It's a shocker how many people try to board planes with guns

"From my cold, dead hands" appears to be a phrase muttered all too frequently by airline passengers in the US - even if it's perhaps only quietly, to themselves, before they leave the house.

The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) reports that an average of nine firearms a day were confiscated at the nation's airports last year - most of them loaded.

The agency found 3,391 guns on travellers, 83% of which were ready to fire.

Whatever their thoughts on their right to bear arms, we're fairly sure most offenders didn't go through with the "cold, dead hands" part, a reference to the slogan adopted by the National Rifle Association - and famously uttered in 2000 by Charlton Heston. The complete version goes: "I'll give you my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands."

Gosh, no officer sir. Not you.