POTD: The M4A1 That Provided Its Own Lighting Package

Ask any photographer who tried; muzzle flashes rarely come out as well as this one. At Kapaun Air Station, Germany, an Airman with the 86th Airlift Wing fired an M4A1 carbine during a NATO training exchange focused on interoperability between Allied and partner forces, and the resulting flash loo...

By Eric B •

Congress Must Rein In ATF’s Billion-Record Gun Archive After Qilin Breach

Qilin breached a separate ATF system, but the bureau’s massive archive of lawful gun purchases remains a threat to gun-owner privacy. Congress should force a full accounting, end informal record collection, limit retention, and change the law that feeds the archive—before a future administrat...

By John Crump •

Fifth Circuit Strikes Down Federal Ban on Interstate Handgun Sales

A divided Fifth Circuit panel has ruled that the federal laws blocking a direct handgun sale to an out-of-state buyer violate the Second Amendment. The September 18 opinion in Elite Precision Customs v. ATF  reverses a Texas district court and enters judgment for a gun shop and its fellow pl...

By Josh C •

Fifth Circuit Strikes Down Federal Ban on Interstate Handgun Purchases

The Fifth Circuit ruled that the federal government cannot prohibit lawful Americans from directly purchasing handguns across state lines, holding that the right to keep arms necessarily includes the right to acquire them.

By Duncan Johnson Editor in Chief •

M18 Recoilless Rifle: New Concept in Infantry Firepower

During the morning of March 24, 1945, more than 9,000 men of the US 17th Airborne Division landed behind German lines on the east side of the Rhine. While the Wehrmacht was in deep trouble, many of their units remained effective, and any available Panzers could pose a significant threat to the fr...

By Tom Laemlein •

Fokker D.VIII Fighter: The Deadly Flying Razor

In the summer of 1918, a new fighter ascended in the German Air Combat Forces, or Luftstreitkräfte, boasting a level of performance that would outpace any of Anthony Fokkers’ famous designs. The Fokker E.V parasol monoplane, eventually known as the Fokker D.VIII, demonstrated tremendous combat...

By Tom Laemlein •

POTD: Elite Dutch Marechaussee Perfects Rapid-Response Tactics

The Brigade Speciale Beveiligingsopdrachten emerged from necessity. In 1975, with Europe rattled by the Munich massacre and rising terrorism, Major General E.N. Spronk of the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee identified an operational gap: the specialized counter-terrorist units on the books were to...

By Eric B •

AI Doesn’t Get Guns

Artificial intelligence (AI) isn’t good at rendering firearms, and that’s probably not a bad thing, for reasons that will soon be explored. It should also be noted that while AI rendered guns isn’t good yet, it is likely to improve. That might not be a good thing either. First, we need ...

By Peter Suciu •

Tallboy and Grand Slam: World War II Bunker Busters

By 1940, both England and Germany realized that the Kriegsmarine’s U-Boats were the key to the Battle of the Atlantic. Eliminating the German submarine threat was Britain’s top priority. Expanding the U-Boat fleet was Germany’s greatest hope to bring the British to their knees. In those dar...

By Tom Laemlein •

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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