Brady State Scoreboard

[wyocarp]

Another thread was talking about the Brady Campaign and so I went to their website. Wow, that site will open your eyes if you feel we should have the right to own guns.

They have a section to see how your own state rates with regards to handgun laws and restrictions. (They try to limit how many states one can look at.)

My state, Wyoming, had a rating of 11 out of a possible 100. It doesn't seem too bad until one compares it to the likes of Alaska which got a 4. Neither candidate is going to solve our nation's woes but maybe the Alaskan ticket will help us retain our gun rights. I noticed that Obama said he didn't feel we needed ak-47 in the public's hands. I don't want to give mine up.

What do you think? How do you feel about your state's rating?

 

[DonP]

I always found it "interesting" that their ratings have nothing to do with actual crimes committed with guns or actual street violence by gangs, only with the feelgood laws the state legislatures have passed.

Illinois always gets great grades from Brady and our crime record (Thank you gun free Chicago!) stinks to high heaven.

But it's never actual results with these people, it's only "good intentions" and pointless laws that matter.

A couple of years back somebody went to the trouble of pairing Brady rartings against the FBI crime reports by state and IIRC there was absolutely no, or actually an inverse, relationship between violent crime and the Brady ratings.

 

[damien]

Any change in D.C.'s score yet?

 

[flynnguy]

They do have a list of all the states here.

I wish I knew how they came up with their ratings. D.C. is missing from the list. (Though with the former ban on handguns probably would have scored well on this list)

It's depressing to know that my state comes in at #2. I need to get out of NJ. :banghead:

 

[Knucklehead2]

PA at number ten is flying under the Brady Radar.

 

[Armueller2001]

I noticed that Obama said he didn't feel we needed ak-47 in the public's hands. I don't want to give mine up.

Is your rifle fully automatic? If not, then you don't own an AK47. You own a semi-auto AK47 style rifle.

This is a major problem with the anti's... they convince the public that AK47's (which, in the public's mind are machine guns) are readily available and need to be banned. These dumbass soccer moms think that we need an assault weapon ban so people can't just go out and buy full auto's.

 

[akodo]

Is your rifle fully automatic? If not, then you don't own an AK47. You own a semi-auto AK47 style rifle.

I know, I want to rectify that without giving up an arm and a leg

 

[HoosierQ]

Their own ratings, in their own terms don't even make sense. Look at Wisconsin. Absolutely no right of WI citizens to concealed carry...no permits issued...no permits honored...just like Illinois. And yet WI rates 21 where IL rates 9. Depending on your outlook (their's or our's) I'd think completely prohibiting a person from lawfully carrying a firearm would rate that state higher on their list of 2A shame. Maybe WI has open carry or something.

At any rate, good old Indiana rates pretty good. I am surprised that we aren't lower on the Brady list as I can't imagine what laws there are in Indiana that the Brady Bunch would like...and what laws THR type folks would not like.

Anybody know why Indiana doesn't rank lower on the Brady rating? What bogus gun law have we got that is holding us...in this case...up?

 

[Bartkowski]

If PA is number 10, living in one of the states with scores of 2 must be great. I have never had much of a problem with gun laws here. Sure I would like less restrictions and a lot less restrictions hunting, but buying guns isn't a big process here, just fill out paper work and get a background check if you buy from a dealer

 

[Dksimon]

south dakota scores 6 out of 100
excellent!

This pisses me off.

Juvenile Sale
Is it illegal to sell handguns to anyone under 21 years of age? No

Unless they are talking about private sales they are wrong.

WAITING PERIOD
Is there a waiting period on gun sales? Yes

State law requires a 48-hour waiting period for all handgun sales by federally licensed dealers. This 48-hour period is used by law enforcement to run a criminal background check to make sure the handgun buyer is not prohibited from acquiring firearms. The 48-hours also serves as a "cooling off" period to help prevent crimes of passion. (balogna, if you have a Concealed carry permit you can walk in and walk out with a handgun)

 

[wyocarp]

Looking at the list, it is hard to imagine being a gun owner in one of the top ten states. The Brady group must be really proud of California. How do people enjoy owning guns in California?

 

[p2000sk]

Californians probably enjoy ownership of firearms about just as much as we do. It's their legislature who does not.

 

[ihatesnow]

I'm just going to pick one of the states that has the lowest score and move there. NY has way too high of a rating. I need a single digit state.

 

[lance22]

Minnesota has an 11. It just goes to show that we have a lot more work to do. I've very disappointed that we only scored one point lower than WI.

An activist judiciary must be part of the formula. California scored #1 even though their laws seem no more draconian than NJ, CA is the state that moves forward with frivolous lawsuits.

 

[Schutzen]

Kentucky 2, T-49. God Bless Kentucky!

Post Script- I have 4 children. The only one that does not live in Kentucky lives in Oklahoma.
Oklahoma 2, T-49. God Bless Oklahoma, too!

 

[RoadkingLarry]

Oklahoma stinks, if you want freedom move to Kentucky

 

[TheDriver]

Tied for 49th. Awwww yeah

 

[Old Grump]

HoosierQ, Wisconsin does have open carry but you won't get away with it in the cities like Madison and Milwaukee where you would need to carry and in the small villages in the sticks where I live you wouldn't need to.

 

[GerryM]

I love these ratings... I also have never been able to fuind an email or contact we can sent comments to...

Wait they don't want to hear from us anyway unless we are going to donate money.

 

[SN13]

I did some research into state gun violence rated per 100,000 and by suicide, homicide, accidental, and other.

The best information I could come up with was from an anti gun site that listed the CDC's 1998 figures.

I know that these are 2007 rankings, but for argument's sake, lets say they haven't changed dramatically in 9 years.

Here are the following Correlations:

Brady Ranking Vs Homicides per 100,000: NONE
Brady Ranking Vs Total Number of Homicides: NONE
Brady Ranking Vs Party Preference in 2000 Election: HIGH

There are no direct correlations to the Brady Bunch thinking a place is A-OK and having low Homicide rates. Neither is it inverted where the Homicide rate is always lower in the states Brady ranks low.

Here are my spreadsheets with LINKS to the websites where information was gathered.

If the links don't work, see them here:

http://www.bradycampaign.org/xshare/pdf/scorecard/2007/2007_scorecard_rankings.pdf

http://www.campaignadvantage.com/services/websites/archive/agsfoundation/asp/gundeaths.asp?

 

[SpeedAKL]

Hmmm, Virginia didn't score as well as I thought we were going to. That sneaky "assault weapons" move that Kaine pulled probly hurt out score.

 

[Joe Cool]

NJ was ranked highly by the Brady Center!

I did some work on this relative to NJ and it's standing on the Brady Center Scorecard. It's posted here if you want to read it:
http://www.njcsd.org/content/view/724/9/

Not the greatest bit of literary or mathematical analysis, but a few others seemed to think it worth their time to read.

 

[Kentucky-roughrider]

God bless Kentucky, but let's see if we can get a 1 or 0 next year

 

[TAB]

Looking at the list, it is hard to imagine being a gun owner in one of the top ten states. The Brady group must be really proud of California. How do people enjoy owning guns in California?

I'd be willing to bet CA has more gun owners then WY has population.

 

[Blarelli]

What about Kentucky and Oklahoma gives them the high honor of being in last place? I seriously thought Utah would be last (not just home pride talking).