Reader Jake Burch writes: Media and pundits have pointed to many causes for Donald Trump’s unexpected victory. Largely ignored: the extent to which the issue of gun control vs. gun rights played a significant role in the outcome. While correlation does not mean causation, it’s worth looking at the difference in the performance of Trump and Hillary Clinton in states that are gun-friendly compared to those that aren’t.
To do that, we need a simple binary measure of whether a state can be considered gun-friendly. Looking at the electoral map, the similarity to my North Carolina concealed carry reciprocity map was obvious. [Reciprocity data taken from handgunlaw.us]
North Carolina’s permit requirements are fairly typical. So North Carolina reciprocity is a reasonably positive indicator of a state’s gun-friendliness. How about negative indicators? Universal background checks beyond federal requirements and magazine capacity restrictions have been the focus of recent encroachments on gun rights.
For this exercise, let’s define “gun-friendly” to mean:
– The state recognized the North Carolina Concealed Handgun Permit for all of 2016. (Sorry, Virginia, you were scratched because your attorney general played games earlier in the year.)
– The state doesn’t have and has not passed a universal background check law
– The state doesn’t have and has not passed magazine capacity restrictions
Thirty-eight states honored North Carolina’s CHP all of 2016. However, among these:
– Washington has universal background checks in place
– Nevada just passed universal background checks
– Colorado has magazine restrictions
That leaves thirty-five gun-friendly states by our definition. The animation at the top compares the electoral results map to the “gun-friendly” map.
Clinton won every state that isn’t gun-friendly but only four of thirty-five states that are (Delaware, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Vermont). Trump won no states that are not gun-friendly. Clinton and Trump split gun-friendly Maine’s electoral votes.
Once again, correlation does not mean causation, but the strong correlation between a state’s gun rights stance and the electoral results certainly deserves more attention than it has received.
Even though I am boxed in here in gun unfriendly Massachusetts, my 2A rights were the number 1 reason why I voted for Trump. Being one of the recipients of the MA attorney generals ‘re-interpretation’ of the AWB pushed me over the top. I knew my life would be hell under Clinton. I am willing to give Trump some latitude in other areas of American politics. I really want to stuff the gun grabbers back under the rock they crawled out from.
I’m stuck over here in Western Massachusetts also brother. I also voted Trump hoping against hope to win a SCOTUS pick and maybe even some national reprocicity. I believe having a gun friendly edge in the SCOTUS will help with the lawsuits brought against our communist AG.
Southeast MA reporting in. If I didn’t live in a red town, I would already have left.
Unexpected win? I said it from day 1. The American people were ready for a change. Not business as usual.
Guns did play a part in the dems defeat. Remember, it wasn’t just hillary that lost her race. The dems made no headway in the house or senate. And local races went towards the gop also.
Could Trump have carried it without the support of gun owners? Probably not. It was a tight run race and every bit of support was vital.
I have not voted since 1995. I have not felt the need to go out and vote for one of the clowns that were running for either party.
This year was different Mike second amendment rights which mean quite a bit to me being disabled combat infantryman. I voted for the first time since 1995 for Donald Trump and was very proud to do so this country needs a freaking enema to eliminate the corrupt politicians career politicians that have been bypassing the checks and balances system set up to keep politicians legit.
But after spending 25 30 years as a career politician you’re able to bypass these checks and balances system with corruption hence Hillary Clinton and her whole crew of felons.
I’m hoping that mr. Trump lives up to his promises and turns the entire system on its ass and shakes it real good and let’s all the dead weight Fallout. I’m hoping for the best. I really think the liberal Democrats didn’t count on us rednecks as they would refer us as coming out of the woodwork to vote in masses due to the fact that we the people do not believe in corruption or corrupt politicians who have been corrupting our constitution for the last 25 years if not more.
We want a person who we can relate to who is a normal business man one of us if you will even that we makes a hell of a lot more money than most of us. He’s got a good head on his shoulders and I want to see what he’s capable of completing I would even go out and vote for a second time around for Donald I was able to speak with his son at the NRA convention for some time and he seems to be the right man for the job.
But I agree with you all gun activist played a big part of winning Donald Trump selection. The liberal Progressive media will not have any word on such statistics they want to write this off as they normally do.
They’ve got something coming too I guarantee it if I know Donald Trump. I would like to see the liberal Progressive media B turned on its head as well and required to be fat checked at all times to make sure that the media that they are reporting on is correct just the facts ma’am none of your liberal b******* to go along with it please.
