
Designated gun-free zones can include government buildings, such as courthouses, airports, and police stations government land school properties or specific private properties open to the public. State implementation data valid as of January 1, 2020.ĭata for this figure were drawn from research by the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.Īs of January 1, 2020, there are a multitude of state laws concerning gun-free zones and who may designate them as gun free. Determining whether a given shooting incident occurred in a gun-free zone requires collecting information on local firearm policies determining whether the place an incident occurred had a policy of allowing or disallowing firearms and determining whether it had a means of enforcing that policy, such as bag checks or magnetometer screening. However, a nationwide database on gun-free zones does not exist, and different decisions about how to classify these areas can lead to widely differing conclusions. To evaluate the effects of gun-free zones, the ideal data would be at fine-enough geographic detail to examine changes in outcomes specifically in areas in which gun-free zones were implemented or removed. While the discrepancy in these estimates is partially due to differences in how mass shootings are defined-the latter study restricts analysis to mass public shootings-there also appears to be some disagreement about how gun-free zones are classified. However, another analysis focused on mass public shootings between 19 and reported that 97.8 percent of incidents took place in gun-free zones (Crime Prevention Research Center, 2018a). One analysis of 133 mass shooting events between 20 found that 10 percent of incidents occurred in designated gun-free zones (Everytown for Gun Safety Support Fund, 2017b). There is debate over the extent to which perpetrators target gun-free zones. In addition, the Gun-Free Schools Act of 1994 applies to schools receiving federal funds and requires the schools to expel for at least one year any student found in possession of a firearm on school property (20 U.S.C. 7961). The Gun-Free School Zones Act of 1990 prohibits most firearms within 1,000 feet of a school, but it does not apply to possession by individuals with state licenses (18 U.S.C. 922). Two federal laws restrict guns in or around schools offering elementary or secondary education.

Department of Veterans Affairs (38 C.F.R. Similarly, firearms are prohibited on property belonging to the U.S. For instance, federal laws prohibit the possession of firearms in federal facilities, other than federal court facilities, except for hunting or other lawful purposes (18 U.S.C. 930).

Federal and state laws bar most individuals from carrying firearms or other weapons in certain locations.
