LITTLE ROCK, AR – Today, Everytown for Gun Safety launched the updated “Gun Law Rankings” for 2024, an online tool and website that ranks all 50 states based on the strength of their gun laws and catalogs gun safety laws state by state. This year, Everytown’s state gun law rankings also shows whether states’ rankings increased or decreased over the past year, reflecting progress made by passing common-sense gun safety policies or setbacks as a result of enacting dangerous measures backed by the gun lobby. Everytown’s analysis found that Arkansas ranks 50th in the nation for its weak gun laws and saw its rank drop from a rank of 49 last year.
While gun-sense legislators in states like Minnesota and Michigan took action this past year to pass common-sense gun safety policies including Extreme Risk laws and background check requirements for all gun sales, gun lobby-backed legislators instead focused their efforts on making it easier to carry guns in public, including in schools.
“Arkansas lawmakers continue to erode the few remaining common-sense gun laws in our state, which has made us the state with the weakest gun laws in the country,” said Anna Morshedi, a volunteer with the Arkansas chapter of Moms Demand Action. “We need lawmakers to take action to stop guns from getting into the hands of people with dangerous histories and need lawmakers to address the root cause of the problem and keep our children and communities safe from gun violence. We will continue to fight this every step of the way — our safety is at stake here and we will not back down.”
Arkansas has the 8th-highest rate of gun deaths in the US. In an average year, 631 people die by guns.
Little Rock had the 12th highest rate of gun homicide in 2021 (26.2 per 100,000) and the 11th highest rate of guns stolen from cars in 2020 (138.4 per 100,000).
To speak with an expert about Everytown’s State Gun Law Rankings or gun violence prevention efforts in Arkansas, please contact [email protected]
