Last month, we introduced you to Ask The Trace, a special project driven by the curiosity of readers. We asked you to pose the questions that would top your list if you were assigning stories in our newsroom. The answers to some of them could be found by mining our archives. For instance:
Which states have red flag laws?
Currently, there are 13. You can see them all in our red flag tracker.
How does someone buy a gun on the internet? Does it have to go through a licensed dealer like any other gun? Does it get mailed to your house?
The short answer: it depends. When guns are purchased through a gun store’s website, the buyer is subject to a background check, and must pick up the gun from a licensed dealer. But with private gun sales arranged online, it’s not as simple. We’ve got a full explainer here.
How many Americans keep an “arsenal” of guns in their home?
“Arsenal” is of course a subjective term, but one study from Harvard effectively defined it as 10 or more guns. The researchers estimated that more than six million Americans own stockpiles of firearms that large.
You also posed new questions we haven’t explored yet. And this week, we’d like you to help us decide which of those question our team of reporters should answer first. The first round of voting will remain live until September 15.
