Guns and Teens: What's the Law in Your State?

With the rise in the number of school shootings over the past five years has come new attention to gun, control laws and a new concern about how to prevent potentially violent young people from gaining access to guns. Use the information on this map of the United States to identify some of the gun laws in your state, to compare state laws, and to answer the questions at the bottom of the page.

Source: Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, Washington, D.C.

Gun Laws in the United States

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1. How many states require that guns be secured with trigger locks or otherwise locked up?

2. In which two jurisdictions is the minimum age 21 years old for possession of both handguns and rifles or shotguns?

3. Which is the only state that requires that guns be locked up or secured with trigger locks, but has no minimum age for possession of handguns, rifles, or shotguns?

4. What is the likelihood that a law barring anyone under age 18 from possessing any kind of handgun would end school shootings?

5. Among states that have minimum ages for handguns and for rifles/shotguns, which state has the greatest gap between the two ages?

6. In what part of the country do you find the most states with laws requiring trigger locks or other locking devices on guns?

Graph Exercise, TE 5

1. 17. 2. Maryland, District of Columbia. 3. Texas. 4. It probably wouldn't work, because all but two school shootings have been in states that had already made 18 the minimum age for handgun possession. 5. Hawaii. 6. along the Eastern seaboard, where nine of those states are located.