The 41st annual Gun Rights Policy Conference (GRPC) will feature keynote speaker Judge Roger T. Benitez and Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, along with speakers including Brandon Herrera, ATF Director Robert Cekada, and ATF Chief Counsel Robert Leider. Co-hosted by the Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, GRPC 2026 is scheduled for September 25-27 in Dallas.
SLG2, Inc. brings its Shoot Like A Girl experience to Bass Pro Shops in Rapid City on August 15-16 during the 86th Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. The free event features a mobile range with firearm simulators, archery activities, and demonstrations from outdoor industry brands including Black Rifle Coffee.
Athlon Outdoors is giving away a Umarex StormFire .177-caliber Full-Auto CO2 BB Air Rifle through its Free Gun Friday promotion. The rifle features semi and full-automatic fire modes, delivering up to 2,020 rounds per minute with a 400-round BB reservoir. Entries are now open at Athlon Outdoors.
European American Armory (EAA) emphasizes its commitment to dealer and distributor partnerships while introducing the Girsan Witness2311 XXX Series, a revolutionary double-stack 1911 platform for concealed carry. EAA is actively recruiting dealer and distribution partners at upcoming industry shows.
Firearms News released a special report by Field Editor Darwin Nercesian detailing how Ohio House Republicans voted with Democrats to kill House Bill 495, the Freedom to Carry Act, introduced by Representative Jennifer Gross. The bill would have expanded concealed carry protections to other lawfully owned weapons for licensed citizens.
Federal Ammunition is now shipping a new rifled slug load for its Action Shotgun ammunition line designed for competition shooting. The 12-gauge, 2-3/4-inch load features a 1-ounce projectile at 1,300 fps and Federal's TruBall system for superior accuracy in both tube- and magazine-fed shotguns.
Primary Arms Optics has opened pre-orders for two new long-range scopes: the PLx 2.5-20x48 and PLx 4.5-36x56 FFP Compact Rifle Scopes, featuring Japanese-manufactured ED glass, Steel-on-Steel turrets, and modular Cartridge Turrets. Shipping begins in September with prices starting at $2,299.99.
EOTECH announced the HWS CUAS (Counter Unmanned Aircraft Sight), available in EXPS3 and XPS3 models, featuring a sophisticated aiming reticle for rapid engagement of stationary and moving drones. VP of Engineering Todd Estes highlighted how holographic technology corrects for parallax error and provides superior field of view compared to conventional lenses.
Gun Tote'n Mamas and Byrna Technologies announced a partnership to expand less-lethal personal protection options. GTM has identified concealed carry handbags compatible with Byrna's CL Launcher, while Byrna will feature GTM products on its website to help consumers and dealers identify compatible carry solutions.
Realtree and Aflac, two Columbus, Georgia institutions, announced a partnership to raise awareness about financial protection for outdoor enthusiasts. The collaboration extends Aflac's supplemental health insurance access to the outdoor community, addressing risks like hunting-related injuries while supporting conservation and children's health causes.
SOG Knives announces the release of its 40th Anniversary Fat Guard Bowie knife, a limited run of 500 individually serialized knives inspired by the original S1 Bowie from 1986. The knife features a 6.1-inch AUS 8 steel blade and comes with a commemorative Zippo lighter, leather sheath, and handcrafted pine display case.
MDT has launched three new precision rifle actions—the Fuzion, Fuzion Ti, and Razor—acquired from Utah-based Lone Peak Arms. All three models feature Remington 700 footprint compatibility and are available starting August 7, 2026, through MDT dealers and mdttac.com.
Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's Fall Hunting Classic Sale runs through Aug. 26, featuring major savings on hunting gear, trade-in programs offering up to $200 in savings, and free family-friendly activities. The event includes expert tips, educational workshops, and opportunities to support conservation through gear donations to local organizations.
Iconic Outdoor Group, parent company of Daisy Outdoor Products, Crosman Corporation, GAMO USA, and Benjamin Airguns, will exhibit at the Mid-States 2026 Fall Rendezvous on August 11–12 in Phoenix, Arizona. The company will showcase air rifles, BB guns, air pistols, and accessories at Booth #240.
The International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC) announced that Tippmann Arms has been named an official IPSC Strategic Partner for Mini Rifle. Tippmann Arms manufactures premium .22 LR semi-automatic rifles designed for IPSC Mini Rifle competition, with Barry Giddings recognized for his instrumental role in developing the partnership.
Remington serves as Platinum Sponsor for the 2026 NSCA U.S. Open in Wisconsin, with Team Remington competitors including defending champion Todd Hitch, Braxton Oliver, Mike Luongo, Turner Parcell, Wendell Cherry, and Madison Sharpe competing August 11-16 at Game Unlimited.
MyOutdoorTV announces new episodes from seven popular hunting and fishing programs including Realtree Outdoors, Crush with Lee & Tiffany, The Western Hunter, Drury's THIRTEEN, Fatal Impact, Descendants of the North, and The Fishmonger, featuring hosts like Bill Jordan, Lee and Tiffany Lakosky, and Tommy Gomes.
The Cianciarulo family competes in the second annual GAMO Squirrel Master Challenge against Buckmasters, Bone Collector, and Buck Commander on Pursuit Channel's 26th season of The Choice, airing Monday August 10th at 11:30PM EST.
Pursuit Channel announced the addition of AKC Good Dog TV, produced by the American Kennel Club with Tupelo Honey Productions. The family-friendly series features expert training tips, breed spotlights, and dog sports content, airing weekly on Pursuit Channel and streaming via Pursuit UP to millions of viewers.
