TSA found 70 guns at checkpoints over July 4th weekend Getty Images By Gregory Wallace and Pete Muntean, CNN The number of guns found at airport checkpoints nationwide this year is fast approaching the number caught in all of 2020, officials say, and the uptick is slowing down screening lines as masses of passengers return to air travel. In the first six months of this year, Transportation Security Administration officers have found almost 3,000 firearms, spokeswoman Sarah Rodriguez told CNN. In 2020, when air travel was depressed, officers found 3,257 firearms. In 2019, officers found 4,432 guns. Over the July Fourth weekend alone, officers caught 70 guns at airport checkpoints, and 60 were loaded, Rodriguez said. Guns weren’t the only dangerous items screeners caught: A traveler at the Norfolk airport brought 13 firecrackers, a passenger at O’Hare arrived with brass knuckles and Boise, Idaho, screeners found both a loaded firearm and a hatchet in a man’s carry-on, TSA said.