Which states have the strongest gun laws in 2025? Massachusetts moves up, Louisiana falls
States are continuing to drift further apart on gun policies, and a new report by a gun violence prevention advocate found that many states with the toughest restrictions had lower rates of gun violence, though a handful did not.
While 11 states made significant additions to their gun laws in recent years, 28 moved in the opposite direction by repealing concealed-carry permit requirements, according to a report released Wednesday by Everytown for Gun Safety.
Massachusetts and Maine, where loved ones of the victims of a 2023 mass shooting have pushed for stronger gun laws, strengthened policies like background checks, waiting periods, minimum age to purchase and prohibiting guns at state capitols and demonstrations, the report provided first to Paste BN found. Also adding to its gun laws was Colorado, where as of Jan. 1, any handgun stored in an unoccupied vehicle must be locked in a hard-sided container out of plain view. The vehicle also must be locked, with some exceptions.
Louisiana and South Carolina were among states that loosened restrictions, including allowing guns in K-12 schools and carrying them without a permit. In Colorado, Maine and New Mexico, efforts to pass bans on certain types of firearms failed.
Everytown for Gun Safety ranked all 50 states on gun safety by comparing the strength of their gun laws to their gun death rates and found 14 states labeled “national failures” on gun policy by the advocacy group had rates of gun deaths two and a half times higher than the nine considered national gun safety leaders.
"When you have good, strong gun policy, it saves lives," said Monisha Henley, senior vice president for government affairs at Everytown for Gun Safety.
But some states challenged this pattern. Several with strong gun laws, like Illinois and Maryland, had relatively high gun death rates. States like New Hampshire, which enacted NRA-backed legislation bolstering privacy protections for gun merchants, and Rhode Island had unusually low rates given their weaker policies, according to the report.
Which states have the strongest gun laws?
The researchers evaluated state laws on 50 key policies, including background checks, red flag laws, gun storage requirements as well as prohibiting "stand your ground" and permitless carry laws.
The study determined California has the strongest gun laws in the country, followed by Massachusetts, Illinois, New York, and Connecticut.
In 2024, more than 100 gun policies were passed in 23 states, Henley said.
"So I actually think the trend is really positive," she said. "We also know we're still playing defense."
Idaho, Mississippi, Arkansas, Montana and Georgia were among the states with the weakest gun laws.
Gun rights advocates have celebrated the loosening of restrictions. The National Rifle Association did not respond to inquiries from Paste BN seeking comment. John Commerford, interim executive director of the organization's lobbying arm, has also welcomed the election of a "pro-gun president" and Republican majorities in the congressional chambers.
“Much to the dismay of gun control activists, Second Amendment rights were protected and expanded in a number of states in 2024," Commerford told Paste BN in a statement in December.
Do gun control laws save lives?
The number of total gun deaths and injuries dropped in 2024 to 31,658 injured and 40,887 dead, including suicides, homicides, unintentional shootings and more than 500 mass shootings, according to the most recent data from the Gun Violence Archive.
The Everytown report estimated based on CDC data that if every state had the gun death rates of those with the strongest gun laws, nearly 300,000 lives could be saved over the next decade.
The report is one of many studies that have found a correlation between between gun laws and gun deaths, according to Robert Spitzer, professor emeritus of political science at the State University of New York, Cortland.
"It's difficult to do this kind of analysis and establish precise causation," said Spitzer, who has been researching and writing about gun policy for nearly 40 years. "But the analysis is pretty good, and it's consistent with past research."
For states that have stronger gun laws but not lower levels of gun crime, gun ownership rates could play a role. Nevada and New Mexico had relatively high rates of gun deaths given their strict laws but also above-average gun ownership, the report said.
Spitzer said many gun laws are designed to regulate the behavior of gun owners and sellers, not to reduce gun ownership.
"Contrary to the oft stated claims that more gun ownership lowers crime and makes people safe to safer, it's really the opposite," Spitzer said.
Henley said this also could be attributed in part to the laws of neighboring states, which can either act as buffers or allow guns to flow across their borders. She added that getting new regulations implemented and seeing the impact they have on gun violence rates takes time.
“I'm not going to say that it's like a light switch and that happened immediately, but like I think as we spend more time looking at what's happening in Massachusetts, looking at what's happening in Maine and Colorado, you will see a decrease in gun deaths.”
Contributing: Kinsey Crowley, Margie Cullen and Rebecca Powell, Paste BN.