State Firearm Safety Laws Across 50 States, 1991-2019

The State Firearm Law Database from the Department of Justice catalogs 134 firearm safety laws across 14 policy categories for a 26-year period from 1991 to 2019. It provides a structured comparison of state-level provisions, including regulations on firearm transfers, ammunition, possession, storage, trafficking, and manufacturer liability.

Use Cases

• Analyze temporal trends in the adoption of 134 firearm safety laws across 14 policy categories to identify legislative patterns.
• Compare state-level firearm transfer process regulations to assess policy diffusion and regional clustering.
• Model the relationship between firearm storage laws and other state policy provisions within the 14-category framework.

Strengths

• Covers a 26-year time span from 1991 to 2019, enabling longitudinal policy analysis.
• Systematically tracks 134 distinct firearm safety laws, providing a structured basis for comparison.
• Includes detailed coding criteria for transparency in handling law exemptions and nuances.

Limitations

• The database explicitly states it is not the most detailed record of all state firearm policies, prioritizing comparability over granularity.
• Data is limited to state-level laws and does not include local or municipal ordinances.

Provenance

Source

Department of Justice

Collection Method

Methodology categorizes state firearm provisions to capture differences while maintaining comparability; coding criteria are provided for transparency.

Time Range

1991 to 2019

Freshness

Data covers through 2019; last platform update was in 2025.

Geography

50 U.S. states