# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Tracing the gun: the archaic way the U.S. tracks gun ownership

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Thanks to the Firearms Owners' Protection Act, no federal agency can legally create a gun registry, meaning the U.S. government can't use searchable digital records to trace gun ownership even if a gun is used to commit a crime. As such, the ATF conducts traces using phone calls and paper records, often searching through them one at a time.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
An emotional US President Barack Obama has unveiled new restrictions on gun purchases, saying the "constant excuses for inaction" have to stop.

Wiping away tears, the president recalled the Sandy Hook primary school shooting in 2012 where 20 children and six adults were killed.

His executive actions, without Congress approval, widen background checks on potential gun buyers.

But the National Rifle Association said it would fight Mr Obama's measures.

And the leader of the House of Representatives, Republican Paul Ryan, said the plans were certain to be challenged in the courts.

"His words and actions amount to a form of intimidation that undermines liberty," he said.

Earlier, the president announced the law change at the White House, while surrounded by survivors and relatives of victims of shootings.

"The gun lobby may be holding Congress hostage right now, but they can't hold America hostage," Mr Obama said.

An emotional president employed all of his rhetorical skill to justify what are, in reality, executive actions that only modestly expand federal regulation of firearm sales.

Standing in a room filled with victims of gun violence, he explained that the murder of schoolchildren in Newtown, Connecticut, changed him - and that he hoped it would change the country.

Three years have passed since that school massacre, however, and the country hasn't changed. While some states have toughened their laws, others have expanded gun rights and the US Congress has taken no action.

So Mr Obama did what he could, and wrapped the move in language that sounded more appropriate for a ceremony announcing the passage of sweeping legislation that, in today's political environment, has no chance of reaching his presidential desk.

And even this small move will likely be fiercely challenged in court, in Congress and at the ballot box by whichever Republican wins the nomination fight to replace him in 2017.

Gun violence is significantly higher in the US than in other advanced countries, killing about 30,000 people each year.

Congress has been reluctant to pass any laws restricting gun ownership, facing pressure from gun owners and the powerful National Rifle Association.

Mr Obama tried to pass expanded background check legislation in 2012 after the shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, that left 20 children and six adults dead but it failed in Congress.

The executive actions include:

Background checks for all gun sellers, overturning current exemptions to some online and gun show sellers

States providing information on people disqualified from buying guns due to mental illness or domestic violence

Increased workforce for the FBI to process background checks, hiring more than 230 new examiners

Congress being asked to invest $500m (£339m) to improve access to mental healthcare in the US

The departments of defence, justice and homeland security exploring "smart gun technology" to improve gun safety

The announcement is already shaping up to be an issue in the 2016 presidential election.

Republican candidate Senator Ted Cruz tweeted that the executive actions are unconstitutional, with a link to sign up for his campaign correspondence on a webpage that says "Obama wants your guns" with a photo of the president in an army jacket and hat.

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush tweeted that he would repeal the actions and protect the Second Amendment.

During Mr Obama's speech, comedian Amy Schumer, cousin of New York Senator Chuck Schumer, was in the audience. Two women died in a shooting at a movie theatre in Louisiana during a showing of her movie Trainwreck.

Gabby Giffords, a former congresswoman who survived a shooting, was there as well, in addition to many relatives of victims and survivors of mass shooting.

Shares in gunmaker Smith & Wesson rose to their highest value since 1999 ahead of the president's announcement.

The number of background checks on potential buyers - a guide to future sales - has risen in the wake of mass shootings in the past.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Barack Obama: US gun control inaction must end

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
An emotional US President Barack Obama has unveiled new restrictions on gun purchases, saying the "constant excuses for inaction" have to stop. Wiping away tears, the president recalled the Sandy Hook primary school shooting in 2012 where 20 children and six adults were killed.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Why is the National Rifle Association so powerful? Here's a clue: it's not (just) about the money.

The vast majority of Americans support gun control, and yet Congress has failed to toughen laws even in the wake of a series of mass shootings. With the NRA pouring money into political races at record levels it is an easy argument to make that the gun lobby has bought Washington - but that fails to paint a full picture.

In 2017, the NRA spent at least $4.1m on lobbying - more than the $3.1m it spent in all of 2016. That's real money, but for comparison, the dairy industry has spent $4.4m in the same period, according to the Center for Responsive Politics (CRP). The National Association of Realtors, one of the biggest spenders, has paid out $32.2m lobbying on housing issues. The US Chamber of Commerce, the largest spender of all, has spent $104m.

