Click here for the interactive version of this Gun Law State Scorecard map, created and presented by the AstroTurf-loving folks at Americans for Final Responsible Solutions. Note: Alabama also got an F. But I reckon “F” stands for “freedom.” Here’s the text lingering below the antis’  post:

At this point, the scale of America’s gun violence epidemic should be a surprise to no one. 2016 brought the worst mass shooting in our country’s history, with 102 people shot at the Pulse Nightclub in Orlando. Chicago reported its most murders—over 700—in 20 years. More than 20,000 people kill themselves with a gun every year, and over one million Americans have been victims of gun violence in the past decade.

Gun violence takes a number of different forms, and so do its solutions. No one policy will stop every shooting, but what we do know—because our research shows it, year after year—is that when taken in the aggregate, smart gun laws have a significant impact on public safety. They save lives.

The premise of the Law Center’s annual Gun Law State Scorecard is simple. Our legal experts evaluate every state’s gun laws, assign grades, and compare those grades with the state’s most recent gun death rate. Consistently, we see a powerful correlation: states with stronger laws have fewer gun deaths per capita while states with weaker laws have more gun deaths.

2016 brought increased public outcry over gun violence, as well as real progress at the state level, with a flurry of new gun laws passed, including ballot initiatives in three states. But, with 25 states scoring an F for their gun laws, clearly there is so much more work to be done. Use the map above to see how your state stacks up and learn about the steps your lawmakers can take to save lives in 2017.

RELATED ARTICLESMORE FROM AUTHOR

82 COMMENTS

  3. Why do they keep comparing “gun deaths” between states instead of “violent deaths”? Shifty wording is annoying. Murdered people are murdered people. Suicided people are suicided people. It doesn’t matter if it was done with guns or not. People should be calling bullshit on that more than they do.

    • Clearing out their BS wording, and using Wikipedia because it’s mostly reliable and it has references.

      California, which gets an A rating, has the same 4.4 homicide rate as Texas which has an F rating. And Ohio, which gets a D rating, has a lower homicide rate at 4.0 than A rated California and West Virginia, which has a big fat F rating, has the same homicide rate as Ohio D rated Ohio at 4.0

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_U.S._states_by_homicide_rate

      Bullshit called.

      • According to the FBI violent crime rates for 2014, the ten states with the lowest violent crime rates are a B+, C+, two Ds, and six Fs.
        The seven states with A or A- rankings are 10, 17, 18, 19, 37, 38, and 39 in violent crime with an average of 339.0 per 100k, less than 10% off of the national average of 365.5 per 100k.

        It’s almost like there’s no relationship between these gun laws they’re pushing and actual crime rates.

        • Yeah. Not a surprise. Also, Vermont who this classifies as an F rating has on their map, has the lowest violent crime rating on that list you linked. And that correlates with it also having the second lowest homicide rate on the Wikipedia page. The whole argument falls apart.

          Someone needs to do an honest version of this map. The anti gun side has long used this shifty wording to show what states with “strong gun laws” have lower rates of “gun deaths” than states with “Weak gun laws.” Someone needs to separate the states by “Strongest gun laws” to “weakest gun laws” I would suggest using an anti gun source to determine strong vs weak laws since that’s who we’re arguing against. And then comparing those states by the FBI statistics on violent crime and condensing that into an easy to read chart or map ranking the states from highest to lowest and then putting the “law strength” rating next to each state. Someone should do it if it hasn’t already been done, because this “gun deaths” nonsense has been used soooo much by gun control proponents that it is worth thoroughly debunking.

      • Also, Maryland with it’s A- rating has a higher gun death rate than Virginia with it’s D+, according to the website that published the map.

  4. Oklahoma has an ‘F’ and a score of 27. I would say I am so proud but I think we can do better… If we can just get Campus Carry and Constitutional Carry I am sure our score would improve.

  5. Half the states rate an F. Its called Progress! The whole southern tier, the plains states and the Rockies are solid F. Why can’t that seep over to the left coast? This map alone tells you why Hellary lost. What is truly amazing is that these fools don’t get it that the only people lobbying for tougher gun laws are in the states that already have them.

  7. This BS even by their own criteria. Texas gets an F with basically the same laws as C+ Minnesota while Wisconsin’s C- is marginally “better” than Virginia’s D with virtually identical gun laws.

    • But muh feels.

