Gun laws in the United States are changing in 2025, with many states strengthening gun safety laws and others expanding firearm owners’ rights, reflecting the country’s polarization on gun control.
While new gun control laws went into effect on Wednesday in California, Colorado, New York, Delaware, and Minnesota, laws in New Hampshire and Kentucky expanded to strengthen the right to own and use firearms. Legislation enacted in South Carolina and Louisiana in 2024 that legalized open carry without a permit adds to the picture of a country divided.
Several California laws, including AB1483, AB1598, and AB2917, have gone into effect. New rules include strengthening restrictions on the purchase of handguns, including consumer warnings on firearm sales, and developing guidance for courts when considering restraining orders related to gun violence. New York has passed a law similar to California’s, requiring consumer warnings when buying firearms.
Colorado’s new law requires gun owners to store their weapons in an unoccupied vehicle in a locked, out-of-view hard-sided container. Colorado also increased the training requirements for concealed carry permits, while prohibiting certain misdemeanor offenders from obtaining them. The new concealed carry laws will take effect later this year, in July.
Meanwhile, New Hampshire’s new gun laws for 2025 prohibit employers from preventing employees from storing firearms in locked vehicles and strengthen privacy protections for gun owners.
The new Kentucky law, which prohibits firearms dealers from using merchant category codes, also increases privacy protections. The codes are used to help financial institutions track where a purchase is coming from, but they do not always specify what is being purchased.
In 2022, President Joe Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, the first comprehensive gun reform bill passed by Congress in 30 years. The bill increased background checks and restrictions on gun ownership, but fell short of progressive lawmakers’ goals.
Last year, the administration issued an executive order aimed at reducing gun violence, and in July, the Department of Justice increased firearms background check requirements for dealers.
With a pro-gun Trump administration, a Republican-majority Congress, and a gun rights-friendly US Supreme Court, the country may face a reckoning over the widening disparity in how gun violence and safety issues are addressed across the country.