Kentucky has weak gun laws that help feed the illegal gun market and allow the sale of guns without background checks, according to the Brady Campaign. In the organization’s 2009 state scorecards released for all 50 states, Kentucky earned just two points out of a total of 100.
According to government figures, Kentucky also has the seventeenth highest percentage of crime guns recovered that were originally purchased within the state. The Brady Campaign relates this “homegrown” gun violence to the lack of gun laws in the state and nationally.