One Old Misdemeanor, a Lifetime Gun Ban, and the Iowa Ruling That Just Ended It

DES MOINES, IA — The Iowa Supreme Court has thrown out a felony conviction built on a lifetime firearm ban, ruling that the indefinite prohibition could not survive the strict scrutiny that Iowa voters wrote into the state constitution in 2022. In a 5-2 decision filed June 26, the court reverse...

By Luke McCoy

Karl-Gerät Mortar: Germany’s Tracked Giant

In the mid-1930s, Adolph Hitler cast his eye towards France and dreamed of revenge for the outcome of World War One. Standing in his way was the French Maginot Line, a collection of massive concrete strongpoints, casemates, armored turrets, and observation posts. Among the barbed wire, mine field...

By Tom Laemlein

Army Develops Self-Evacuation Exoskeleton for Lower-Leg Injuries

When a soldier takes a round to the shin or catches a blast that fractures the tibia, the traditional response pulls two to four additional service members off the line to haul a litter, plus a security element to cover them. That's a significant combat power cost for a single casualty. The ...

By Eric B

Curtiss SB2C Helldiver — The Big-Tailed Beast

In 1937, the Curtiss SBC Helldiver entered service, but even at that point, the carrier-based two-seat scout/dive bomber was on the verge of being obsolete. Interestingly, it was also the second aircraft produced by Curtiss-Wright to earn the designation “Helldiver” after the United States Ma...

By Peter Suciu

Binocular 101: How to Buy Smart

Charred lodgepoles scratching a gunmetal sky reflected my mood. This morning the elk had won. No plan in mind, I climbed beyond where they’d scattered. Probing the slope’s crest from the sit with my binocular, I saw it. Among ranks of black boles with low-arcing limbs, a branch curved up...

By Wayne van Zwoll
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