Firearms News

Gun homicides surged across the United States during the coronavirus pandemic, in the same year that Americans bought a record-breaking number of guns. But some of America's leading gun violence researchers have concluded that what might seem like an obvious cause-and-effect – a surge in gun buying leads to a surge in gun violence – is not supported by the data. Through July of last year, there was no clear association between the increase in firearm purchases and... [Guardian, via GunPolicy.org]

There's been a wave of media coverage this summer about an increase in homicides across the United States, with attention often focused on the same political question: will Americans still want to defund or even reform the police if "violent crime" is on the rise? Anxiety about violent crime is often used to win elections. Police and politicians routinely share misleading, out-of-context crime statistics to advance their agendas. Fearmongering about rising crime has... [Guardian, via GunPolicy.org]

The year 2020 saw the largest recorded increase in homicides in United States history — an increase likely propelled by a complex mix of factors, from more guns to stresses of the pandemic to fewer police officers on the streets to a crisis in relations between police and citizens. But one persistent theory is that a change in policing last summer primarily drove increased gun violence. This is an especially popular explanation among law enforcement figures. Former... [Vox, via GunPolicy.org]

In a polarizing decision on Friday night, a federal judge struck down California's 32-year-old ban on assault weapons, ruling that it violated Americans' constitutional right to own guns for self protection. In the 94-page decision, Judge Roger Benitez compared an AR-15 rifle to a "Swiss army knife" and falsely claimed that more Californians had died from the Covid-19 vaccine than from mass shootings. [See footnote] Although the decision has sparked outrage in... [Guardian, via GunPolicy.org]

When Brian Muhammad, a program manager at a gun violence prevention group in California, asked a 16-year-old boy in 2018 how young people were getting guns, he assumed the answer would be Nevada, the neighboring state with looser gun laws. "Who would waste time going to Nevada when you can just get them in the mail and put it together?" the Stockton teen nonchalantly replied. Three years later, homemade weapons known as "ghost guns" have risen to the top of the Biden... [Guardian, via GunPolicy.org]

At the same time that President Joe Biden was unveiling his plans this month to attack epidemic gun violence with all the tangential minimalism that U.S. law and politics can muster, I was 20 miles north of the U.S.-Canadian border watching what happens when people, and a nation, treat guns as if they might be dangerous. In a small, carpeted classroom in Delta, British Columbia, a dozen of us filed in for the first of two days of classes — 15 hours in all —... [Bloomberg Opinion, via GunPolicy.org]

Gun control advocates are making a new attempt to force the gun industry to comply with a unique California law that requires bullet casings to be "microstamped", a measure that has been toothless since it was approved more than a decade ago. California's 2007 law requires gun manufacturers to adopt microstamping technology on new types of handguns introduced in the state. The intent was to imprint a unique set of microscopic characters on all cartridge casings when... [Guardian, via GunPolicy.org]

For gun-safety activists or everyday Massachusetts citizens concerned about gun violence, it doesn't get much better than this. Newly released data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show Massachusetts is the state with the least amount of gun violence per capita, while a new study by Everytown for Gun Safety concludes that the Commonwealth has the lowest-in-the-nation per capita costs from gun violence. Building on that good news, US Senator Ed Markey... [Boston Globe, via GunPolicy.org]

Voluntary program will provide compensation to gun owners who give up firearms on blacklist The Liberal government is expected to table a bill in the coming days that will set up a program to buy back assault-style weapons that were blacklisted last spring, Radio-Canada has learned. The voluntary program will provide financial compensation to gun owners who give up their banned weapons, with the aim of taking them out of circulation. Public Safety Minister Bill Blair... [CBC News (Canada), via GunPolicy.org]

Americans have bought nearly 17m guns so far in 2020, more than in any other single year, according to estimates from a firearms analytics company. Gun sales across the United States first jumped in the spring, driven by fears about the coronavirus pandemic, and spiked even higher in the summer, during massive racial justice protests across the country, prompted by police killings of black Americans. "By August, we had exceeded last year's total. By September, we... [Guardian, via GunPolicy.org]

