Travel

Beards, tattoos and tactical pants: My first SHOT Show

I follow our small team of writers up an escalator and onto the plaza floor that holds one of the many levels for SHOT Show. It’s a sea of booths filled with the latest in “tactical innovations” that the industry has to offer. Weaving around each other like a massive army of ants, are the […]

Delta Air Lines announces stricter policy to combat fake service animals

Delta Air Lines has announced a new policy that requires people with service animals to provide proper documentation, proving that their animals are both healthy and trained, enabling them to fly. This must be provided 48 hours before the scheduled flight’s departure. Delta has said that two-thirds of the alleged service animals on their flights are […]

A special gift to SOFREP from our friends in the Philippines

Monday night we had our annual SOFREP party in Las Vegas the night prior to the SHOT show. Subscribers can RSVP ahead of time and we had an open bar from 6 p.m. until sometime around 2 a.m. when we left. Don’t ask me what the bill was … these events are a great opportunity […]

SHOT Show Diaries: Vodka, ginger ale and the SOFREP Party

As I slid my black slacks on in a rush to make it to the SOFREP party at this year’s SHOT Show, I couldn’t help but feel like they didn’t fit. Not the size mind you, my waistline hasn’t changed all that much since my days as an HR manager, but the style, the feel of […]

Opinion: When people say that ‘this is why everyone hates America’

I’ve lived over half my life in other countries, and I’m always a bit surprised at America’s perception of the rest of the world when I come back, probably due to the great distance between us and them. For example, many people here seem to have a chip on their shoulder when it comes to […]

SHOT Show Diaries: Getting there is half the battle

Thirty-five minutes after I kissed my daughter goodbye for the first time in her short life, a loud bang rang out from the engine bay of my trusty old Kia Optima.  The subsequent clunk beneath my floorboard combined with a complete loss of power made it pretty clear that I was in trouble, and thanks […]

SERE: A foreign military volunteer’s perspective

Any everyday carry SERE (survival, evasion, resistance, escape) kit is a valuable piece of equipment. They can be applicable to any potentially dangerous situation. A well put together kit should try to cover a wide array of scenarios but also be as minimalist as possible; if it’s cumbersome to carry in casual situations, you probably […]

Time travel and killing Hitler

If you like sci-fi and time travel movies, you may have dabbled with the idea of what you would do if it was possible in real life. And if you are in the soldiering business, you may have wondered how you might have changed the course of history — preventing a terrorist attack, stopping this […]

19 injured in vehicle attack in Melbourne, Australia

An Australian man of Afghan descent drove his vehicle into Christmas shoppers in the Australian city of Melbourne on Thursday, injuring 19 people.  Although the incident appears to be an intentional attack, Australian authorities have made it clear that they are not treating it as a terror related incident, citing the suspect’s history of mental […]

Flying with firearms, avoiding the pitfalls

It’s that time of the year when millions of people subject themselves to the domestic feel-good airline security theater and the gauntlet known as the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Inevitably, a certain percentage of travelers will decide to bring their firearm with them, although some will do it unintentionally or illegally as over 3,391 firearms […]

The American road: Keeping healthy as you go

The last several weeks have felt like non-stop driving to me. I drove from Florida to Arkansas, then from Arkansas to Kansas, then back from Kansas all the way to Florida. A couple of weeks later I was making the 18 hour drive from Tampa to upstate New York, and now I’m on my way […]

The American Road: Countries within countries

Over the last two days I drove with my dog from the sunny, warm Tampa, Florida to the cold and wintery Binghamton in upstate New York, and I’ll be making the same drive back in three days time — it’s approximately 18 hours each way without accounting for stops. Just over Thanksgiving, I made a trip […]