The ATF, charged with policing the gun industry, lets dealers get away with falsifying records and selling firearms without background checks.
The programs, policies, and people driving positive change in America’s gun violence problem.
American lives, shaped by guns.
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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The Industry
About 1.4 million guns were sold in November, according to seasonally adjusted estimates.
Data
The United States, home to 4 percent of the world’s population, accounted for more than a third of its gun suicides in 2016, according to a sweeping analysis of global firearm deaths published yesterday in The Journal of the…
American Violence puts up-to-date data at the fingertips of researchers, journalists, and policymakers.
Bang for the Buck
Our NRA Campaign Spending Tracker analyzes FEC reports to show you exactly how much the group is putting behind its favored candidates.
Our tool lets you follow the gun group’s support of political candidates in real time.
ATF
One expert characterized the findings of The Trace's analysis as “more evidence that gun regulation advocates are closing the participation gap.”
Survivors of the Florida massacre challenged the media to pay attention. Data shows how successful they were.
Active Shooting
More Americans were killed or wounded by active shooters in 2017 than in any year since the Federal Bureau of Investigation began keeping track. All told, nearly 750 people were shot in 30 incidents, according to a newly…
The national murder rate increased by 29 percent last year as gun violence surged during the pandemic.
Missing Pieces
Missing Pieces, The Trace’s yearlong investigation into the violent consequences of America’s gun theft epidemic, is a Deadline Club Awards finalist in the category of Reporting by Independent Digital Media. Read Next…
Background Checks
On Thursday night, the Republican-dominated Florida Legislature responded to widespread calls for action after the Parkland mass shooting by passing the state’s first significant gun bill in two decades. The legislation was the product of intense debate by members…
A bill to give the state a tool to crack down on "lie-and-try" gun buyers awaits action from lawmakers.
An analysis of more than 800 official statements.
In the week following the Las Vegas massacre on October 1, polls showed that nearly 75 percent of registered voters in gun-owning households supported a ban on bump stocks. Yet despite the public sentiment, an analysis by The…
Update: The CDC’s official tally of 2017 gun deaths has been released. Excluding most suicides, at least 15,549 people were killed by guns in the United States in 2017, according to data collected by Gun Violence Archive (GVA), a…
Mass Shooting
Two weeks after the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history, coverage of it had all but vanished from six major cable news networks, an analysis by The Trace of data collected by the Television News Archive found. The…
