Articles

• The Kalashnikov family tree

  Something like a hundred million rifles descend from one 1947 design, and almost none of them are what the word AK-47 actually names. Sorting out which is which turns out to be a lesson in how a design gets copied.

  2026-08-31

• Why 9mm won

  For a century the argument about service pistol cartridges was settled and reopened roughly every twenty years. It is settled now, and the reasons have almost nothing to do with the thing people argue about.

  2026-08-31