      This is strictly based on optics. Texas has a reputation (not totally warranted) as one of the most gun-friendly states in the Union. Minnesota does not have a strong cultural association with firearms, so they more or less get a pass.

      • That’s my point. Texas bad, Minnesota good in the minds of the gun grabbers. They may be Fudds but Minnesotans are well armed.

    • Maybe they want to make the gun-grabbers in the purple states feel like they’re accomplishing something, when the restrictions they’ve implemented are trivial compared to what they have in CA and NY.
      These are the same sort of people who came up with the idea of the participation ribbon and rotating “student of the week” award.

  8. Like every other social endeavor of the left, this group’s name is the Orwellian opposite of what they really are.

    • Exactly, except it’s not restricted to the left. CA senator just presented SB18, which if labeled in honest language it would be called the Family Destruction Bill, but in Orwell speak, it’s called the Children’s Bill of Rights.

  9. awesome, texas got an F for freedom, would love an f- and a higher ranking on the total list, but still hard to complain.

  10. How did Washington get a B?
    You can walk into any gun store in the state and buy an AK-15 assault rifle with a 100-round clip and bayonet lug along with 10,000 rounds of armor-piercing, hollow point, cop killer bullets in five minutes.

    Seriously though, the only things we have they like are the waiting period on handguns (which you can skip with a CPL), private party background checks (which everybody ignores, and nobody enforces), and the new GVRO initiative.
    There’s no registration, no bans (except machine guns), no magazine limits, shall issue CPL with no requirements beyond filling out the form, paying, and passing the background check, unrestricted open carry, and statewide preemption.

    Is that what these people consider success? I guess they’ve been eating garbage so long garbage is beginning to look like steak.

    • They consider the background check bill a major victory. It doesn’t matter that the bill was badly written and totally ignored for most “transfers.” California passed some similarly bogus law that goes into effect the first of the year. We already had universal background checks for sales and the like, but now if I go to the range or hunting with a nonfamily member, we cannot shoot each other’s guns or loan a gun to the friend without involving an FFL. I haven’t paid much attention to this new law, but since we have a 10 day waiting period that was recently upheld, I assume that this law applies to these kinds of loans as well. Why they think this promotes public safety is entirely a mystery. I expect that this law will also be widely ignored.

  11. It’s true guys, strict gun laws ALWAYS lead to lower crime. Don’t believe me? Check out Chicago, or Baltimore, or Oakland, or any number of liberal cities riddled with gang violence. I always tell my liberal friends “Don’t feel safe here in Utah with campus carry? Best you move to a safer place like Detroit”.

  12. A-

    Crap

    Still, we’re not California.

    In all seriousness, although we’re awful on semi-auto long-guns, we’re better on handguns and carry than most other A- states.

    • Anon in CT,
      Connecticut is the model for the progressive agenda, we have a gun registry, magazine registry and permit registry…Connecticut has lost manufacturing jobs due to malloy and democrats chasing gun mfg jobs out of state. At the present time we are better than some and worse than most….I have a few more years before I retire and I will be moving to an “F” rated state… most “F” rated states are more affordable and do not tax your retirement benefits like income… CT went from a beautiful prosperous place to raise a family to an expensive, heavily taxed state with a crumbling infrastructure in the last 35 years….sad.. can’t wait to see it in the rearview mirror

  13. YES! YES! IDAHO IS PROUDLY “F” ! We became a Constitutional Carry state on July 1, 2016, and we have Campus Carry (with an “enhanced” carry permit). Now we need to improve our Castle Doctrine laws. I would also like to see a State tax credit of up to $3000/yr for in-state purchases of guns and ammo (call it the “Personal Responsibility for Your Own Safety” Law; or maybe the “Well-Armed Militia Law”.) That last idea is probably going to be tough in a State that likes to runs a budget surplus, but I can always hope.

    Note to California Liberals: IDAHO IS VERY DANGEROUS! GUNS EVERYWHERE! LITTLE BABIES HAVE GUNS! ASSAULT WEAPONS ARE SOLD AT GARAGE SALES! DON’T MOVE HERE!

      • i’ve never been.
        even still idaho has always been (since high school) my ultimate retirement location scenario. probably never happen (kentuck, missou seem more likely).
        a visit is in order.

  14. I spend 8 months of the year in a “F” rated state and four in an “A” rated state. The description of why free states got a “F” made me loose IQ points. It was cringe worthy and hard to read through.

