The leading cause of death for kids ages 1-19 in the United States is gun violence. Instead of going to school and getting a free lunch, they get shot. It’s grim, but the reality for many families in America. Despite these tragedies, gun reform is still a heated debate within American politics. Every time another mass shooter ends up on the news, the debate resurfaces. Politicians on the left often demand action. Others on the right say that gun laws won’t help. “Criminals don’t follow the law,” They claim that “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”
Is any of this true? Or just a way for the gun enthusiasts to justify their profits?
Well, to find out, I have checked what the actual data shows; I wanted to find out which states experienced the most mass shootings, and where the deadliest shootings in America took place. There’s a huge pattern in the data that seems obvious but is still ignored by everyone who opposes gun laws: Republican states with the weakest gun laws pay for it in blood (Shocker, I know…)
A study published in Jama Network Open, conducted by researchers from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, analyzed 4,011 mass shootings in the United States between the years 2014-2022. They found out the top 10 states with the most mass shootings per capita, along with their political ideology and the strength of their gun laws.
Before I give you the list, it’s important that I mention that different studies use a different definition of “mass shooting.” This article in particular used the Gun Violence Archive’s definition—”Four or more people shot at one location, not counting the shooter.”
| Rank | State | Shootings for every 1 million people | Political lean | Gun Laws |
| 1 | Louisiana | 4.2 | Republican | D |
| 2 | Illinois | 3.6 | Democrat | B |
| 3 | Mississippi | 2.72 | Republican | F |
| 4 | Alabama | 2.60 | Republican | F |
| 5 | South Carolina | 2.54 | Republican | F |
| 6 | Missouri | 2.40 | Republican | F |
| 7 | Arkansas | 2.31 | Republican | F |
| 8 | Tennessee | 2.18 | Republican | F |
| 9 | Georgia | 2.05 | Republican | D |
| 10 | Oklahoma | 1.98 | Republican | F |
According to the evidence, it’s (to no one’s surprise) clear that the overwhelming majority of states with the highest shooting rates per capita all lean republican and hold an F or D grade when it comes to the strength of their gun laws.
The only exception to this was Illinois, despite having strong gun laws there still in second place behind Louisiana. However, the reasoning for this is quite simple: Chicago. Illinois borders other states like Indiana, Missouri, and Wisconsin, which all have significantly weaker gun regulation, making it easier for illegal guns to come across state borders and land in the hands of wrong doers in Chicago. — As noted by Everytown for Gun Safety, “An outsized share of likely trafficked crime guns recovered in Illinois begin their journey in states with weak laws”
Now let’s compare this list with states with the lowest gun deaths per capita. States like Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Hawaii, all have democratic governors and have received A grades regarding the strength of their gun laws. The correlation between the strength of gun laws and the amount of gun deaths is so obvious that it’s a shock that somehow, our children, siblings, and parents being shot up while at work or school is still a political issue.
Now let’s take a look at the list of the deadliest shootings in American History and where they leaned politically At the time of the shooting.
| Rank | Shooting | State/Political lean | Weapons legally obtained? |
| 1 | Las Vegas Shooting | Nevada: Swing State | Yes |
| 2 | Pulse Nightclub Shooting | Florida: Republican | Yes |
| 3 | Virginia Tech Shooting | Virginia: Republican (at the time) | Yes |
| 4 | Sandy Hook Elementary school shooting | Connecticut: Democrat | Yes (although purchased legally, gunman stole the guns from his mother) |
| 5 | Sutherland Springs Church Shooting | Texas: Republican | Yes |
| 6 (Tied) | Luby Shooting | Texas: Republican | Yes |
| 7 | El Paso Walmart shooting | Texas: Republican | Yes |
| 8 | San Ysidro Mcdonald’s Massacre | California: Republican (at the time) | Yes |
| 9 | Uvalde School Shooting | Texas: Republican | Yes |
| 10 | Lewiston Shootings | Maine: Swing State | Yes |
The data is as clear as day: 7/10 of the deadliest shootings in American history leaned Republican, and all 10 of those shootings had their weapons obtained legally in states with weak gun laws.
According to a study in 2019 from BMJ, states that had weak gun laws and a higher percentage of gun ownership faced more mass shootings than states with weaker laws. The study noted that states with a 10% increase in gun ownership also had a 35.1% increase in mass shootings.
Protectors of gun rights try to make the claim that shootings are a rare occurrence. However, rarity shouldn’t matter when the United States experiences 10 times the number of mass shootings than other similar countries. This is not because Americans are more violent, Americans are subsequently one of the only countries that are so well armed.