And if they do not report accurate correct news they cannot keep their news label they have to be considered an entertainment broadcast like watching The Simpsons with no news. Just another entertainment show to watch to laugh at. That oughta keep them in line to report the facts only and not a bunch of liberal biased crap.
wait how’d va get on the not gun friendly list? ah should’ve read the article first yeah that was a dick move by the ag
It only hurts the (D)’s for them to keep beating this horse.
It hurt them in the past, it hurts them today and it will continue to hurt them.
+1.
Bubba Clinton and the Dems supported the AWB for no real reason other than their NE/West Coast base demanded it. Result: GOP house control for the first time in decades (and, of course, the AWB was all for naught because it automatically sunsetted). Clinton later acknowledged that the AWB was a boneheaded political move — it did not gain anything tangible for his side, but cost them terribly.
Obama (like most Dems who aren’t in utterly safe seats) at least had the sense not to advertise his disdain of gun rights until after he was reelected.
Hillary and her minions, OTOH, thought the election was in the bag and so did not feel the need to even pretend, and flew the anti-gun flag proudly. Result: electoral wipeout, quite possibly a solid Supreme Court majority that will enforce and extend Heller, and a Congress that will likely pass some actual “common sense” gun laws (like the HPA and CC reciprocity). Plus a president who’s likely to undo decades of anti-2A regulations and executive orders.
Smart Dems might get the idea that gun control is a “third rail” issue that they are better off leaving alone (especially given the current cultural trends toward more gun ownership and carrying in most places). However, if they want to keep backing that losing horse, it’s fine with me, as it’ll likely ensure GOP control over most of the country for generations.
Have you noticed all the states that have legal marijuana in them are liberal Democratic states except for Florida. And every day more and more New Yorkers and New Jersey people move to Florida that’s why it was so close of an election they all come down here to retire and vacation indefinitely. They’re like hemorrhoids you don’t mind them so much when they pop down and then they go back up it’s when they pop down and stay is when there’s a problem LOL.
It’s almost like the politicians were pushing legalizing marijuana to certain States and planning on using that to confiscate guns when you fail a piss test. Maybe that was a big plot that Hillary was starting let’s legalize pot so that they won’t miss their guns. Typical stupid liberal media politics I just thought I would leave that up see what anybody else comments on it. But it does look that way though if you look at the map kind of freaky. The only reason why I brought it up was we were just talking about it on here I believe last night.
Boy, you are giving them a lot of credit with your thesis on gun control via urinalysis. Pretty funny but most improbable.
Yeah you’re probably right. But I do know that they weren’t counting on All of Us coming out of the woodwork to support gun rights and voting Donald Trump I know that. Look at all the red on that map that’s a beautiful thing.
Eh, Washington was one of, if not the FIRST state to have Shall issue (1961). We only appear liberal because of Seattle/Everett/Tacoma. The rest of the state is pretty much “leave me the f@ck alone” hence the reason that we have legalized Mary Jane – why the f@ck do I care what someone else does? Sell it, tax it, and be done with it.
Its the immigrants from CA that are screwing it up….
Old news. Actually the legal marijuana petitions were run in conjunction with the ammunition magazine limitations and back ground check petitions in Colorado. The strategy was to turn out the “stoner” vote. It worked
Colorado’s magazine limit and background check were passed through the legislature and signed by the governor. Unlike pot legalization, which was via petition of Ammendment 64. The gun laws led to recalls and resignations, but they’re here to stay until there’s a progun governor and house.
Virginia is VERY gun-friendly. We are home to the NRA and VCDL. The only part of VA that is blue is NOVA (Northern Virginia). NOVA is home to all the MD, NJ, DC, NY transplants. Unfortunatly, this small area has the numbers on the rest of the state.
The same can be said about many other states. Colorado is a gun friendly state, but the hippies and dreamers from the Denver area stole the rights from the rest of the state.
Not to mention Virginia has both legal open carry (with some caveats) and shall-issue concealed carry, plus no registration or permits required for ownership, and has state preemption of any local restrictions on gun laws.
But, Virginia also has one notable law that some gun owners may not be aware of, which could get them in trouble. There are a number of places you can’t open-carry certain loaded firearms unless you have a valid concealed carry permit.
§ 18.2-287.4. “Carrying loaded firearms in public areas prohibited; penalty.
