Cheer up, my friend told me ... things could be worse.  So I cheered up, and sure enough, things got worse.  I had begun this narrative about one of  the past year’s major topics of travel industry concern – the combined effects of the rapid spread of the CV-19 virus and the resulting economic disaster of hundreds of idled aircraft and employees and no butts in the remaining seats.  I have also recently tried to relate the rather obvious front end of that dilemma to the downstream effects on the security posture of the airport -- US airlines operated less flights in 2020 than in any year since DOT began counting in 1987.  An uptick has begun due to various testing and vaccine programs, and the introduction of mandated mask requirements (which brings its own clearance challenges at the gate, but that’s a discussion for another day.)  But generally, less people means less screening, less weapons and less threat at the checkpoint, right?  Not so fast...

In trying to keep up, I subscribe to a number of security-related publications, one of which includes a weekly update of TSA firearm detections.  I won’t try to summarize them all, since it changes daily, but just to give you a taste of what that strange-acting  person behind you may have in their tote bag:

BWI:  .357, loaded; “I forgot”.  two more the previous week

PHL:  9mm, unloaded; “I forgot”

PIT:  .380 in a diaper bag; “I had no idea”

ORF:  9mm, 6^th one this year

CRW:  9mm, loaded

EWR:  9mm, “belongs to my aunt”

FLL:  25 this year, 22 of them loaded

As one of the officials involved noted: “To stand there and tell us that you had no idea that you had a gun with you is absolutely inexcusable. Where did you think it was?  You know where your wallet is, where your keys are, where you left your car... but not your gun?”

Nationwide, TSA officers have discovered 1006 firearms so far this year and 86% of those have been loaded. In 2020, a time of very limited CV-19 travel, a total of 3,257 firearms were found in carry-on luggage at airports across the country... averaging roughly 10 weapons  every day.  I have to stop saying “how stupid can they be”; I think people are starting to take it as a challenge.

 Another security nexus to the CV-19 issue is the development of no-touch, self-screening technology.  It’s still entirely unclear how that might work, or what the interaction between a TSA agent and any given random gun-toting passenger might be, and how (or whether, or on whom) virus-masking enforcement will fall, given the rising concerns of huge surges in other countries and the return of much international travel among areas with unknown, and potentially uncertified or incompatible  health screening protocols. 

I recently ran across a fascinating statistic – admittedly pre-pandemic, but isn’t that what we’re aiming for? --  according to one of the international flight-tracking services, an average of 9,728 planes were in the sky worldwide on any given day, holding an average of 1,270,406 total people. Technically, that means the sky is the 156^th most populous country in the world, right between Estonia and East Timor. Some percentage of those folks are headed for a connection with your flight  to Grandma’s house....so wear your damn mask, and maybe carry a spare for the lady next to you and her sneezy kid.