Category: Gun Schtuff

Backup Plan: When The Quickest Reload Is A Second Gun

Back in the day, cops called it a “New York Reload,” a term dating back to the era when New York City stake-out detectives carried two snob-nose revolvers so they could, according to longtime pal and former cop-turned-private investigator Paul Huebl, “instantly switch guns in a gunfight to avoid slow reloads.

“In those days,” he recalled, “semi-autos were too unreliable.”

How’d you like to be the dumb crook who suddenly finds himself suffering from a case of .38-caliber double-vision?

Lots of people carry revolvers, and some carry two; their primary sidearm and a backup. The logic of this made sense the first time I heard about it. Rather than duck for cover and try to reload under stress, just draw the backup and stay in the fight.

Author Workman has found a good combination of wheelguns for those occasions when he “doubles down.”

Probably the guy who perfected the New York Reload was the late Jim Cirillo, a legendary NYPD detective who spent several years on the stakeout unit and, according to various published stories, was involved in seventeen gunfights. He carried a pair of Smith & Wesson .38 Special revolvers along with a 12-gauge Ithaca shotgun, and he is sometimes remembered as the “last of the real gunfighters in America.”

I never met Cirillo. Wish I had, because the stories he shared were educational as well as entertaining. He put a lot of them in a book titled “Guns, Bullets, and Gunfights,” published 30 years ago and it is still available on Amazon. A second book, “Jim Cirillo’s Tales of the Stakeout Squad,” authored by Paul Kirchner, is also loaded with Cirillo lore, and can also be found on Amazon.

Sadly, Cirillo died in a traffic accident in 2007. However, his habit of packing two revolvers was a stroke of genius which is still practiced by a surprising number of folks today, rather than a semi-auto with more firepower in a single magazine than a pair of wheelguns. The downside to the single gun strategy is that if something goes wrong, you might as well have a brick. With a second gun, you’re still in the game.

I’m guilty of occasionally carrying two at a time, and I’ve known police and sheriff’s deputies who have carried backup guns in ankle holsters or in deep-cover chest holsters inside their shirts. Others have carried 5-shot Smith & Wesson Chief’s Special snub guns in coat pockets, on the opposite side from their duty sidearm. It might be impossible to accurately estimate the number of lives saved by the presence of a backup gun, but if you’re a revolver afficionado, packing double is certainly worthy of consideration.

Better to have something and not need it than to need something and not have it, eh?Thanks to the light weight of a small alloy-framed S&W revolver, Dave has found that carrying such a revolver in the pocket of a sport jacket or nylon vest is unobtrusive and immediately accessible. Speed loaders go in the opposite pocket.

In Self-Defense

What brought this to mind is that March 13 is the tenth anniversary of an incident involving a guy I slightly knew—and interviewed one week after the fact (the only working journalist he would speak with)—who fatally shot a hatchet-wielding assailant after the man entered a 7-Eleven in a suburb south of Seattle. The hatchet man took a swing at him, barely missing what could have been a fatal head wound, and then turned his attention toward the clerk. The good guy was simply drinking coffee and had never seen this nut before.

I watched the store security video at least a dozen times. It was a textbook example of justifiable self-defense, at least under Washington state’s use-of-force statute; what is generically called a “clean shoot” within the parameters of the “reasonable person doctrine.” The armed citizen shot the attacker three times at virtually point blank range with a J-frame Smith & Wesson chambered in .357 Magnum, an act determined by investigators and prosecutors to have been what any reasonable person would have done in a similar situation. The attacker died at the scene, ending an incident which unfolded over the course of only about 30 seconds. Violence frequently happens without warning, it is so fast one may not have time to really think, just act.

As it turned out, the five-shot revolver was one of two such handguns he was carrying at the time, one in each pocket of his jacket. He remained at the scene, was interviewed by sheriff’s detectives who reviewed the security video, and released. They even let him keep his second gun, since it had not been fired.

Six months later, the county prosecutor’s office announced no charges would be filed. The incident has faded into history, my pal eventually got his gun back, and so far as I know, he went on with his life.

The classic lightweight Colt Cobra is another good choice for either a primary carry piece or a backup gun,. It offers six shots worth of attitude adjustment, and such revolvers can often be found
used in gun shops or at gun shows for very reasonable prices.