The NRA's influence does not stem solely from lobbying. Thanks to the supreme court's Citizens United decision, the spigot is now wide open for "independent expenditures" allowing groups and individuals to back - or attack - candidates, as long as those campaigns are not made in cooperation with, or at the request of, a candidate.

The NRA bet big on 2016's presidential election, making independent expenditures worth $53.4m. And the cash seemed to have been well spent. The NRA poured $14.4m into supporting 44 candidates who won and $34.4m opposing 19 candidates who lost, according to CRP. Its only big loss was in Nevada, for the seat vacated by the Democratic minority leader, Harry Reid.

Nor does the power of the guns manufacturers fully explain the NRA's power. Guns are big(ish) business. Gun and ammunition manufacturers will have revenues of $13.3bn and profits of $1bn in 2017, according to IBISWorld. Gun and ammunition stores this year will have revenues of $85.bn and profits of $256m.

But there are far bigger industries. The auto industry (which has spent $51.8m on lobbying so far in 2017), is on course for revenues of $105.3bn and profits of $3.1bn in 2017.

The NRA's influence, too, is out of proportion to its financial firepower. This is a world with far bigger spenders in Washington - the billionaire Koch brothers spent $889m on the election. And far bigger industries: Apple's revenues were a record $52bn in the last three months alone and their cash, along with the other tech giants, makes the gun industry look like a rounding error.

Dan Auble, a senior researcher at CRP, said NRA's spending was at a record high but remained "paltry" in comparison to groups like the pharmaceutical industry.

If the gun lobby is to be successful, it needs to spend money in Washington, and it does. But the amount alone does not explain the NRA's success.

"The NRA is not successful because of its money. To be sure, it is hard to be a force in American politics without money. The NRA has money that it uses to help its favored candidates get elected. But the real source of its power, I believe, comes from voters," said Adam Winkler, professor of constitutional law at the UCLA School of Law and author of Gunfight: The Battle over the Right to Bear Arms in America.

By choosing its battles wisely, the NRA has shown an ability to swing primary elections in favor of pro-gun candidates, Winkler said. "That's the real source of their strength," he said. That and its use of a relatively small number of highly motivated people to push an agenda that appears out of step with the general population, which, according to recent polling, is in favour of stricter gun laws.

The 145-year-old organization claims 5 million active members, although that number is disputed. But whatever its actual size, that membership is a powerful tool, said Robert Spitzer, professor of crime, law and policy and gun control at the State University of New York at Cortland and the author of five books on guns.

"They have a very powerful ability to mobilize a grassroots support and to engage in politics when most Americans can barely be bothered to vote," he said. "I mean more than voting. I mean going to a meeting, writing a letter, contacting a friend," he said. "And because so few Americans do those things, if you get a bunch of people in a locality who are all prepared to go out to a meeting they can have a big effect.

"Elected officials feel the impact of constituents when they hear their voices," said Spitzer. "Politics is often about the squeaky wheel - who makes the loudest noise, who gets the most attention."

There are, however, problems on the horizon for the NRA. For one, the gun control lobby is growing. Billionaire Michael Bloomberg's gun control group Everytown for Gun Safety is threatening to spend more than $25m in 2018 races. Americans for Responsible Solutions, a gun control political action committee set up by Gabrielle Giffords, a former Democratic congresswoman whose career was ended when she was shot along with 18 others in an Arizona suburb, spent $13.4m in 2016.

'This happens nowhere else': senator decries gun laws after Florida shooting - video

The issue for gun control advocates is that they have yet to develop as powerful a voice - or as deep contacts in Washington - as the gun lobby. "I think it's fair to say that so far they have been thwarted at the federal level," said Auble. "They are just not as well funded, not as established, and don't have the history the NRA has."

Even if the gun control groups gave the same amount of money to the same candidates, said Winkler, those candidates would not vote in favor of gun control. "It's not just money," he said. "If Michael Bloomberg said he will give you $2 for every $1 the NRA gives you, it is not going to work."

The truth is that gun control is not an area where money is leading politics, he said. It's an issue that some voters care a lot about and elected officials respond to those voters. "Especially the intense, mobilized, minority of voters that support most vigorously the right to bear arms."

But putting the money and its current influence aside, the NRA faces existential issues in the years ahead as its opposition grows.

