Giffords, the civilian disarmament advocacy operation run by Mark Kelly and Gabby Giffords, has just released their annual ratings of gun laws throughout these United States. In case it isn’t clear, this is one test you want your state to fail.
Giffords rates 22 states as having what our readers and millions of American gun owners would consider good gun laws. In other words, Giffords gives them a grade of F.
You can probably guess the Second Amendment-infringing states on which Giffords bestowed their highest mark. They are California, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New York and Hawaii. No surprises there.
Giffords even provides commentary on the 2018 “progress” each state made in restricting the right to keep and bear arms. For our F-rated home state of Texas, they say . . .
Texas did not enact any firearm-related legislation in 2018. The state has very weak gun safety laws and is a major exporter of crime guns. To raise its grade above an F and save lives from gun violence, Texas should pass universal background checks, prohibit hate crime offenders from accessing guns, and repeal its dangerous campus carry law.
Yay us!
As for the gun control nirvana of California . . .
California continued to strengthen its already strong gun laws in 2018 by, among other things, raising the minimum age to purchase and manufacture guns and broadening its domestic violence laws. To uphold its role as a leader in gun violence prevention, California should also substantially increase its investment in violence intervention programs, restrict bulk firearm purchases, and regulate the sale of homemade “ghost gun” components.
And yet Californians are abandoning the state at the rate of about 2000 per week. Go figure.
While Giffords provides a graph showing each state’s gun death rate compared to the national average, they don’t go to the same amount of effort to show the number of defensive gun uses by state. The reason for that is a mystery.
You can see how your own state is doing here, if you don’t mind giving them a click.