Everytown for Gun Safety Releases 2025 State Gun Law Rankings, with Arizona Ranking 43rd for the Weakness of its Gun Laws

Everytown's Analysis Shows That 299,000 Lives Could Be Saved Over the Next Decade if Every State Saw the Same Gun Violence Rates as the Nation's Leading Nine States in Gun Safety Policies

PHOENIX - Everytown for Gun Safety today launched the updated "Gun Law Rankings" for 2025, an online tool and website that ranks all 50 states based on the strength of their gun laws and catalogs 50 gun safety laws state by state. The rankings show a clear connection between stronger gun safety laws and lower rates of gun deaths. If every state in the country had the gun death rates of the nine states with the strongest gun safety laws, 299,000 lives could be saved in the next decade. Everytown's analysis found that Arizona ranks 43rd in the country due to the weakness of its gun laws.

While gun-sense legislators in states like California and Massachusetts have worked this past year to pass common-sense gun safety policies such as strengthening secure storage standards in California, and increasing the minimum age to purchase certain firearms and prohibiting untraceable "ghost guns" in Massachusetts, gun lobby-backed legislators in Phoenix passed dangerous measures including legislation forcing Arizona universities, colleges and community colleges to let anyone carry a concealed gun on campus, restricting the power of local governments to prohibit gun shows from occurring in their jurisdictions, and a dangerous expansion of shoot first laws in an effort to target immigrants. While all of these dangerous measures were thankfully vetoed by Governor Katie Hobbs, Arizona legislators should be working to strengthen gun safety laws and not further weaken them.

"The last thing lawmakers should be focused on is making firearms more accessible when gun violence is the number one killer of my generation," said Moriah Dees, a volunteer leader with the Phoenix Community Students Demand Action chapter. "Everytown's ranking reflects a failure of our lawmakers to take action on gun safety. It's not rocket science. Being hellbent on putting more guns in more places is only going to get more people killed. Arizonans deserve better than this."

"Gun laws save lives and states that enact common-sense, bipartisan policies are clearly standing on the side of public safety," said Nick Suplina, Senior Vice President for Law and Policy at Everytown for Gun Safety. "As 2025 gets underway, we're doubling down in the states, defending the gains we've made and charting new paths ahead. We can turn the tide on our nation's gun violence crisis, but only if all leaders step up to meet the moment."

"We have handed state legislators a roadmap for keeping their communities safe from gun violence. Now, these lawmakers have a choice to make: Either listen to the vast majority of Americans calling for gun safety laws or cower to a craven gun lobby hellbent on putting our communities at risk," said Monisha Henley, Senior Vice President for Government Affairs at Everytown for Gun Safety. "The strong correlation between the strength of a state's gun laws and its rate of gun deaths confirms the undeniable fact that refusing to take action is putting our lives in peril."

In an average year, 1,344 people die and 2,125 are wounded by guns in Arizona. Gun violence costs Arizona $15.9 billion each year, of which $253.2 million is paid by taxpayers. If Arizona had the gun death rate of our National Leaders-the nine states with the strongest gun safety laws-we could save 11,085 lives in the next decade. More information about gun violence in Arizona is available here.

Highlights from 2025 Gun Law Rankings:

• The top five ranked states are California, Massachusetts, Illinois, New York and Connecticut. Idaho ranks 50th in the nation due to the weakness of its gun laws. Mississippi and Arkansas follow at 49th and 48th, respectively.
• Massachusetts' 2025 gun law ranking improved from 5th to 2nd thanks to the passage of comprehensive gun safety policies, including legislation to increase the minimum age to purchase certain firearms, prohibit untraceable "ghost guns" and auto sears/Glock switches, and prohibit firearms at the state Capitol.
• Maine and Colorado saw their 2025 rankings improve due to the passage of gun safety policies, including background checks and waiting periods in Maine, and a dealer licensing requirement and a prohibition on carrying guns after convictions of violent offenses in Colorado.
• Louisiana's 2025 gun law ranking worsened from 26th to 33rd due to the passage of dangerous legislation to allow permitless carry, which allows people to carry concealed, loaded handguns in public without a permit, criminal history check, or safety training. Louisiana has the second highest rate of gun deaths in the United States, per EveryStat, yet legislators passed laws to further weaken the state's gun safety laws.
• Louisiana was joined in its declining ranking by South Carolina, which also passed permitless carry legislation, leading to a drop from 27th to 31st.

The 2025 Gun Law Rankings is a project of the Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund. Everytown's analysis shows that states with strong gun safety policies, such as background checks on all gun sales and Extreme Risk laws, also known as Red Flag laws, have higher ranks for the strength of their gun laws and see lower rates of gun violence. Meanwhile, states with weaker gun laws, like permitless carry and Shoot First laws, see higher rates of gun violence.

Last week, the ATF released a report reinforcing the serious public safety consequences of firearm transfers made without background checks - one of the 50 policies within Everytown's State Gun Law Rankings. New data within the report indicated "that unregulated private sales (without background checks) facilitate the movement of a significant volume of firearms from the legal marketplace to prohibited persons." The full report can be found here.

Everytown's Gun Law Rankings include:

• A unique ranking system that ranks all 50 states based on the strength of their gun laws, looking across 50 different gun policies - from California at number one to Idaho at the very bottom;
• Rankings showing whether a state's ranking increased or fell since the beginning of 2024, reflecting recent action on gun safety policies across the country;
• A U.S. map for each gun safety policy indicating which states have adopted that policy; and
• Side-by-side comparisons that provide analysis across policies for all states and across states for all policies.

To speak with an expert about Everytown's State Gun Law Rankings or gun violence prevention efforts in Arizona, please contact [email protected].