“What about the black markets?”
This is probably one of the best arguments that gun law opponents have. According to a study by the Bureau of Investigation Statistics, 56% of criminals who used a gun during their crime did not obtain the gun legally. In Chicago, studies involving gang-affiliated individuals found that 97% of inmates got their weapons from theft, straw purchases, and social networks.
The truth is basic gun laws won’t eradicate gun violence entirely, but they can be a huge difference as most “illegal” weapons started off as a legal one.
The ATF found that 99% of guns used either in the black market or used in a crime were traced all the way back to licensed weapon dealers.
So what’s the solution? Well, I propose a national gun registry to counter the black markets. This piece of legislation will make guns work a lot like cars.
- Every gun must be registered to the person who bought it. Similar to buying a car, a gun owner should have to pay for new registration for their weapon every single year. This will limit the number of guns a single person would want to own and deter them from selling the gun off to someone else, as they would have to keep making registration payments. Developed countries like Canada and Australia already have these requirements.
- If a person wants to sell their weapon, they must go through an official “title” change similar to changing car ownership, the new owner would be subject to background checks. This prevents people from purchasing a gun legally, then selling it off to someone else, where it would later be used in a crime.
- This legislation would also require gun owners to report a lost or missing weapon within a 72 hour period, ensuring someone whose weapon was found at a scene of the crime doesn’t just claim that they had “lost” it months before.
- Gun stores and individuals will be required to have higher security, including locked safe rooms for gun stores and small safes for individuals. This will make it significantly harder for criminals to gain access to a store’s weapons supply, deterring gun store raids and theft.
The bottom line is that these claims that gun laws “don’t work” do not hold up to the data. Hopefully, in my lifetime, more federal gun laws will be implemented, and no longer will children being shot in the head be considered a “heated topic of debate.”
SOURCES:
JAMA Network Open (2023) — Mass Shooting Rates by State: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10372703/
NBC News — How Rates of Mass Shootings Vary by State: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/mass-shooting-rates-by-state-map-rcna96331
TIME — States With the Highest Rates of Mass Shootings: https://time.com/6298190/these-are-the-states-with-the-highest-rates-of-mass-shootings/
Pew Research Center — What the Data Says About Gun Deaths in the US: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/03/05/what-the-data-says-about-gun-deaths-in-the-us/
Giffords Law Center — Annual Gun Law Scorecard: https://giffords.org/lawcenter/resources/scorecard/
Everytown for Gun Safety — Gun Law Rankings:
https://everytownresearch.org/rankings
Axios — America’s 25 Deadliest Modern Mass Shootings: https://www.axios.com/2017/12/15/deadliest-mass-shootings-modern-us-history
Britannica — Mass Shooting:
https://www.britannica.com/topic/mass-shooting
Wikipedia — List of Mass Shootings by Death Toll: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_by_death_toll
Wikipedia — Luby’s Shooting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luby%27s_shooting
PMC — Statistical Analysis of Gun Ownership & Mass Shootings: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11189892/
IHME — Gun Violence: The United States Is an Outlier: https://www.healthdata.org/news-events/insights-blog/acting-data/gun-violence-united-states-outlier
Everytown — 2024 Gun Law Rankings Press Release: https://www.everytown.org/press/everytown-for-gun-safety-safety-releases-2024-gun-law-rankings/
Bureau of Justice Statistics (2016) — Survey of Prison Inmates, Firearm Acquisition: https://bjs.ojp.gov/document/suficspi16.pdf
ScienceDirect — Firearm Acquisition & Criminal Use in California (2010-2021): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0047235225001060
USAFacts — Where Guns Used in Crimes Are Bought (ATF Trace Data): https://usafacts.org/articles/heres-where-guns-used-in-crimes-are-bought/
Everytown — Gun Trafficking & Crime Guns: https://everytownresearch.org/report/five-things-to-know-about-crime-guns/
Everytown — Five Things to Know About Crime Guns & Background Checks: https://everytownresearch.org/report/five-things-to-know-about-crime-guns/
PMC / Johns Hopkins — Policies to Prevent Firearm Trafficking: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2610592/
PMC — Firearm Laws and Illegal Firearm Flow Between US States: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7799862/
City of Detroit — Legal Guns and Illegal Guns Study: https://detroitmi.gov/sites/detroitmi.localhost/files/2023-04/LEGAL%20GUNS%20AND%20ILLEGAL%20GUNS%20STUDY.pdf
RAND Corporation — Effects of Firearm Sales Reporting, Recording, and Registration: https://www.rand.org/research/gun-policy/analysis/firearm-sales.html