FAQ Featured Maps More Home

Featured Map for 25 January 2017:
Firearms Discovered at TSA Checkpoints in 2016

 

Last week, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) published their 2016 Year in Review, documenting 3,391 guns discovered in carry-on bags at 238 airports. The top 10 airports for firearm discoveries accounted for nearly one-third (1,115) of the total.

The TSA also finds some interesting items in checked baggage including chainsaws filled with gasoline—in Anchorage in early December and then another one in Elmira, New York early this month.

Today's Featured Map shows the ten 10 airports at which the TSA found firearms in carry-on baggage during 2016. The map also introduces a new feature that allows a data value to be specified for a point with the area of the associated symbol being scaled to the value. In this example, Atlanta had the most firearm discoveries (198) while Salt Lake City was tenth with 75. These values appear in the path like this:

198@ATL,75@SLC

With the symbol specified as a disc 20 pixels in diameter, the symbol for ATL is the full 20 pixels while the one for SLC is scaled to cover 38% of the area or 8 pixels. Several similar maps were used in Featured Maps in 2010 covering the hubs involved in airline mergers but these used precalculated symbol sizes. The "Southwest and AirTran" map using the new feature looks the same but is easier to create.

References and additional information:

• Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
• The TSA Blog
  • Firearms Discovered at TSA Checkpoints in 2016 (12 January 2017)
  • TSA Week In Review: Gassed Up Chainsaw & Deadly Lipstick (13 January 2017)
  • TSA Week in Review December 4th - 11th - Firearms, Chainsaw, Cattle Prod, Batarang and More (13 December 2016)
• Featured Map: Top 10 Airports for Southwest and AirTran (28 September 2010)
• Featured Map: Top 10 Airports for Continental and United (12 May 2010)

 

Information on this site may not be accurate or current and is not valid for flight planning or navigation. No warranty of fitness for any purpose is made or implied. Flight planning and navigation should only be done using official charts. Copyright © 2010-2024 Karl L. Swartz. All rights reserved. The Great Circle Mapper name and logo are trademarks of the Great Circle Mapper. All other trademarks mentioned herein belong to their respective owners. Please see credits for attributions and further copyright information.