In 2024, gun violence caused over 72,000 deaths or injuries in the United States. School shootings in the last four years rose 107% compared to the previous 25 years, and in 2024, over 500 shooting incidents resulted in the deaths of four or more people.

Despite these statistics, the majority of Indiana lawmakers advocate for gun rights every session. For example, in 2022,House Bill 1296 allowed any eligible person to obtain or possess a firearm without needing a permit or license.

Several different organizations, such as Moms Demand Action, have lobbied for stricter gun safety laws and received no such compromise.

During this year’s session, House Bill 1676 sought to decrease the number of gun-related accidents by increasing the felony level from six to five for a person who fails to secure their firearm—a simple bill that may have decreased the likelihood of firearm accidents. However, the bill failed to make it out of committee.

Jody Madeira, a law professor at Indiana University, explained why it is so difficult for Indiana to pass gun control laws.

“Indiana legislators, although they are so reasonable in other ways, are just so extreme with gun rights that there is no compromise,” Madeira said.

“Although Indiana talks a good game about protecting firearm rights and only making sure that ‘rights are violated’ when it’s the last possible resort, to protect mental health or to protect the most vulnerable, they’re still not willing to compromise anyone’s access to firearms.

Madeira gave her reasoning as to the motive behind Indiana gun laws being so one sided.

“(Indiana legislators) have seen what happens when parents are held liable in other states for neglectfully allowing a minor to access a firearm or neglecting to safeguard it in the presence of an adult who they know is a danger to themselves or others,” Madeira said. “They just don’t want people to take away guns, period.”

Pierre Atlas, director of the master’s of public affairs program at the O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Indianapolis, attributes the lack of compromise to an increase in extreme political stances.

“The bottom line is, increasingly over the years, the debate over gun rights vs. gun regulations has become increasingly partisan,” Atlas said. “The Republican Party and the National Rifle Association and the firearms manufacturers have increasingly come to be on one side of the debate.

“And a lot of it is because of the linkage between partisan politics, the partisan divide, and the debate over guns,” he said. “This isn’t the way it used to be, even in Indiana, but that’s definitely the way it is today.”

According to NPR, the National Rifle Association (NRA) was founded in 1871 as a recreational group designed to “educate the next generation of marksmen, whether for war or hunting or recreational target shooting.”

The NRA adopted a gun safety and education position and worked closely with the government and the Army. But after the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s, gun control movements becamemore mainstream than ever. The NRA opposed gun control and created a lobbying group whose leader, Harlon Carter said, “You don’t stop crime by attacking guns, you stop crime by stopping criminals.”

As the idea of gun control laws grew even more divisive, the NRA continued to grow in scale, scope and political power. In 2000, former actor and the president of the NRA, Charlton Heston, spoke at the NRA convention in response to political candidates advocating for stricter gun control.

“As we set out this year to defeat the divisive forces that would take freedom away, I want to say those fighting words for everyone within the sound of my voice to hear and to heed, and especially for you, Mr. Gore (2000 presidential candidate): ‘From my cold, dead hands!'”

The NRA continued on the heels of Heston’s linguistically persuasive footsteps with Wayne LaPierre, former executive vice president, who said: “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

The NRA’s ideology captivated millions of Americans. The organization has more than 5 million members, and Madeira credits much of Indiana’s gun legislation to the organization’s widespread ideals.

As of 2023, the Pew Research Center finds that 80% of poll-participating Americans believe that people who make large campaign contributions have too much decision-making influence. Atlas factors in how financial incentives may be swaying lawmakers.

“Frankly, the influence of the NRA and other pro-gun-rights groups that endorse candidates provide money to candidates nationally, at the state level. It’s an intimidating factor. They reward people who support their side and go after people who don’t,” Atlas said. “And so there is a sense of intimidation and a kind of carrot-and-stick approach from that.”

The NRA spent over $11 million specifically for lobbying in the last five years, and in the 2024 election cycle gave over $600,000to congressional candidates. Of those candidates, 99.98% of the recipients were Republican.

U.S. Sen. Jim Banks, R-Indiana, U.S. Rep. Rudy Yakym, R-Indiana, U.S. Rep. Jim Baird, R-Indiana, U.S. Rep. Mark Messmer, R-Indiana, U.S. Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Indiana, U.S. Rep. Erin Houchins, R-Indiana, and U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Indiana, all received anywhere from $1,000 to $5,450.

