The group Everytown for Gun Safety used court records to trace more than 250 guns bought at nearly two dozen Academy Sports + Outdoors chain stores that had been trafficked over three years in a handful of federal straw purchasing prosecutions. The guns moved along familiar trafficking routes north to cities and states with some of the strictest firearms laws. Advocates say the cases highlights some of the red flags that licensed firearms dealers can ignore or miss as thousands of guns make their way to the hands of people otherwise prohibited from buying them. Academy Sports has not been accused by federal regulators of wrongdoing, and the guns trafficked north are a tiny slice of its overall sales.

The massive tax and spending cuts package that President Donald Trump wants on his desk by July 4 would loosen regulations on gun silencers and certain types of rifles and shotguns. It advances a longtime priority of the gun industry as Republican leaders in the House and Senate try to win enough votes to pass the bill. The House bill would remove silencers from a 1930s law that regulates firearms that are considered the most dangerous, eliminating a $200 tax on the accessories and also removing a layer of background checks.

Gun control advocates and many Democrats see fresh openings created by hard-line positions of the gun lobby. President Joe Biden's campaign says gun control could be a motivating issue for suburban college-educated women who may be decisive in several key battlegrounds this fall. The Biden campaign and its allies have already circulated clips of Republican former President Donald Trump saying after an Iowa school shooting in January that "we have to get over it." Trump has also promised he would impose no new restrictions on guns if elected again. Biden himself praised cheering gun-control advocates at a conference on Tuesday.