He may indeed be a troubled young man, but TSA intercepts 16-20 firearms per day at airports. We're a gun toting society, so much so that people sometimes forget they are carrying, and there is enormous variability in the consequences from state to state because of the political divide over gun ownership.
I don't own and have never owned a gun, but I have had knives confiscated at airport security because I forgot I had them with me. Really easy to do. Other than losing the knives, there were no consequences.