Youth clay programs don't always get the coverage they deserve, but what Sutter just pulled off at the US Open is worth stopping to look at.

"The HOA title is the hardest one to earn — it requires a team to compete across all three disciplines: trap, skeet, and sporting clays."

Anyone who's shot all three in the same day knows how different they are. Trap rewards a consistent mount and a predictable lead — skeet will punish you the second you get comfortable, and sporting clays is basically trap and skeet arguing with each other while a course designer laughs. Winning all three isn't a lucky day — it's a program that actually trains.

"Three squads, three age levels, one national title."

The JV and junior squads podiuming alongside varsity tells you this isn't one coach's pet project built around a couple of talented kids. That's depth — and it only comes from year-round work.

If you grew up shooting competitively or got your start in a youth program, what discipline do you think builds the strongest foundation for the other two?

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Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett

High school trap shooting at this scale is something most people outside the shooting community don't know exists. Nearly 3,000 kids competing under one umbrella organization is a number worth sitting with for a second.

"Fall River posted a team score of 485 out of 500, beating four schools tied at 484 for second place."

97% from a high school team under national championship pressure — that's not a participation trophy situation. Any competitive shooter knows how fast a string falls apart when it counts, and these kids held it together when four other programs were breathing down their necks.

"Two programs from the same state, separated by one bird."

One bird. Anyone who's called a station where they caught a crosser wrong knows exactly how thin that margin feels. Fall River and Dodgeville are probably shooting the same county birds in the same Wisconsin wind, and it still came down to a single clay.

The growth angle here is real. When I started paying attention to scholastic shooting, it was a footnote. 469 schools fielding trap teams is a different world — and it means a lot of those kids are getting their first serious trigger time in a structured, coached environment before they ever walk into an LGS on their own.

For those of you who shoot or have shot competitive trap — what's the biggest mental difference you've noticed between station practice and stepping up when the score actually matters?

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Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett

The legal fight over semi-auto bans is moving fast right now, and the FPC isn't sitting on its hands waiting for one big ruling to trickle down.

"There is no Founding-era tradition of banning the most popular centerfire rifles in the country — because there couldn't be. The guns didn't exist."

That's the Bruen test working exactly as written. Denver has to produce a historical analogue that physically could not have existed in 1791 — that's not a gap in the record, that's the record. Hard to analogize your way around that at oral argument.

"A broad ruling that common-use arms are categorically protected forecloses most municipal bans. A narrow ruling leaves room for cities like Denver to keep fighting in district court for years."

This is the part that actually matters for what you can own and carry long-term. A narrow ruling means another decade of patchwork enforcement, states and cities drawing their own lines, and guys at the gun counter in Colorado still having different conversations than guys at the gun counter here in Idaho.

If you own an AR or any semi-auto that would fall under Denver's definition — and half the rifles in this club's parking lot would — this case is worth following closer than most people are.

For anyone who's competed, carried, or hunted with a semi-auto rifle: what's the most practical "common use" argument you'd make if you had two minutes in front of a judge?

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Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett

Short article, but there's a lot of legal machinery moving here that affects everyday Virginia gun owners.

"Attorney General Jay Jones is arguing the injunction only binds the Virginia State Police—meaning local prosecutors, in his view, can keep charging people anyway."

That's a brazen reading of how court orders work, and GOA is right to push back hard. If you're a Virginia gun owner relying on that injunction to protect your AR or your standard-cap magazines, your exposure apparently depends on which county you're in — which is exactly the kind of legal ambiguity that gets good people buried in legal fees.

"At least 15 Commonwealth's Attorneys have publicly refused to enforce the bans on constitutional grounds. Sheriffs across Virginia are speaking out."

This is the part that actually moves the needle. Courts matter, but local officials declining to prosecute is a real, immediate shield for gun owners while the appeals play out. Every sheriff who goes on record makes it harder to selectively go after someone for owning a rifle they bought legally years ago.

For anyone in Virginia or neighboring states watching this — has your local sheriff or DA made any public statement on these kinds of bans, and did it change anything about how you're thinking about your rifle setup or range-legal gear?

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Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett

This one's been making the rounds. Anyone have more context?

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Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett

Maryland just got a ruling that every carry permit holder should understand — not just in that state, but anywhere you travel with a gun.

"Keeping and bearing arms is presumptively lawful nationwide" — meaning cops can't suspect someone of a crime solely because they have a firearm.

That's the core of it. If you're printing through your shirt on a hot day at a gas station, that alone isn't probable cause anymore — at least not in Maryland, and the 5th Circuit precedents cited here are pulling in the same direction everywhere else.

"Officers will now need 'additional facts indicating criminal activity beyond mere possession' before making a stop."

Worth reading twice if you carry. The stop itself wasn't even the worst part of Hicks' situation — it was the detective digging through a satchel and into pockets, which is nowhere close to what a Terry frisk actually permits. Outer clothing only. That boundary got blurry for a long time in may-issue states, and this ruling puts it back where it belongs.

The cocaine detail will get trotted out by people who want to argue this ruling "helped a drug dealer." That's not the point. The Fourth Amendment doesn't have a carve-out for people who turn out to be guilty — the standard gets applied before you know what you're going to find.

For those of you who carry in states that recently went shall-issue or have shaky training on post-Bruen standards — this ruling is the kind of thing worth knowing cold if you ever get stopped. You have rights in that interaction, and they don't evaporate because your gun is printing.

Have you ever been approached by law enforcement while carrying — and how did knowing your rights (or not knowing them) affect how that conversation went?

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Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett

Oklahoma just added a wrinkle for any out-of-state hunter planning a quick deer hunt across the border. If you've ever made that drive down I-35 with a tag purchase on your to-do list, pay attention.

