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The Origins of Gun Policy in U.S. States
Geoff Dancy, Mirya Holman and Kayden McKenzie*
INTRODUCTION
In 2015, the U.N. Human Rights Council’s (“HRC”) periodic review of
the United States confronted the country’s gun violence problem. Among
other things, Iceland’s delegation recommended that the U.S. government
“take necessary measures to reduce gun violence,” as the delegation was
“concerned at the large number of gun-related deaths and injuries, which
disproportionately affect members of racial and ethnic minorities.”1 This
proposal is nice in theory. In reality, large-scale national action on gun
violence has always been unusual in America, and Congress remains in a
decades-long stalemate on gun regulations. Furthermore, federal efforts
like the National Criminal History Improvement Program—meant to
improve electronic records related to criminal backgrounds of
purchasers—have undergone gradual defunding.2 If the HRC is calling on
the U.S. federal government to act, it is looking in the wrong place.
Though gun violence is a problem of national concern, gun policy
decisions have mostly devolved to state and local governments.3
In fact, American states are amid a gun legislation bonanza. Between
1991 and 2016, state legislatures made 609 changes to existing firearms
law provisions, an average of 23.4 per year. In 2015 alone, state
legislatures introduced 795 pieces of gun-related legislation for
consideration.4 Within this supercharged policy environment, state
legislatures end up enacting laws that pull in different directions. In thirty-
three states, there was a net increase in restrictive laws meant to prevent
firearms injuries since 1991; sixteen other states in the same time period
* Geoff Dancy, Assistant Professor, Tulane University; Mirya Holman, Associate Professor,
Tulane University; Kayden McKenzie, Research Assistant.
1. Hum. Rights Council, Rep. Working Grp. on Universal Periodic Rev., U.N. Doc. A/HRC/30/12
at 27 (2015).
2. WILLIAM J. KROUSE, CONG. RESEARCH SERV., RL3284 2, GUN CONTROL LEGISLATION 30-31
(2012).
3. See Michael P. O’Shea, Federalism and the Implementation of the Right to Arms, 59
SYRACUSE L. REV. 201, 203 (2008).
4. Michael Siegel et al, Firearm-Related Laws in All 50 US States, 1991–2016, 107 AM. J. PUB.
HEALTH 1122 (2017). See also infra Table 1.