  15. Either “gun deaths” includes suicides and accidents, or my preconceived notions of how violent different states are is WAY out-of-whack! I don’t usually associate Montana or Alaska with violent crime, but many of those A and B states, on the other hand…

    • See my post way above for a link, but according to FBI crime data, Alaska has the highest violent crime rate of any state. I don’t know what the cause is, but there’s no correlation to anti-gun laws.
      I know Alaska also has the highest rate of people employed by a government entity. Maybe that’s what causes violent crime.

  16. I’m confused why PA got a C. Shall issue concealed carry, permit less open carry everywhere except for philly, no guns signs don’t carry the force of law. No waiting periods, no registrations, no bans on either “assault” rifles or “high capacity” magazines, no backround checks on private long gun sales. Hell, with permit less open carry and the signs not meaning anything, we’re better(worse in their scale) then Texas. The only thing Texas has on us is campus carry, which is technically legal in PA but left to the discretion of the college president where it’s allowed.

    • Reading the criteria for their rankings may answer your question. Took me a shorter number of seconds to figure it out than it took you to type out your comment/question.

    • Also (I missed the edit window) Pennslyvanians can own any nfa item, our concealed permit includes nfa items along with handguns, suppressed hunting is allowed, and semi auto hunting was just legalized.

  18. “Chicago reported its most murders—over 700—in 20 years.”
    “Consistently, we see a powerful correlation: states with stronger laws have fewer gun deaths per capita while states with weaker laws have more gun deaths.”

    How do they manage, with a straight face, to include both those sentences in the same article? Logic: Fail.

    • I would never bring up Chicago for any gun control arguments, they have relaxed the gun laws a LOT over the past couple years, and murders have been up a LOT over the past couple of years.

      • I’m sure that’s true, but what of it? The two statements I quoted are still wildly at odds with each other given Illinois’ B+ rating. And relaxed laws or not, I’m pretty sure murder is still illegal. Even in Chicago.

        • Sorry, just brain farted. Just so use to comments using Chicago as an example of a ‘failure of gun control”, when if anything it is a very good example of relaxing gun control. However the issues in Chicago have almost nothing to do with “gun control”.

    • It’s my D- state of Indiana responsible for providing guns for crimes in other states. Hope we can get Constitutional Carry and get upgraded to an F state.

  20. Reminds me of a conversation I had the other day, someone from Massasstwoshits argued that northern New England was so safe because we are ‘insulated’ by bordering states with strong gun control laws. I was at work, so it was one of those smile-and-nod moments.

    • And according to NYC’s government, all of your guns go to the hands of criminals in NYC, so there aren’t any left to commit crimes.

      • Good point! I’ll have to use that the next time I get stuck talking to a hoplophobe in an anti free speech zone. It’ll be fun to play along instead of holding my tongue.

  21. You got an F, Louisiana? That’s wonderful! I’m putting this up on the fridge so everyone can see it.

  22. The retarded-it burns! Illinois gets B+? Take Chiraq out & we ain’t that good/bad…shall issue, not horrible what I can own and I can easily cross into Indiana and buy my azz off…

  23. I’m guessing that universal background checks and banning magazines over x number of rounds is what makes them happiest. But for Colorado, I really think we deserve a much lower (better) grade. The background check is routinely ignored and the magazine restriction doesn’t keep anyone from bringing them in from another state. We have open carry, campus carry, and very few restrictions on concealed carry. I demand at least a solid ‘D’

  24. I did some quick copying and pasting into Excel. I lined up the states in the ARS chart, with their violent crime rates that I copied and pasted from here:
    http://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-most-dangerous-states-in-the-u-s.html

    Then I averaged each of the ARS letter grades. Here are the results:
    ARS Grade 2014 violent crimes/100K
    A 339.0
    B 340.9
    C 338.9
    D 275.4
    F 369.6

    See any trends? Yeah, me neither, other than maybe it’s good to be a D.

    To suggest that 2A infringements make people safer is simply a pile of horse dung. If you want to be safe, the best thing you can do is get the hell out of the big cities controlled by Democrats.

    • Don’t you get it? Violent crime rates don’t matter. Murder rates don’t matter. Only “gun deaths” are important. Of course including suicides. You can’t be REALY killed unless you get shot!

