West Virginia earned just four points out of a total of a possible 100.

West Virginia did not earn points in four of the five categories the Brady Campaign grades states -- curbing firearm trafficking, protecting child safety, banning military-style assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines, and strengthening Brady background checks.

Federal law already requires gun dealers throughout the country, including West Virginia, to conduct background checks on gun sales.

"Since West Virginia does not require Brady criminal background checks on all firearm sales including those at gun shows, gun traffickers don't need to leave the state to funnel illegal guns to felons and gang members," Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, said in the Feb. 18 report.

"West Virginia officials have done nothing in the past year to stop the flow of illegal guns within the state, including closing the loophole that allows dangerous people to walk into gun shows and buy guns without background checks."

Ronnie Wood, owner of Flat Top Arms in Beckley, said he disagrees with the Brady Campaign's assessment of the state's laws.

"As a dealer, I am already required to run a background check by federal law, so I am unsure exactly why they (Brady Campaign) assessed the state's laws the way they did," Wood said.

Wood said state and federal law allows individuals to sell property of their own so the gun show issue raised by the Brady Campaign is incorrect. Dealers are already legally bound to do background checks.

"Does that mean it is that citizen's responsibility to run a background check if they are selling a gun to another private citizen, especially when the Supreme Court has already ruled firearms a Constitutional right," Wood said.

The report stated West Virginia can fully regulate gun dealers within their borders, limit bulk purchases of handguns, provide to police certain technology to identify crime guns and require lost or stolen guns to be reported to the police. It claims West Virginia does not.

The report also claimed the state does not require only childproof handguns be sold within their borders, require child safety locks to be sold with each handgun, hold adults accountable for keeping guns away from kids and teens and require handgun purchasers to be at least 21 years of age.

Matt Turner, communications director for Gov. Joe Manchin, said the governor is a National Rifle Association member and is supportive of law-abiding citizens who own guns.

"The state has low crime rates with a longstanding tradition of responsible gun owners, so our laws have served the state well," Turner said.

"We understand the Brady Campaign's desire to look into those situations as to why our state scored so low."

The state did score four points for restricting most guns in public places to trained law enforcement and security and by allowing localities to preserve local control over municipal gun laws.

Lieutenant A.C. Napier, coordinator for the Metro Drug Enforcement Network Team, said criminals will get guns no matter how laws are constructed.

He said the goals of the Brady Campaign do not take guns out of criminal's hands, but rather penalize law-abiding gun owners.

"Criminals will tell you they are not worried about the law, and that no matter what laws are made, they will get guns," Napier said.

"Folks need to realize criminals follow a different code. That is why they are criminals."

Napier went on further to say because criminals will obtain weapons at any costs, the state is not contributing as a gun trafficking mecca as labeled by the Brady Campaign.

Jordan Austin, West Virginia lobbyist for the NRA, said the scorecard is just the Brady Campaign's opinion.

"The Brady Campaign believes owning a gun period is reckless and is borderline unconstitutional," Austin said.

"Other states have tougher gun laws and have more criminal problems than West Virginia."

Austin said half the state's households have a firearm in them, but the state still remains in the bottom 25 in violent crimes. West Virginia actually saw a drop of 0.4 percent of total violent crimes from 2007 to 2008, according to Federal Bureau of Investigation statistics.

Wood said the group believes dealers are incapable of obeying the law.

Wood said he and other dealers do not want guns in the hands of convicted felons or a history of violent crimes to possess guns. He believes the current laws are adequate in this state to ensure violent criminals cannot purchase weapons.

"The Brady Campaign should not try to push what I believe to be their radical beliefs about gun control on to people, this report is just opinion."