State-by-State Gun Law Database

Guest: Michael Siegel, MD, Professor of Community Health Sciences, Boston University How and where you can buy or carry a firearm depends entirely on where you live. Since relatively few gun laws have been passed by Congress, it’s up to individual states to decide if, for example, you need a permit to carry a concealed weapon. Or if someone convicted of domestic violence can have a gun. Would it surprise you to learn that the number of gun laws on the books in each state varies dramatically? California has 104 gun laws. Alaska has just 4.  A comprehensive new database of state gun laws offers a way to track the effects of restricting access to firearms. You can see the database here.