• Two Utah airports, at Moab and Vernal, have among the highest rates of all airports for potential weapons surrendered per 1,000 originating passengers. Moab ranked sixth out of 444 airports with data available (finding 258 potential weapons per 1,000 passengers), and Vernal ranked 10th (finding 113 per 1,000 passengers). The average for all airports was just nine potential weapons per 1,000 passengers.

• Salt Lake City International reported 189,210 potential weapons collected in the three years. That was 7.4 per 1,000 originating passengers. That was slightly below the average for such "large hubs" of 7.7, and well under the average of 9 for all airports.

Tip of iceberg?

While confiscating 16 million prohibited items is a lot over the three years, officials say the numbers actually might have been even higher.

For example, Earl Morris, the TSA's federal security director for airports in Utah, figures that at Salt Lake City International, "We find 15 percent to 20 percent more items than we actually confiscate."

That is because passengers who inadvertently bring some prohibited items of lesser concern, such as small pocketknives, are allowed to go to a gift shop, buy stamps and an envelope and have the TSA mail the items to them. Some large airports nationwide offer similar options or even have self-mail kiosks near security.

Harmon says the TSA by law cannot forcibly seize prohibited items but can stop passengers from boarding planes unless they surrender them. (But cooperating local police can and do arrest people who try to artfully conceal dangerous items.)

She said passengers have the option of returning items to their cars or passing them off to a friend or ride-giver, so many such items are not among totals for surrendered prohibited items.

Data holes

Also, some holes exist in the data provided. For example, TSA quit tracking, at least in the data provided to the Deseret Morning News, how many firearms were surrendered after August 2004.

So, while data show only about 1,000 firearms surrendered nationally in the three years examined, Morris said Salt Lake City International alone actually found 162 guns in that time. He said 38 were retained for evidence in prosecution (even though TSA data had said the airport collected only 19). He said others were returned to owners, some of whom had them in checked luggage but had forgotten to declare them.

Also, especially during 2002 as the TSA worked to take over screening operations from private companies that year, many airports reported no weapons confiscated at all over long periods of many months.

In addition, government watchdog agencies have told Congress this year that undercover agents have been able to sneak weapons past security checkpoints and said overall security has not improved since before the 9/11 attacks. Such findings could also mean that more potential weapons than reported are actually showing up at airports.