For some reason, Americans just love bringing guns to the airport, and according to the Transportation Security Administration, 93 percent of the guns it found in 2023 were loaded. Apparently, the Atlanta police department isn’t happy with that trend, so as WSB-TV reports, it recently announced plans to treat people who try to bring guns through security more harshly. From now on, if your loaded gun is unholstered, you’ll be arrested on the spot.
“This is something new that we’ve implemented. If you bring a firearm to the checkpoint with a round in the chamber and the firearm is unholstered, you will be arrested,” Maj. Kelley Collier said in a statement.
It would be understandable if you assumed that would already be the policy, but until now, people who tried to bring guns through security were simply taken to the police station at the airport and either fined or given a citation. That policy hasn’t done much to stop people from showing up with guns, though, as Atlanta TSA agents have reportedly found 148 guns so far this year. That’s 15 more than were found at this point in 2023.
As Collier put it, it’s not just about the fact that taking guns through security is illegal, telling WSB-TV, “They not only break the law, they also put the safety and peace of mind of other passengers at risk.”
That doesn’t mean that you’re fine to try to bring your gun through security in a holster, though. You’ll still be looking at a fine and possibly a citation, but you won’t be arrested and taken directly to jail. That said, you can still fly with a gun if you really want to. It just can’t be in your carry-on luggage. Instead, you’ll have to put it in a locked, hard-sided case and declare the firearm to the person at the counter checking you in.