Investigation Exposes Giffords Law Center Using “Bogus” Scorecard to Falsely Claim Gun Control Laws Work

An investigation into the datasets and methodology used by the Giffords Law Center’s “Annual Gun Law Scorecard” reveals the scorecard is completely invalid and its research conclusion that “states with strong gun laws see less gun violence” is not only unsubstantiated, but easily refuted.  

The Giffords Gun Law Scorecard is cited repeatedly – and without question – by media outlets as providing data-driven proof as to the effectiveness of gun control laws.

The investigation into the data and methodology used in the Giffords Gun Law Scorecard was conducted jointly by two non-profits – the Transparency Foundation and Not Me California. The groups felt compelled to launch their investigation after Governor Gavin Newsom cited the Scorecard to boast that California’s sweeping anti-gun laws were working in reducing violent crime and to bolster his proposal to amend the US Constitution to allow more stringent anti-gun laws nationwide.

In November 2023, Giffords specifically issued a report claiming that “California Has Built a Lifesaving Gun Safety Model for the Nation” that produced “real and record-breaking results in reducing gun violence” — and justified that claim entirely on its Scorecard methodology.

In their report – entitled “California’s Gun Control Data Deception,” the Transparency Foundation and Not Me California found the following critical flaws in the Giffords Scorecard methodology:

• Deception 1: Faulty Definition of Gun Crime: Giffords inflates gun violence by 58% by including suicides in their data sets versus just analyzing gun-related violent crimes.
• Deception 2: Ignoring Data on How Guns Save Lives: Giffords excludes any data relating to instances where a firearm saved lives during a crime
• Deception 3: Cherry-Picked Data and Misleading Comparisons: Giffords excluded a jurisdiction with strict gun control and simultaneously high levels of violent crime (Washington, DC) that would have refuted its Scorecard’s conclusions. Giffords rankings also completely ignore that violent crime is rising in California – the state they tout as such a gun control success.
• Deception 4: Falsely Claiming Gun Control Laws Reduce Violence: Giffords makes this sweeping conclusion event though its own data shows otherwise. In fact, some states with poor Giffords gun law rankings—such as South Dakota or New Hampshire—have lower crime rates than A-ranked California or A- ranked Illinois.
• Deception 5: Ignoring the Rise of Guns to Protect Politicians and Within Government Agencies: Giffords focuses on the enactment of gun control measures which reduce the ability of everyday Americans to protect themselves, but remains completely silent on the use of firearms to protect some of their movement’s biggest donors like Michael Bloomberg as well as politicians like Gavin Newsom who support gun control.

“The sweeping statements made by California Governor Gavin Newsom and the Giffords Law Center are not only unsubstantiated, but thorough yet simple analysis suggest there is absolutely no correlation between gun control laws and reduction in crime and violence,” says study director Al Medioli, Senior Fellow at the Transparency Foundation.

“It is shameful that Giffords Law Center is intentionally misrepresenting data and promoting a false narrative to promote flawed gun control policies that infringe on constitutional rights while making the public less safe – and that the media seems unwilling to question the data or methodology being used,” says Michael Schwartz, President of Not Me California.