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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Law Enforcement
We set out to determine how domestic killers in South Carolina got their guns. Instead, we found evidence of a widespread breakdown of critical crime-fighting intel.
Missing Pieces
After being contacted by The Trace’s reporters, the Atlanta Police Department clamped down on officers whose behavior contributed to the loss or theft of a department-issued firearm. Under a new policy adopted this month, officers who violate the department’s rules…
An investigation by The Trace shows that police departments’ uneven storage rules have put deadly weapons into the hands of criminals.
A national database of shell casings has been deployed unevenly. So the DOJ is encouraging lawyers who want to use it to link and crack cases.
Criminal Justice
New Jersey and Delaware have laws mandating that investigators use an innovative ballistics system called NIBIN. The other 48 states don’t — and their reticence makes it harder to ID shooters everywhere.
When I first learned that investigators can look at tiny marks on shell casings from bullets to get leads on gun crimes that plague neighborhoods across the country, I had to see for myself. Read Next…
How We Fix This
Propelled by a new, no-nonsense boss, Contra Costa County ditched the excuses that keep many law enforcement agencies from taking better advantage of a crime-fighting database called NIBIN.
We’ve noticed that this story from February 2018 is receiving a surge of traffic in 2020. Annual statistics on police officers killed in the line of duty can be found on this page of the FBI’s Uniform Crime…
Extremism
Police in Arkansas say nine of the 44 people arrested in a drug and weapons investigation this Wednesday were member of local white-supremacist gangs. Twenty-five pounds of methamphetamine and 69 firearms were seized in the operation, the latest of many…
The city is ramping up its efforts to collect genetic material. But the absence of oversight alarms forensic and legal experts.
Community Violence
Funneling more gun criminals to federal prison won't lead to fewer gun homicides. To understand why, just look at St. Louis.
The city has launched an ambitious program to collect DNA from every gun recovered by police. But questions remain about effectiveness, and cost.
Four young men were fatally shot. Their killers haven't been caught. Their mothers suffer.
"You’re prepared for any situation that comes up."
Stepped-up narcotics arrests can actually lead to more violence.
