Arizona got another ‘F’ on its gun safety report card. Why it failed

Another year has come and gone. And once again, Arizona has been given a failing grade for its gun safety laws by the nonprofit Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.  

There is no surprise here. The state has received an “F” on the organization’s Gun Law Scorecard every year since it was launched. The nonprofit was founded by Sen. Mark Kelly and his wife, former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords, who survived a gunshot to the head during a horrific 2011 mass shooting in Tucson. Eighteen people were shot and six, including a federal judge, were killed.

“Arizona has some of the weakest gun laws in the country,” Giffords Law Center executive director Emma Brown said in a written statement. “It’s time for leaders in Arizona to step up and act to address this crisis. Americans across the board including Republicans, independents and gun owners support solutions like universal background checks and extreme risk laws that reduce crime and save lives.”

More than 1,400 people in Arizona died from being shot in 2023, the Centers for Disease Control reported in its most recent dataset. The per capita rate — 18.5 people killed per 100,000 — is the 13th-highest in the country.

The few things Arizona does well, in Giffords’ estimation — banning guns at polling places, mental health reporting — are dwarfed by the ways in which it lags. Namely, Arizona does not require universal background checks, has no assault weapons restrictions, has no waiting period laws and does not ban high-capacity magazines, among other issues.

Arizona will have company in gun law summer school. The Giffords organization gave 24 states “F” grades, most of them in the South, the Bible Belt and the non-coastal West. The states that received “A” grades were most of the states in the Northeast (excluding Vermont), West Coast states, Illinois and Colorado. The study noted that there is a correlation between failing grades and the high rates of firearm mortality.

But like that kid who has to keep repeating senior year over and over, the Republican-controlled Arizona Legislature has been unwilling to update its gun laws to protect more people from gun violence, which often comes in the form of domestic violence or suicide.

State Rep. Nancy Gutierrez, a Democrat from Tucson and the assistant minority leader in the House, has been one of the foremost advocates for passing such laws. 

“Unfortunately, Arizona deserves a “F” rating when it comes to solutions to gun violence,” she told Phoenix New Times. “Common-sense solutions to gun violence are popular and wanted across the board in Arizona. Safe storage requirement, blocking domestic abusers from owning guns, background checks for all gun sales, red flag laws that enable law enforcement to temporarily remove guns from someone who is exhibiting violent or unstable behavior — all of these should be law in Arizona, and it wouldn’t erode the 2nd Amendment in the slightest if they were.”

No political will

In 2024, Gutierrez co-sponsored a number of bills that would have created new procedures for the sale of firearms, like implementing waiting periods, running more extensive background checks on buyers and requiring prohibited possessors to surrender concealed weapons permits. She also co-sponsored “Christian’s Law,” a bill that would have levied fines against gun owners who fail to secure their weapons when children are in their home.

All of these bills failed in the GOP-controlled Arizona House of Representatives after they did not receive hearings from the Judiciary Committee, which was chaired by Republican state Rep. Quang Nguyen. Gutierrez called Nguyen “extremely frustrating to deal with” and said that Republican Party leaders have been unwilling to engage on gun safety issues.

Nguyen did not respond to a request for comment from New Times.

“It hasn’t happened because elected Republicans are more beholden to the powerful gun lobby,” Gutierrez said, adding that they’re more concerned with “flooding our streets and campuses with guns than their own constituents.”

Charles Heller, the co-founder of the nonprofit Arizona Citizens Defense League, mostly agrees with the “F” rating — though he seems to be doing so ironically. The ACDL is a conservative organization that pushes for guns to be more accessible.

Heller said that his organization supports measures that would make guns even more omnipresent, including eliminating gun-free zones and promoting the presence of firearms in K-12 schools through the FASTER program. A failing grade from Giffords is a badge of honor.

“We have appealed to Giffords to lower our ratings,” Heller told New Times. “We try for at least an ‘F-minus’ or lower. They have not responded to our request.”

Notably, Arizona’s abysmal annual ranking from Giffords comes at a moment of heightened extremist threats against its namesake and her husband, Kelly.

President Donald Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth have recently targeted Kelly, a Navy veteran and former astronaut, after Kelly joined other veteran members of Congress in urging military members not to follow illegal orders. Trump called him treasonous and even advocated for him to be hanged, while Hegseth has announced an investigation into Kelly, who is still subject to military justice as a retired Navy pilot. 

As a result, Kelly said, the death threats he and Giffords have received have increased substantially. And when he comes home to Arizona, guns abound.

“We get more threats now in a single day than we would get in months,” Kelly told CNN’s Erin Burnett in an interview. “We can’t normalize this.”