TSA found 16% more guns at airports in 2013

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Transportation Safety Administration found 16.5 percent more guns in 2013 than the year before, according to numbers just released by the agency.

The TSA says it found 1,813 firearms last year, an average of five per day. The most guns (111) were found at  Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport, followed by Dallas-Ft. Worth, Houston, Phoenix and Denver.

One passenger at Pittsburgh’s airport was found to have a loaded .45 caliber pistol - with one round in the chamber - strapped to his ankle. The passenger refused to enter the Advanced Imaging Technology machine and the gun was discovered during a pat-down. In Hartford, imaging technology located a loaded .380 pistol strapped to a man’s leg. And in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the TSA found a .25 caliber pistol hidden in the lining of a man’s carry-on bag.

In Detroit, the agency found a shotgun inside a checked golf bag.

For the first time since its 2002 founding, a Transportation Safety agent was killed in the line of duty in 2013. On Nov. 1, Gerardo Hernandez was shot and killed when police say 23-year-old Paul Ciancia entered Terminal 5 of LAX and opened fire. Two other TSA officers and one traveler were wounded in the shooting. Ciancia has pleaded not guilty to one count of first-degree murder and several other related charges.