Halloween week brings some of the strangest bags of the year to airport checkpoints, and TSA’s guidance on costumes is blunt. A realistic toy pistol in a holster, a replica grenade, a jar of face paint, a bottle of fake blood: at the screening lane, none of those are party supplies. TSA’s Halloween travel tips, last issued for New York-area airports in 2023, make the point plainly, and the rules behind them have not softened. A realistic firearm replica in a carry-on can bring a civil penalty of $450 to $2,570, before you count the flight you miss while an officer goes through your bag.
A Plastic Gun Stops The Whole Lane
An X-ray operator looking at the outline of a handgun cannot assume it is hollow plastic from a costume shop. The bag gets pulled and checked by hand, and everybody behind you waits.
That caution is not theatrical. Officers intercepted 6,678 firearms at checkpoints nationwide in 2024, after a record 6,737 in 2023, and about 94% of the guns found in 2024 were loaded.
Replica explosives are treated more harshly still. Inert grenades and other realistic replicas of explosives are banned from carry-on and checked bags alike, and bringing one to a checkpoint carries a civil penalty of $850 to $4,250 plus a criminal referral. Toy guns get judged on appearance alone. What you meant by it is not part of the test.
The Fines Climb Into Five Figures
Most people assume the worst outcome at security is losing a nice bottle of shampoo. TSA can write civil penalties, and its published table sets them by item. Realistic firearm replicas sit in the $450 to $2,570 band. Swords, sabers, machetes, daggers, axes, hatchets, throwing stars and double-edged knives generally draw a warning the first time, then the same range for a repeat.
Real guns are a different scale entirely. An unloaded firearm found at a checkpoint carries a range of $1,500 to $6,130 plus a criminal referral. A loaded one runs $3,000 to $12,210 plus a criminal referral, and local police may arrest or cite the passenger. TSA counts a firearm as loaded when the gun and its ammunition are both accessible to the passenger, which is not how most gun owners define the word.
The top of the published scale is $17,062 per violation, per person. Unloaded firearms can travel legally in checked bags when they are locked in a hard-sided case and declared to the airline at check-in. Ammunition goes in checked bags only, packed in fiber, wood or metal boxes or other packaging made for ammunition.
Your Phone Charger Is The Rule That Actually Changed
Spare lithium batteries and power banks have to ride in the cabin, never in a checked bag, because a battery that overheats in the hold is a fire nobody can see or reach. That part is old. What moved in 2026 is how hard the airlines are enforcing their own rules on top of the federal floor, and the trigger was the data: airlines reported 97 lithium battery incidents involving smoke, fire or extreme heat in 2025, according to FAA figures cited by Reuters, up from a record 89 in 2024.
The FAA’s PackSafe guidance caps rechargeable batteries at 100 watt hours each, allows up to two spares between 101 and 160 watt hours with airline approval, and forbids anything larger. Southwest Airlines went further. Since April 20, 2026, each Southwest passenger may carry one power bank rated 100 watt hours or less, it cannot go in an overhead bin, and it cannot be charged from seat power.
Delta allows two power banks of 100 watt hours or less each, with no exceptions, and keeps them out of overhead bins. American Airlines moved to a similar two-charger limit in May 2026, according to news reports. Check your carrier before you pack a second one, and look for the watt-hour rating on the device. If it is not printed there, the FAA says you can work it out by multiplying the volts by the amp hours.
Smart luggage follows the same logic. If the lithium battery comes out, take it out before you check the bag and carry it in the cabin. If it does not come out, the bag has to travel as a carry-on.
Peanut Butter Is A Liquid. So Is Fake Blood.
The 3-1-1 rule has not budged: 3.4 ounces (100 ml) per container, one quart-sized clear bag, one bag per passenger. It covers liquids, aerosols, gels, creams and pastes, and that last word is where people get burned. TSA lists peanut butter, hummus, creamy dips, salsa, yogurt and soup under the same 3.4-ounce limit in carry-ons. None of that is new.