The election of Donald Trump was a major victory for the NRA. On the eve of his 100th day in office, Trump addressed the NRA's annual conference, the first sitting president to do so since Ronald Reagan in 1983. "You came through for me, and I am going to come through for you," Trump told the cheering crowd.

"I am here to deliver you good news: the eight-year assault on your second amendment freedoms has come to a crashing end."

Attendees at the NRA convention in Atlanta in April. Photograph: Scott Olson/Getty Images

That cheering crowd - largely white, male and older - was a snapshot of the people who swung Trump's victory. It's also a picture of a demographic in decline.

By mid-century the US is expected to become a majority minority nation. The NRA's core constituency is basically older white males. Younger people are not taking up gun ownership at the same rate as older people did, said Spitzer, and polls of minorities show they feel more strongly about gun control. Attempts by the NRA to broaden its appeal do not seem to have paid off. "They are facing an existential demographic problem," said Spitzer.

Even a Trump presidency may not be good for the NRA. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton presented the NRA with obvious foes. Gun sales are falling after the glory years of the Obama administration, when each mass shooting led to a spike in sales as Democrats called for gun control and gun owners ran to the shops. With their people in office, the industry - and the NRA - lack a demon to drive sales and membership.

The NRA has shifted gears post-Obama, taking a leaf out of Trump's all-caps textbook and attacking the media for demonizing gun owners and the president. Such a move is unlikely to win over minority support.

'We must immediately harden our schools' says NRA's Wayne LaPierre - video

"If the NRA really wants to reach a new generation, maybe they need to reach out to Black Lives Matter. Who are the people who are being abused by government agents the most? You would think that Black Lives Matter would have some affinity with that idea that you need guns to protect yourself against a hostile government that can't protect you," said Spitzer.

But even the NRA knows that the best thing that the gun control movement could see right now would be a lot of African Americans or Muslims carrying guns around America.

The NRA has changed many times in its history, for much of the 20th century it supported gun control. For all its current power there is nothing to suggest the organization is invulnerable to change. Indeed, in this month's special elections NRA favorites fell to candidates who support more gun control. "The NRA face really significant challenges. How they manage them remains to be seen," said Spitzer.

This article was amended on 28 November 2017 to clarify a description of the Citizens United supreme court ruling.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why is the National Rifle Association so powerful?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Compared with others, the 145-year-old lobby group isn't a vast spender - but the NRA has the power to mobilize a grassroots support and make Washington listen

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
REP. ROBIN KELLY

U.S. Congresswoman Robin Kelly (D) represents Illinois' 2 nd Congressional District, which includes the South Side of Chicago and other areas that have been plagued by shooting deaths. Since her election in 2013, she has worked to promote public safety, sponsoring numerous bills to end gun violence.

In 2014, Rep. Kelly released the Kelly Report on Gun Violence in America, the first-ever Congressional analysis of the nation's gun violence epidemic that offers a blueprint for solving the crisis. The report brought together members of Congress, academics, and gun reform advocates to examine the root causes of gun violence in America and its impact, as well as to provide a comprehensive set of legislative and policy recommendations to stop it.

RICHARD FELDMAN

Richard Feldman was a regional political director for the National Rifle Association during its rise to power in the 1980s. In the 1990s, he was chief lobbyist and spokesman for the firearm industry's national trade association. He is the author of Ricochet: Confessions of a Gun Lobbyist (2008).

Feldman is now the president and CEO of the Independent Firearm Owners Association, which is dedicated to protecting "Second Amendment civil liberties for all law-abiding Americans."
KAILE SHILLING
Kaile Shilling is the former executive director of the Violence Prevention Coalition of Greater Los Angeles, which is a leader in the movement to frame violence as a public health issue, rather than a criminal justice issue. VPC's mission is to unify and strengthen voices of member organizations and individuals committed to ending the epidemic of violence by providing education, resources, and public policy.

Kaile has more than a decade of experience working in and with nonprofits, and prior to joining VPC, she worked at Homeboy Industries, one of the leading gang intervention agencies in the nation.
CAROLYN MCCARTHY
Former U.S. Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy served nine terms representing New York's 4th Congressional District. Personal tragedy compelled her to run for Congress and make gun reform her primary legislative goal. In 1993, her husband Dennis was killed and her son Kevin injured when a gunman opened fire with a semiautomatic pistol on an evening rush hour Long Island commuter train. During her tenure, she was known as the "doyenne of anti-gun advocates in the House" and sponsored multiple gun bills, including improved reporting of mental health records into the NICS system, a ban on assault weapons, and trigger locks on guns.

