Dec 27, 2017

6. Guns moving across states

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives traced more than 211,000 guns back to their original point of purchase on behalf of law enforcement agencies in 2016. Of those, roughly 71 percent were originally sold in the state they were found, while the rest were from out of state. This interactive map shows the pattern of how guns move from state to state.

Expand chart

Note: Map shows only the top 10 out-of-state sources for traces run from each state; Data: Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives; Chart: Chris Canipe

Go deeper: How guns move across state lines

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Rashaan Ayesh

New Zealanders hand over 50,000 semi-automatic weapons to government

Photo: Phil Walter/Getty Images

The government of New Zealand said on Saturday that roughly 33,000 gun owners turned in more than 50,000 firearms as part of a six-month buyback program following an assault weapons ban that wrapped up Friday at midnight, AP reports.

Why it matters: The government banned most semi-automatic weapons within a month of the Christchurch mosque attack, which killed 51 people. However, critics claim many owners have illegally kept their firearms, AP writes.

Go deeperDec 21, 2019

Neal Rothschild

Guns surpass immigration as biggest non-impeachment issue

Data: NewsWhip; Chart: Chris Canipe/Axios - Note: Hover over the weekly rank on desktop to see articles and interactions for each candidate and issue.

It has hardly registered while impeachment consumes the country, but gun control has passed immigration as the issue generating the next most interest online over the last four months, according to data from NewsWhip provided exclusively to Axios.

Why it matters: In a trend that could help shape the 2020 races, immigration — an issue that animates the right — is being usurped by a topic that animates the left.

Go deeperDec 19, 2019

Rashaan Ayesh

Only 23% of American voters can identify Iran on world map

Photo: Planet Observer/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Only 23% of registered American voters were able to correctly identify Iran on an unlabeled world map, according to a poll from Morning Consult and Politico.

Why it matters: Voters' inability to pick out Iran on the map highlights their relative unfamiliarity with foreign countries — even after decades of conflicts and tensions with the U.S. in the region.

Go deeperJan 8, 2020