JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. — Polling source 24/7 Wall Street recently ranked states by gun laws and Wyoming was near the bottom.
In their “States with the Best and Worst Gun Laws” special report released earlier this month, 24/7 Wall St. pegged Wyoming at #48, one place ahead of neighboring Idaho. Mississippi came in dead last. California ranked as the state with the best gun laws.
To determine the states with the best and worst gun laws, 24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 2020 Annual Gun Law Scorecard from the Giffords Law Center (led by former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, herself a gun violence victim), which ranks states on the strength of gun laws and policy and assigns a letter grade.
Giffords Law Center attorneys assign point values based on strength and weaknesses of state laws and policies and compare these values to gun death rates released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The term “generally,” in the information for some states, means in the majority of cases, with some exceptions.
According to the Giffords Law Center and 24/7 Wall St., here is the scorecard for Wyoming and Idaho:
- Wyoming
> Gun law grade in 2020: F
> Gun death rate: 22.47 per 100,000 people (3rd highest)
Starting July 1, 2021, residents and nonresidents in Wyoming will no longer need permits to carry a concealed firearm. This represents a further loosening of gun laws after 2011, when the state began exempting anyone who would qualify for a concealed-firearm permit to forgo the permit if they were willing to submit to a federal background check.
- Idaho
> Gun law grade in 2020: F
> Gun death rate: 14.16 per 100,000 people (19th highest)
Idaho allows the open carry of handguns and long guns in public without a permit. The state generally prohibits any group of armed people (literally, a “body of men”) from parading in public, with a few exceptions, such as veterans’ groups on Memorial Day. In 2016 the state scrapped permit and background-check requirements for individuals seeking to carry hidden, loaded guns.