Wheelgun Magic

What’s the best way to carry double? There is no one-size-fits-all formula. When I carry a backup revolver, it’s often in a pocket holster stuffed inside of my cover vest’s cargo pocket. My lightweight S&W snubbie can also be carried in a jacket pocket without the holster. It doesn’t print, and I can carry a couple of HKS speedloaders in the opposite pocket. Otherwise, it might be in a Mitch Rosen ankle rig.

Others will used the aforementioned ankle holster for their second gun, or an IWB rig on the opposite/weak side, or even front or rear, depending upon one’s cover garments. It is a very fast way to stay in the fight, should the circumstances require, and by the time your ten, eleven or a dozen rounds have been fired, you will have made a lasting impression.

Remora offers a handy pocket holster with a surface which keeps it in the pocket when the gun is drawn, via friction.

Years ago, I worked with a guy who carried a small S&W .38 Special in his pants pocket, as he typically wore neatly-pressed cargo pants. Nobody could tell he had that gun. He also had, close at hand, a Colt .45 Commander.

What handguns would I recommend? Here’s where it gets fun. There are so many great revolvers for this practice from S&W, Colt, Ruger, Taurus, Charter Arms and Kimber; new or used, you can find some very good deals on revolvers since they’re not as popular as semi-autos. The carry combinations are virtually endless. One might obtain a pair of S&W Model 10 snub guns, or a Colt Detective Special backed up by a Colt Cobra.

Personally, I have carried a Colt Diamondback and a J-frame Model 442 Smith, both in .38 Special, or a .357 Magnum Model 19 S&W with a 2 ½-inch barrel, backed up by a .38 Special at times. One might opt for a pair of J-frame five-shooters, as my acquaintance mentioned above.

Thanks to collaborations between S&W and Lipsey’s, there are new wheelguns in .44 Special and .38 Special available, and they do not have the internal locking mechanism. I suspect the majority of two-gun packers carry .357s or .38s, either with hammers or hammerless, and having one or two of these little shooters beats the heck out of having no gun at all!

There’s no trick to carrying two revolvers, outside of practice and the right choice of holsters and carry positions. You’ll burn up a lot of ammunition, with the ultimate goal of speed and accuracy. Of course you should practice shooting with both hands.

Packing a backup gun is a sign of preparedness, not paranoia, and carrying revolvers doesn’t limit anything. Instead—as in my case—it has broadened my perspective, and given me plenty of time to think about all the various carry options.

Carry with confidence and do it discreetly.

New Court Split Could Force Supreme Court to Decide Magazine and AR-15 Ban Cases

The legal fight over so-called “large capacity” magazine bans and semi-automatic rifle restrictions may be heading straight toward the U.S. Supreme Court. A new round of filings from some of the nation’s most experienced constitutional litigators has added serious momentum to that possibility.

Constitutional attorney Mark Smith of the Four Boxes Diner explains the significance of newly filed supplemental briefs in two major Second Amendment cases. Those filings argue that a fresh appellate court ruling has created the kind of legal conflict the Supreme Court typically requires before stepping in.

Attorneys representing gun owners in Duncan v. Bonta and Gator’s Custom Guns v. Wentz have now filed supplemental briefs at the Supreme Court pointing to a critical development.

The filings cite the recent decision in Benson v. United States, where the District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruled that the District’s ban on magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds violates the Second Amendment.

That decision directly conflicts with rulings from other courts that have upheld similar bans. In particular, the federal Ninth Circuit previously allowed California’s magazine ban to stand in Duncan v. Bonta, while the Washington Supreme Court upheld its state’s restrictions in Gator’s Custom Guns v. Wentz.

This disagreement between courts is known as a “split of authority,” and it is one of the primary triggers that pushes the Supreme Court to grant review. When different courts interpret the Constitution in conflicting ways, the justices often step in to settle the matter once and for all.

According to the new briefs, that moment may have arrived.

The ruling in Benson did more than simply strike down Washington D.C.’s magazine restrictions. The court issued a detailed opinion explaining that magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds are commonly owned and widely used for lawful purposes.

