As gun manufacturers crank out higher quality production rifles, custom barreled actions are becoming less necessary for shooting crazy-small groups. It’s tough to beat a skilled gunsmith, but shooters are realizing that a factory piece can be nearly as accurate and just as much fun to shoot. That trend was on full display earlier this month when Scottish benchrest shooter David Sharp (yes, his real name) posted a 3.090-inch 1000-yard group using a Savage Model 12 F-TR barreled action chambered in .308 WIN.

An Alabama man is being hailed as a hero after he used his concealed firearm to stop a masked gunman at a McDonald’s in southwest Birmingham. The suspect entered the restaurant on Saturday night around 10:45pm just after it had closed, according to local media. He gained access by entering just as an employee was unlocking the door for a father and his two sons to leave. The suspect opened fire as soon as he entered, but the father drew his own concealed weapon and returned fire.

The AR500 is, according to the company’s claims and my own research, the most powerful short-range semi-auto rifle in the world. Chambered in the .50-caliber 500 Auto Max cartridge, the AR500 packs a wallop in a modified AR-10 platform. Combined with Buffalo Bore’s 350, 400, and 440 grain loads, the AR500 is ready to bring down, quite literally, any kind of critter you’re hoping to hunt.

Few police departments are better at confiscating illegal guns than Washington, D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department, according to a new report from NPR. But that aggressive gun-confiscation policy hasn’t done anything to curb the ballooning homicide rate in the nation’s capital, which has risen over 40 percent since last year.

A father in Bloomfield, Ct., used his handgun to save his daughter from a neighbor who was attempting to rape her, local media reported last week. Maurice Gordon saw his 30-year-old daughter being attacked by one of his neighbors, Michael Farrigon, 43, while the woman was parked in the driveway of Gordon’s home. Farrigon approached the car, opened the door, and said he wanted to rape her.

A Vietnam veteran and Silver Star recipient has been sentenced to 87 months in prison by a federal judge for illegally purchasing a fully automatic M14 rifle at a Fort Worth gun show in the early 1980’s. Alfred Pick, 70, lives in Plano, Tx., and purchased the rifle because it was similar to the one he carried in combat.

The explosion of the concealed carry market has meant nothing but good news for gun nuts. Gun manufacturers have been more than happy to oblige, though some have been quicker than others. Walther is among the last of the major handgun companies to offer a subcompact semi-auto, but, as the old saying goes, good things come to those who wait.

Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill doesn’t mention gun control on her official government website. As a representative from Missouri, she knows to stay away from issues that might alienate moderate voters, but a new undercover video from Project Veritas has revealed her support for everything from a bump stock ban to a ban on semi-automatic rifles.

Manufacturing firearms at home for personal use is perfectly legal, according to the federal government. But not according to Bridgeport, Connecticut, whose mayor recently signed a measure that would levy a $250/day fine to anyone caught in the possession of a “ghost gun.”