
What Did TSA Agents Confiscate At MSP Airport Last Year?
The TSA just listed the strangest prohibited items people tried to bring with them through airport security checkpoints last year-- and agents were busy right here in Minnesota.
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) catches a lot of prohibited things that travelers either try to stow in their checked luggage or bring with them on the plane. And, the TSA just published a list of the strangest things they confiscated at airports around the country in 2024.
Here in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, attentive TSA officers on duty at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in Bloomington nabbed 53 firearms that travelers attempted to bring through their security checkpoints, down 5 from the amount they flagged in 2023.
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But, yay for the Bold North because, according to the TSA, MSP passengers brought guns to the airport at rates below the national average. Here are the deets: Here in Minnesota, the TSA screened more than 13.4 million departing passengers and crew last year.
Meanwhile, TSA officers at MSP discovered firearms in carry-on luggage at a rate of 3.9 firearms per million passengers screened. As the TSA noted, this equals a rate of one firearm discovery for every 253,361 screened travelers, well below the national rate of one firearm for every 127,447 screened nationwide.
I'm always amazed at how many travelers leave a firearm in their carry-on luggage. I really shouldn't be too smug, however. I once nearly tried to bring an item back to Minnesota that was on the TSA's Strangest Confiscated Objects list a few years ago: A can of bear spray.

If you're not familiar with it, bear spray is a pressurized can of very potent pepper-based aerosol spray made to use as a deterrent, should a bear happen to come after you while you're hiking.
We bought an 8-ounce can on a trip out west to Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks a few years ago. While we didn't have to use it on that trip, I thought maybe we would need it on a future trip, so I was going to put it in my luggage to bring home. I ultimately ran out of space and ended up leaving it at the hotel.
Which was a good idea. Because there were signs all over the airport in Montana telling us bear spray, being very explosive, wasn't allowed on ANY flights. Of course, I only saw them after we'd checked our luggage for the flight back-- which would have been confiscated by the TSA had I stuck with my original plan!
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