Under the framework established in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen, firearms regulations must be consistent with the nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation. The D.C. court concluded that bans on commonly owned magazines do not meet that test.

In other words, the court found that these magazines fall squarely within the types of arms protected by the Second Amendment.

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February Gun Sales Up Over Last Year.

Gun sales were brisk again in February, with background checks for gun purchases rising over February of last year.

The February National Shooting Sports Foundation-adjusted National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) figure of 1,265,320 is a 3.5 percent increase from the 1,222,980 in February 2025. For comparison, the unadjusted February 2026 FBI NICS figure of 1,933,972 reflects a 13.5 percent decrease from the unadjusted FBI NICS figure of 2,236,637 in February 2025.

In fact, the new figure of over 1 million monthly gun sales continued in February, marking the seventh consecutive month with more than 1 million background checks, after the single month in July 2025 with fewer than 1 million. As most readers likely recall, before July, when the number fell below 1 million, the previous streak of months with over 1 million background checks had lasted nearly six years.

“February’s adjusted background checks show that the desire for lawful gun ownership is alive and well,” said Mark Oliva, NSSF managing director of public affairs. “When instances of lawlessness and concerns for personal safety arise, Americans will respond by exercising their Second Amendment rights to both keep and bear arms.”

According to the NSSF, the top five states for overall Adjusted NICS checks and handgun NICS checks in February were Texas, Florida, California, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. Top states for long gun NICS checks were the same but in a different order: Texas, Florida, Pennsylvania, California, and Virginia.

Besides being St Valentine’s Day, February 14 is also another important date

The patent for the 1911 pistol was issued on February 14, 1911.

The Colt M1911 pistol, designed by John Moses Browning, was patented under U.S. Patent 984,519, which was filed on February 17, 1910 and officially issued on February 14, 1911. This patent covered the semi-automatic, recoil-operated design that became the foundation for the M1911, a firearm that would later be adopted by the U.S. Army on March 29, 1911. 

Silencer Central Helps South Dakota Pass Suppressor Deregulation

Silencer Central, America’s leader in silencer sales and advocacy for suppressor ownership, is proud to announce that its work with the South Dakota legislature is paying off. Both the South Dakota state senate and house of representatives have voted unanimously to deregulate suppressors. The bill now goes to Governor Rhoden for signature into law.

“We are all trying to work on complete deregulation of silencers at the Federal level,” said Brandon Maddox, Silencer Central Founder and CEO. “We found that 16 states had regulations in place requiring the Federal Stamp for ownership. Now that South Dakota’s government has voted to remove that roadblock, we can focus on getting these laws overturned in the other states.” Maddox continued, “We are excited that we now have some momentum. Last summer, we started this process, working with our representatives, law enforcement, and our lobbyists to get this passed. I was honored to have had the opportunity to testify on behalf of silencer owners across the state and help get everyone on board to make this happen. Now, we are focused on these other states as well as full Federal deregulation.”

The South Dakota bill removes suppressors from the state’s definition for “controlled weapons” and eliminates the requirement for a Federal Stamp should the NFA designation or the transfer process continue to change. Silencer Central is working together with the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) in every affected state to develop and support similar legislation. This paves the way for full Federal deregulation of suppressors, furthering the mission of Silencer Central to simplify suppressor ownership. For more information, go to https://www.silencercentral.com/blog/south-dakota-deregulates-suppressors/.

Know Your Gun: When you trust your life to a tool, you must know it inside and out.

We know that when we are faced with the threat of serious bodily injury or death, our focus will be on the threat. This is not so much a conscious effort as a fact that our natural survival system has taken over. For that reason, our manipulation of our defensive equipment must be practiced until its operation and deployment almost become subconscious functions. This is the main reason so many of us caution against the continual switching back and forth of that equipment—especially our daily-carry guns. While firing the defensive shot should certainly be a conscious decision, getting the gun into play should be a task that can be accomplished without thinking. To accomplish this, one really needs to know their defensive handgun.

