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The number of firearms seized at Salt Lake City International Airport spiked by 56 percent last year — from 48 to 75.

That ranked No. 10 for gun confiscation among all airports nationally.

"The jump at Salt Lake City International was remarkable," said Lorie Dankers, regional spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration.

"The numbers have really skyrocketed. I don't really have a reason for that," she said, adding that some people simply forget they are carrying a weapon as they approach airport security.

"The first rule of gun safety is to know where your firearm is at all times," Dankers said. "And people bring them in their carry-on bag and forget they are in there."

Ron Malin, Utah's federal security director for the TSA, last year told the Airport Advisory Board that the vast majority of violators here are concealed-weapons-permit holders.

"The only excuse that I have ever heard is, 'I forgot,' " Malin said at the time.

Malin has noted that bringing a firearm to a checkpoint may lead to criminal arrest and civil fines of up to $11,000.

"It's a very costly mistake," he said.

While No. 10 for firearms seized, Salt Lake City International ranked No. 24 for total passengers in 2014, with 21 million, according to a report by Airports Council International. By comparison, the busiest airport, Atlanta, logged 96 million passengers that year.

The 75 guns seized at the airport in 2016 was up from 48 in 2015, 30 in 2014 and 34 in 2013. Of the 75 guns confiscated last year, 64 were loaded.

Airports that seized more firearms were Atlanta, 198; Dallas-Ft. Worth, 192; Houston Bush International, 128; Phoenix, 101; Denver, 98; Orlando, 86; Nashville, 80; Tampa, 79; and Austin, 78.

The TSA said 3,391 firearms were discovered in carry-on bags at checkpoints nationally last year, averaging more than nine per day. It said 83 percent were loaded. At least one gun was found at 238 airports.

Discovery of firearms nationally was up 28 percent during 2016, TSA said, noting that it screened more than 738 million air passengers last year.

TSA also seizes numerous other types of weapons and dangerous materials at checkpoints, but Dankers said, "firearms are the one we track most closely.

Knives continue to be a problem — hunting knives especially. We see a lot of those in the fall" during hunting season.

Malin told the airport board last year that hand grenades — or at least inert grenades or replicas that look like the real thing — are routinely seized at Salt Lake City International.

"We get several a month," he said. "A lot of people use them as souvenirs or paperweights…. They look like the real deal, so we treat them as the real deal."

Malin last year also showed the airport board a collection of recently seized items.

They included handguns, toy guns (that look like the real thing), ammunition, knives (many designed to look like something else, including credit cards), clubs, hammers, batons and a variety of tools.