"An out-of-state hunter who drives to Oklahoma, buys his tag on arrival, and expects to be in a blind the next morning is now looking at a two-day delay."

That's a real problem for anyone running a tight travel window — three-day weekend hunt just became a one-day hunt if you didn't sort your license before you left home. Buy online ahead of time and you're probably fine, but the guys who like to handle it at the local sporting goods store on the way in are going to feel this.

"The rule is aimed at curtailing license abuse — the kind where nonresidents buy tags after the fact or game the system during high-traffic periods — but it catches everyone, including hunters who planned ahead and just bought locally."

That's the frustrating part. The people gaming the system aren't going to stop — they'll just adapt. Honest hunters who happen to buy local are the ones eating the two days. Wouldn't be the first regulation that punished the compliant more than the problem it was targeting.

Worth noting the outfitter licensing requirement too. If you've ever booked a guided waterfowl hunt in Oklahoma through someone operating on a handshake and a Facebook page, that market just got a regulatory layer it didn't have before. Could clean things up, could raise prices — probably both.

For anyone who hunts Oklahoma regularly or guides hunters down there: did you have any warning this was coming before the June 22 meeting, or did this land as a surprise?

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Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett

Junior shooting programs don't get nearly enough credit from the broader community. Most people outside the sport picture kids goofing around with Daisy rifles — they don't picture a 50-question written exam standing between a competitor and the national stage.

"We're learning how to be people first — we're learning how to be great shooters but also great people."

That's not something a coach fed her to say. That's a kid who actually got something out of the program beyond a trophy. The written test component is what separates this from backyard plinking — you can't shoot your way around knowing the material.

Anyone here come up through a junior program — 4-H, Scouts, CMP, anything structured — and did it shape how you approach the range now?

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Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett

Interesting development. What's your take on this?

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Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett

The $200 NFA tax on suppressors and SBRs is gone thanks to the One Big Beautiful Bill, and the Second Amendment Foundation is now using that repeal as a crowbar on what's left of the registration requirements.

"The Supreme Court's recent opinions are binding precedent that should strengthen our cases challenging the remaining NFA registration requirements."
— Alan Gottlieb, SAF Founder

The argument is tighter than it sounds. The NFA's registration scheme was built on Congress's taxing power — no tax, no constitutional hook. SAF is essentially asking federal judges whether the whole structure can stand once you pull the foundation out.

The Bruen standard is doing real work here too. If suppressors and SBRs get formally recognized as protected arms — which these new rulings push toward — the government has to justify its restrictions against historical tradition. That's a much harder argument for the ATF to win than whatever they were arguing five years ago.

Worth being clear-eyed about where this actually sits: three lawsuits, lower federal courts, no rulings yet. The can is still being kicked, just with better kicks. If you've been waiting to buy a suppressor without the stamp and wait and the Form 4 headache, don't cancel your dealer's order quite yet.

For those of you who've gone through the NFA process — paid the tax, waited out the months — how are you thinking about what happens to that registration paperwork if the requirement eventually goes away?

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Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett

Interesting development. What's your take on this?

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Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett

This one's been making the rounds. Anyone have more context?

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Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett

Straw purchasing is one of those things that gets thrown around in gun control debates as if it's some unsolved policy problem — but this case is a reminder that federal law already covers it, and so does ATF enforcement when a dealer is dumb or dirty enough to get caught.

"This is not just taking guns to Mexico. This is putting guns in the hands of drug dealers and human smugglers. ... This is a despicable crime."

Hard to argue with that. The part that stings is that Iknadosian allegedly kept selling even after undercover agents told him the guns were headed to Mexico. That's not negligence — that's a choice made repeatedly over eleven months.

One FFL moving 650 firearms into cartel hands is the kind of thing that ends up justifying policy that affects every dealer in the country. The guys running clean shops at their LGS — doing the 4473s right, flagging suspicious buyers, turning people away when something feels off — they're the ones who pay the political price when someone like this operates down the road.

What's the worst red flag behavior you've personally witnessed at a gun store counter — buyer or dealer side?

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Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett

This one's been making the rounds. Anyone have more context?

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Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett

This one's been making the rounds. Anyone have more context?

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Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett

This one's been making the rounds. Anyone have more context?

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Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett

This one's been making the rounds. Anyone have more context?

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Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett

Short article, but worth talking about because the X-Macro Comp keeps coming up at the counter and on the range — people want to know if the integrated comp actually does anything useful in a carry gun.

"The integrated compensator also deserves mention. While it's not a substitute for proper grip and technique, I believe it helps reduce muzzle rise enough to support quicker follow-up shots, particularly during rapid strings of fire."

That qualifier about grip and technique is doing a lot of work in that sentence, and it's the right caveat. On a full-size competition gun, a comp is a measurable advantage. On a carry-sized 9mm — the jury's still out for a lot of us. What it does change is the overall length, which matters when you're tucking this thing into an AIWB at the grocery store.

"Having bright tritium sights that co-witness with the optic provides confidence should the optic ever become unavailable."

This is the one I actually care about more than the comp. Optic failures are rare but they happen — dead battery at the wrong time, a hard impact, whatever. If your irons are there and indexed to the same plane, you're not starting from zero. Co-witness on a carry gun isn't a nice-to-have, it's the backup plan you hope you never need.

2,000 rounds with no issues is a reasonable threshold for trusting a carry gun — not definitive, but it earns a spot on the nightstand.

For those running an optic on your EDC — have you actually had a failure that forced you back to irons, or is co-witness just theoretical comfort at this point?

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Read the full article in The Handbook →

Legislation moves fast. What's your read on where this is heading?

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Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett

Legislation moves fast. What's your read on where this is heading?

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Read the full article in The Handbook → | By Steve Duskett