The role of the gun industry in America’s gun violence epidemic.
Our team is examining a decade's worth of data from the Gun Violence Archive for insights into one of the most devastating public health crises in the United States.
The National Rifle Association is one of the most powerful special interest groups in America. We’re investigating how it spends its money.
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Alex Yablon was a reporter and a founding staffer at The Trace.
Gun Trafficking
The Mexican government in late July announced a major new joint operation with the United States to crack down on cross-border gun trafficking. But days after the agreement was announced, details are murky. In fact, the U.S. government won’t even…
National Rifle Association
After two years of state investigations and numerous lawsuits, the National Rifle Association has stopped offering its Carry Guard self-defense insurance products. The Carry Guard website has been stripped of all mentions of insurance. Contacted by The Trace, a…
Roughly two dozen members of the National Rifle Association’s board of directors are said to be unflinchingly loyal to Wayne LaPierre, and the group’s bylaws make it difficult for dissenters to win seats.
Dissenters continue to fear reprisals, but there are glimmers of momentum for an internal campaign to withhold contributions to the gun group.
A countersuit by ousted NRA president Oliver North points to the gun group leader’s “total dictatorial control over the NRA.”
Election 2020
Representative Eric Swalwell of California announced on Monday that he was ending his campaign to be the 2020 Democratic nominee for president, becoming the first candidate to do so. Swalwell made gun violence prevention policies the crux of his candidacy,…
Background Checks
Last month, the National Rifle Association rallied its members against a new California regulation compelling gun and ammo buyers who lack the state’s new REAL ID to present a birth certificate or a passport when going through a background…
Voters in several states have gone to the polls to approve new gun reforms. Now the NRA is backing bills to constrain the ballot initiative process.
A group of members wants to root out corruption in order to “Save the Second.”
Law
The Supreme Court on Monday struck down a federal law allowing prosecutors to seek stiffer prison sentences for individuals convicted of committing certain crimes involving guns. In a 5-4 decision, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote the opinion for the majority,…
The devices turn semiautomatic pistols into illegal machine guns, and their appearance in the U.S. has spiked since 2016, according to government data.
Gun Policy
A group of House and Senate Democrats on Thursday introduced a bill to encourage states to adopt “permit-to-purchase” laws for handguns, which would require that buyers first have a license from law enforcement before legally obtaining firearms. “Handgun licensing saves…
The majority of gun owners support the sale of smart guns — but few will actually spend money on the weapons. That’s the main finding of a new survey of more than 1,500 gun owners from the Johns Hopkins…
Mass Shooting
The use of semiautomatic handguns since 1990 has outpaced an already growing gun market.
When a federal 10-year ban was in place, Virginia police saw as much as a 52 percent decline in the seizure of such accessories.
