Key Takeaways
- The Firearms Policy Coalition released its 2026 FPC Freedom Index, ranking states based on their gun rights protections.
- States are categorized: ‘Chad States’ for perfect scores, ‘Freeish States’ for strong records, ‘States of Confusion’ for mixed regulations, and ‘States of Disaster’ for strict laws.
- Kansas and New Hampshire achieved perfect scores, while California had the lowest at 4.55%.
- The index evaluates states on arms restrictions, carry laws, and acquisition requirements, providing a clear overview of each state’s standing.
- FPC encourages gun owners to engage and push for legislative changes to improve their state’s ranking towards 100%.
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
The Firearms Policy Coalition has released its 2026 FPC Freedom Index, a state-by-state ranking that measures how well each state protects the right to keep and bear arms. The index is designed to give gun owners and policymakers a clear, objective look at where their state stands on some of the most consequential areas of firearms regulation.
FPC describes the index as a “principled and objective approach” to state rankings, built to cut through the political noise that has long clouded these comparisons. The goal is straightforward: show gun owners exactly where their state falls short, and give state legislators a target to shoot for.
The rankings use category labels to reflect each state’s overall posture on gun rights. States earning a perfect score are labeled “Chad States,” while those with strong but imperfect records earn “Freeish State” status. States with a patchwork of restrictions are called “States of Confusion,” and those with the most burdensome gun control laws are tagged “States of Disaster.”
Only two states earned a perfect 100% score: Kansas and New Hampshire. A large group of states, including Texas, Arizona, Kentucky, Montana, and North Carolina, scored 95.45% and sit in the “Freeish” tier. States like Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi scored 86.36%, also in the “Freeish” range, while Florida and Ohio came in at 81.82% with “State of Confusion” designations.
At the bottom of the rankings, California scored just 4.55%, the lowest in the nation. New York came in at 13.64%, followed by Hawaii, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C., all at 18.18%. Maryland scored 27.27% and Illinois 31.82%, rounding out the bottom tier of “States of Disaster.”
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The index scores each state across several key categories: arms restrictions, carry laws, acquisition requirements, and other regulations. Nevada, for example, scored 90.91%. The state does not restrict common handguns, semi-automatic firearms, suppressors, or magazines based on capacity, and does not require a permit to carry. It did score “yes” on two questions, including a restriction on the personal manufacture of firearms and an age-based restriction for 18-to-20-year-olds seeking a carry license.
FPC is using the index as an organizing tool as well as an informational one. The organization is calling on gun owners to join its Grassroots Army and push for the repeal of the laws that are keeping their states from reaching 100%. The message is simple: if a state is not at 100%, the work is not finished.
For armed citizens, this index is a useful reference point. Understanding the specific laws that restrict your rights in your state is the first step toward changing them. Second Amendment rights are fundamental civil rights, and the FPC Freedom Index puts the details in plain sight.
You can check your state’s full score and breakdown at fpcfreedomindex.org.
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