On top of the NRA and monetary influence, Atlas says some Indiana lawmakers may also be making these decisions based on a vocal minority among constituents.

“If you look at public opinion, you can have a majority of people feeling a particular way, but what really matters in getting things translated into political action is intensity,” Atlas said. “And so a lot of the people who are moderate on guns, or moderate on any political issue, are not the ones that really mobilize.”

The squeaky wheel gets the grease, and Atlas says lawmakers have overestimated how much grease is needed.

“The people who are the most ardent gun-rights, pro-gun rights people, are much more passionate about it than other gun owners. They are sort of the squeaky wheel or the loudest voice in the room, and that is one factor,” Atlas said. “I think there’s also a sense among a lot of politicians at the state and federal level, there is an assumption, that all gun owners feel as strongly as the most ardent gun-rights people do. And if you go against the hard core, you will be punished.”

Other states, Madeira says, have worked to find a healthier balance between gun rights and gun safety.

“And let me just say there are some states that are really good at walking this line between protecting firearm rights and protecting safety,” Madeira said. “Again, no one wants to take guns away when it’s not warranted. People pay a lot of money for them, they use them for hobbies, they carry them, and those people are responsible. But states like Florida, Michigan, realize even though the Second Amendment is really important, there are some limits to behaviors they can exhibit when they aren’t healthy.”

Is there really no compromise?

Former Indiana Rep. Jerry Torr, R-Carmel, who worked on severalgun bills at the Statehouse, disagrees with the notion that state lawmakers have not compromised on gun legislation.

“First of all, we have (compromised) where it’s been reasonable,” Torr said. “Indiana became the second state to have a red-flag law, and just a couple years ago, we did a compromise with a Democrat member to outlaw trigger switches.”

Red flag laws allow law enforcement or family members to petition a court to remove firearms from individuals who may be a danger to themselves or others. Trigger switches are small devices that allow semi-automatic firearms to shoot like fully automatic ones. Torr says other gun-control laws would do nothing to protect the public.

“The reason it seems to some people, and mostly people who don’t know much about firearms, frankly, that there’s not a lot of compromise is because a lot of the bills that were proposed by groups like Moms Demand Action, it would make them feel good, make them feel like they’re doing something, but it wouldn’t actually do anything,”

Many lobbying groups advocate for stricter gun control, with one of the most common pleas being for universal background checks. Torr says this solves nothing.

“For instance, they talk a lot about universal background checks. Well, if you go to a gun store and buy a gun, you have to have a federal background check. Private sales don’t require that in Indiana,” Torr said. “They say, ‘Well, that would keep firearms out of the hands of people that shouldn’t have them.’ Well, would it really? Or would it just create an obstacle for law abiding citizens?”

Some gun-control advocates refer to drug laws and how many gun-rights enthusiasts are quick to regulate drugs but not gunsl. Torr rejects this argument.

“I just don’t think it’s a fair comparison. The difference is, criminal use of a firearm is already illegal,” Torr said. “Using one to hold up a bank or a grocery store is illegal. The only thing that’s not illegal is a proper person actually possessing a firearm. So I just don’t think that’s a fair comparison at all.”

Outside of what Torr says is the vocal minority, he doesn’t believe gun control is something most constituents want.

“Other than small groups like Moms Demand Action, in my 28 years in the legislature, I didn’t get a whole lot of emails or comments against guns or to restrict them more,” Torr said. “It was a very small minority that wanted that.”

Children and guns

Alexandra Rollo is the leader of Indiana’s chapter of Moms Demand Action, an organization with the goal of increasing the number of people who practice gun safety.

When asked about gun control, Rollo said she would rather be associated with the terms “gun sense” and “gun safety.”

“This isn’t about taking away guns in safe people’s hands,” she said. “This isn’t about taking guns away from people using common sense. This is about making the world safe from the people who aren’t.”

In 2024, firearms killed or injured over 5,000 minors across the nation.

“As far as gun sense, gun safety, why are we interested in this work? It’s because (guns) are the No. 1 killer of kids,” Rollo said. “Right there should motivate anyone to care regardless of party, regardless of anything. We have something in our hands that we can do something about that would make it where children’s lives are safer.”