Joe Biden's Evolution on Guns Early in his career, Biden said gun regulation was ineffective. Several decades — and one notorious crime bill — later, he's pushing the most expansive reform platform in history. On the night of August 25, 1994, a complicated package of legislation championed by then-Senator Joe Biden looked like it had gathered enough votes. Along with Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell, Biden stood in front of television cameras and reporters... [Trace, Media release, via GunPolicy.org]

More than a hundred thousand Californians have bought a gun since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, a new report has found, in a surge of gun sales that has experts worried about the risk of suicide and deadly instances of domestic violence. Researchers at the University of California, Davis, found that 110,000 people in California purchased a firearm in direct response to the coronavirus. About 47,000 of the buyers were first-time gun owners. Buyers cited... [Guardian, via GunPolicy.org]

Handguns are quietly being smuggled into Britain, despite tough gun-control laws. The police fear that the illegal weapons are contributing to a rise in gang-related crime. NORTHAMPTON, England — Josh Bains was 28 when he was killed after an argument over a drug debt of about $50 just a few miles from the English village where he grew up — with a gun that had traveled thousands of miles from America. His was one of a rising number of gun deaths in recent years... [New York Times, via GunPolicy.org]

Nearly two weeks after the deadliest mass shooting in Canada's history, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on Friday introduced an immediate ban on what he described as "military-style assault weapons." "These weapons were designed for one purpose and one purpose only: to kill the largest number of people in the shortest amount of time," Mr. Trudeau said. "There is no use and no place for such weapons in Canada." The ban means that Canadians will no longer be able to own... [New York Times, via GunPolicy.org]

Americans bought about two million guns in March, according to a New York Times analysis of federal data. It was the second-busiest month ever for gun sales, trailing only January 2013, just after President Barack Obama's re-election and the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School. With some people fearful that the pandemic could lead to civil unrest, gun sales have been skyrocketing. In the past, fear of gun-buying restrictions has been the main driver of spikes... [New York Times, via GunPolicy.org]

- 26 percent: The increase in intimate partner homicides by shooting since 2010 - $911 million: The annual cost of gun injury hospitalization - 30 percent: The share of firearms recovered by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in California that are unserialized ghost guns - 3.3m? 8.5m? 17.7m? The hard-to-quantify number of assault weapons in... [The Trace (USA), via GunPolicy.org]

What exactly is a ghost gun? The term "ghost gun" is used by media, police, and sometimes the firearms industry to describe homemade weapons devoid of serial numbers or other identifying markings that enable them to be tracked to their maker, seller, or original owner. For years, law enforcement authorities referred to these weapons as simply "homemade" guns or "kit" guns. "Ghost gun" is a relatively new term. How are ghost guns made? A variety of ways. The most... [The Trace, via GunPolicy.org]

WEST HARTFORD, Connecticut – There have been numerous articles recently published about Colt's participation in the commercial rifle market. Some of these articles have incorrectly stated or implied that Colt is not committed to the consumer market. We want to assure you that Colt is committed to the Second Amendment, highly values its customers and continues to manufacture the world's finest quality firearms for the consumer market. The fact of the matter is that... [Colt News, via GunPolicy.org]

Recent mass shootings have revived demands for meaningful gun control. But many opponents of a renewed federal ban on assault weapons, led by the National Rifle Association, say the earlier ban, from 1994 to 2004, made no difference. Our new research shows otherwise. We found that public mass shootings — which we defined as incidents in which a gunman killed at least six people in public — dropped during the decade of the federal ban. Yet, in the 15 years since the... [New York Times, Blog, via GunPolicy.org]

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke out this week about a matter that has long puzzled many foreign observers of the United States: the country's inability to rein in gun violence. Speaking to CNN's Christiane Amanpour, the prime minister said: "Australia experienced a massacre and changed their laws. New Zealand had its experience and changed its laws. To be honest with you, I do not understand the United States." Ardern was referring both to a 1996... [Washington Post, via GunPolicy.org]