Rep. McCarthy (D) recently retired, at age 70, after serving 18 years in Washington, D.C.

ARKADI GERNEY

Arkadi Gerney is the Senior Vice President of Campaigns and Strategies for the Center of American Progress Action Fund and a Senior Vice President at the Center for American Progress.

Prior to joining CAP, Gerney worked as special advisor and first deputy criminal justice coordinator to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, where he managed Mayors Against Illegal Guns. During his time there, Gerney oversaw the coalition's growth to more than 600 mayors, led successful campaigns to influence federal legislation, partnered with Wal-Mart to develop a landmark gun-seller code of conduct, and led New York City's undercover investigation of out-of-state gun shows.

In 1987, Gerney's life was profoundly changed when his mother's fiancé was fatally shot in the head with a sawed-off .22-calibre rifle.

JOSH SUGARMANN

Josh Sugarmann, a native of Newtown, Connecticut, founded the Violence Policy Center in 1988. The VPC informs the public about the impact of gun violence on their daily lives, exposes the profit-driven marketing and lobbying activities of the firearm industry and gun lobby, offers unique technical expertise to policymakers, organizations, and advocates on the federal, state, and local levels, and works for policy changes that save lives.

DANIEL WEBSTER, ScD, MPH

Dr. Daniel Webster is the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research and professor of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He also serves as the deputy director for research at the Johns Hopkins Center for the Prevention of Youth Violence.

As one of the nation's leading experts on firearm policy and the prevention of gun violence, Dr. Webster has published numerous policy articles and has studied the effects of a variety of violence prevention interventions, including state gun and alcohol policies, public education campaigns, and policing strategies.

He is the co-editor of Reducing Gun Violence in America: Informing Policy with Evidence and Analysis (2013).

ROBERT SPITZER, Ph.D.

Dr. Robert Spitzer is a Distinguished Service Professor and chair of the political science department at the State University of New York, College at Cortland. He is the author of five books on guns, including his most recent Guns Across America: Reconciling Gun Rules and Rights (2015) and The Politics of Gun Control (6th ed., 2015).

Dr. Spitzer served as president of the Presidency Research Group of the American Political Science Association from 2001-2003 and as a member of the New York State Commission on the Bicentennial of the U.S. Constitution.
DAN GROSS
Dan Gross has been the president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence since February 2012. He became involved in the gun violence prevention movement after his brother Matthew was severely wounded in a shooting atop the Empire State Building in 1997. Before joining Brady, he co-founded and directed the Center to Prevent Youth Violence, where he created and implemented the ASK Campaign and Speak Up Program, which continue today at the Brady Campaign. Following the Newtown massacre, Dan served on Vice President Joe Biden's gun violence prevention task force.

Under Dan's leadership, the Brady Campaign - a passion project of his late close friends Jim and Sarah Brady - has announced the bold goal of cutting the number of U.S. gun deaths in half by 2025.

CHARLES HOUSER

Charles Houser is the chief of the National Tracing Center Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. The National Tracing Center in Martinsburg, West Virginia, is the country's only facility that tracks firearms from manufacturer to purchaser. In 2014, Houser and his team traced nearly 365,000 firearms recovered from crime scenes, providing investigative leads for federal, state, local, and international law enforcement agencies.

JOHN FEINBLATT

John Feinblatt is the President of Everytown for Gun Safety, the largest gun violence prevention organization in the country. He is a senior advisor to former Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and, in addition to his role at Everytown, has led the former mayor's efforts on immigration reform, infrastructure investment, and marriage equality. During the twelve years of the Bloomberg administration, Mr. Feinblatt held the position of New York City's Criminal Justice Coordinator and in 2010 was appointed the Mayor's Chief Policy Advisor.

Prior to joining City Hall, Mr. Feinblatt was the Founding Director of the Center for Court Innovation and the Founding Director of the Midtown Community Court. Mr. Feinblatt is a graduate of Wesleyan University and the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University. He lives in New York City with his husband and two daughters.

See full list of experts and survivors featured in the film on The Credits page.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In the past few years, a drastic rise in mass shootings has ripped across the United States, compounding an epidemic of gun violence in our country. Despite a growing body count at the hands of guns, and the outpouring of shock and outrage that comes with it, our nation has failed to respond with meaningful action.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
America's unique gun violence problem, explained in 16 maps and charts

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In the developed world, these levels of gun violence are a uniquely American problem. Here's why.