The only negligent discharge with injuries I ever witnessed in a training class involved an older fellow who had carried a revolver in his law-enforcement career. Now, retired and working security, he had decided to carry a striker-fired pistol. The only trouble was that he had not taken the time to actually learn his new gun, and had real trouble keeping his finger off the trigger when the sights weren’t on the target. The double-action revolver trigger requires a significant amount of pressure, so this gross violation of the safety rules probably never resulted in a negative outcome for him, but that’s pure luck. With the lighter trigger of a striker-fired pistol, luck is less available. As you might guess, he shot himself in the leg while improperly reholstering his new gun.

Sometimes manufacturers make things difficult, like Smith & Wesson with its Models 39 and 59. Those were good, solid guns, but you pushed the safety up instead of down—the opposite of the single-action semi-automatics. If someone wasn’t really checked out on those, they might get a click instead of a bang or vice versa, either of which could create problems depending upon the situation.

So, it is critical for the armed citizen to totally familiarize themselves with their chosen defense gun. This means knowing how to safely load and unload the gun. It involves knowing the proper manipulation of all the various safety controls the gun might have. And, it involves knowing what the most common malfunctions might be and how to deal with them. All of these things are not going to be learned in a day, but take time and training. Once these things are learned, they must be practiced.

While the semi-automatic pistol is certainly the most popular defensive handgun, revolver shooters don’t get a free pass. Do you know how to keep your ejector rod from backing out? Do you know how to avoid having a spent cartridge get stuck under the ejector star? Finally, in the midst of a gunfight where you can only get a partial reload into your revolver, which way does the cylinder rotate? We know that Colts rotate clockwise whereas Smith & Wesson rotate counterclockwise, but what about the double-action Taurus or your Ruger SP101? You’d better find out.

Knowing the gun one carries is probably the main reason why many of the old-timers have stayed with guns of older design. It’s not that the new guns aren’t as good, it’s just that the older models are what these folks grew up with. They know them, know how they operate, know their shortcomings and know how to deal with any types of problems that might arise. That’s what knowing your gun is all about—the ability to effectively bring it into play without a lot of conscious thought.

By contrast, an old-timer of my acquaintance—a double-action revolver guy of long standing—advises that he is going to switch to a 9 mm for everyday carry. He has spent a good deal of range time and is satisfied with the function and accuracy of his new choice. Nonetheless, his next step is to attend a class at Gunsite with his new gun. All of which is part of the process of knowing your gun.

Finally, to end this piece on a lighter note, I would share this humorous—and probably apocryphal—story of a young man who just had to have a 1911. Obviously, he had never even fired one prior to his purchase. Within days, he was back in the gun store complaining that his new gun jammed. The in-house gunsmith checked it, cleaned and oiled it and reported that he hadn’t found any problem.

Sometime later, the young shooter returned, still complaining about his gun jamming. This time the gunsmith, after checking the gun, took the customer back to the shooting trap so he could witness the gun being fired. The gunsmith fired an entire magazine into the test trap and the slide locked back. “Look! It jammed again,” said the customer.

Know your defense gun. I mean really know your chosen defense gun. It is important.

Stop Overthinking Self-Defense Bullets
Time to Move Past the Small Stuff
Written By Brent Wheat

The other day, I was unloading my handgun during retiree pistol qualifications at the police department when one of the instructors commented on the fact I was carrying, by his reckoning, a bullet that was designed sometime in the sixties — the 1860s.

I just laughed and then proceeded to shoot a perfect score, just to show those of us on “the senior tour” still remember how to use them newfangled shootin’ irons.

In truth, this exchange awoke a major pet peeve from among the thousands on my huge peeve ranch, one of the largest in the lower 48 states. Among this fine and well-fed herd of irritations, there is one which stands shoulders above the rest: all the incessant talk and debate around defensive handgun bullet design and performance.

I understand, really I do. It’s understandable when you consider the only actual physical connection between yourself, the heroic good guy (or gal), and the target is a bullet.

 

To have a good understanding of how a particular bullet performs when it reaches a target, you need to perform tests — lots of them! Most shooters and gun writers won’t invest the time and money needed to have the data on which to base an opinion.

 

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The Year of the Can: The White Hot Silencer Business 20 Days In

When we spoke to suppressor makers late last month, projections varied, but all agreed that 2026 would be a significant growth year for the suppressor industry, now that the $200 tax stamp officially zeroed out at midnight on December 31, 2025.

