The Belgian troopship SS Léopoldville had already begun sinking into the English Channel after a German torpedo struck. Gerald Howard went down with it. The 23-year-old rifleman was dragged beneath the freezing water alongside hundreds of fellow soldiers, narrowly escaping the same fate. Somehow, he made it back to the surface. “I stayed on that ship until it went under,” Howard recalled decades later. “It pulled me down, and when I came back up, I spotted a life raft. They told me, ‘You can’t get on.’ I said, ‘Like hell I can’t.’” Howard regained consciousness around midnight in a hospital…
The sun’s blazing overhead, you’ve got miles to go, and there’s not much shade in sight. The best sun hats protect your head, face, ears, and neck from harsh UV while staying breathable, secure, and comfortable enough to wear all day. For this update, GearJunkie Editor Chris Kassar tested four new sun hats over nine months while sweating through trail runs, scrambling exposed routes above the tree line, paddleboarding, and logging long days out photographing wildlife. While none of the new contenders unseated our current favorites, the process reinforced the strength of our existing selection. This guide has been shaped…
Sgt. Ross F. Gray carried a satchel charge through a minefield while under heavy Japanese fire. The explosive weighed 24 pounds and left no room for a rifle. He went in unarmed anyway. Behind him, three Marines provided cover. Ahead, a fortified Japanese bunker anchored one end of a network of gun emplacements that had stopped his platoon cold on Feb. 21, 1945, two days into the bloodiest battle in Marine Corps history. Gray had already mapped a route through the field on foot, under fire, without triggering a single mine. Now he was going back in to finish what…
A climbing rope is your literal lifeline. The best options strike a perfect balance between smooth handling, reliable fall-catching, and the durability to withstand seasons of abrasion. For this update, GearJunkie contributor Miya Tsudome spent three months evaluating two new ropes, tying into each cord for three to five separate climbs on the sharp granite of Pine Creek Canyon and the welded tuff of the Owens River Gorge. The Mammut Alpine Core Protect takes the top spot as our favorite overall rope thanks to an innovative cut-resistant core that provides unparalleled safety on sharp edges, while the Edelrid Tommy Caldwell…
Kentucky, despite a Democratic governor and a fairly lengthy history of electing Democrats to that office, is a pretty pro-gun state. I mean, while Rand Paul and Thomas Massie aren’t exactly as beloved as they were a couple of years ago by most gun owners, they’re both from the state and both solidly pro-gun. But Louisville was always going to be an exception. As a relatively large city, its sensibilities are more akin to those of other large urban centers, as opposed to the more rural parts of the Bluegrass State.And now they’re asking the…
Suppressors weren’t just part of NRA 2026, they dominated the conversation. Walk the floor this year and one thing became clear fast: lighter, quieter, and more versatile is the name of the game. From 3D-printed titanium builds to modular, do-it-all cans, manufacturers are pushing hard into the next generation. Here are some of the standout suppressors that caught our attention. Daniel Defense Goes Lightweight and Purpose-Built Daniel Defense rolled out two new cans that hit very different use cases but both lean hard into weight savings. First up is the Mute 30 Ti, a bolt-gun-focused suppressor built using additive-manufactured titanium.…
A constitutional carry bill that would eliminate Pennsylvania’s concealed firearm permit requirement cleared the state Senate Judiciary Committee on May 6, advancing to the full Senate as supporters press for a floor vote. Senate Bill 357 would allow lawful Pennsylvania gun owners to carry a concealed firearm without obtaining a License to Carry Firearms (LTCF) or paying the associated fee. The bill keeps the LTCF available as an optional license for residents who want reciprocity when traveling to states that require a permit. It does not change who is legally prohibited from possessing firearms under existing state and federal law.…
This article was originally published by Mike Adams at Natural News. A Betrayal of the Social Contract The news broke this week like a punch in the gut: nearly 50,000 residents in the Lake Tahoe area have been told their utility will stop providing power after next ski season. Fortune reports that these people are now scrambling to find a future energy source, while the data centers powering the AI boom get first dibs on the grid [1]. This is not a technical glitch. It is a deliberate choice to serve machines over human beings. Let that sink in. Almost fifty…
Chilean brand Rokum could have entered the U.S. market with a small line of sleeping bags and sleeping pads. Instead, it went with a rarer approach: combine them together. The Umak — part sleeping bag, part sleeping pad, and part couch — launched on Kickstarter last week. This three-season kit may provide enough use cases to entice summer campers looking for a flexible sleeping system — if not quite those seeking backcountry adventures. The bag’s bulkiness and weight make it an unlikely contender for long-distance backpacking. At $100, it’s a wild but affordable sleep kit. We don’t yet know how…
