Explore The NRA Universe Of Websites

APPEARS IN News

The Open Society`s Closed Mind On Guns

Friday, April 20, 2001

In March, The Open Society Institute, part of the Soros Foundation Network, released "Gun Control in the United States,"a strikingly simplistic evaluation of gun laws in the 50 states. Directed by Rebecca Peters, an Australian gun prohibitionist, this document, posing as analysis, arbitrarily awards various point values to each state that has imposed gun control restrictions favored by the group.

Such restrictions include, for example, compact handgun prohibitions, gun registration and gun owner licensing, various gun sale regulations and gun storage requirements. States that do not allow local jurisdictions to impose gun laws more restrictive than state law, those that prohibit the filing of junk lawsuits against the firearm, and those that do not duplicate the federal age requirement for possessing a handgun are penalized in the Society`s point system.

Out of a maximum of 100 points possible in the system, only seven states received scores above 30%. The other 43 states, the Society claims, "lack even `basic gun control laws` [and therefore] fall below minimum standards for public safety." Twenty-three of the supposedly sub-standard states got scores of zero or below. You would never know this is a country with more than 20,000 gun laws.

The only real value in the Society`s evaluation is that it tells us the extent to which this particular anti-gun activist group favors different types of gun control laws. The Society makes no attempt to correlate the laws it favors to any effect on crime, hoping that its acknowledgment that "the relationship between particular regulatory measures and violence lies outside the scope of this survey," will pacify the average reader.

The simple truth, of course, is that the "particular regulatory measures" we know as "gun control" are absolute failures in the war on crime. Case in point: the average violent crime rate of the seven states whose gun laws the Society believes best is 21% higher than the average rate for the 43 states the Society believes are "below minimum standards for public safety." Of the 10 states that have the lowest violent crime rates in America, eight received scores of zero or below, and the Society`s favorite state, Massachusetts, has a violent crime rate five times higher than its least favorite state, Maine.

Texas has achieved its lowest homicide rate since the 1950s, but under the Society`s politically-driven grading system, the Lone Star state gets a 47th ranking. The other two of the three largest states, California and New York, were ranked 3rd and 8th best by the Society, though their violent crime rates are 41% higher and 13% higher, respectively, than that of Texas.

In the final analysis, The Open Society`s only measuring rod is its own hatred of guns—the more objectionable a law is to a law-abiding gun owner . . . the harder a law makes it for a law-abiding citizen to acquire or possess a gun . . . the closer a law moves toward a total prohibition on gun ownership, the better the Society likes it.

TRENDING NOW
U.S. Court of Appeals Backtracks on Adverse Suppressor Ruling

News  

Monday, June 23, 2025

U.S. Court of Appeals Backtracks on Adverse Suppressor Ruling

In a single sentence, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit added to the high-profile and consequential national conversation on firearm suppressors.

U.S. House Passes Reconciliation Bill, Removing Suppressors from the National Firearms Act

News  

Second Amendment  

Thursday, May 22, 2025

U.S. House Passes Reconciliation Bill, Removing Suppressors from the National Firearms Act

Earlier today, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R.1 the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which included Section 2 of the Hearing Protection Act, completely removing suppressors from the National Firearms Act (NFA).

2A News Out of New Jersey You Won’t Believe: It’s Actually a Good Thing!

News  

Monday, June 23, 2025

2A News Out of New Jersey You Won’t Believe: It’s Actually a Good Thing!

The Garden State is not where most seek positive developments regarding our right to arms, so we were pleasantly surprised when Englishtown, N.J., recently made a move to support the Second Amendment.

Switched Off: A Case Study on Minnesota’s Illegal Machine Gun Law

News  

Monday, June 23, 2025

Switched Off: A Case Study on Minnesota’s Illegal Machine Gun Law

There’s been a lot of noise of late about auto sears or so-called “Glock switches” – devices to convert a semiautomatic firearm into an automatic weapon. 

Update: Washington Post Fact Checks Misleading Ad Council “Children” and Firearms Talking Point

News  

Monday, June 23, 2025

Update: Washington Post Fact Checks Misleading Ad Council “Children” and Firearms Talking Point

Last week, NRA-ILA explained how a recent public service announcement campaign from the federally-funded Ad Council, and the gun control lobby more broadly, manipulates statistics to create misleading talking points about “children” and firearms.

DOJ Files Amicus Brief Supporting NRA-Backed Challenge to IL’s Ban on “Assault Weapons” and “Large-Capacity Magazines”

Tuesday, June 17, 2025

DOJ Files Amicus Brief Supporting NRA-Backed Challenge to IL’s Ban on “Assault Weapons” and “Large-Capacity Magazines”

Last Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice filed an amicus brief in the Seventh Circuit supporting an NRA-backed challenge to Illinois’s prohibition on so-called “assault weapons” and “large-capacity magazines.”

Ninth Circuit Strikes Down CA’s One-Gun-A-Month Law

Friday, June 20, 2025

Ninth Circuit Strikes Down CA’s One-Gun-A-Month Law

Today, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals held that California’s law prohibiting people from buying more than one firearm in a 30-day period violates the Second Amendment.

Gun-Control Window Dressing: Chicago Inspector-General Calls Out Futility of Gun Offender Registry

News  

Monday, June 16, 2025

Gun-Control Window Dressing: Chicago Inspector-General Calls Out Futility of Gun Offender Registry

Fifteen years ago, the City of Chicago adopted a “gun offender registry” ordinance that requires convicted gun offenders to register with the police and have police monitor anyone listed in the registry. 

Rhode Island: Legislature Passes Semi-Auto Ban

Sunday, June 22, 2025

Rhode Island: Legislature Passes Semi-Auto Ban

After years of showing up at the Statehouse in huge numbers fighting against a drastic semi-auto ban, gun owners were rightfully upset when the Legislature finally pushed an amended version across the finish line to ...

Senate Finance Committee Releases Text of Reconciliation Bill

News  

Monday, June 16, 2025

Senate Finance Committee Releases Text of Reconciliation Bill

Today, the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance released its portion of the Senate version of the Reconciliation Bill. Late last month, the U.S. House passed a version of the Reconciliation Bill which included Section 2 of the ...

MORE TRENDING +
LESS TRENDING -

More Like This From Around The NRA

NRA ILA

Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.