TSA agents seized fewer guns at NYC-area airport checkpoints in 2024

Officers with the Transportation Security Administration detected 42 handguns at New York City-area airport checkpoints last year, the agency announced this week. That's down from the 51 guns caught in 2023.

Despite the decrease, TSA officers intercepted a record-high 21 guns at Newark Airport last year — just slightly up from 20 in 2023, according to TSA data. The airport also landed on the TSA's top 10 list for most unusual finds last year when a disassembled firearm was found among a LEGO set in a passenger's carry-on bag.

“The TSA team at Newark set a record for the most guns intercepted at our checkpoints in a single year,” the TSA’s Federal Security Director for New Jersey Thomas Carter said in a statement. “It is not a record that we seek to set."

Meanwhile, LaGuardia and JFK airports each tallied 10 gun interceptions in 2024, according to TSA data. That's down from nine and 15 in 2023 respectively.

“At JFK International we saw a decrease in the number of firearms that people brought to our checkpoints from 15 guns in 2023 to 10 in 2024,” said John Essig, the TSA’s federal security director for JFK Airport, in a statement. “We see that as a positive sign that more travelers who want to transport their firearms are doing so properly, which means that they are not bringing them to our checkpoints.”

There was also a similar decrease at smaller regional airports. Just one gun was intercepted at Long Island's MacArthur Airport in 2024, according to TSA data, compared to two the previous year. None were discovered at Westchester County and Stewart International airports last year, per the agency.

The TSA said nearly 6,678 guns were found at 277 airport checkpoints across the country last year, slightly down from 2023. Roughly 94% were loaded, according to the agency. Last year's decrease in the number of guns intercepted at airports nationwide was also the first decrease since 2020, when there was a drastic reduction in air travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

All the firearms were discovered during routine screenings of carry-on items at airport security checkpoints, according to the TSA.

Restrictions around traveling with firearms vary by state, but travelers who bring weapons to TSA checkpoints are subject to federal civil penalties of up to $15,000 from the TSA. Fliers can travel with firearms that are unloaded and packed in locked hard cases inside a checked bag, and all handguns must be declared at the airline check-in counter. Firearms and ammunition are always placed in the belly of an aircraft, where they aren't readily accessible to any traveler.