It shall be unlawful for any person to carry a loaded (a) semi-automatic center-fire rifle or pistol that expels single or multiple projectiles by action of an explosion of a combustible material and is equipped at the time of the offense with a magazine that will hold more than 20 rounds of ammunition or designed by the manufacturer to accommodate a silencer or equipped with a folding stock or (b) shotgun with a magazine that will hold more than seven rounds of the longest ammunition for which it is chambered on or about his person on any public street, road, alley, sidewalk, public right-of-way, or in any public park or any other place of whatever nature that is open to the public in the Cities of Alexandria, Chesapeake, Fairfax, Falls Church, Newport News, Norfolk, Richmond, or Virginia Beach or in the Counties of Arlington, Fairfax, Henrico, Loudoun, or Prince William.
The provisions of this section shall not apply to law-enforcement officers, licensed security guards, military personnel in the performance of their lawful duties, or any person having a valid concealed handgun permit or to any person actually engaged in lawful hunting or lawful recreational shooting activities at an established shooting range or shooting contest. Any person violating the provisions of this section shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor.”
So, if you walk around one of these cities or counties and open-carry a loaded AR-15 and 30-round mag, or a shotgun with a 9-round extended tube, or a threaded-barrel HK-45 Tactical model for example, and you don’t have a CHP, you could be charged with a Class 1 misdemeanor. Roanoke is trying to get itself added to this list in 2017.
I based my classification on government rules and regulations, not surveys of people’s attitudes.Given what we have seen, it is probably fair to call the Virginia legislature gun-friendly, but the governor and attorney general not gun-friendly.
What you think?
Clinton lost because of Obama circumventing Congress. Shown to be a liar and thief of America’s resources, compromised national security, screwed Hatians, collusion with the DNC, supported by a corrupt media, and wanted to restrict lawful self defense. Democrats flocked to Trump because America was turned into a Chinese distribution enter while jobs sent to Mexico and Asia. Just over half saw through the decades of government lying to the people, lack of accountability and the dual standard of justice.
If Republicans squander this opportunity, there is no hope for America or the world.
Even though Oregon has universal background checks, I would argue the gun laws in Oregon are better than most states. With a concealed handgun license, one can legally carry (open or concealed) in schools, universities, bars, hospitals, churches, police stations, etc. Pretty much anywhere except for court facilities and federal buildings. Without a CHL, open carry is severely limited in most cities (state law gives cities the ability to regulate “loaded open carry” – most cities have adopted a ban on loaded open carry – those laws don’t apply to CHL holders). Signs on private property/businesses also don’t carry the force of law. There’s no mag limits, although the Gov. is trying to push that through along with other unconstitutional laws. I would rather have universal background checks and the ability to carry practically ANYWHERE, than have so many restrictions on where I can carry and not have universal background checks. The crazy thing is Oregon didn’t have universal background checks until last year. But most sheriffs have stated they won’t enforce it.
It’s correlation not causation. Red voters tend to be gun friendly so Red states are gun friendly. However, I think it was an issue that had an impact on blue collar Democrats. They are generally gun friendly. They are also more likely to be Fudds so the next time you go off on Fudds remember that.
Why? You a Fudd?
Oh wow, you are so very wrong about MN being “unfriendly” gun wise. You explain your measurement method but sorry, you are wrong. There are no magazine restrictions, UBC laws, we can own NFA items including gun mufflers, it’s a must issue permit state,open carry, we can hunt with everything, teachers can carry if they obtain administrator permission. I mean seriously…not gun friendly?
I agree that Minnesota is as gun friendly as Texas which is to say it is in the middle of the pack. You can not open carry like we do in Wisconsin or Virginia without a permit. (I hold a non resident Minnesota permit since I live along the Mississippi and have reason to go to Minnesota.)
Minnesota will be stuck in the unfriendly column until those bastard DFLers recognize my Iowa permit to carry weapons. For me MN is actually more gun unfriendly than Illinois!
If you look at their reciprocity map you will notice that they don’t recognuze permits from adjacent states but any Minnesota County Sheriff will be happy to take your $100 cash on the barrelhead for your non resident permit.
Can you say cash for the Sheriff’s slush fund?
Thanks, but I think I’ll keep my money and just avoid the state.
Kind of a must for me since my son lives on the other side of the river.
