The Lifesaving Momentum of 2018
The gun violence prevention movement experienced unprecedented progress in 2018. After the mass shooting in Parkland, Florida, high school activists stepped up and spoke out, urging our leaders to confront this unconscionable public health crisis. Twenty-six states and DC passed 67 new gun safety laws in 2018, a testament to both this new grassroots energy and the decades-long work of gun safety advocates. In November’s midterm elections, voters overwhelmingly rejected gun lobby–backed candidates and elected a new gun safety majority to Congress.
As they do every year, the attorneys at Giffords Law Center graded the states on the relative strength of their gun laws and found an undeniable correlation between strong gun laws and low gun death rates. Year after year, our findings remain the same: gun safety laws save lives. More states should listen to the American people, who are calling for an end to this epidemic, and show the courage to pass the laws and policies proven to prevent gun violence.
Are you a legislator or advocate interested in helping enact gun safety legislation in your state? Contact one of our experts.
States Lead the Way to a Safer America
Our country has more guns per capita than any other nation and a higher gun death rate than any other developed nation. After decades of gridlock at the federal level, state legislators have taken it into their own hands to address the gun violence crisis, passing laws to protect their constituents and save lives. And it’s working—of the 10 states with the strongest gun laws, seven of them have the lowest gun death rates.
Ten states raised their grades in 2018. Washington, the only state to put a gun-related initiative on the ballot, enacted a robust legislative package that improved laws surrounding minimum age, safe storage, and prohibited purchasers, among others. Eleven states enacted laws that help keep firearms away from domestic abusers, and seven states added a background check requirement or improved an existing background check law. Even states with historically weak gun laws, like Florida and Vermont, took critical steps to strengthen laws and keep people safe.
But with 22 states earning a failing grade, it’s clear that our work is far from over. And too many states with strong gun laws are victims of firearm trafficking from neighboring states with weaker laws—a phenomenon that drives up gun violence rates in states like Maryland and Illinois. To save lives, more state legislators must follow the examples of their colleagues in New Jersey, Massachusetts, and California and pass the laws that have been proven time and again to prevent shootings.
To learn more about the latest firearm legislation in your state, check out Gun Law Trendwatch.
Our Grading System
The attorneys at Giffords Law Center spend the year tracking and analyzing gun legislation in all 50 states, evaluating bills for their relative strength or weakness. Taking note of newly enacted laws, we use an exhaustive quantitative rubric to score each state on its gun law strength, adding points for safety regulations like universal background checks and extreme risk protection orders and subtracting points for reckless policies like “Stand Your Ground” and permitless carry laws. We then rank the states, convert point totals to letter grades, and compare our findings to the most recent gun death rates released by the CDC. Year after year, our research yields the same conclusion—stronger gun safety laws lead to lower gun death rates.
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