Gun rights scores by country

[wumpus]

Free Existence just released the 2014 worldwide gun rights index (http://www.freeexistence.org/gunindex.html). Or for sortable rankings, there is the freedom meta-index (http://www.freeexistence.org/freedom.shtml).

Some interesting results this year. Somalia finally had enough information to be scored. As it turns out, it has really tough drug laws, with corporal punishment for marijuana possession (in the form of public whipping). And its gun laws are actually fairly restrictive (comparable to France or New York, requiring a license to even own a gun, restrictive carry laws, and machine guns are totally illegal). (Hopefully this debunks, once and for all, the statist strawman of Somalia being what a “libertarian paradise” would look like; in reality, a libertarian paradise would have the drug laws of Netherlands, the gun laws of Arizona, the tax code of Hong Kong, etc.)

Caveat: the gun index still doesn't account for limits on magazine capacity in its scoring (although such limits seem to be an American/European invention, so would probably only affect two continents).

 

[Thursday45]

Cool, it also lists the states. For easy reading, the top 5:

Arizona (9.3)
Wyoming(9.3)
South Dakota (8.7)
Montana(8.7)
Idaho (8.7)

 

[John828]

Let me guess the bottom three:

48. Illinois
49. New York
50. California

 

[John828]

Dang it. I can't open the files on my phone

 

[MtnCreek]

Sounds like Somalia should be a pretty safe place.

 

[Nickel Plated]

Then again, what's written on paper and what's practiced in the real world are two very different things. The gun laws in Somalia may be strict. I can't imagine they actually have much teeth in practice however.
Who's gonna enforce them? The Somali Police? The ones you can bribe with practically nothing? Someone who moves to Somalia and gets a nice place out in the sticks would probably not have to worry much about gun laws.

 

[alfon99]

I don't think it's accurate... I can't talk for other countries, but what it says about Uruguay is not true. It says "At least some kinds of firearms can be owned" when in fact all kinds of firearms can be owned, just that some are more complicated to get, for example machine guns and high-caliber rifles. But for example buying a so called "assault weapon" is the same as getting a 22lr... In fact I just got an AR-15, and I already made a thread in the rifle country section.

 

[glennv]

They don't even have the states categorized correctly. They have may issue states scoring higher than shall issue states.

 

[vamo]

Having nothing about magazine restrictions gives some fairly restrictive states an artificially high rank.

Also,

As it turns out, it has really tough drug laws, with corporal punishment for marijuana possession (in the form of public whipping).

Not to get too off topic, but I'll take a beating over any significant jail sentence, and I can't imagine Somalian jails are any nicer than ours.

 

[Scimmia]

And they have total misinformation for Iowa, saying that a permit is required to own a pistol.

 

[Arkansas Paul]

Let me guess the bottom three:

48. Illinois
49. New York
50. California

That seems to be the general opinion but it isn't accurate.
Hawaii is more restrictive than any of those. Or so I've heard.

 

[oneounceload]

Do not confuse Chicago with the rest of the state; nor is California as strict as others.

Cool chart and sort feature. When I plugged in my preferences for the categories for places other than here to live, (meaning this country, not my state) my top four choices made it into the top ten. Good to know as I am seriously considering moving to another country due to the political direction this country seems to be headed, even if that means giving up my US citizenship

 

[Arizona_Mike]

Nice to see Arizona come out on top Things have gotten so much better in the last decade or so. Our laws finally match out gun culture.

We had some major issues with OC and CCW based on case law before going to constitutional carry (2 step test for car carry imposed by the courts but not in the law, gun in plain view in a car is "concealed" depending on line of sight of officer [the case involved a gun on the floor but the ruling was broad enough to include open belt carry], holster or luggage must "put the public on notice" for it to be considered open carry--which in the case of air travel actually conflicts with Federal Law [this ruling caused Dillon in Scottsdale to stop selling square flap holsters]). Now with constitutional carry these considerations only apply in theory to those under 21.

We had some weak preemption laws that were ignored by Tucson (Denver South) but were strengthened.

We had some of the worst defensive display laws in the US. You could not stop a property crime outside the home at all and in a defense situation if you cleared leather you pretty much had to shoot to avoid being guilty of assault. We still have a horrible citizen's arrest law. You are best letting the bad guy run away.

We also for a short period had an affirmative defense standard for self-defense but this has gone back to probably cause (one of the biggest self defense injustices happened here: the Harold Fish case).

Many lists put either Arizona or Alaska in first and second (either order). The lack of a NFA-like law is often cited as a plus for Alaska although it has no practical benefit. I was surprised to not see second on this list. We have great knife laws as well (automatic knives are fine). The only really dumb thing is we are one of 4 states to ban Nunchaku (4th degree felony). I personally wintessed a comedian violating this on stage without consequence however.

Mike

 

[wumpus]

Scimmia, http://www.nraila.org/gun-laws/state-laws/iowa.aspx also says a permit is required to buy a pistol in Iowa. Did NRA-ILA get this wrong?

 

[hso]

Least restrictive (score above 8.0) are -

United States – Arizona
United States – Wyoming
Yemen
United States – Idaho
United States – Montana
United States – South Dakota
United States – Tennessee

Perhaps we should accept Yemen into the Union?

 

[GBExpat]

Sounds like Somalia should be a pretty safe place.

<chuckle>

 

[Skribs]

The thing that scares me on that site is for "small government" the US isn't even in the top 100.

 

[Mr Jjohanson]

This is the USA, Darn it

I'm proud of the my Citizenship, Cap C

 

[oneounceload]

The thing that scares me on that site is for "small government" the US isn't even in the top 100.

And it has grown and gotten MUCH worse in the last decade and is going to be totalitarian in the next decade. I suspect the US will sink further down that list in the next 10 years. Some of the other countries' scores in certain areas are also suspect as gun laws in some countries seem wrong compared to others, so I would take it all with a grain of salt.