America's Gun Laws: How Did Your State Score?

I often hear the argument that we should just "enforce the laws on the books" in order to reduce gun violence. That's important, but we also need to be aware how few laws we "have on the books" and figure out how to make what laws we do have more effective.

That's why, last week, the Brady Campaign announced a new system of scoring the 50 states according to the strength or weakness of their gun laws.

For the year 2007, each state earned a score and rank according to a comprehensive inventory of 42 gun regulations, divided into five categories. We assigned greater and lesser point values to each kind of law based on our Campaign Against Illegal Guns, as well as our 30 years of leadership in the gun violence prevention movement.

Under this new system, states can earn up to 100 points. Some may find it surprising, however, that two-thirds of all states scored less than 20 points out of 100 in 2007. In fact, almost half the states scored 10 points or less.

Given the 30,000 gun deaths every year in America, these scores shouldn't be surprising at all. Instead, they illustrate that many states don't have even a bare minimum of effective laws to combat gun trafficking, strengthen Brady background checks, or restrict access to military-style assault weapons.

States like South Carolina, Tennessee, Nevada, Florida and Louisiana, for example, have virtually no laws on the books that effectively combat firearm trafficking or prevent dangerous people from gaining easy access to dangerous weapons.

California is at the other end of the scale. Ranking first in the nation, it has laws such as mandatory background checks on all firearm purchases, a "one-handgun-a-month" law to stop bulk purchases that feed the illegal gun market, and other effective laws that help prevent gun trafficking.

What's more, California further strengthened its laws last year by enacting legislation to help police identify crime guns by using new "microstamping" technology. This legislation gives law enforcement a powerful investigative tool to solve more gun crimes and apprehend more armed criminals and gang members by identifying a gun used in crime - even without the gun.

Part of our mission at the Brady Campaign is to help people evaluate the strength of the gun laws in their states. With this information, citizens can become active in their own communities and work to hold elected officials accountable.

Gun trafficking can be reduced, the illegal gun trade can be cut, and dangerous weapons can be kept out of the hands of dangerous people. Passage of common-sense legislation at the national level - like the NICS Improvement Act, for example - and "microstamping" in California, shows that America is turning a corner on the gun issue.

When families and law enforcement come together, elected officials listen. Parents and police can demand strong gun laws in their communities. The Brady Campaign's new state scorecards can help.

Always remember: sensible gun laws save lives. I hope you will use these scorecards as a resource in your area, and join us in our work to make America's neighborhoods and communities safe from gun violence.

(Note to readers: This entry, along with past entries, has been co-posted on bradycampaign.org/blog and the Huffington Post.)

Comments

[Junling]

Paul, thanks for the informative article. It shed lights on current shoot at NIU. When the media says Illinois has one of the toughest gun law, in fact Illinois only has 28 out 100 on the scores related gun laws. We are so far behind in basic gun laws comparing to all other industrial nations.
I also noted that Missouri, where another recent gun shooting happened, has score 4 out of 100.

[smokepole]

First, Helmke "s statement "we also need to be aware how few laws we "have on the books" is a severe understatement at best, at worse an outright lie. I just received my ATF tome of laws and regulations and it is the size of a yellow pages phone book. There are easily 15-20k individual laws, granted there is some redundancy because each state has its own version of similar laws. I guess from Helmke"s point of view 20,000 laws are not enough and there should be 200,000 laws.
Second, if you correlate BC ratings with crime stats you will see there is no correlation; in fact the correlation tends to lean negative most years. According to CDC studies they confirm that stricter or more laws did not affect crime rates. If you don"t like studies then use common sense. Urban areas have more gun laws than rural areas. Using Helmke"s logic, urban areas should have less crime than rural areas; we all know that is not true.
Third, is the myth of microstamping. Let"s start with "tamperproof firing pins," it is common knowledge that no such thing is tamperproof, someone will find a way to remove or negate the MS. The MS pin can easily be replaced by a blank purchased in another state or smuggled in from Mexico. This bill does not cover revolvers as revolvers do not leave brass, thus no evidence. Any criminal can collect brass at a public firing range and seed a crime scene with fake evidence. Lastly, what if the gun is stolen? The fact is this law will not stop gun crimes and it will not solve any. Then again what do I know, if they want to sink millions of dollars into a doomed system for a little piece of mind, it"s their state let them. Just don"t ask for a Federal bailout of California"s 400+ billion dollar debt because they can"t resist starting stupid programs that fail. I guess entrepreneur minded gang members will stock up on firing pins and revolvers as their price just rose significantly.

[Paratus]

"How few laws we have on the books"!!!!! Is Helmke paying attention or does he think we are completely stupid? We have more gun laws now than when I was a child- more gun crime also. Funny, but I am a lot safer in an area that has unrestricted open carry than I EVER have been in areas with stringent gun control laws. Notice how these areas have the highest crime and we hear the tired argument that guns from the less stringent states are to blame. I would suggest that it is a hazardous occupation indeed to do felony crime in areas where the people can defend themselves so crime would naturally gravitate toward areas of a large class of government mandated victims. We saw this in the VA Tech shootings. However the ignorance proceeds as illustrated by the microstamping law in CA, another useless law that can be negated by use, replacement parts or emory cloth.

