Posts Tagged ‘Gun Laws Matter’

We hear stories of gun violence every day. Domestic disputes turning deadly. Street crimes taking the lives of innocent people. Mass shootings wreaking havoc in our public spaces. Suicides and fatal accidents devastating families across the country. The unrelenting toll of America’s gun violence epidemic leaves 100,000 people injured or killed every year in communities nationwide.¹ But while the number of people affected by this crisis is staggering – 86 people die by guns every single day – it’s almost equally shocking to find that legislators nationwide aren’t doing everything in their power to prevent the killings.

Plenty of widely supported policies can reduce gun violence, but, in many states, they aren’t being adopted.² In fact, a number of states have chosen to pass measures that actually make it more difficult for law enforcement, doctors, and local officials to work to reduce gun deaths and injuries.

Click on each state’s initials in the map below to see our analysis of the gun laws in that state.

Grades have been assigned based on the strength of each state’s gun laws. A state in blue (or orange) has one of the ten lowest (or highest) gun death rates of all fifty states.

See a larger, non-clickable version of this map.

State gun laws are critical because our federal gun laws are extremely weak and leave enormous gaps. For example, 40% of all gun sales can be completed without background checks because federal law doesn’t require checks for firearm sales between private parties.³ Unless states step in and adopt their own smart laws, federal gaps like these allow guns to easily flow into the hands of criminals.

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1. Nat’l Ctr. for Injury Prevention & Control, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Web-Based Injury Statistics Query & Reporting System (WISQARS) Injury Mortality Reports, 1999-2010, for National, Regional, and States; Nat’l Ctr. for Injury Prevention & Control, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Web-Based Injury Statistics Query & Reporting System (WISQARS) Nonfatal Injury Reports. [↩]
2. For model legislation on a number of critical gun violence prevention polices, see our publication Model Laws for a Safer America. [↩]
3. Philip J. Cook & Jens Ludwig, Guns in America: National Survey on Private Ownership and Use of Firearms, U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice Research in Brief 6-7 (May 1997). See our Federal Law on Private Sales page for more information. [↩]

(San Francisco, CA) Following Saturday’s mass shooting in Tucson, Arizona, Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence (LCPGV) issued the following statement:

“LCPGV is deeply saddened by the horrific shooting in Arizona. Our sympathies go out to the family and friends of Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and to all of the individuals touched by this tragedy. The Arizona massacre is just one more terrible example of the impact of gun violence in America and the urgent need to act with courage and commitment to achieve sensible gun policies nationwide.

The Arizona shooter used a Glock 19 handgun equipped with a large capacity ammunition magazine. That magazine, capable of holding 33 bullets, enabled the shooter to kill 6 people and injure 14 others in a matter of moments. Large capacity ammunition magazines – those capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition – were banned as part of the 1994 federal assault weapons ban, but were legalized when Congress allowed the law to expire in 2004. Large capacity magazines are now only banned in California and a handful of other states, not including Arizona.

Unfortunately, large capacity ammunition magazines are frequently used in mass shootings, including those which occurred at 101 California St. (the San Francisco assault weapon massacre that led to the formation of LCPGV), Columbine High School, Virginia Tech, and Fort Hood.

LCPGV is very pleased that Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy has announced her intent to introduce a new federal large capacity ammunition ban in the wake of this tragedy. We look forward to supporting her efforts and hope that our federal legislators will show their commitment to preventing future tragedies by doing the same. The gaps in federal law regulating guns are a travesty in this country, and one that we demand our government immediately address.

LCPGV’s recent publication, Gun Laws Matter, ranked Arizona’s gun laws as the worst in the country. Among other things, Arizona law requires no permit to carry loaded weapons in public, requires no background check for private gun sales, and allows guns in bars. In addition, Arizona enacted the so-called “Firearms Freedom Act” – declaring federal gun laws inapplicable to guns manufactured, purchased and possessed in the state.

LCPGV will continue to work to educate the public and to support the gun violence prevention laws that can prevent this type of tragedy in the future. We are reminded of the importance of this work, and thank our members and supporters.”