The TSA joins Instagram to post all the weapons people still bring to airports

Last year, we did a recap of the craziest stuff the Transportation Security Administration, better known as the TSA, confiscated at the airport. These reports usually show up as a weekly roundup on the TSA Blog, but this year the team has gotten tech savvier and trendier, and have joined Instagram to show you all the weird things people are still bringing to the airport… daily.

The @TSAblogteam account just posted its first photo on June 27 and already there are some constant streams of strange items. Take for example, a loaded pistol found in a carry-on bag at Houston International Airport. Or perhaps a grenade discovered in Albany, or a stun gun disguised as a Marlboro cigarette box. Hey, it looks like a certain trendy guy even had the Cardsharp knife-disguised-as-a-credit-card thing we wrote about last summer! Too bad he or she had the bright idea to try to bring it on board.

If weekly blog posts about the absurd things TSA finds at security checkpoints can’t discourage passengers from leaving their weapons and explosives at home, could a square image with sepia-toned filters do the trick? Only time will tell. After all, they are feeding into the same audience that constantly photographs airplane windows and sunsets above 10,000 feet. But if the TSA wants our advice, perhaps they should check out our netiquette guide on how not to overdo the hashtags.