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How gun dealers are skirting Biden's new ghost gun rule

Sep 21, 2022
Alain Stephens, an investigative reporter for The Trace, breaks down the market for ghost guns.
"When you buy a traditional firearm through a regularly licensed gun dealer, there's a serial number attached to that ... but these homemade guns, they don't have serial numbers," said The Trace's Alain Stephens.
Gabriel Bouys/AFP via Getty Images

Gun retailers get a unique merchant code that could help flag suspicious sales

Sep 12, 2022
The financial services industry has a long history of spotting indicators of illegal activity in legal transactions.
Introducing a unique merchant code for gun retailers could help the financial services industry spot suspicious activity.
Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Since Sandy Hook killings a decade ago, Congress has put no limits on gun sales

May 25, 2022
In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook shooting, Marketplace looked into background checks and gun purchases. We're revisiting some of that reporting today.
An officer walks outside of Robb Elementary School on May 25. The day before, a gunman killed 19 students and two adults.
Allison Dinner/AFP via Getty Images

Gun stock prices and background checks are surging

Some analysts believe anxiety and fear are driving the spike.
Background checks at licensed gun dealers are up for the third month in a row, and they’re up a lot.
George Frey/AFP via Getty Images

With COVID-19 comes a surge in gun sales

Apr 13, 2020
The FBI reports that background checks in March were up. Some of those purchasing guns are doing so for the first time.
People wait in line at Northwest Armory, a gun store in Portland, Ore., on March 21, 2020, two days before the governor issued a stay-at-home order.

How businesses cope with tragedy

Aug 5, 2019
Companies have to strike a delicate balance when they are caught up in a tragedy like a mass shooting.
Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Want to divest from guns? You might need to team up with your co-workers

Mar 8, 2018
Under pressure to divest from guns, pension funds feel they have to choose between making money for their members and their values.
Outside view of Sunrise Tactical Supply store in Coral Springs, Florida on February 16, 2018 where school shooter Nikolas Cruz bought his AR-15 to gun down students at Marjory Stoneman High School. 
MICHELE EVE SANDBERG/AFP/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Should credit card companies tackle gun sales?

Feb 20, 2018
Andrew Ross Sorkin had an interesting column in the New York Times yesterday — a business and economic take on how to make mass shootings less common. PayPal and Square, Sorkin pointed out, decided years ago not to let people use their services to buy guns. What about Mastercard and Visa, he wondered. Or the […]

Top U.S. gunmaker says sales will pick back up under Trump

Feb 23, 2017
Sturm Ruger CEO Michael Fifer says owning firearms is 'more socially acceptable.'
The proprietor of this Merrimack, New Hampshire, gun store said his October 2016 sales were double that of 2015, with customers expressing anxiety about the November election.
DOMINICK REUTER/AFP/Getty Images