Security screeners have seized more than 1,500 guns from airline passengers so far this year, far more than last year, the Transportation Security Administration said yesterday.

At the current pace, the number of TSA gun seizures for all of 2012 will be more than 15 percent higher than last year’s 1,320.

During the week that ended Dec. 21, screeners took 34 guns from passengers, including 32 that were loaded. In the previous week, they found 29 guns, 21 of which were loaded.

Officials say many people caught with guns forgot they were carrying them.