TSA Launches Instagram Account Filled with Shocking Confiscated Contraband

The summer is one of the busiest times of the year to fly, and while most people know what they can and cannot bring onboard, others are still learning. To highlight that point, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) launched an Instagram account filled with pictures of confiscated contraband. Some of the TSA's posts will amaze and possibly scare you. The account, which was launched last Friday, already has about 12,000 followers.

Here is a post of a loaded pistol found in a carry-on bag at the Indianapolis airport. This might look like a pack of cigarettes, but as the description notes, it's actually a disguised stun gun, discovered at the Cleveland airport. This credit-card-shaped item is really a knife. And just in time for the Fourth of July, check out this haul of fireworks that passengers tried to take aboard. As the description states, "Fireworks don't fly."

This is not the TSA's first foray into social media. It started its blog in 2008 to "facilitate an ongoing dialogue on innovations in security, technology and the checkpoint screening process."

The Instagram account comes at a record-setting time for guns confiscated by the TSA. Just this past May, a record was set for the most guns seized by the TSA in one week — 65 in all, 45 of them loaded.

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