Everytown for Gun Safety Releases 2024 State Gun Law Rankings, Iowa Ranks 31 in the Nation for the Strength of its Gun Laws

Gun Law Ranking for 2024 Releases Following School Shooting at Perry High School in Perry Iowa

DES MOINES, IA – 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 Iowa ranks 31st in the nation for its weak gun laws.

Iowa has weak gun laws and extremist lawmakers have spent the last decade rolling back their gun safety measures they once had, including the state legislature’s recent votes to eliminate both its handgun permit-to-purchase and concealed carry permitting requirements in 2021. Just four years earlier, Iowa enacted a Shoot First law. Iowa also sees disparate racial impacts of gun violence that exceed the national average: Black people in the state are significantly more likely to die by gun violence than white people.

“The horrific news out of Perry Iowa is the real life consequence of lawmakers choosing the gun lobby’s ‘guns everywhere’ agenda over protecting our children’s lives,” said Sarah Hayes, a volunteer with the Iowa chapter of Moms Demand Action. “We all have the right to feel safe going to work, in our daily routines, and especially in our schools  — and we won’t stop fighting for common-sense gun safety until every Iowan is guaranteed it.” 

More information about gun violence in Iowa is available here.