Guns

Guns N' Bitcoin, founded in 2019, promotes new ways to develop and purchase "ghost guns" that are 80 percent complete gun, sold with a kit of the materials needed to finish building the firearm. Another increasingly popular option is building ghost guns out of entirely 3D-printed parts. These guns have no serial number and don't require background checks; their rise poses serious obstacles to law enforcement's ability to track sales and distribution.

Gun purchases accelerated in the U.S. during 2020-2021 compared to 2019, with more than five million adults becoming first-time gun owners between January 2020 and April 2021 compared to 2.4 million adults in 2019, found a study on new gun ownership.

A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S.

Nearly 5,700 firearms have been confiscated at airport checkpoints in 2021, the highest number recorded by the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) since its inception. The vast majority of weapons — 85 percent — were loaded with ammunition, CBS News reports. Airports in Atlanta, Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston ranked highest in confiscated firearms. "It's an all time high," said TSA Administrator David Pekoske. The previous high mark was 4,400 guns confiscated in 2019..

California Gov. Gavin Newsom will push for a law modeled on Texas’ abortion ban that would let private citizens sue anyone who makes or sells assault weapons or ghost guns. Newsom has criticized the Texas law for limiting women’s access to abortion by allowing people to sue anyone who “aids or abets” one performed after about six weeks, before many women know they are pregnant.

In March 2020, as the first COVID-19 outbreaks hit the U.S., Americans flocked to gun stores. Civilians purchased some 19 million firearms over the next nine months — shattering every annual sales record. At the same time, shootings soared, with dozens of cities setting grim records for homicides, The Trace reports.

Fourteen experts drawn from an array of ideologies and sectors — public health, gun reform and gun rights advocacy, suicide prevention advocacy, the gun industry, academics, and public policy — met over a year to hammer out prevention steps that could address the crisis of gun suicides, which account for approximately 60 percent of all gun deaths, The Trace reports. "We believe it's important that this group states loudly and clearly: suicide deaths by firearm are not inevitable," they wr

Pro-gun messaging aimed at women has ebbed and flowed for years. Gun manufacturers, sellers and advocacy groups have used themes of empowerment to demonstrate how guns can help women protect themselves from dangers, The 19th reports. Its persistent narrative is a talking point in the mainstream gun-rights movement, which cites research that lax gun policies leave women disproportionately vulnerable.

Six more states no longer require residents to hold a permit to carry a concealed firearm, reports Stateline. Arkansas, Iowa, Montana, Tennessee, Texas and Utah this year enacted what gun rights advocates call “constitutional carry” measures. A legislative priority for groups such as the National Rifle Association, 21 states now have such measures in place.