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Plain-English references worth bookmarking — the gear terms behind every review, plus NFA and carry law.
| Term | Category |
|---|---|
| Striker-fired | Action |
| MOA | Optics |
| Twist rate | Ballistics |
30 gun, ammo and optics terms explained in plain English.
Open the glossary → Network| 2026 at a glance | |
|---|---|
| NFA tax stamp | $0 |
| Permitless carry | 29 states |
| Suppressors legal | 42 states |
50+ NFA, carry and gun-law terms, from Freedom's Lodge.
View full chart →Reader Favorites
Getting older ain’t for sissies, but it also ain’t the end of your time behind the trigger! “As I visited trade shows and talked to various people in the industry, they told me that someday I was going to really understand why high-visibility sights are important…and here I am,” says Personal Defense Network‘s Rob Pincus…
Although the human fatalities of the Coronavirus pandemic seem (knock wood!) to not be as bad as initial fears, COVID-19 continues to kill…and the latest victim is the National Rifle Association‘s 2020 Precision Pistol Championships, High Power Championships, and Smallbore Championships for 2020. Although the championships were initially scheduled from July through August, a time…
Every shooter, no matter how casual, should shoot full-auto at least once. Here’s why. A couple of years ago, I wrote a piece about why we pro-gun people shouldn’t use the term “assault weapon” when we talk about the civilian-legal, semi-automatic “black guns” built on the AR-15 platform. Today, I’m going to completely reverse myself…
It’s Monday. Let’s blow some Stuff up. One of the things that the anti-gunners of the world will never understand (and the reason I believe they are destined to fail) is that shooting is just about the most fun you can have with your pants on–and nobody knows that better than the mad geniuses at…
The first law of gunfighting is “Have a Gun,” but the second law of gunfighting belongs to Murphy. Murphy’s Law dictates that everything that can go wrong, will go wrong, and will do so at the worst possible time…so what’s the worst possible time you can think of? For hunters, it’s realizing that the scope…
With the right holster and gun combination, every man and woman has the heart of a grizzly. In the recent hit movie The Revenant, which portrays the real historical events in the life of Hugh Glass, we were all reminded of the indomitable spirit that formed the foundations of America…and The Revenant IWB holster from…
When Glock entered the single-stack super-sub-compact fray with its now-famous Glock 43, some naysayers worried that people wouldn’t want to carry it because of its (relatively) small magazine capacity. This, of course, turned out to be completely false as the wildly successful “Glock Perfection” formula has held beautifully with this hardy, accurate, and surprisingly easy…
Seven years ago, San Jose confiscated a woman’s guns and still refuses to return them… Everybody knows that California is a front-runner for the worst gun laws in America–it’s been that way for a long time–but many of us who don’t live there aren’t familiar with just how far some of the municipalities in Anti-Gun…
We citizens of Sweatpants Nation do solemnly declare that we will CCW in comfort… I’m going to admit that this whole coronavirus quarantine thing has its upsides, chief among which is the fact that my daily uniform has become all of America’s: We are all citizens of Sweatpants Nation now. Sweatpants Nation is a pretty…
Gun enthusiasts and concealed-carriers the nation over know that when push comes to shove, the snub-nosed revolver remains a top choice for self-defense scenarios due to its simplicity and reliability–and with the release of its all-new Taurus Defender 856 revolver, the company has demonstrated once again their deep understanding of the tactical considerations of CCW….
When is a weapon-mounted light not a weapon-mounted light? When it’s a SwitchBack! One of the most contentious debates in the world of concealed-carry and self-defense is whether one’s Every-Day Carry (EDC) rig should or should not include a weapon-mounted light. Some folks on the “pro” side would like to remind us that most defensive…
Dear Cherokee County: the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is immune to the Coronavirus. In the latest skirmish between the Second Amendment and the excuses for infringing upon it offered by COVID-19, the Second Amendment Foundation and Firearms Policy Coalition recently announced that they’re suing Cherokee County, Georgia and Probate Court Judge Keith Wood….