Not gun rights specifically so much as arrogance & hubris. Our whole system is structured around protecting the rights of significant minorities. Hillary was spoiling to deal a death blow to millions of; gun owners, tax payers, small business, the religious, white American males. It was still close, but this vengeful approach of attacking minorities on behalf of a majority coalition is precisely what the electoral college is structured against. Not unless you have a super majority of urbanites will you run roughshod over the remainder and their disproportionate representation.
We’ve been saved for now, but majorities always make the decision in the end, so we’d better not bank on winning despite the popular vote again.
“… we’d better not bank on winning despite the popular vote again.”
I don’t believe that Republicans will ever win the popular vote for President of the United States for the simple fact that California, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois combined are 82 million people, of which about 80% will vote for a Democrat for President even if the candidate were Adolph Hitler (dead or alive).
When just four states contain 25% of the U.S. population and 80% of them are always going to vote for the D candidate, that is insurmountable. Remember, Republicans only get just over 50% of the vote in other states with large populations like Florida, Texas, and Ohio.
I think Trump’s strategy is the right strategy: do NOT waste any resources in California, New York, Illinois, or New Jersey … or even the smaller states for that matter like Massachusetts, Connecticut, Hawaii, and Rhode Island who will ALWAYS vote D.
Future elections will basically boil down to Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Virginia.
In a two party system there will always be swings from one party to the other. People are naturally dissatisfied with government. 20 years from now people will forget how much the Dems suck just like they forgot how much Jimmy Carter sucked 8 years ago. Right now Republicans have more power than they’ve had in almost a century. The statehouses are packed with Republicans and they received 3 million more congressional votes than Democrats. It just turned out that this year both parties nominated the absolute worst candidates they could find. Rubio would have beaten Clinton in a Reaganesque landslide. Democrats won big with ‘the first African-American president’, but now the party is decimated.
What I really don’t ever see happening is the Democratic candidate losing the popular vote but winning the electoral college. The system was set up this way (as was the Senate) so that big states couldn’t push little states around, and this election is solid evidence that it works. For the Dems to win that way would require them to become champions of the rights of small states, which would be a 180 degree turnaround.
“California, New York, New Jersey, and Illinois combined are 82 million people, of which about 80% will vote for a Democrat for President even if the candidate were Adolph Hitler”
Obviously correct, since the same fools just voted for Lucretia Borgia.
Hey! Lay off Ralph!
Lucretia was supposedly an archetypical femme fatale- hot!
Don’t demean her like that!
“When just four states contain 25% of the U.S. population and 80% of them are always going to vote for the D candidate, that is insurmountable.”
Not quite.
After the election, one of the pundits offered an interesting viewpoint.
Each of the 50 States gets just 2 Senate votes. That means just *one* small, conservative state like North Dakota effectively negates California’s two Senate votes.
That’s a *powerful* check to the Progressive controlled large population states like Cali and New York.
That is something we need to pay close attention to…
Who is “we” barn, you NeverTrumper? Go piss up a rope. You are not part of “we”.
I don’t understand the decisions that produced the pictured map at all.
Nevada and Virginia are “shall-issue” states. Delaware is not. How can they be “gun-unfriendly” but Delaware isn’t?
How is South Carolina more “gun friendly” than Virginia, when people with licenses from places like Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Vermont, Mississippi and Illinois are forbidden from carrying there (and also denied a chance to even apply for a non-resident permit in the first place unless they own property in the Palmetto State? Handgunlaw.us (assuming it’s correct, as I have not checked it,) says Virginia recognizes all out of state licenses now.
This just feels an exercise in cooking the data to produce the desired result….
“I don’t understand the decisions that produced the pictured map at all.”
Do you mean the algorithm is unclear or that you do not understand why I chose this algorithm? If the latter, I was looking for something simple that I could pull together in an hour. There are readily available lists of states that fit each of the three criteria.
“Nevada and Virginia are “shall-issue” states. Delaware is not. How can they be ‘gun-unfriendly’ but Delaware isn’t?” Nevada was scratched for universal background checks that go beyond federal law. Virginia was scratched because earlier this year
Nevada just passed universal background checks. Virginia in January stopped honoring my CHP from North Carolina, along with those from 24 other states. That is now restored, but my criterion was consistent honoring of NC’s CHP for all of 2016.
“How is South Carolina more ‘gun friendly’ than Virginia, when people with licenses from places like Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Vermont, Mississippi and Illinois are forbidden from carrying there (and also denied a chance to even apply for a non-resident permit in the first place unless they own property in the Palmetto State? Handgunlaw.us (assuming it’s correct, as I have not checked it,) says Virginia recognizes all out of state licenses now.”
