For the last decade, consumer firearms publication Guns & Ammo has published an annual ranking of the ‘Best States for Gun Owners’ based on gun-related politics. This year’s rankings, again written by Keith Wood, come from the magazine’s September 2022 issue.
To create the rankings, all 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, are judged in five categories – right to carry/CCW, access to “Black Rifles,” use-of-force laws (i.e., Castle Doctrine), prohibition on NFA firearms, and miscellaneous, a catch-all to capture preemptive statutes, the availability of shooting ranges and more. Each category is scored on a scale of 0 to 10 with the total calculated score determining state ranking. Any ties are broken using subjective intangibles, such as a state’s perceived shooting culture.
Below, we focus strictly on the rankings. For in-depth explanations of scoring categories and individual state breakdowns, we encourage you to read the full G&A digital article or pick up a copy of the September issue.
Best & Worst States for Gun Owners
- New York
- Hawaii
- New Jersey
- California
- Massachusetts
- District of Columbia (DC)
- Connecticut
- Maryland
- Rhode Island
- Delaware
- Alaska
- Kansas
- Texas
- South Dakota
- North Dakota
- Arizona
- Utah
- Montana
- Idaho
- Wyoming
G&A’s Best States for Gun Owners 2022
Below is Guns & Ammo’s full 2022 rankings of the Best States for Gun Owners.
Other State Rankings
While G&A has been ranking gun owner-friendly states the longest, the publication is far from the only outlet to attempt the feat.
Earlier this year, Arizona-based law firm AZ Defenders published its own “best states” rankings using similar political metrics, while the U.S. Concealed Carry Association (USCCA) published its ranking of “gun friendly” states earlier this month. Zippia, a job research resource, also published its own 2022 rankings, using a combination of gun laws and industry employment data from the NSSF’s most recent ‘Firearm and Ammunition Industry Economic Impact Report’ to create its list.
With so many methods and metrics to choose from, creating a definitive list of the “best states for gun owners” is an impossible task. Still, such rankings are both a fun and interesting way of looking at the impact of new laws, FFL population, and business decisions on consumers and the entire firearms industry.
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