In red states, 'gun reform' means making it easier to buy and carry guns: US media

LOS ANGELES -- "Gun reform" means making it easier to buy and carry guns in some US red states, led by Republicans, as mass shootings are on the rise in the country so far this year, the FiveThirtyEight website reported on Tuesday.

This year, US President Joe Biden has worked to expand background checks and asked Congress to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines. But at the state level, many legislatures are moving in the opposite direction, said the report.

At least 17 states, most of them led by Republicans, introduced bills this year trying to make it easier to buy, own and carry weapons, providing guns to teachers and declaring themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries, according to a FiveThirtyEight analysis.

The Second Amendment to the US Constitution protects the right to keep and bear arms.

The report pointed out that this continues a trend of Republican legislatures and governors increasing access to guns.

One of the most common types of new laws this year are those that allow handgun owners to carry a concealed gun without a permit. Florida, Nebraska and South Carolina have passed such laws, joining 23 other states that have passed permitless concealed carry since 2010, said the report.

Many of these gun-rights expansions are also geared toward schools. After the Uvalde, Texas, school shooting that killed 19 children and two teachers, the Republican Party promoted arming teachers as a way to increase school safety, and states have since begun passing laws allowing it, the report added.

Additionally, the report noted that many states are working to prevent the kind of data collection that would tell us more about the relationship between guns and gun violence.

Arkansas, Florida, Montana and Utah are among the states that have passed new legislation preventing "discrimination" against gun manufacturers. And South Dakota has also banned state agencies from working with banks that track gun purchases, according to the report.