No, you can’t pack a shillelagh in your carry-on: TSA finds cudgel at Idaho airport
Many air travelers likely know they can’t bring items like oversized liquids and pocket knives in their carry-on luggage, but what about a shillelagh?
Transportation Security Administration officers recovered one – an Irish walking stick and cudgel or club – at Boise Airport in Idaho last month, which the agency featured on Twitter as part of its Prohibited Items Week.
“So we had to Google what, exactly, a shillelagh is, but we know that anything that’s made with the intent to bludgeon someone else is not allowed as a carry-on item,” the agency tweeted on Wednesday.
The agency’s TSA_Pacific account said in a tweet last month that the wooden tool would be “perfect” for packing in a checked bag.
Here’s what we saw at one of the airports with the most cases
The 10 weirdest things found at airport security in 2022:According to TSA
TSA has featured a number of other banned goods throughout the week, including torch lighters, a double-edged tactical knife, and a gun with 20 rounds of ammo.
A man tried to pass an assault rifle through airport security:He’s not alone
While a shillelagh may be a relative rarity in carry-ons, firearm detections are on the rise. TSA officers found 6,542 firearms at airport security checkpoints across the country in 2022, up from 5,972 the year before, according to a news release from the agency. The numbers also mark an uptick from 2019 – prior to the COVID-19 pandemic – when 4,432 were found.
Among the guns detected last year, around 88% were loaded.
Nathan Diller is a consumer travel reporter for USA TODAY based in Nashville. You can reach him at ndiller@usatoday.com.