DALLAS — With air traffic nearing a five-month high, airport security is finding guns in passenger carry-on bags at three times the rate recorded before the pandemic, and 80 percent of the guns are loaded.

The discoveries at airports comes at a time when U.S. gun sales are surging, and analysts believe many of those purchases are being made by first-time buyers.

Officers found 15.3 guns for every million people screened in July, compared with 5.1 per million people in July of last year, the Transportation Security Administration said Monday.

There has been a significant increase in loaded guns at checkpoints, said TSA Administrator David Pekoske. He said screeners are already working in conditions of heightened risks and that “no one should be introducing new ones.”

“Even more concerning is that 80 percent of the firearms coming into the checkpoint are loaded, and it’s just an accident waiting to happen,” Pekoske said in a prepared statement.

After an extended lull in activity, gun sales have begun to surge in recent months.

FBI figures show that there were more than 3.6 million firearms background checks requested in July, a 79 percent increase from July 2019.

Background checks have been rising every month compared with a year earlier since April 2019, but they picked up even faster this year, with checks topping 3 million in four of the last five months. Checks had not exceeded 3 million in one month since December 2015.

Cowen analyst Cai von Rumohr, who tracks gun sales, said the increases are likely due to fear about COVID-19 lockdowns, civil unrest, and former Vice President Joe Biden’s lead over President Donald Trump in polls ahead of the Nov. 3 election “given his more restrictive stance on gun control relative to President Trump.”

1 dead, 6 rescued after gas explosion

BALTIMORE — A natural gas explosion destroyed three row houses in Baltimore on Monday, killing a woman and trapping other people in the wreckage. At least six people were seriously injured as firefighters searched for more survivors.

Dozens of firefighters converged on the piles of rubble. A fourth house in the row was ripped open, and windows in nearby homes were shattered, leaving the northwest Baltimore neighborhood of Reisterstown Station strewn with debris and glass. “It’s a disaster. It’s a mess. It’s unbelievable,” said Diane Glover, who lives across the street. The morning explosion shattered her windows and blew open her front door, bending the frame. “I’m still shaken up,” she said hours later.

Six people were hospitalized, while a woman was pronounced dead at the scene, a fire spokeswoman said. Rescuers were painstakingly going through the wreckage by hand.