(NEXSTAR) – The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) intercepted 1,503 guns at airport checkpoints in the first quarter of 2024 alone — a very minor decrease over the 1,508 firearms found during the same quarter in 2023.

More “promising,” according to the TSA, is 2024’s lower rate of firearms found per passenger. In the first quarter of 2023, the TSA said 7.9 guns were detected for every million passengers traveling, while only 7.3 firearms were intercepted for every million passengers in 2024. (TSA agents screened 191 million passengers in Q1 of 2023, vs. 206 million in Q1 2024.)

“While it is certainly promising that the rate of passengers bringing firearms to the checkpoint has decreased, one firearm at the checkpoint is too many,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske was quoted as saying in a Thursday news........

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