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Jack Smith, left, explosive ordnance disposal staff sergeant, dresses explosive ordnance disposal tech Brendan Moore for an explosive drone operation at Pinal County Airpark. Moore wears a 125-pound suit while securing and defusing the bomb.

A live-fire and classroom training program organized by the ATF at Pinal County Airpark provided training for local law enforcement as 1,876 bomb threats and 860 explosions were recorded in the U.S., including 381 bombings, 12 of which were reported in Arizona. Read more»

A Tucson man was arrested and charged with dealing firearms without a license and possessing illegal firearms after he allegedly illegally sold three pistols to undercover cops, as well as a part that could modify an AR-15 rifle to fire fully automatically. Read more»

More than 20 states joined in a lawsuit against the federal government to try to stop the ATF from enacting a new rule restricting the use of gun braces — a rule in which millions of Americans will automatically become felons if they don’t turn in or destroy them. Read more»

A member of the National Guard working at the Mariposa border crossing in Nogales in 2018.

A 23-year-old man was sentenced to 27 months in prison for illegally buying at least 82 firearms from more than a dozen gun stores across Arizona and re-selling the weapons, including one linked to a murder in Mexico. Read more»

An officer with U.S. Customs and Border Protection walks through the Mariposa Port of Entry in January 2019.

A Tucson man was sentenced to three years in prison for illegally selling firearms without a license, after prosecutors successfully proved he bought and sold nearly 40 firearms, including a half-dozen .50-caliber sniper rifles and 5 belt-fed rifles made for the civilian market. Read more»

The March for Our Lives rally in June, 2022, drew thousands to Washington, one of several cities across the U.S. - including Phoenix and Tucson - where protesters gathered to demand action on gun reform laws.

Ghost guns have been used in shootings by teenagers too young to legally buy firearms in New Mexico, Arizona, Maryland and California - but state-level efforts to close loopholes on unserialized weapons produced with Polymer80 parts continue to fall short. Read more»

A cache of weapons found in the car of a Phoenix-area man during outgoing inspections at the Lukeville Port of Entry in 2016. One of the rifles included a 3-D printed receiver.

Companies that sell firearm frames, known in the industry as “receiver blanks” and “lower receivers,” that can be readily converted to shoot bullets must comply with a new ATF rule after a bid to block the new regulations was rejected by a federal judge. Read more»

The left side of a Bushmaster Ar-15 lower receiver.

A Texas firearms parts dealer asked a federal judge to block a Biden administration rule targeting "ghost guns" it claims will shutter its business - a rule also being challenged by Arizona and other GOP states on behalf of a North Dakota gun shop. Read more»

A member of the National Guard working at the Mariposa border crossing in Nogales in 2018.

Two brothers from Phoenix were part of a scheme to buy and sell guns through social media, including several weapons and a hand grenade they sold to an undercover officer even after they were told the weapons would be smuggled into Mexico. Read more»

A member of the National Guard working at the Mariposa border crossing in Nogales in 2018.

A former Arizona Department of Corrections officer was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to smuggling two belt-fed rifles, an AK-47 and 500 AK-47 magazines into Mexico. Read more»

The Browning .30-caliber machine gun found by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers on Saturday in Nogales.

A Browning .30-caliber machine gun, along with more than 20,000 rounds of ammunition, was seized at a Nogales border crossing Saturday, officials said. Read more» 1

A modified Mini Draco AK-47

A 25-year-old man was sentenced to 12 years in prison Monday by a federal judge in Tucson after he pleaded guilty to straw-purchasing dozens of firearms and thousands of rounds of ammunition and smuggling them into Mexico, as well as trafficking fentanyl into the U.S. Read more»

Ghost guns are homemade guns that lack a serial number, making it difficult for law enforcement to trace the owner of the weapon if it’s found at a crime scene.

President Joe Biden Monday unveiled the Department of Justice’s plan to regulate untraceable firearms known as ghost guns, as well as announced his nominee to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Read more»

A case of ammunition for AK-47-patterned rifles found inside the engine compartment of a Nissan pickup truck.

A U.S. citizen was arrested last week after Nogales-area U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers found 13,000 rounds of ammunition meant for assault rifles, along with 16 magazines, stashed in his pickup. Read more»

Two AK-47-style rifles, 3,000 rounds of ammunition and the tripod for a .50-caliber sniper rifle seized in March 2016 by Nogales-area U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers.

The Mexican government filed a lawsuit Wednesday against seven U.S. gun manufacturers, arguing that the companies are responsible for a "deadly flood" of weapons that invariably "wreak havoc in Mexican society." Read more»

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