The coronavirus may have vastly reduced the number of airplane passengers, but the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has discovered three times as many illegal guns in carry-on bags compared to last July. There have been 75% fewer passengers than last year, yet agency reportedly has found 15.3 guns per million passengers, when last July it found 5.1 firearms per million. Perhaps even more worrying, 80% of these guns are loaded, which TSA administrator David Pekoske called "an accident waiting to happen."

This increase comes as there has been a corresponding increase in national gun sales. This increase has been attributed to the fear that many Americans are feeling due to the anxiety the virus has created and to the desire that some may have to make a political statement.