ROMULUS, Mich. (WWJ) – As the holiday travel season draws to a close, thousands of people were set to pass through Detroit Metro Airport this New Year’s weekend.
And while travel volumes haven’t quite rebounded to pre-pandemic levels, officials say weapons confiscations are way up at DTW.
Steve Lorincz, with the Travel Safety Administration at Detroit Metro, tells WWJ back in 2019 – the last full year of travel before the pandemic – they confiscated 48 weapons.
But the number of confiscations at DTW in 2021 was about three times as high. The TSA confiscated 116 weapons last year, most of which were loaded guns, Lorincz says.
Lorincz also told WWJ back shortly before Thanksgiving that they’d seen a spike in gun confiscations and recommended an easy and legal way to avoid getting your weapon confiscated at the airport – by checking the airline and TSA websites to make sure you’re following all the rules.
The TSA’s website says travelers may transport unloaded firearms in a locked, hard-sided container as checked baggage only. Travelers also must declare the firearm and/or ammunition to the airline when checking luggage at the ticket counter.
A full list of guidelines is available here.
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But it hasn’t just been guns the TSA has confiscated. There have been plenty of off-the-wall weapons you wouldn’t expect to see at an airport.
Lorincz says they’ve “seen it all,” including swords and sabres, meat cleavers, axes and hatchets, knives and box cutters, martial arts weapons, nunchucks, stun guns and shocking devices.
“We have those that travel on business and they’re in the construction thing. Folks have tried to bring in axes and hatchets, crowbars and hammers,” he said.
Lorincz said they have a room at the airport where all of the confiscated contraband goes and they collect 500-600 lbs. a month.