I could have picked a different state as the metric with different results, but I chose my own state of North Carolina. Virginia stopped honoring permits from 25 states including NC earlier this year (though they are now restored). South Carolina did not.
“This just feels an exercise in cooking the data to produce the desired result….”
I encourage you to perform a more sophisticated analysis. Including more criteria such may/shall issue, AWBs, open carry restrictions, carry on school grounds, restaurants that serve alcohol, churches, etc. could all be included, be assigned weights to reflect their subjective importance, and ranked. Then a subjective dividing line could be chose, and the map redrawn. Every weight could be challenged on the same “cooking the data” basis, as could the choice of dividing line.
My algorithm has the virtue of being simple, uses easy to find data, and is tied to objective binary measures of issues that are the subject of much public debate. I was able to pull the information together in half an hour and had the map finished in another hour. While the first criterion is admittedly parochial, I do not think it is fair to call these choices “cooking the data.”
Sorry for the typos above.
The issue is too complex to reduce to a binary distinction.
Despite UBCs, WA remains a very gun friendly state overall. Things are trending in the wrong direction but to lump it in with CA or NY at this stage is ludicrous.
Yeah gun rights had something to do with it. How big a role I have no clue…but let’s keep it up!
What this website doesn’t tell you is that red fascist right-wing gun-friendly states have higher murders, crime, suicide and corrupt than CA,NY, IL, MA, HI.
Pro-gun states are even known to fudge and cook their crime stats.
Pro-gun states have higher concentrations of street gangs.
Pro-gun states refuse to do anything about stopping flows of smuggled guns into safe states.
Pro-gun states have higher concentrations of mass shootings in general.
Incidents like these don’t happen in Europe, Canada, Australia and Japan on a daily basis.
I don’t see these countries going to hell in a hand-basket.
Cry me a river you lying female dog.
If you like it in the other countries so much, pack your shit and GTFO. Don’t try to change the US, GTFO. If the US is “going to hell in a handbasket”, GTFO.
Liar. Chicago alone has over 700 murders this year. Your so called statistics are figments of your imagination.
“… red fascist right-wing gun-friendly states have higher murders, crime, suicide and corrupt than CA,NY, IL, MA, HI.”
Your claim is demonstrably false since South Dakota and Utah have lower murder and violent crime rates than California and New York.
Your claim is also demonstrably false when you look at counties within a given state. All those “red fascist” counties in states like Missouri, Michigan, or Wisconsin have near ZERO violent crime rates, while their “blue Progressive utopia” counties have obscenely high violent crime rates.
Cry me a river, AmericanPatriotsAgaInstProGunOppression. I love it!
Europe isn’t going to Hell in hand basket? How about more than 1,000 sexual assaults in one day in Cologne, Germany? How about the several hundred injured/killed in attacks in France last year?
Japan isn’t going to Hell in a hand basket? How about their suicide rate which is substantially higher than the United States? How about their criminal-justice system which can legally coerce “confessions” out of “suspects” which have NO right to remain silent?
But go ahead and keep making demonstrably false claims. They suggest that ALL of your claims are false.
Illinois via Chicago has incredible violence and massive corruption. You’ve taken over the Dumbazz Troll award…
Don’t you have a trump protest to attend with the other emasculated boys?
Come on guys and gals this has to Robert ginning up discussion .. No real anti-gunner is this stupid.
Oh yes he is. That’s why he’s our pet tr0ll.
Given that about 120,000 votes swung three critical states to DJT, it’s hard to make a case against gun rights being a critical, perhaps decisive issue.
Had we stayed home because of misleading and contemptuous comments about Trump made by people who should know better, the B!tch would be the President Elect and we’d be fvcked.
Yup. Barn, jwtaylor, Sara Tipton are the first three that come to mind.
Idaho and arkansas is deep red and have very weak defense laws what say this ?
Colorado also has UBC’s. This is NOT California yet, at all. Stop lumping us in with shitty states. We have everything half of the country is yearning for already. We have a couple stupid laws that need repealed, and that’s it. Is this AZ, or WY? No, but we are not the anti gun bastion that we are made out to be.
the correlation IS NOT causation, that’s true. It’s that both outcomes (gun friendliness and voting patterns) are effects of the people’s attitude to freedom in general, the attitudes toward personal responsibilty and traditional American values.
Outside of chiraq… Illinois is pro gun. Just a large concentration of liberals in a small area ruining it for everyone.