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Healthconfirmed this statistic and also stated that gun deaths among minors have increased by 103% since 2013.

“My husband is a career soldier, and his co-worker is also a career soldier—her child shot her other child,” Rollo said. “A 5-year-old shot a 3-year-old to death with a gun that the child found on someone else’s dresser, and there’s no crime.”

IU law professor Madeira agreed that the responsibility falls in the lap of lawmakers to keep citizens safe.

“To be pro gun rights and pro Second Amendment is to be pro safety as well because every right has limits, every right has responsibilities,” Madeira said. “The state’s right to step in and make sure that you’re not in danger to yourself or others—sometimes that right is higher than the Second Amendment in particular instances. Other states see that, but Indiana has a very hard time seeing that.”

Rep. Earl Harris, D-East Chicago, has worked on several gun-related bills throughout his tenure. Most recently, House Bill 1095, a gun crime enforcement bill, was signed into law by the Gov. Mike Braun on April 1.

The bill does not change much about Indiana’s gun landscape but garnered bipartisan support by expanding how many counties the Indiana Crime Guns Task Force can operate in.

Harris believes there should be stricter laws for getting guns out of the hands of children.

“Yeah, that’s an easy answer,” Harris said, “and that’s one of the things that we have to think about is access to young children that may not know that they are putting themselves in a dangerous situation.”

Harris attributed some of these incidents to a lack of firearm education and the cultural image guns have among children.

“You know we all grew up playing cops and robbers and we had our little toy guns, and I remember having a little rubber dart gun and all that,” Harris said. “Sometimes I don’t know if young children understand the reality of this gun they happen to pick up in those situations is not a toy gun, it’s actually a real gun that can do real damage.”

Harris offered further clarification as to what his position is and how to make the violence stop.

“Again, I’m not anti gun,” Harris said. “I don’t think guns should disappear, but I think we have to have something in place in terms of protection related to who has an opportunity to have gun ownership.”

Firearm sales in the U.S. have declined every year since 2020, yet there were 13.6 million firearms purchased in 2024.

Gun-rights advocates hold fast

Rep. Jim Lucas, R-Seymour, is perhaps the staunchest gun-rights advocate serving in the Statehouse. In the most recent legislative session, he proposed House Bill 1170, a bill with very few exceptions, that eliminates any and all gun-free zones in the state.

His passion for gun advocacy has led to some negative attention, as last year TheStatehouseFile.com reported on the way Lucas conversed with several teenagers at the Statehouse protesting gun violence with Students Demand Action. While speaking about how many Americans carry firearms, he flashed his holstered gun at the students, catching the eye of national news outlets.

Lucas said he does not believe he or his colleagues can ever pass a law that will end gun violence.

“I don’t believe that gun control laws stop people that are inclined to commit crimes, and history has shown that,” Lucas said.

Lucas says he does not think there is a gun-control problem in Indiana or the U.S. His position is based on how few people are murdered by firearms each year compared to the number of people who live in the country at large.

“First thing I want to make clear, and every rational person can agree on this, every death is tragic,” Lucas said “But when you look at gun violence and gun deaths, statistically, they’re such a small part of society. We have 340 million Americans and 15,000 people, I think, are murdered by firearms each year.”

The website World Population Review did find that over 15,000 Americans were murdered with firearms in 2023. But Pew Research reports that “the gun death rate in the U.S. is much higher than in most other nations, particularly developed nations.” The majority of gun-related deaths are the result of suicide.

Despite complaints among many Americans, Lucas and his colleagues hold fast to their approach on gun safety.

“Again, law is not going to stop someone from doing something stupid. It just doesn’t work that way. For years, I’ve offered legislation to encourage people to take firearm training, safety training. [In] 2023, it was House Bill 1347, and I know I’ve offered that several times,” Lucas said. “Rep. Dave Paul [R-Norman] had a very similar bill offered this year. I would much rather encourage people to take firearm safety training than put a law on the books that isn’t going to stop anybody.”

Regardless of policy position, both sides agree the goal is to keep citizens safe. Rep. Harris spoke on that motivation and about the progress he says his bill will make.

“The goal is connected to making things safer for citizens,” Harris said. “You know one of the things is related to House Bill 1095 that I author, is working on getting illegal guns off the street. That’s one of the realities … (Guns exist,) and it makes life a little bit more dangerous and puts people at more risk.”