But nobody could have expected the volume of eForms that would be submitted as we rang in the new year.

NSSF announced that the ATF reported processing over 150,000 eForms on January 1. The normal daily volume is roughly 2,500.

Welcome to the new normal.

Knox Williams, executive director of the American Suppressor Association (ASA), reported after meeting with ATF officials during SHOT Show here in Las Vegas that, to date, more than 260,000 eForms have been processed this January.

That figure includes all NFA forms, not just those covering suppressors. ASA hopes to obtain a further breakdown for its tracking of suppressor-specific transfers, but that data is not yet available.

However, we do have the final numbers for 2025. Last year, a total of 732,863 suppressors were transferred, falling short of the 746,380 transferred in 2024. That brings the total number of registered suppressors in the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (NFRTR) to 5,776,685—up from 4,419,578 at the end of 2024.

The shortfall was obviously not due to a lack of consumer demand, but rather to buyers refusing to pay the tax when they knew purchases would be tax-free on January 1. That 150,000-plus eForm volume on day one proves the point.

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The Future of Handguns: Did We Peak?

Tamara Keel

futureside.jpg

Though not definitive, this timeline gives you the approximate years patented and/or successful handguns of the type shown gained market share. The span of time since the Glock G17 was introduced is not unprecedented.

In the early 1990s, following the fall of the Soviet Union, Francis Fukuyama wrote the book “The End of History and the Last Man,” speculating that human society had reached its ultimate political form in liberal Western democracies. As we have seen in the decades since, that may not be true.

What does this have to do with handguns? Well, I’m not really an old-timer, but I can remember when I was a teenager, most police officers still carried revolvers (the old-timers among the gunwriting ranks remember being issued wheelguns). In the years since then, we’ve seen the rise and fall of the traditional double-action pistol as an issue sidearm, as well as a roughly decade-long flirtation with alternate calibers like .40 S&W and .357 SIG.

For the last 10 years or so, though, the standard answer to the “What pistol?” question has been a polymer-frame, striker-fired, double-stack pistol chambered in 9 mm. The temptation is definitely there to think of writing “The End of History and the Last Pistol.” But how did we get here, and what could be next?

For the reasons behind the pistol type itself, it comes down to simple cost. There’s nothing more modern about a striker over a hammer. John Moses Browning’s first semi-automatic pistol, the FN Model 1899, was striker-fired. It’s not intrinsically superior mechanically, either. In fact, it has a few downsides. A hammer generally gets better ignition reliability, and a hammer allows the use of lighter recoil springs since the force required to override the hammer provides much of the initial braking force to the recoiling slide.

The striker’s big advantage is simplicity, which translates to a less-expensive gun. There’s just no way to produce a hammer-fired ignition system as cheaply as a striker-fired one. Similarly, there’s just no way to chisel a frame out of steel or aluminum as cheaply as one can injection-mold one out of polymer. When it comes to the real world of accountants and budgets, the cheap gun that works just fine is going to displace the more-expensive gun that also works just fine.

With ammunition, a similar effect has taken place. With the current school of thought in terminal ballistics, the goal is a bullet that will penetrate 12 to 16 inches, but preferably no more. With most all service calibers delivering this level of performance, it’s probably not a surprise that the cheapest, easiest to shoot one—the one that’s easiest on the gun and which you can cram the most of into a magazine—has emerged as the near-universal choice.

So, what does this mean for the future of duty-type pistols? Is it just an unbroken vista of striker-fired, flat- black plastic and 9 mm bullets? An horizon of Glock G19s, Smith M&P9s and SIG P320s forevermore, at least until someone invents the laser pistol?

It’s hard to imagine something causing a trend back to more-expensive handguns, at least for duty-type use. These days people are just as often “churching up” Glocks or other polymer, striker guns with Zev or Grayguns or Boresight Solutions aftermarket work. Unless there’s a high-profile development that causes a turning away from the easy-to-shoot striker trigger, it seems rather unlikely to be replaced.

