The Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, a gun control advocacy group, has issued its new scorecard on gun laws—the more restrictive, the better—and most states get failing grades, except for all three states on the West Coast, Illinois and a handful of states in the northeast.
According to CNN, Giffords isn’t happy with Florida (a permitless carry bill is headed to Gov. Ron DeSantis’ desk), North Carolina, Tennessee, New Hampshire, Maine, Arizona and Georgia. And that’s just for starters. Alaska and the Rocky Mountain states are all losers, according to the Giffords grading chart.
Kelly Drane, research director at Giffords, told CNN that 26 states “got a failing grade on our 2023 scorecard.” By no small coincidence, when DeSantis signs permitless carry next week, that’s the number of states which will no longer require law-abiding citizens to get a permit or license to carry concealed sidearms for personal protection. This includes Ohio and Indiana, both of which passed permitless carry laws.
She gave attention to Oregon for raising its grade by passing Measure 114 last November, but didn’t mention that four federal and one state lawsuit have prevented the law from taking effect. The legal challenges have brought every major gun rights organization on the map into that fight, either directly or by default.
“We also saw some really important progress,” she told CNN. “Oregon passed a suite of new gun safety laws with ballot measure. They saw their grade increase from last year (from a B- to a B+).”
Gun owners in neighboring Washington State are also finding their rights under attack, which seems to satisfy the Giffords group, and California is another shrine to gun control, according to a color-coded map of the country on the Giffords website. However, increasing numbers of Washington gun owners are getting concealed pistol licenses. The state Department of Licensing advised Liberty Park Press Friday that the number of active CPLs has climed to 698,147, up slightly from the 697,690 reported at the end of February.
As for the states with “F” grades, Drane laments, “In many of these states, you could go pick up a gun today and, as you leave the gun store, you could carry it around your city, around in your public parks and on the streets and in restaurants and bars. So it’s incredibly concerning.”
