I’m always curious about which states really have the best gun laws and which don’t. The problem, of course, is that it really depends on who is compiling the list.

When Everytown or Brady creates a list, I generally know to take everything they say, reverse it, and I can get to the truth.

If GOA or NSSF builds a list, I figure I can take it at face value.

But what about sites that aren’t so clear in their focus? Well, I came across a prime example, 24/7 Wall Street, which offered a take on who had the best gun laws and who had the worst.

Oh boy, where do we start?

As the only country in the world whose constitution enshrines the right to keep and bear arms without restrictions, it’s no surprise the United States is absolutely saturated with guns.

…

The 27 words of the Second Amendment have been one of the most, if not the most, scrutinized sections of the U.S. Constitution in modern American history. The gun rights debate usually  centers around two phrases in the amendment: “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms” and “a well regulated Militia.”

Opponents of gun control laws argue the first phrase guarantees the absolute right of individuals to own firearms. Supporters of strict gun control measures, on the other hand, believe that the amendment simply guarantees a state’s right to self-defense — to have a “well regulated Militia” — but does not prohibit states from regulating private firearm ownership.

OK, this isn’t an awful start. It looks pretty non-biased as those are generally fair descriptions of both sides of the argument.

Maybe this won’t be so bad.

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.

Well, there goes that.

See, while they may be transparent about who they’re using, lists like this are really nothing more than anti-Second Amendment rhetoric designed to look like unbiased reporting. The previous section I quoted? Now that looks like nothing more than an attempt to lull the unwary into accepting everything that comes after.

They go on to cite Gun Violence Archive, which we’ve addressed more times than I can count, and is nothing more than an anti-gun marketing effort.

Look, we all know that Giffords is vehemently and explicitly anti-gun. Any gun law they say is good, isn’t.

But not everyone is as up on this kind of thing as we are. They’re not aware of who the players are. I honestly think this will trip some people up. Hopefully not too many, but still…