The same with the 9 mm cartridge. Ballistically, you could probably get the same results with a 100- to 115-grain bullet of about .312 inch, loaded hot. It’d basically be a rimless .327 Fed. Mag., with no more recoil in a full-size, semi-automatic pistol. You’d get even more rounds in the magazine than with 9 mm, albeit at the expense of increased muzzle blast. But there’s no real incentive to do so when so much of the attractiveness of 9 mm is its ubiquity and low cost.

For the near future though, it looks like the advances will be in peripherals: Better integration of red-dot optics, lights and lasers. There will also be applications for the serialized interchangeable chassis-type lockwork such as that found in the P320 that we haven’t yet explored. So, while we haven’t reached the “end of history” with the current crop of service-style autos, we’ve certainly hit a good, long pause.

RESPONSE BRIEF FILED IN SAF’S SECOND NFA CHALLENGE

BELLEVUE, Wash. — Jan. 21, 2026 — The Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) and its partners have filed a response brief in the second of the organization’s two lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of the National Firearms Act (NFA) registration scheme.

Filed with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, the brief voices the organization’s opposition to the Government’s motion for summary judgment in Brown v. ATF.

Until President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the NFA established a $200 tax and registration regime on certain classes of firearms including silencers, short-barreled firearms and “any other weapons” (AOWs), drawing from Congressional authority to levy taxes. SAF and its partners filed lawsuits challenging the remaining registration requirements because without the tax, Congress’ reliance on their taxing authority is no longer justifiable.

“The passage of the Big Beautiful Bill kicked the already questionable constitutional authority for the NFA right out from under the ATF,” said SAF Director of Legal Operations Bill Sack. “With its actual purported authority now eliminated, the government has resorted to borrowing taxation authority from elsewhere in the statute, or entirely different constitutional authority rarely asserted to justify the NFA. Today’s brief explains exactly why neither tactic is persuasive.”

SAF is joined in Brown v. ATF by the American Suppressor Association, National Rifle Association, Firearms Policy Coalition, Prime Protection STL Tactical Boutique and two private citizens.

“For the second time this week SAF and its partners have filed opposition briefs in response to the government’s insistence on defending the NFA,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “We’re better situated now than we have been in almost 90 years to relegate significant chunks of the unconstitutional NFA to the dustbin of history. Today’s brief is a major step toward that goal.”

Man Successfully Registers Potato as Silencer

“TATE001”

That’s the official serial number of what appears to be the first legally registered 9mm potato silencer, according to a Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) registration form obtained by The Reload. It’s registered to a man named Zach Clark, who said he pulled off the feat as an act of defiance against the National Firearms Act (NFA).

“It’s a good way to highlight to normal people that like, ‘Yeah, this is dumb,’” Clark told The Reload. “This whole law is kind of dumb.”

The spud suppressor may be the most remarkable result of the NFA tax cut enacted at the beginning of the year as part of President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, which made the cost of registering suppressors $0 and opened up the floodgates. The ATF saw more NFA electronic registration requests on New Year’s Day than at any time in its history. The lower cost of compliance, combined with a recently-digitized process, has made new kinds of suppressors–including disposable or even meme designs–more viable than before.

“The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) informed NSSF that on Thursday, January 1, 2026, alone, an unprecedented surge in e-Forms submissions were being processed,” the National Shooting Sports Foundation, the gun industry’s trade group, said last week. “That total was approximately 150,000 e-Forms. For an eye-popping comparison, last year, ahead of the $200-to-$0 tax change, typical daily volume on e-Forms for suppressors, SBRs and SBSs would hover closer to around 2,500.”

While the NFA requires registration of all sound-suppressing devices that attach to a gun barrel to be registered with the ATF, it provides a process for people to register their own homemade designs. In the same way that somebody buying a suppressor from a store would have to fill out an NFA registration form and get the ATF to approve it before taking possession of the device, a home builder has to submit their intent to build one and get approval before actually constructing the device.

Clark went through that process with his potato suppressor design. He said he made sure to keep potatoes out of his house while he waited to hear back from the ATF.

“As of this moment, I have the serialized washer, and I have the potato, but I haven’t put it together,” he told The Reload. “There’s a manufacturing buffer on that from approval; you have to wait. Plus, that’s a whole thing of like, what is your manufacturing intent? Does it count when you’ll buy the potato? Is it having any potato in your house? Any potato products?”