      ” …states with stronger laws have fewer gun deaths per capita while states with weaker laws have more gun deaths.” In other news, land locked states have much fewer shark attacks than coastal states!

  25. I call bullshit on this also. Montana is rated at 19.2 gun deaths per 100,000. With an approximate population of 1,000,000, that’s 192 gun deaths. No breakdown or explanation or for what period. The 2015 FBI UCR lists 36 murders, of which 13 were handguns and 5 were not identified.

    • They always pump up the numbers with suicides not performed by a government approved method. I wonder what Oregon and California’s suicide rate is when counting physician assisted termination? A person who does it themselves is morally superior to a someone who asks someone else to do it for him.

  27. So, I guess this answers the question, “If I essentially go full retard on an infographic, will anyone speculate about it?”

    The answer is sadly, yes.

    When I see a turd on the sidewalk, I just walk around it.

  28. Florida gets an “F” as well. But considering the number of states that do, it’s not a very big deal.

  29. So….. If California only gets an A, what is their criteria for an A+?

    I can only guest it is full restriction with full confiscation for extra credit.

  30. “Consistently, we see a powerful correlation: states with stronger laws have fewer gun deaths per capita while states with weaker laws have more gun deaths.”
    WTF!?!?!? Is there anyone at this site crazy enough to attempt to back this total BS up? I doubt it but consider just a few states chosen at (semi)random(where I live is at the top, naturally…):
    Montana: 1.2 gun murders per 100K people, 52.3 percent gun owners… at least according to Wikipedia
    California: 3.4 gun murders per 100K, 20.1% gun ownership rate
    D.C… 16.5 murders!!!, 21.8% gun owners
    Illinois, 2.8, 26.2%
    New York, 2.7, 10.3%
    Wyoming, 0.9, 53.8%-https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_in_the_United_States_by_state
    etc. etc. I am unable to find even ONE single instance of a state with heavier gun controls that does NOT have a higher violence, crime, or murder rate than those in areas with fewer gun restrictions, per capita.
    Perhaps this website is run by some of my old math challenged classmates in the liberal arts, who also used to argue(vehemently, I might add) that 50% off of an item that is already on sale at 50% off equals a cost of zero! I actually witnessed college educated morons argue this with math PhDs! Granted their ‘argument’ consisted of; ’50 minus 50 equals nothing’! No matter how much they argued, though, they could never get the item at zero cost. Gee, I wonder why????
    We in the hard sciences called these morons those that “have been educated beyond their intelligence”. And much like the professor in question, he ended her tirade with: “well, then I recommend that you hire a lawyer and sue the store… we have to move on”. And kudos to him. Why waste perfectly good class time on a gibbering idiot? There might be some that are there to learn(and paying for it to boot!), and not just scream about their feelings…

    • They count suicide by firearm, which is generally more than twice the rate of gun murders. It has a way of making gun crime statistically insignificant by comparison.

      Because if there were no guns, no one would be able to kill themselves.

      • And in states with severe gun restrictions, people are less likely to commit suicide by firearm.
        But like Curtis says, if we get rid of all the guns, nobody will be able to commit suicide, just like in Japan.

    • They probably include the accidental gunshot deaths and justifiable homicides in that number as well.

      We keep trying to get NC down to an “F”. They may be grading on a curve.

  32. Sneaky bastards, slipping that “over one million victims of gun violence” bit in with the death statistics. While it may not technically be a lie (depends on your definition of “victims of gun violence”), a casual reader will read that as over a million gun deaths in the last decade and decide “Something must be done!”.

  33. Im proud to get an F here in Florida.
    When we got school and open carry this year.
    Then maybe we can earn an F+

  35. I don’t think PA deserves a C. It should be at least a D-.

    PA is open carry, shall issue, has state preemption, and doesn’t require background checks for private sales of long guns.

    Even Philadelphia has to issue a permit to anyone with a clean record. Philadelphia does require that any outstanding taxes, fines, or fees are paid up (they now do this for everything, not just licenses to carry). They violate state law by doing this as well as taking 60 days when the state law requires 45 days (the state law limits the fee for the permit to $20).

  39. what I see is people from A states – can we call them A-holes? – are welcome to stay far away from my tranquil and mellow F state ( NM, not one of the few cities. The NM where you got horses in the front yard 5 minutes from downtown )

  40. Cool, Ohio got a “D”, which I assumes stands for “Deez nuts”. I think we all know what “F” stands for.

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