Outdoor Sportsman Group launches Ultimate Season, a multi-platform hunting resource running August through December 2026, partnering with Old Trapper, Browning, SPYPOINT, Dryshod, Can-Am, and Rocky Boots. The initiative features expert content, gear reviews, and a sweepstakes with Luke Bryan concert experience across TV, print, and digital channels.
Like clockwork, every time police officers encounters a Type 3 uncooperative attacker, the comment section fills with phrases like “failure to stop” or “body-armor drill.” Or if the writer is a seasoned citizen, “Mozambique Drill.” Expert trainers will pontificate as to the necessity of “transitioning to the head” to make that “stopping shot.”
Despite such learned advice, where do we return? Center mass. The vast majority of training and qualification targets for both armed citizens and law enforcement have the “5-ring” or the preferred zone somewhere between the sternum and the stomach. For many, any hit from the sternum to the crotchal area is scored as a 5. Therefore, as long as the shooter in question spreads all their rounds out in the 5-ring, they pass the qualification and move on.
Some of you might be saying, “So, what’s wrong with that? They passed the qual. What more can we ask of them?” To that way of thinking, as long as their future attackers are all Type 1 and Type 2 felons, they should be fine. Any bullet that lands will do the job.
The problem is, there are Type 3 felons out there who aren’t impressed by the sight of guns and aren’t inclined to notice when bullets impact somewhere on their body.
We have numerous examples, the famous ones, and the ones most people have never heard of, such as: FBI Miami Shootout, North Hollywood Bank Robbery, and the Skokie,Illinois bank robber. We had the recent Meriden, Connecticut EDP who just kept on killing with a baseball bat despite being confronted with a gun and shot several times. There have been lots of others over the years.
Experienced trainers have said, “shot placement” until they’re blue in the face. One of the primary examples was North Hollywood and the robbers who were wearing body armor. The 9mm rounds were bouncing off and officers kept on hammering “center mass” despite their bullets doing nothing.
Before you paint me as a cop-basher, allow me a moment to consider common LE firearms training practice. In the police academy, all officers are run through the failure to stop drill or body armor drill. They’re taught to fire two to the chest and then put one in the head. That’s one drill during the entire firearms training program. Cadets are told, “If you ever encounter a failure to stop, shoot the two plus one to the face.” Sounds good, right?
The Primacy Effect in Firearms Training
When I went through the academy, we likely fired 10 to 20 head shots compared to about 950 to 1000 center mass shots. Which aiming point on the target do you think was built into us as the default?
Also, after leaving the academy, about 99 percent of what was called “firearms training” was actually just shooting the state-mandated qualification course annually. The qual course had zero “failure to stop” drills.
What you end up with is officers who have now been on the street for five, seven, or ten years and they haven’t done the failure drill since they were cadets. What are the chances that, during a hyper-violent lethal force encounter with an armed felon, the officer will revert back to that one drill that they did a few times eight years ago?
Humans don’t “rise to the occasion” during deadly encounters, they default to whichever level of training they have mastered. If the qualification target awards a 5 score for any hit from the sternum to the stomach, that’s where the bullets will go.
Even the best agencies in the United States have somewhere around a fifty percent hit-to-miss ratio. The average is much lower. Going back to the shot placement discussion, we have to put the rounds that hit in a place where they’ll do the most good immediately, not some time later. During the Skokie, Illinois incident, despite being shot numerous times with a .45 ACP, the bank robber emptied two pistols at the lone officer in under one minute.
The Thoracic Triangle
It’s been around twenty years or so since I was introduced to the “thoracic triangle” target area. The TT is located by drawing a straight line from the bridge of the nose to the right nipple, over to the left nipple, and back up to the bridge of the nose.
The way it was related to me, everything in the TT is vital to humans; you have the tops of the lungs, the heart is at the bottom of the triangle, you have the spinal column, and the brain stem is at the top. The way my instructor explained it, he said, “If you start hitting stuff in the TT, the bad guy will tend to notice it.”
When firearms trainers endorse the failure to stop or body armor drill, they usually refer to the face/head shot as the “stopping shot.” Isn’t that the whole point of shooting a deadly felon who’s in the process of trying to kill you or an innocent person? Shouldn’t our goal for every round fired be a stopping shot?
Yeah, but sometimes bad guys just stop when you hit them anywhere in their body.
Yes, and some bad guys stop when you point a gun at them. Neither of those things help you when the Type 3 killer is hellbent on making you a dead person.
The problem is, you won’t know which type of attacker you’re dealing with until after the fight. What that means, from a practical standpoint, is that every deadly attacker should be treated as a Type 3 from the beginning. That’s the best way to ensure the survival of the defender and innocent victims.
Changing Our Training
History has shown that the “failure to stop” or “body armor drill” is almost never employed unless the defender in question is on their second, third, fourth, etc, deadly force fight. The defender who has yet to face a deadly attacker on the street will always default to shooting center mass. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t.
If we are truly serious about preparing the good guys to succeed and survive in the most violent and deadly encounters they could face, we need to be serious about where we train them to put their bullets and how we build on the primacy effect.
For our students, the “hit zone” for all of our targets, cardboard or paper, is the thoracic triangle. We don’t shoot the TT occasionally for a failure drill, we shoot it every time so that the habit is developed to keep the gun up high and put bullets in a place where they can do the most effective damage.
