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.
Our team, our mission, our partners, and more. Plus: How to contact us.
We report stories that would go untold. Generous readers sustain our work.
Sign up now to get our latest stories and eye-opening briefings.
Bang for the Buck
The organization’s leadership is focused on external threats, but the real crisis is of its own making.
The NRA CEO's wife threw star-studded fundraising events for Youth for Tomorrow, a Christian charity whose board she led. Invoices obtained by The Trace show the gun group paid tens of thousands of dollars in production fees, an arrangement that an expert described as "theft."
Letitia James has demanded documents and testimony related to The Trace's 2021 investigation into the LaPierres' travel and the NRA's employment of their niece.
The NRA chief's misleading statements about his yacht trip after Sandy Hook and his niece’s employment could strengthen the New York attorney general’s attempt to dissolve the gun group.
The NRA chief and his wife had a long list of trophies shipped and taxidermied — all on a contractor’s tab.
LaPierre has cultivated an image as a paragon of American gun culture, but video of his clumsy marksmanship — and details regarding his Rodeo Drive shopping trips — tell another story.
National Rifle Association
Marketing firm Ackerman McQueen said it would “not tolerate” further contact between NRA Chief of Staff Josh Powell and its employees — and that the gun group's reaction drove their professional split.
The gun group’s lawyer said “not a cent” of the nonprofit’s money was spent on helping executive Wayne LaPierre’s house hunt. But accountants flagged a $70,000 payment for doing just that.
In a newly obtained document, the accountant raised ethical and billing concerns about the law firm of William A. Brewer III, whose fees totaled $24 million in a year.
The gun group's foundation directed at least $180K to a nonprofit run by Susan LaPierre, who also asked NRA vendors to contribute.
The gun group has blamed its money problems on its longtime marketing firm, but a newly unearthed document shows that the financial improprieties reach further.
Lawmakers demand documents after The Trace’s reporting shows NRA’s use of shell companies to support Trump, Senate campaigns.
But will that give the gun group cover amid the wider Trump-Russia investigation?
The same media consultant purchased ads for the NRA and for Senate candidates in the Missouri, Montana, and North Carolina races.
The confessed Russian agent told an Israeli audience in 2013 that her gun rights group had a deal with the NRA.
Trump and the gun group used the same consultants to spearhead their TV ad blitzes at the height of the 2016 election, likely in violation of federal law.
