Some 1,024 guns were found at US airport passenger checkpoints by the Transportation Security Administration in the first six months of this year, up 14% from the same period last year and almost 50% from two years ago.

That translated to 5.6 guns per day, on average, with 84% of them loaded and nearly a third (29%) with ammunition in the chamber, ready to fire.

Once again, airports in the South and West — which tend to have most lenient concealed carry regulations — dominated the list of airports with the most guns found at security checkpoints. Dallas, Atlanta and Phoenix topped the list, followed by Tampa and Houston (Bush). Those 14 airports with the Top 10 number of guns found make up nearly 40% of all guns.

Data is based on an analysis of statistics compiled by the Medill National Security Journalism Initiative from weekly blog posts by the TSA. NSJI scans images of the tables that TSA posts and extracts data from them, then adds them to a master spreadsheet, which is makes available to the public to download. Data is available via NSJI’s site for 2012, 2013 and the first half of 2014.

Thanks to NSJI’s Tiffany Roberts for ongoing data entry support.