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Military veterans have some of the best stories. Pair them with music and you have something truly powerful. Through Operation Song, a national program based out of Nashville, Tenn., veterans team with songwriters to illuminate their stories through music. Operation Song held a benefit concert on Saturday in Awendaw, South Carolina and for some veterans, hearing their story in the beauty of a song felt like therapy. That was certainly the case for Cody McGinnis. As a combat veteran, McGinnis was involved in 137 missions. After a while, war takes its toll. “It felt like maybe I was talking about…
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Browse any prepper forum or scroll through enough survival gear content online, and it won’t be long before you’re looking at $3,000 generators, $500 water filtration systems, and pre-made bug out bags that cost more than a month’s rent. The prepping industry has a vested interest in making you feel completely helpless if you don’t have that one piece of survival gear, and that pressure pushes people to either spend way more than necessary or give up on preparedness altogether. The truth is that many of the scenarios most likely to affect everyday people — things like burst pipes, long…
On Saturday my colleague Tom Knighton covered the fight between the Dorr brothers’ Ohio Gun Owners and a Republican candidate who the group claims has taken money from gun control groups. As it turns out, Rep. Gary Click isn’t the only candidate who’s suddenly been accused of being a tool for the gun control lobby just days before voters head to the polls in Ohio’s primary. In a video posted to the group’s X account, Ohio Gun Owners levied a similar accusation against HD 86 candidate Ben Weber. 🚨BREAKING: We have stripped candidate Ben Weber of his…
Glock may still be the 800-pound polymer gorilla, but bans, lawsuits, and years of slow evolution have shooters looking hard at what else is out there. From Canik to Walther, these striker-fired Glock alternatives are not just second choices; they are serious contenders. The Glock pistol is likely one of, if not the most, popular firearms in the United States. However, has the gun’s design become stale, or is its pending litigation and bans putting an end to its reign? If so, what are the options for Americans who now find themselves “Glock Blocked”? How Glock Became King, And Why…
The Unit 9 Compact is not some toy pretending to be a training pistol. It is a Glock 19-style, CO2-powered, non-lethal training system built for real reps, real feedback, and real force-on-force work without the range drama. I’ve been watching Unit Solutions closely since they launched their Unit 4 training rifle, and when they announced the Unit 9 Compact Training Pistol, I was genuinely excited to get my hands on one. I’ve trained with their AR platform at certain facilities, and I knew they weren’t messing around when it came to build quality and realism. So when the Unit 9…
This article was originally published by Tyler Durden at ZeroHedge. For the first time on record, the top 15 military spenders allocated more than $2 trillion to defense in 2025. Total global defense spending also reached a record $2.6 trillion, signaling a major shift in geopolitical priorities. Using data from the International Institute for Strategic Studies, this visualization, via Visual Capitalist’s Dorothy Neufeld, ranks the 15 countries driving this surge in military spending. While the U.S. still operates on an entirely different scale, the biggest shift is happening in Europe, where countries are no longer just maintaining military capacity but expanding it significantly. The…
I absolutely understand the concept of making law enforcement more effective. If we want criminals to go to prison for their crimes, the first step is to find them. Sure, we also need judges to actually lock them up, but that’s a separate issue from making the police’s job easier. The only issue is that so much of the time, the proposals to do that are really boneheaded. One plan in Illinois seems to hinge on requiring markings on bullets that, in theory, could be later identified by police when used in a shooting.There are…
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran’s latest proposal to the United States calls for issues between the two countries to be resolved within 30 days and aims to end the war rather than extend the ceasefire, according to Iran’s state-linked media. President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he was reviewing a new Iranian proposal to end the war but also expressed doubt it would lead to a deal. Iran’s 14-point proposal calls for an end to the war, rather than just an extension of the truce. The proposal, a rebuttal to the U.S. nine-point plan, also calls for…
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