The Brady Center and Paul Helmke are both a solution to a problem that does not exist. Both need to find a common sense cause and stop lying to the people.

[mike101]

"When law enforcement officers track down this gunman, I hope they are able to trace his gun to the gun dealer who sold it to him"

Howdy, Zen. Feel free to jump in any time. My computer has been down for the past week or I would have responded sooner. But I caught that too.

Kelli, I read EVERYTHING you say before I respond, and I give it as much thought as it's worth.

Perhaps you should try reading YOUR OWN POSTS, before you bash me. So, what's presumptuous?

[Sneaky]

Hm, to answer Paul, I believe my state got a 8 out of 100. We have improvement to do, I'm afraid.

Let's see, Montana/Utah-like school laws (rated 8/100 and 4/100 respectively)... Alaska style carry laws (rated 4/100)... Oh, and a repeal of that ridiculous law barring me from buying handgun ammo, and that should drop us to about 2-3. I'm alright with that.

What else am I missing?

[DMeadows]

And to add to Kelli's reporting of the failure of "gun-free" zones:

"Woman kills 2, herself at La. college"

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080208/ap_on_re_us/campus_shooting

If the two victims, or other classmates, had the option of being able to legally carry, perhaps one or both would be alive right now. But gun-control advocates want to totally remove that life-saving possibility and, in fact, make places risk-free to killers with their misguided and fatality-friendly "gun-free" zones.

"Gun-free" is proven to really mean "Self-defense denied".

[shedances]

I awoke this morning to reports of more insane gun violence ~ this time, in America's heartland ... five people reported dead. When we no longer hear of such incidents of fellow human beings being gunned down, then I'll put aside my 'pen & paper' (laptop, nowadays).

I hope the victims families are getting the support they need ... it will take a long time for them to recover from this. Sad news today.

K

[MSorgy]

Paul and Kelli:

The majority of Congress (both houses) support the 2nd Amendment and overturning the DC gun ban!

http://www.charlotte.com/559/story/482945.html

Michael

[DMeadows]

Some gun-control advocates think there is some kind of difference between feeling safer via possessing and/or carrying a firearm, vs. the reality of being safer with a firearm. Of course, as with many of their notions, they are wrong-headed.

No less authority than the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics has demonstrated how wrong-headed they are.

If you don't have a gun when criminally attacked, 5 times out of 10 you will be hurt by your perp. If you do have a gun, you reduce those chances of being hurt to 2 times out of 10.* Good case for responsibly carrying a gun anywhere you go, huh?

-------------------------
*"A fifth of the victims defending themselves with a firearm suffered an injury, compared to almost half of those who defended themselves with weapons other than a firearm or who had no weapon."

http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/ascii/hvfsdaft.txt

[shedances]

As "Band" shows below ~ the guncrowd will stoop very low in order to push their pro-gun agendas onto everyone else, regardless of what we all say.

BTW, you should change your name from the peaceful, sweet sea otter to something more appropriate ... like an ugly vulture (eg., "Bandofvultures"). Just a thought. Sure hope you don't mind!

K

[Bandofotters]

This is Paul's reasoning for embracing microstamping (subject to change of course), "This legislation gives law enforcement a powerful investigative tool to solve more gun crimes and apprehend more armed criminals and gang members by identifying a gun used in crime - even without the gun."

One would assume from this that Paul believes that armed criminals and gang members use registered guns, now, and would be stupid enough to use a registered gun that ejects marked shells in the future.

I'm having a senior moment. Who did I say again was stupid?

[molonlabe]

Paul,

Maybe you want to downgrade Kalifornia to a B-

http://www.mcall.com/news/local/la-me-standoff8feb08,0,5318836.story

[shedances]

No state or its citizenry wishes to go through what Virginia did ... & I personally don't like hearing about more murders of innocent people via guns. The guncrowd here nearly always sound as if they are in 'bad straits' over this issue of gun laws (ie., the 'come pry it out of my cold, dead fingers' and 'it only affects the law-abiding' remarks & so forth). Since they choose to add next-to-nothing of value on these discussions, there is little anyone can say to them that will sink in & make a difference. I suspect, as do others, that the guncrowd fails to balance the (paradoxical) relationship of feeling safer via possessing and/or carrying a firearm, vs. the reality of being safer ~ or, not safer ~ with such a dangerous weapon at hand.

I am proud, BTW, of the work (& principles) on gun violence/crimes in my own state of Illinois ... but realize there is room for improvement here, too.

K

[DMeadows]

Another gun-free zone "success" story, below. When will gun-control advocates realize they are hurting and killing law-abiding folks by stripping them of the right to be prepared to defend themselves, in these criminal-empowerment zones?

"PORTSMOUTH, Ohio - A teacher's husband came to her Ohio elementary school Thursday and shot her . . ."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080207/ap_on_re_us/school_shooting;_ylt=AnqMjpflZxh0cI2rWtxxE0as0NUE

[molonlabe]

Paul,
Maybe you should to an International Scorecard. Undoubtedly, Japan would score an A++ since they have very stringent gun laws.

Then how do you explain this?

http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUST252568