Across the country, a thriving dissatisfaction with the U.S. government is prompting a growing spate of bills in state legislatures aimed at defying federal control over firearms - more than 200 during the last decade, a News21 investigation found.

Four months after the elementary school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, lawmakers banned at least 115 types of semi-automatic firearms. Four months after the shooting of a congresswoman and a federal judge in Tucson, lawmakers in Arizona declared the Colt Army Action Revolver the official state gun.

The months since the deadly Connecticut school shooting have seen dozens of gun buyback events across the country, with officials getting thousands of unwanted firearms off the street and sending them off to their destruction.

The Arizona Senate today defeated 18 amendments sponsored by Democrats for a bill to prevent the destruction of firearms surrendered to law enforcement agencies.

Residents of the nation’s sixth-largest city can get $100 gift cards for turning in handguns, rifles and shotguns and $200 for turning in assault weapons under an upcoming buyback program funded by an anonymous $100,000 donation.

The House Judiciary Committee approved a bill that would expand the state’s law prohibiting cities from keeping databases of gun-related transactions to include firearm ownership as well.

After two years in the “super-minority,” when his caucus was unnecessary for even a two-thirds vote by Republicans, House Minority Leader Chad Campbell is ready for Democrats to have a voice on the budget.

Sen. Rich Crandall, a Mesa Republican, jumped into the school security fray today by announcing a proposal to raid extra Clean Elections funds to pay for more cops in schools and provide training for armed teachers and training school counselors to identify mentally unstable students.

House Minority Leader Chad Campbell’s ideas for preventing a mass school shooting in Arizona include more cops in schools, more money pumped into the public-health system and stricter gun laws.

With a school resource officer and an award winning school counselor to help him make his case at a Jan. 9 press conference, Campbell said the cost of his 12-point plan would be $261 million. That would come from cutting a prized school-choice program favored by Republicans - the School Tuition Organization tax credit – as well as changes to tax laws and money from a $676 million budget surplus.

A Connecticut lawmaker has apologized after saying in a Facebook post that shooting victim and former Arizona U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords should "stay out of my towns."