Guns & America

Last year’s Black Friday set the single-day record for gun background checks run — 203,086.

When you buy a gun from a federally licensed firearms dealer, they’re required to run a background check.

While there is no tally of guns sold in the U.S., there is a daily count of background check requests from the FBI and it’s generally considered the best way to measure gun sales.

Tens of thousands of Americans die by suicide each year; it is a leading cause of death among working-age men in the U.S. In Colorado, 56 percent of men who die by suicide used a firearm.

If you want to know how a felon buys a gun, think about how a teenager might buy alcohol.

First, find a willing friend or family member, or maybe even a stranger at a liquor store who wants to make a quick buck. Then give this person some cash, tell them your drink of choice, and wait.

If you’re careful, this transaction — called a “straw purchase” — is impossible to detect. Clerks don’t often hassle a person over 21 who walks alone into a liquor store.

Gun violence prevention groups launched a multi-million dollar campaign to elect pro-gun control candidates across the country during this year’s midterms. Those efforts are now associated with key wins that helped Democrats retake control of the U.S. House of Representatives and could shape gun policy in the coming session.

The only statewide gun legislation on the ballot this Election Day was approved by 60 percent of Washington voters. Initiative 1639 will tighten laws on semi-automatic rifles in the state.

The new law will raise the legal age to purchase semi-automatic rifles to 21, impose a 10-day waiting period, require an annual background check and require purchasers to take a firearms training course.

In the aftermath of a mass shooting, a recurring question arises: How did the shooter get the gun?

In most cases, the perpetrator legally bought the firearms in question.

Since 1982, there have been 114 mass shootings in the U.S.

A new kind of gun law is on the ballot in 10 Oregon counties this year. So-called “Second Amendment Preservation Ordinances” would give those county sheriffs the authority to determine if state and federal gun laws are constitutional and bar county resources from being used to enforce them.

The measures represent a new legal strategy for gun rights groups.

About two weeks out from Election Day, a dozen United Auto Workers and United Steelworkers came out to the small eastern city of Warren, Ohio. They were there to support the Democratic ticket for governor, Richard Cordray and his running mate Betty Sutton.