Potato silencer registration submission form
Potato silencer registration submission form / Zachary Clark

While Clark’s registration effort is something of a troll, gun-rights lawyer Matt Larosiere noted it isn’t entirely a laughing matter.

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ATF Data Shows The Number of Guns in Americans’ Hands Now Tops Half a Billion.

NSSF, The Firearm Industry Trade Association, released the Firearm Production in the United States including the Firearm Import and Export Data 2025 Edition (reporting 2023 data) to its members. The report compiles the most up-to-date information based on data sourced from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ (ATF’s) Annual Firearms Manufacturing and Export Reports (AFMER).

The report is available free to members by logging into the NSSF Member Portal here.

Key findings for public release showed:

  • The estimated total number of firearms in civilian possession from 1990–2023 is 506.1 million, according to data in reports such as ATF Firearms Commerce in the United States, ATF AFMER and Congressional Research Service and including the collective ATF AFMER reports up to the 2023 edition.
  • Total domestic firearm production reported in the 2023 AFMER was 8,466,729 – a decrease of 15.4 percent from 2022 reported figures.
  • Data indicates that 32,091,000 Modern Sporting Rifles (MSRs) are in circulation since 1990.
  • Modern Sporting Rifle (MSR) production decreased 46.2 percent from 2022 to 2023. This increased the estimated amount of MSRs produced (since 1990) by 4.5 percent from 30.7 million to 32 million.
  • In 2023, 13,574,653 total firearms were made available for the U.S. market, which includes firearms that were domestically produced plus those imported, minus exported firearms. Of those, 8,176,535 were handguns, 3,899,907 were rifles and 1,498,211 were shotguns.
  • From 1990 to 2023, 284.4 million firearms have been made available to the U.S. market.

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And I helped!

Explosion of Silence: ATF Gets 150,000 eForm Submissions On First Day of Zero Dollar Tax Stamps.

Gun owners from all across the country—except, of course, for California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Washington, D.C.—can celebrate the New Year with a bang! Or, at least a suppressed bang, that is.

After Congress passed, and President Donald Trump signed into law, the One Big, Beautiful Bill last summer, the extra $200 tax on firearm suppressors, short-barrel rifles and short-barrel shotguns is no more.

During the final few months of 2025, many suppressor companies were known to cover the tax for suppressor buyers if they chose to make their purchase ahead of January 1 and the numbers noticeably increased before the holidays.

But with the ringing in of the New Year, suppressor purchases skyrocketed as expected. All signs suggest 2026 will be the Year of the Suppressor.

Not A Typo

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives informed NSSF that on Thursday, January 1, 2026, alone, an unprecedented surge in e-Forms submissions were being processed. That total was approximately 150,000 e-Forms. For an eye-popping comparison, last year, ahead of the $200-to-$0 tax change, typical daily volume on e-Forms for suppressors, SBRs and SBSs would hover closer to around 2,500.

That’s not a typo. Americans are taking advantage of the tax reduction on National Firearms Act (NFA) items—including firearm suppressors, SBSs and SBRs—in a big, big way.

That data tracks with other data points NSSF has seen in recent years and all expectations are that growth in the number of Americans who own a suppressor will explode.

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I would have called the rifles ‘Phoenix’ as it’s Anderson rising from the ashes.

Ruger Rings in New Year with Re-Engineered Harrier AR Rifles

alling its new AR-pattern guns a “completely re-engineered line of modern sporting rifles,” Ruger announced the arrival of its Harrier line of AR-pattern guns on New Year’s Eve.

The new 5.56 NATO/.223 Rem AR-15s are manufactured at Ruger’s recently acquired Hebron, Kentucky, factory – i.e., the now-defunct Anderson Manufacturing in disguise. There will be two models on offer to start in 2026.

Model 28600 comes with a mid-length gas system, Magpul MOE-K2 grip, Magpul DT Carbine stock, and a handguard with a full-length STANAG-spec top rail. Model 28601 will offer a carbine-length gas system, classic A2 grip, M4 collapsible stock, and a light-profile handguard, minus the full-length top rail.

