Mike Spies

Mike is a senior staff writer at The Trace. He 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. 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, POLITICO magazine, Rolling Stone, and ProPublica, where he worked as a reporter focusing on democracy issues and the federal government.

The organization’s leadership is focused on external threats, but the real crisis is of its own making.

Mike Spies

Watch How Chicago Gets Flooded with Thousands of Crime Guns

Chicago

Watch How Chicago Gets Flooded with Thousands of Crime Guns

Last year, 88 percent of the guns recovered in Illinois were seized in Chicago. More than half of them came from out of state.

Mike Spies and Emily Fuhrman
The Time Marco Rubio Ran Afoul of the NRA

Politics

The Time Marco Rubio Ran Afoul of the NRA

The gun lobby only dropped the Florida Senator from an A rating to a B+, but the 2007 episode reveals just how much fealty it demands from the politicians it supports.

Mike Spies
The Time Marco Rubio Ran Afoul of the NRA

National Rifle Association

The Time Marco Rubio Ran Afoul of the NRA

The gun lobby only dropped the Florida Senator from an A rating to a B+, but the 2007 episode reveals just how much fealty it demands from the politicians it supports.

Mike Spies
Texas Professor Warns That Guns in Classrooms Could Dumb Down Provocative Lessons

Q & A

Texas Professor Warns That Guns in Classrooms Could Dumb Down Provocative Lessons

Lisa Moore teaches gay and lesbian studies at the University of Texas, where she is a founder of Gun-Free UT. "Shutting down dissent and free speech," she says, "is the opposite of what should happen on a college campus."

Mike Spies
Chicago’s Relentlessly Bloody Weekends Show Gun Violence Isn’t Confined to One Season

Chicago

Chicago’s Relentlessly Bloody Weekends Show Gun Violence Isn’t Confined to One Season

Nearly 60 people were shot in the city last weekend, making this September markedly different from Septembers past.

Mike Spies
Airport Gun Seizures Are Projected to Hit a 10-Year High in 2015, Says TSA

Data

Airport Gun Seizures Are Projected to Hit a 10-Year High in 2015, Says TSA

Just last week, the agency broke its record for firearms confiscated in a seven day period.

Mike Spies
When a Bullet Enters a Body: Gun Violence as Seen by a Trauma Surgeon

Q & A

When a Bullet Enters a Body: Gun Violence as Seen by a Trauma Surgeon

'In movies you always die quickly from a gunshot wound. But not in real life.'

Mike Spies
Can the U.S.’s 32,000 Annual Gun Deaths Really Be Cut in Half?

Gun Policy

Can the U.S.’s 32,000 Annual Gun Deaths Really Be Cut in Half?

One 2016 presidential candidate has vowed to do that — and one researcher says it's possible. But only if Washington has the will to make the number drop.

Mike Spies
Life as a Gunshot Survivor: A Young Sociologist Sheds New Light on a Hidden Cost of Firearms Violence

Q & A

Life as a Gunshot Survivor: A Young Sociologist Sheds New Light on a Hidden Cost of Firearms Violence

Jooyoung Lee documents the very painful ways that shooting injuries transform vibrant young men.

Mike Spies
A Baltimore Crime Reporter on What People Don’t Understand About the City’s Gun Violence

Q & A

A Baltimore Crime Reporter on What People Don’t Understand About the City’s Gun Violence

Justin George has covered Baltimore's endless shootings from the ground. Here's what residents have told the Sun journalist could help reduce the killing.

Mike Spies
An American Summer

In Memoriam

An American Summer

At least 4,080 people killed by gunfire. More than 9,000 wounded. The real story of the season was not the shootings that drew the most headlines.

Alex Yablon, Mike Spies, and Jennifer Mascia
An ATF Official on How Trafficked Guns Are Like Cockroaches

Community Violence

An ATF Official on How Trafficked Guns Are Like Cockroaches

Spot treatments don't work if the larger problem is left unchecked.

Mike Spies
‘We’re at War Here in Roanoke, With Each Other.’

City Limits

‘We’re at War Here in Roanoke, With Each Other.’

Accounts from the front lines of urban gun violence. This week: Roanoke, Virginia, site of last week's on-air murders — and an overlooked spike in fatal shootings.

Mike Spies and Jennifer Mascia
The Doctor Who Tries to Cure Gun Violence By Treating It Like a Contagious Disease

Chicago

The Doctor Who Tries to Cure Gun Violence By Treating It Like a Contagious Disease

An innovative program by epidemiologist Gary Slutkin has helped reduce violence in some urban neighborhoods by up to 70 percent.

Mike Spies
NRA Faces New Campaign Finance Complaint as Young Activists Continue to Follow the Money

National Rifle Association

NRA Faces New Campaign Finance Complaint as Young Activists Continue to Follow the Money

“We discovered fishy things in a number of states," says muckraker behind Connecticut investigation.

Mike Spies

Mike Spies

Secrecy, Self-Dealing, and Greed at the NRA

Watch How Chicago Gets Flooded with Thousands of Crime Guns

The Time Marco Rubio Ran Afoul of the NRA

The Time Marco Rubio Ran Afoul of the NRA

Texas Professor Warns That Guns in Classrooms Could Dumb Down Provocative Lessons

Chicago’s Relentlessly Bloody Weekends Show Gun Violence Isn’t Confined to One Season

Airport Gun Seizures Are Projected to Hit a 10-Year High in 2015, Says TSA

When a Bullet Enters a Body: Gun Violence as Seen by a Trauma Surgeon

Can the U.S.’s 32,000 Annual Gun Deaths Really Be Cut in Half?

Life as a Gunshot Survivor: A Young Sociologist Sheds New Light on a Hidden Cost of Firearms Violence

A Baltimore Crime Reporter on What People Don’t Understand About the City’s Gun Violence

An American Summer

An ATF Official on How Trafficked Guns Are Like Cockroaches

‘We’re at War Here in Roanoke, With Each Other.’

The Doctor Who Tries to Cure Gun Violence By Treating It Like a Contagious Disease

NRA Faces New Campaign Finance Complaint as Young Activists Continue to Follow the Money