Giffords Law Center’s Annual Gun Law Scorecard Shows States with Strong Gun Laws See Less Gun Violence

Washington, D.C. — Today, Giffords Law Center released its annual Gun Law Scorecard, which ranks all 50 states and assigns them a point total and grade based on the strength of their gun laws. For more than ten years, Giffords Law Center’s Gun Law Scorecard has made it abundantly clear that states with stronger gun laws see fewer gun deaths. 

With gun deaths at an all-time high and armed extremism rampant, our Black, Brown, and Latino communities continue to bear the brunt of gun violence. Firearms are also the leading cause of death for American children and teens. A just and equitable approach to gun violence prevention that combines gun safety legislation with community-based approaches is crucial to ending this uniquely American epidemic. 

“2021 was yet another year of crisis for our country. Too many communities had to reckon with the trauma and pain of surging gun violence, armed hate, and racial discrimination—all in the midst of the ongoing pandemic,” said Robyn Thomas, executive director of Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence. “What our Scorecard shows, year after year is that it is possible to take action to end this senseless violence. States with strong gun safety laws have fewer gun deaths—but illegal trafficking leaves residents of these states vulnerable. This progress must extend to every single state across the nation. We hope the Gun Law Scorecardwill continue to serve as a resource for our elected officials who understand that getting a passing grade can be a matter of life and death.”

In 2021, 27 states and the District of Columbia passed 75 significant gun safety laws, bringing the total laws passed since the tragedy in Parkland in February 2018 to 255. 

States with the strongest gun laws have continued taking significant steps to protect their residents from gun violence, including: 

• California (A): Enacted a law to improve efforts to identify gun dealers who engage in gun trafficking, committed $76 million for local community violence intervention and prevention programming, and made it easier for people who survive domestic abuse to obtain firearm-prohibiting protective orders, and passed a bill requiring people accused of domestic violence to relinquish their firearms. 
• New Jersey (A): Committed $10 million in funding for local community violence intervention and prevention programming. 
• New York (A-): Passed a first-of-its-kind law that allows people to sue gun dealers and manufacturers when they fail to act responsibly and created a state firearm violence research institute. 
• Maryland (A-): Enacted a law requiring background checks on long gun purchases and committed significant funding for local community violence intervention and prevention programming. 
• Colorado (B+): Voting matters. Colorado elected a strong gun safety majority in 2020 and since then, the state passed a slew of gun safety bills that resulted in Colorado’s grade jumping from a C to a B+. 

States with the lowest grades are most responsible for the troubling export of guns used for crimes in other states. These states also put their residents at risk by pushing dangerous policies like Stand Your Ground, which allows people to shoot first and ask questions later, and permitless carry, which allows untrained, unvetted people to carry hidden, loaded guns in public. Some of the worst legislation passed in the last year includes:

• Iowa (F): Repealed its law requiring background checks on private sales of firearms and allowed people to carry concealed guns in public without safety training or a background check.
• Missouri (F): Made law enforcement officers and agencies, public officials, and private individuals personally liable in civil court and subject to a $50,000 fine for enforcing federal gun laws.
• Montana (F): Passed a law allowing guns on the campuses of colleges and universities that was later declared unconstitutional.

In 2020, our Annual Gun Law Scorecard highlighted the disproportionate impact of gun homicides on communities of color. These undeniable disparities have only intensified:

• According to the last year of available data, Black Americans were ten times more likely to die in a gun homicide, and nearly two and a half times more likely to die from gun violence overall, compared to white Americans.Every year, more than 11,000 Black Americans die from gun violence in the US.  
• Additionally, according to the latest year of available data, Hispanic Americans were two and a half times as likely to be shot and killed in gun homicides as white, non-Hispanic Americans. And every year, more than 4,100 Hispanic Americans die from gun violence in the US.

To address the disproportionate impact that gun violence has on our Black, Brown, and Latino communities in the country, a robust and equitable combination of gun safety laws and community-based programs is needed. 

Visit the Annual Gun Law Scorecard at gunlawscorecard.org.

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