Costume cosmetics fall under the same line. Fake blood, liquid makeup, cream face paint and liquid adhesive for prosthetics all have to fit the 3.4-ounce limit in the cabin, whatever the specialty shop told you when you bought them.
Two souvenirs get stopped for the same reason. A Magic 8 Ball is not allowed in a carry-on, and a snow globe is allowed only if it is small enough, roughly tennis-ball size, to fit in your quart bag. Powders are their own category: containers of protein powder, drink mix and similar powders over 12 ounces go in a separate bin and may need extra screening.
Formula and breast milk are the exception to 3-1-1. They are allowed in larger amounts; tell the officer at the start of screening and expect them to be screened separately.
The Tool And Gadget Rules People Get Wrong
Any multi-tool with a knife blade, of any length, has to go in a checked bag; a bladeless multi-tool is fine in the cabin. Box cutters and utility knives are banned from carry-ons too. None of that is new, though it catches plenty of people with a keychain gadget.
TSA allows MREs in carry-on and checked bags, but some airlines will not take self-heating versions in the cabin, so check with your carrier. Aerosol deodorant follows ordinary 3-1-1 in a carry-on, while solid stick deodorant is unrestricted. Vapes and e-cigarettes go in carry-on only, protected against accidental activation, and cannot be recharged on board. Cordless curling irons and flat irons that run on butane are carry-on only, with a safety cover over the heating element, and spare gas cartridges are banned. Plug-in versions are not restricted.
Things That Sail Through That Sound Illegal
Live lobsters are permitted in a clear, plastic, spill-proof container, which an officer will inspect, though TSA tells travelers to check with the airline before carrying one on.
Frozen food and ice packs clear security too, with one condition: they have to be frozen solid at screening. Once they start to slush, the 3.4-ounce rule applies. Snowboards and cleaned antlers are allowed. So are toy lightsabers and strings of Christmas lights, both of which look alarming on an X-ray and are listed as fine anyway. Bowling balls are the surprise in the other direction: checked bags only.
Lighters run opposite to intuition. One standard disposable or Zippo-style lighter can go in your pocket or carry-on, and the FAA allows one in a checked bag only if it is empty of fuel, or up to two in a DOT-approved case. Torch lighters are banned from both. Safety matches are carry-on only, one book, and strike-anywhere matches are banned everywhere. Solid food is welcome: sandwiches, crackers, fruit, hard cheese, chocolate, candy and most baked goods all clear the checkpoint.
The One That Can End In Handcuffs
Cannabis is legal in many states and still a problem at every checkpoint, because TSA operates under federal law. Federal rules shifted in April 2026, when a DEA final rule moved FDA-approved marijuana products and state-licensed medical marijuana into Schedule III, but the rest of marijuana remains Schedule I. TSA officers do not search for drugs, but when they find something that appears to be illegal, the agency’s policy is to refer it to law enforcement.
Simple possession under 21 U.S.C. § 844 carries up to a year in prison and a minimum $1,000 fine for a first offense. TSA’s referral policy is the same whether you are flying between two states where cannabis is legal or not.
The Goal At Security Is To Be Forgettable
Scale explains the rigidity better than anything else. TSA screens nearly 2.5 million passengers a day at nearly 440 airports, and peak days go far higher: the record so far is 3,134,613 travelers on November 30, 2025. One bag pulled for a second look at that volume is not one person’s delay, it is the whole lane’s.
Masks and heavy prosthetics add a problem most travelers never think about. TSA’s facial comparison lanes need to see your actual face. Cover it, and expect to take the mask off or go through a manual ID check.
The honest read on all of this: the prohibited items list itself is mostly settled and rewards a 30-second look before you zip the bag. The lithium battery rules are the layer still moving, carrier by carrier, and a rule that did not apply on your last trip may apply on the next one. Keep the spreads and gels in the quart bag, keep every battery on your body or under the seat in front of you, and leave the realistic props at home.