A coworker of mine just went out and bought his first firearm. He lives in the burbs just outside the border of shitcago. A Springfield xdm9. His father… a liberal lifer in shitcago…. disowned him. I now have a new brother and sister in law who will be over for thanksgiving and Christmas. I promise I will take good care of him.
On a side note I have met his father. The most close minded and intolerant piece of sh!t I have ever met.
Delaware isn’t nearly gun friendly. VA is much better. DE will lose under Government Carney even more.
DE has no NFA items and CCW is a real Pita.
I can’t speak for the rest of the country, but here in Colorado I think you can chalk up that blue color on the map to the people that move here.
9000 people a month move just to the Denver Metro area each month, more than half from Cali. I’ve read that the state overall has been getting on the order of 40K new residents a month recently. Again, over half from Cali.
Given the driving and number of accidents during our first snowfall I don’t find it difficult to believe.
I’ve noticed more Illinois plates than anything else here in the Springs. Most of the out of state plates I see are from Il, Appalachian states, and midwestern states.
Yes and CA is back filling the exodus with illegals as fast as they can hand out driver licenses, obama phones and ebt cards.
In an election where every vote counted and some states were won by only the narrowest of margins, I’d say the gun-owners played a major part and should hold their heads high. It wasn’t necessarily a pretty choice. It wasn’t necessarily an easy choice but for the awfulness that was embodied by Hillary Clinton and her party’s grasping attempts to control a free nation.
Now it remains to be seen whether promises will be kept and rights preserved. We continue to watch.
From TiborasaurusRex on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/9jeHDw8nqn4
Interesting note: the Missouri CCW permit is good in all most all red states, and not in almost all blue states. See the maps at the Three Percent Training page posted Thursday. https://www.facebook.com/3PercentTraining/
Nevada background checks barely passed by 10k votes. Thanks to Clark county and the harry Reid machine. Nevada is still very gun friendly and I wouldn’t be surprised if the law gets gutted in the future if the governor and a new state house have anything to say about it.
My “history” of 2nd Amendment support goes all the way back to the GCA 1968. When Obama made his “Sandy Hook Speech” in Dec.2012 it brought me back to my determination to defeat Democrat Gun Control once and for all. Even though I renewed my advocacy, all the rules had changed, especially when it comes to methods – example “Social Media” on the Internet which wouldn’t even exist for another 30 years beyond 1968. I jumped in and it took too long to suit me to discover how much the NRA had advanced. But at least I got in a full year attending Friends of the NRA events and donating monthly to the NRA-ILA and NRA-PVF.
I began using my Facebook page over a year ago, too: well before we even knew which candidates would be running. About the same time, I learned from Democrats that they planned to make Hillary their candidate and they bragged they were going to raise $2 billion for her campaign. Well, that brought back memories and the first thing was remembering that the Democrats weren’t all for gun control. An NRA official confirmed that the NRA used to donate to more Democrats than Republicans. So it was should be called Clinton Democrats or Hillary Democrats who started this current political war on OUR 2nd Amendment.
Whatever, one thing I think needs to be passed around is that we didn’t reach most gun owners. If we had gotten even 20% of the 100+ million gun owners interested enough to vote, Trump and the Republicans would have had landslide victories in the popular vote. We have done a great thing but it could have been greater. I would have thought people would know the advantage of having that much effect on our country, how much power for good we would have. Any suggestions on how we can “reach” those 100 million disinterested gun owners?
Colorado vs. New Mexico…
Having lived in both states, I do not agree that New Mexico is more gun friendly than Colorado.
Colorado has some anti-gun laws, which were mostly passed in 2013 by only a margin of a few votes in the legislature, and mostly relate to what you can buy. However, if you actually CARRY guns, especially open carry, Colorado’s laws are much more pro-gun than New Mexico. For example:
In Colorado you can carry concealed at public universities. In NM you must leave your gun in your car.
In Colorado you can open carry in places that sell alcohol, like gas stations and Walmart. In NM, you can’t.
In Colorado, you can carry concealed any type of handgun with your permit. In NM there are caliber restrictions based on what you used to qualify.
In Colorado, you can conceal more than one gun at a time. In NM, you can’t.
In Colorado, open carry is fairly common..if you’re looking for it, you’ll see it from time to time. In NM, you rarely see it.
Additionally, the culture is much more live-and-let-live in Colorado, while in NM it’s more like what I experienced living in California…