The fighting shotgun is certainly not the stately fowling piece of blued steel and walnut from days gone by. It is a tool for stopping bad people from doing bad things. Choosing a self-defense…

There are currently something like 55 standard handgun cartridge options between .17 HMR and .500 Smith & Wesson. Any of them could be used for self-defense. It’s just that some are better than…

We toss that “comforting, not comfortable” line around quite a bit, don’t we? But it’s a legit philosophy: Carrying a gun, concealed, usually requires some kind of compromise in comfort. Thankfully,…

Bersa’s polymer .380 concealed carry pistol could replace your plinker as the fun gun in your arsenal. At the same time, it can be a legit concealed carry gun as well. How so? A formula based on the…

Kahr Arms has been manufacturing finely crafted semi-automatic defensive handguns since 1995 — without enough fanfare, as far as I’m concerned, considering the quality and ahead-of-the-curve design…

Two things make concealed carry effective: concealment and access. Your gun needs to be out of sight until you need it. When you need it, access must be almost instant, because when you need it, you…

Any piece of mechanical equipment needs preparation and maintenance, especially if it may one day be needed in an emergency. The time to find out if your brand new whiz-bang 8000-Watt portable…

Cautiously, I opened the lid to the large, overstuffed container, trying carefully to avoid the jack-in-the-box explosion that I expected at any moment. Luckily, everything stayed put, enough that I…

This Springfield Armory XD-S sports a 4-inch barrel and an overall length of 7 inches. And with a grip width of less than 1 inch, this gun’s mission is clear: easy-packin’ and straight-shootin’. Drop…

Starting in the mid-1980s, semi-automatic pistol-caliber carbines became quite popular, particularly in law enforcement circles. While Colt AR-15s were available, most law enforcement agencies didn’t…

The original Iver Johnson Arms and Cycle Works in Fitchburg, Massachusetts was a storied name in the history of inexpensive yet innovative handguns and shotguns (and, for a while, bicycles). Iver…

Tuff Writer’s Flamed Titanium Pen offers a writing instrument ten times as tough as it is good looking. Measuring 6 inches in length and half an inch thick, this pen weighs 2.1 ounces and, thanks to its Grade 5 / 6AL4V medical-grade Titanium construction, will likely never break or fail.