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.
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Gun Trafficking
In the wake of a judge's decision to throw out the Mexican government's lawsuit against the gun industry, data shows American companies produce the weapons driving cartel violence.
The Industry
More than a dozen state attorneys general and a spread of activists, researchers, and district attorneys filed amicus briefs in support of the Mexican government’s case, which accuses U.S. gun companies of fueling cartel violence.
American firearms power a brutal conflict that has claimed more than 100,000 lives.
Gun Policy
The Trump administration has implemented new export rules for American small arms, ammunition, and gun parts — a major victory for the American gun industry, which has lobbied for the change for more than a decade. The new rules,…
Mexican authorities were outgunned by criminal cartels in two notable incidents this month. In both cases, the criminals were armed with high-powered .50-caliber firearms. First, on October 13, in the state of Michoacan, a police convoy was ambushed with .50-caliber…
ATF
A new Trace analysis shows states with the highest share of crime guns purchased within 12 months.
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…
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 Theft
Tracking stolen firearms through the black market, from gun store thefts to crime scenes.
Smugglers who run weapons across the southern border are loyal customers.
Data
The same weapons that the gun industry pumps out in ever greater numbers are more likely to fatally injure people, a new study shows. The public safety risks of popular medium- and large-caliber firearms models are compounded by another fresh…
John Philips’s alleged aspirations as a gun runner were complicated by the fact that he himself was banned from owning firearms, and therefore had no way to legally acquire the weapons he planned to traffic onto the streets of Chicago.
“Instead of just trying to catch the one guy on the corner with a gun, we’re going to figure out where it came from,” said Scott Shellenberger, the state’s attorney for Baltimore County.
Fixated on Latin American gangs like MS-13, the Trump administration tiptoes around a major source of their weapons.
Tens of thousands of firearms smuggled from the United States help to fuel extreme rates of violence south of the border.
