Alabama lacks many basic gun safety laws and has not enacted meaningful gun safety legislation in recent years. Alabama has the country’s second-highest gun death rate and exports crime guns at the fifth-highest rate among the states. To save lives from gun violence, Alabama lawmakers could pass laws requiring background checks and waiting periods for all firearm sales, and strengthen regulations for assault weapons and large capacity magazines.
Gun Safety Laws Gaining Ground
The federal government may be mired in indecision and inaction, but a number of states have taken up the mantle of gun safety, passing lifesaving gun laws that protect ever greater swaths of Americans. For the first time in the history of our Gun Law Scorecard, more people in the United States live in A states than F states. There are more A states than ever before, and many of the most populous states have strong gun safety laws in place. Between 2012 and 2019, the number of Americans living in states with A grades increased by more than 45 million, while the number of people living in states with D and F grades declined.
While this state-level progress is remarkable, 21 states still received an F for their dangerously weak gun laws. To bring an end to our country’s gun violence epidemic, we must take action to remedy America’s inconsistent patchwork of state laws. States that require background checks for all gun sales, have closed dangerous loopholes that allow domestic abusers to access guns, and funded community violence intervention programs provide a blueprint for passing effective gun safety legislation. We need a federal government that will follow their lead.
