There will be no gun-related ballot measures, either for or against gun rights, going into the November election.
Victoria Rose of Ballotpedia told NBC News that in seven states, voters of varying stances on guns petitioned 11 gun-related proposals for ballots in November. But none of them garnered enough signatures to move forward.
This failure to mobilize sufficient grassroots support highlights a changing landscape in the United States where petitioning about the 2nd Amendment appears to be overtaken by state legislatures or centralized in Washington.
According to Christian Heyne, the chief programs and policy officer at Brady, a gun violence prevention organization, this is a good thing. In Heyne's view, because state and federal lawmakers have been busy enacting gun laws — since 2012, states have passed over 620 gun safety laws — voters don't have to organize to promote their own legislation.
"We have seen a historic pivot and change in state legislatures across the country to proactively legislate," Heyne stated. "Some of this speaks to, in particular, just the way in which states have stepped up to do the right thing."
According to Randy Kozuch, the executive director of the National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action, gun rights have expanded.
Kozuch said that since the Supreme Court's 2022 decision, millions of Americans can concealed carry much more easily now.
"Much to the dismay of gun control activists," he said, "Second Amendment rights have been protected and expanded through state legislatures and the judiciary. Anti-freedom state legislatures are now seeing their unconstitutional laws challenged in the courts."