Investigation

Red Flag Laws

Red flag laws, once heralded as a bipartisan compromise to stop mass shootings, have been adopted in nearly two dozen states. But these laws — intended to temporarily keep guns away from people who pose an imminent danger to themself or others — have recently been under attack as cases seeking to dismantle gun restrictions proliferated in the nation’s courts following the Supreme Court’s 2022 Bruen decision. The Trace’s recent series, published in partnership with Rolling Stone, illuminates how the public interest is undermined when gun rights groups and even the Republican Party launch baseless attacks built on disinformation.

  • $1 billion

    The dollars Congress earmarked for states to implement red flag laws in bipartisan gun reform legislation passed in 2022, after the Uvalde school shooting.

  • 75 percent

    Suicides in Wyoming that involved guns in 2023; the state had the highest gun suicide rate in the country.

  • 1,477

    The minimum number of intimate partner homicides in 2021, the year for which data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is most recently available. More than 70 percent of those deaths were by firearm.

Gun Policy

Red Flag Gun Laws Under Fire

Laws meant to keep firearms away from unstable people are under attack by Second Amendment radicals. An investigation by The Trace and Rolling Stone exposes the ugly campaign to undermine a bipartisan compromise to stop mass shootings.
Mike Spies

  • In the Land of Firearm Suicide, Republicans Ban a Policy That Might Help

    Mike Spies

  • A Gun Law the NRA Opposes Could Have Saved Its Employee’s Life

    Mike Spies

    • Full Coverage

    Lead Reporters

    • Mike Spies

      Senior Staff Writer
      Mike has produced numerous high-impact investigative projects focusing on the gun lobby, including a series that revealed widespread self-dealing at the National Rifle Association and an in-depth exploration of the gun industry’s role in the suicide crisis. A finalist for The Al Neuharth Innovation in Investigative Journalism Award, the series led to New York Attorney General Letitia James’s lawsuit seeking to dissolve the NRA and her office’s ongoing attempts to hold its leadership accountable. Spies has also earned a New York Press Club Award for continuing coverage, and in 2017 was recognized as a finalist for the Livingston Award. His bylines have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, POLITICO magazine, Rolling Stone, and ProPublica, where he worked as a reporter focusing on democracy issues and the federal government.