Sixteen years after the Transportation Security Administration was created to combat terrorism, people are still trying to bring knives, brass knuckles and live ammo aboard airplanes.

The TSA on Tuesday laid out its annual smorgasbord of things that were surrendered by travelers at Memphis International Airport after checkpoint security did its job.

Items ranged from a Christmas snow globe, in the spirit of the coming holidays, to 30 pounds of loose bullets collected from passengers over the past three months.

The show and tell did not include Memphis barbecue sauce, maybe because it’s pedestrian compared to a bowling pin, replica guns, stun guns and machete-length knives.

BBQ sauce is hot item at checkpoint

“People come here, it’s the barbecue capital of the world, and they get all this barbecue sauce and want to take it back home and we end up having to collect it,” said William Brechin, a lead transportation security officer. “They can take as much as they want in their (checked) baggage, they just can’t go through the checkpoint.”

Brechin estimated TSA collects about 20 to 30 pounds of barbecue sauce a week. It can’t go through security if the container exceeds 3.4 ounces or 100 milliliters.

The offending sauce is thrown away, but more is available in gift shops and restaurants on the way to the gates.

Prohibited items are handled differently than real guns, which bring airport police to deal with the offending party. TSA regional spokesman Mark Howell said 26 firearms have been found at Memphis checkpoints this year, which is behind a 2016 pace that yielded 36 for the year.

TSA aims for smoother screening

Ferreting out contraband slows down security screening for everyone, so the TSA likes to boost awareness heading into busy travel periods, Howell said.

When screening officers find prohibited items, the owner is given a chance to transfer it to checked baggage or return it to a parked vehicle. Howell said most people opt to surrender items, because they’re in a hurry.

That’s why security supervisor Annette Robinson was displaying a small perfume atomizer in the shape of a bullet.

“This is perfume, but it still can’t go, because it looks like a bullet. It’s what we call a realistic replica,” Robinson said.

Brechin displayed a plastic bucket containing loose bullets that are collected at a rate of 30-40 rounds a day. TSA donates to airport police for target practice. Bullets can be transported in checked bags, if properly packaged.

It's not all bullets and nunchucks

Much of TSA's booty isn't so glamorous.

"The typical things that we find the most are the liquids and gels and aerosols," Robinson said. "We get a lot of oversized items and especially around the holidays, a lot of gift baskets, a lot of barbecue sauces, gift items like snow globes.”

A rule of thumb on snow globes is it can't be larger than a tennis ball.

TSA sees an uptick in prohibited items during the summer and holiday travel seasons because there are more first-time or infrequent travelers, Howell said.

TSA waiting times at Memphis over the Thanksgiving holiday (Wednesday-Sunday) were less than 15 minutes for 93 percent of travelers, he reported. Waiting times in TSA PreCheck lines were under 5 minutes.

Contact reporter Wayne Risher at (901) 529-2874 or wayne.risher@commercialappeal.com.