Abstract
Although they are widespread today, firearm preemption laws are a relatively recent development. In 1979, just seven states fully or partially preempted local gun regulation. But following a concerted campaign by the NRA (National Rifle Association of America) and other gun rights advocates, dozens of states adopted preemption laws relating to firearms throughout the ensuing decades, so that during the relevant study period—2009 through 2018—preemptive measures remained largely unchanged. Aside from becoming more punitive (which some did), there was little room to get any stricter.
Pomeranz et al.’s article is the first scholarly effort to connect state adoption of firearm preemption to state enactment (or not) of other firearm rules. One hopes that future work on firearms law and policy will continue to investigate the impact of these pre-emption laws, which, practically speaking, are a more important determinant of gun regulation than the Second Amendment itself.