The thing that bothers me the most about The Trace is that while they don’t really try that hard to hide their anti-gun bias, they’re treated like a neutral journalism project by the mainstream media. Somehow, I don’t see the New York Times and Bearing Arms teaming up on anything, but The Trace? Absolutely. But as we wrap up the year, The Trace decided to take a look at the year in review, and in the process, they kind of deliver the greatest self-own in biased journalism I’ve seen in a long while.Whenever I pick…

President Donald Trump signed the annual defense authorization bill into law Dec. 18, confirming a 3.8% raise in military basic pay.Congress approved the 2026 National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA, this month with the increase for active-duty service members and reservists.Current troops get a bump in basic pay starting in January, while veterans will receive an increase as well. Common allowances are also going up.Related: 2026 Military Pay Charts2026 Basic Pay RaiseActive-duty troops and drilling Guard and reserve members will receive a 3.8% pay raise in January.The 3.8% raise was part of Trump’s fiscal 2026 budget request to Congress and was included in…

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Old .22LR rifles are a ton of fun, and they are some of the few guns that haven’t skyrocketed in price. Depression era .22LRs in particular can often be had for maybe a couple of hundred dollars. Guns like the Remington Targetmaster Model 41 can be found for less than $200 and are an awesome piece of history. I have two of these guns, one is sadly broken, but one still goes hard. The 41 is a gun of it’s era, and that era was the great depression. The Model 41 is a reasonably simple rifle, but it’s representative of…

Turn right here and then feel free to get up to 50 mph. That’s what Toyota Senior Engineering Manager Jakin Wilson said to me as I pilot a Tacoma Trailhunter through a lumpy dirt trail, replete with sudden peaks and troughs, terrain changes, and sweeping bends. I gleefully rocketed up to 55 mph, maxed out the suspension travel, and worked the Old Man Emu shocks. Undeterred, Wilson smiled with approval. This occurred, by the way, after I descended down a 20-degree river rock hill and before crawling around a patchwork of rock and roots on a winding two-track path. All…

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The $900 billion National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2026 is now law after passing both chambers of Congress and being signed Thursday by President Donald Trump, incorporating numerous policies and provisions including continued efforts to boost service member recruitment.On Dec. 10 the 3,086-page bill passed the House on a 312-112 vote (115 Democrats, 197 Republicans voted in favor), and the Senate followed up with approval one week later with broad bipartisan support in a 77-20 vote. Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, praised both political sides in the vote aftermath and said the…

A new attempt to safeguard national parks from losing federal protection and oversight is at risk of failure. Utah Sen. Mike Lee (R) — who proposed the sale of up to 3 million acres of public land this summer — introduced an amendment this week that would strip language from an appropriations bill that specifically outlines federal protections of all national park sites, according to park advocates. Lee’s amendment would remove several sections from a Senate appropriations bill for the Interior Department, which manages the National Park Service (NPS). One of those sections was recently added by Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley…

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FORT STEWART, Ga. (AP) — An Army sergeant appearing before a military judge Friday pleaded not guilty in the shootings of five people, including his romantic partner, at a Georgia base where he faces a trial by court-martial in June. Sgt. Quornelius Radford, 28, is charged with attempted murder and other crimes in the Aug. 6 shootings at Fort Stewart. The judge presiding over his case, Col. Gregory Batdorff, scheduled Radford’s trial to begin June 15. Authorities say Radford opened fire with a personal handgun on members of his supply unit at the sprawling Army post in southeast Georgia. They…

I came up in the Corps on the Beretta 92F. That’s what the Marine Corps handed me, so that’s what I learned. But let’s be honest: the 1911 has always been the pistol Marines talk about. It’s the one that shows up in our history over and over again, usually in the hands of guys who had serious work to do. So when I saw that Shark Coast Customs and Camfour put together a 250th Anniversary USMC Commemorative 1911, I didn’t need a sales pitch to understand why they went with a 1911-A1 base. If you’re going to mark 250…

A roomy and tough carry-on bag is the only surefire way to prevent an airline from losing your luggage and sending your trip into a tailspin. As one of those weirdos like me who refuse to travel with checked luggage, I was intrigued by Victorinox’s Mythic Frequent Flyer Carry-On Business ($543). Like the multitools that Victorinox is known for, there’s more to the Mythic Frequent Flyer than meets the eye. Many carry-on bags are either hardshell or fabric, but the Frequent Flyer is a hybrid of the two. Plus, the eight wheels and internal organization showed a lot of promise.…