Heath Druzin
Heath Druzin is Boise State Public Radio’s Guns & America reporter, part of a national collaboration between 10 public radio stations examining all aspects of firearms in America.
He previously covered the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and veterans issues for Stars and Stripes newspaper. This is his second stint Idaho – he covered crime, wildfires and government for The Idaho Statesman from 2005-2008.
Most recently, Heath was living in Mongolia, where he improved his horsemanship, though not his throat singing.
Heath grew up in Northern California and when he’s not reporting, you can find him hiking, snowboarding and brewing beer.
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As a number of states pass increased gun restrictions, the firearms industry is reacting by moving operations to more gun-friendly places.
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In 2017, 39,773 people died by firearm, the highest number of firearm deaths recorded since the CDC started tracking them in 1979. In 2018, an almost identical 39,741 people died by firearm.
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“This is to the firearms and ammunition world what the Detroit auto show is to the car world,” said Mark Oliva, a spokesman for the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
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Every time someone buys a gun from a federally licensed firearms dealer their name is run through the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). And according to the FBI’s data, 2019 could be a record year for the number of those checks.
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Jenny Lingle, a part-time nurse and Moms Demand Action volunteer, is a fourth generation Idahoan who grew up around guns. But since having kids her perspective has shifted.
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American producers pumped out nearly 7,660,772 firearms and roughly 8.1 billion rounds rounds of ammunition in 2018, according to data compiled by NSSF from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
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To fund the future of conservation, stakeholders are committing to a new type of sportsman: the adult onset hunter. These latecomers in their 20s, 30s and 40s are taking advantage of specially designed courses to discover hunting.
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“Since the early 90s, the rate of suicide in the United States has just jumped incredibly, so right now you’re more likely in Idaho to know someone who’s died of suicide than who’s died in a traffic accident.”
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Four federal land management agencies were cited by a GAO report for failing to do enough to protect employees amid rising threats of anti-government violence.
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More Americans picked mass shootings than suicides. Experts say this misperception is handcuffing suicide prevention efforts.