard-sided case.