“Introducing Harrier rifles marks an important step in advancing the quality and performance of our modern sporting rifle line,” said Todd Seyfert, Ruger’s president and CEO. “Ruger Harrier rifles combine the rugged reliability Ruger is known for with modern adaptability, making them an ideal choice for shooters seeking precision, durability, and customization – and we are excited that this is only the beginning.”

Ruger Harrier Rifle
The Harrier Model 28600 sporting Magpul furniture is on the top. The lightweight Model 28601 with the interrupted top Picatinny rail is on the bottom. (Image: Ruger)

Both Harriers feature free-floated 15-inch handguards with M-LOK slots. They are made with forged 7075 aluminum upper and lower receivers that meet mil-spec standards. The guns are finished with a Type III hard-coat anodizing.

The triggers are a GI single-stage affair with a standard left-side safety selector and flat trigger guard. One unique twist is an integrated tension screw that enables users to fine-tune their upper-to-lower fitment.

Other mil-spec features include the carbine buffer tube with a staked castle nut and a recoil spring with a carbine-weight buffer.

The guns come with 16.1-inch, black-nitride-coated barrels with a 1:8 twist and 1/2×28 TPI threads, topped with an A2 flash hider. The bolt carriers are also finished with black nitride and host a chrome-plated firing pin.

MSRP for the 6.6-pound Model 28601 comes in at $699. The Magpul-furnished 6.8-pound Model 28600 is set at an MSRP of $749.

Firearms Instructors Talk Changes Coming in 2026

Lee Williams –

Our country was much more troubled and dangerous when Joe Biden was president, but thankfully times have changed, according to several current and former firearm instructors.

“There was a lot more concern about how things were going to go,” said Mike Magowan, chief operations officer for Florida’s Self Defense Emporium. “There’s not as much panic now as there was then.”

Magowan has taught more than 30,000 students how to shoot safely over his 30-year career. He started as a sniper in the U.S. Army’s 101st Airborne Division and has earned a host of national certifications and accreditations.

He and several other instructors discussed current trends and predicted what will happen in 2026.

Suppressors were a common topic, especially if they finally end up outside of federal purview and can be purchased easier. Everyone mentioned teaching a fully-suppressed class.

The largest national trend that’s occurring right now involves smaller 9mm full-capacity handguns specifically made for concealed carry. Everyone predicts their popularity will continue to grow throughout the new year

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ATF Will Shut Down eForms After Christmas to Retool for Zero Dollar Tax Stamps

As you surely recall, one of the features of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill that’s near and dear to the hearts of gun owners is the elimination of the $200 tax on suppressors, short-barrel rifles and short-barrel shotguns. No longer will you have to fork over a couple of Benjamins for the privilege of buying a can for your AR or pistol caliber carbine. And if you decide an 11-inch barrel suits your need in a rifle better than one that’s 16 inches or more (18+ inches for shotguns), you won’t have to send Uncle Sam any of your hard-earned dollars.

This welcome change will take effect on January 1.

That means, however, some system tweaks are needed for our friends in ATF’s NFA Division. To make the necessary upgrades to handle the law change, they’re going to shut the eForms system down for Form 1 and Form 4 submissions after Christmas to let their geeks get to work.

From ATF . . .

On December 26, the eForms system will be temporarily unavailable while we upgrade the system to permit reduction to tax rates for certain NFA firearms.

    • The ATF eForm 1 and ATF eForm 4 will be made unavailable on the eForms platform with no new electronic submissions available until January 1.
    • All ATF eForm 1 and ATF eForm 4 applications in a DRAFT status will be deleted from the eForms system.

All completed ATF eForm 1 and ATF eForm 4 applications submitted within eForms before December 26 will be processed before January 1.

This is necessary to implement statutory changes contained within the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which reduced the making and transfer tax for certain firearms to $0. Deletion of all DRAFT applications is necessary because of the field and formatting changes required on the new forms, available January 1. This will also allow ATF to add additional functionality to the Form 4, allowing both qualified licensees as well as other transferors to submit Form 4 applications through the eForms system.

If you’ve ever been through a system change or upgrade, you know that the process seldom goes to plan. Let’s hope ATF has its digital ducks in a row. As noted above, any eForm applications in draft status when the system goes down will be zapped, so act accordingly.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.