ST. LOUIS _ Be careful what you pack when you go the airport.
Officers with the Transportation Security Administration have stopped 50 firearms at checkpoints at St. Louis Lambert International Airport so far this year _ and some odd weapons like an inert grenade and brass knuckles.
During the holiday travel periods, the number of weapons they intercept always spikes.
So far in 2019, TSA officers have stopped 50 firearms at checkpoints at St. Louis Lambert International Airport. The officers have stopped 64 firearms at Kansas City International Airport, 15 at Springfield-Branson National Airport, one at Columbia Regional Airport and one at Joplin Regional Airport.
Statewide, that's a total of 131 guns stopped so far this year at Missouri airports, compared to 116 in all of 2018, according to Sari Koshetz, a spokesperson for the Transportation Security Administration.
Koshetz said the number of firearms found at checkpoints increases during the holiday travel season.
"Unfortunately, we do see an escalation in the number of guns during the holiday period, due to the increase in the sheer volume of travelers and also because some of the passengers do not fly very often and may not be focusing on what's inside their bag when they head to the airport," Koshetz said.
Beyond guns, TSA has uncovered some unusual items.
One security screening lane was closed for about 30 minutes at Lambert on Feb. 23 when a passenger packed what the TSA refers to as "Grandpa's grenade" in a carry-on bag. It was inert.
Grenades, real or fake, aren't allowed in carry-on or checked bags, the TSA said.
"Whenever we find grenades during security screening, our TSA officers need to call on our explosives specialists to evaluate them to determine if they are real or inert," the TSA's Jay Wagner said in one of his weekly blogs for the agency. "This takes time and can cause security to slow down or stop all together."
Brass knuckles with a blade attachment were discovered at Lambert on Feb. 15.
And TSA officers found a hookah, a water pipe, that had been fashioned into a brass knuckles weapon, on Feb. 15 at Lambert.
TSA officers found two high-capacity magazines hidden in an infant's toy at Orlando International Airport this month. The toy and the box were "made to appear to be factory sealed," the TSA said. Local police confiscated the magazines, the TSA said.
"Our officers are very adept and well-trained at locating threat items that have been camouflaged as everyday items," such as a stun gun that looks like a flashlight, Koshetz said.
The agency documents the weapons discovered at checkpoints. In a recent two-week stretch, TSA officers screened 31.7 million passengers nationwide from Nov. 4-17 and found 205 firearms in carry-on bags. Of the 205 firearms discovered, 176 were loaded and 72 had a round chambered.
For information on the proper way to travel with a firearm, read the Transporting Firearms and Ammunition page. Among the rules: Firearms must be unloaded and locked in a hard-sided container and transported as checked baggage only. Firearm parts such as magazines, clips and firing pins, are prohibited in carry-on baggage, but can be in checked baggage. Replica firearms, including firearm replicas that are toys, may be brought in checked baggage only.
Over the Thanksgiving holiday travel period, the busiest travel days are expected to be Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, with 2.7 million passengers and crew; and Dec. 1, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, with more than 2.8 million travelers heading back home. The TSA said it screens about 2.1 million passengers on a typical weekday. At Lambert airport in St. Louis, for example, officials expect to screen more than 208,000 passengers during the 11-day Thanksgiving travel period from Friday, Nov. 22, through Monday, Dec. 2. That's an increase of 6,000 passengers over the tally from last year's Thanksgiving travel season at Lambert.
One holiday travel tip: Pies, cakes and other baked goods are welcome through the checkpoints. However, liquids such as eggnog and maple syrup should go into checked bags.
