The programs, policies, and people driving positive change in America’s gun violence problem.
Looking back at the stories we told, and which stuck with us, during an eventful year.
The role of the gun industry in America’s gun violence epidemic.
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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Bang for the Buck
Documents show that the NRA's new anti-Biden ad emerged from the same web of firms involved in potentially illegal coordination in 2016 races.
Election 2020
At the same time, 94 percent of Republican candidates remain in the group's good graces.
While describing extensive corruption at the gun group, Joshua Powell’s book depicts its leader as an inept manager with a self-pitying streak.
Meanwhile, the gun group's legal costs soared.
Breaking down the allegations in the New York attorney general’s lawsuit seeking to dissolve the gun group.
We’re tracking the gun group’s 2020 election expenditures in real time.
Calling the gun group “a personal piggy bank” for executives, Letitia James laid out a pattern of financial mismanagement, many details of which were first reported by The Trace.
National Rifle Association
For more than two decades, the National Rifle Association has used member money to fund a covert campaign to keep Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre and his loyalists in power. That’s the story told in a recently released episode…
The gun group rails against state power, but almost always rallies behind the cops — who are also reliable donors.
William A. Brewer III certainly has the look of a power attorney. And he enjoys name recognition in the legal world. But does he have the clout to rein in the Attorney General of New York? National Rifle Association…
Once a top lender for the National Rifle Association, Wells Fargo is now highlighting its distance from the gun group. During an annual shareholder’s meeting on April 28, CEO Charles Scharf said the bank’s relationship with the NRA was…
Ackerman McQueen, the National Rifle Association’s former marketing and public relations agency, is asking a federal judge to bar William A. Brewer III and his law firm from representing the gun group in a lawsuit between the two parties, who…
An email obtained by The Trace criticizes a lack of transparency around ongoing staff reductions, which have hit the group’s fundraising staff especially hard. “Why have we not been advised regarding termination of employees?” it reads.
Coronavirus & Guns
The pandemic has prompted the gun group to slash staff salaries and cancel its annual conference. Meanwhile, it’s inked a partnership with BlazeTV, which airs broadcasters who’ve claimed the virus posed little risk to Americans.
The group has frequently used crises to push fears about social disorder and gun restrictions.