Here we go again. Cue the scary music. Apparently artificial intelligence is the latest monster hiding under the bed, just waiting to destroy civilization. If history has taught us anything, it’s that every major breakthrough is immediately greeted by a parade of professional pessimists demanding that we slam on the brakes. Meanwhile, back in the real world, AI is accelerating medical and scientific research at a pace that would have seemed like science fiction just a few years ago. It is helping identify potential treatments, speeding drug discovery, and in some cases matching or even exceeding expert physicians at recognizing patterns in medical imaging. Imagine that. Instead of celebrating technology that could save millions of lives, we’re treated to another round of “This is too dangerous!” It’s the same old routine every generation. The automobile was going to ruin society. Electricity was terrifying. Television would rot everyone’s brain. The internet was the end of civi...

The juvenile arrested in the recent Seattle Space Needle shooting was reportedly carrying what the media breathlessly calls a “ghost gun.” Right on cue, the scary music starts, the headlines get bigger, and the public is once again encouraged to panic and demand another round of gun bans. For those who haven’t been keeping up with reality, a “ghost gun” is simply a homemade firearm without a serial number. The dramatic nickname makes it sound like it floated out of a haunted house. In truth, anyone paying attention knows that modern CNC machines and 3D printers have made manufacturing a functional firearm far less complicated than politicians and television commentators pretend. That technology is not going away because someone passes another statute. The uncomfortable fact is that governments cannot legislate away knowledge. A law is still just words printed on paper. It only affects people who choose to obey it. Washington State has already outlawed just about everything imaginabl...

The weight loss wonder drug has finally arrived. Today I begin my sixth week on the injectable GLP-1 medication Zepbound, and I suspect many of you are wondering what all the excitement is about. Is this the latest bottle of snake oil? Is it dangerous? Is it another overhyped medical fad? I hope my experience helps answer some of those questions. My healthcare comes through the Veterans Administration. Free medical care for life was part of the compensation package Uncle Sam handed me when he drafted me into military service many years ago. As I’ve gotten older, I have to admit the government has kept its promise in a big way. Age eventually sends everyone a bill. Mine arrived in the form of heart and kidney issues that require careful attention. Yes, I’m overweight, but my physicians were actually more interested in the cardiovascular and metabolic benefits of this medication. The weight loss was simply the icing on the cake. Ironically, I’m not very interested in cake anymore. Th...

Back in the 1970s, Charter Arms introduced the five shot Bulldog, a compact revolver chambered in .44 Special with a 3 inch barrel. It was never going to win any beauty contests. Charter Arms had already earned a reputation by producing inexpensive working guns like the Undercover .38 Special. They were revolvers for people who wanted reliability without paying Smith & Wesson or Colt prices. They were the blue collar guns of the revolver world. A friend of mine bought just about every firearm that caught his eye, and one day he showed up with a Bulldog. He bragged endlessly that the revolver was almost impossible to miss with. Naturally, I figured he was full of it. Then he handed it to me at the range. I’ll be damned. That little Bulldog was one of the easiest revolvers I have ever fired. The sights came up naturally, the recoil was surprisingly manageable for a .44 Special, and the bullets landed exactly where I expected them to. My groups were consistently tighter than wha...

Ah yes, the terrifying “ghost gun.” The latest boogeyman trotted out whenever politicians need another excuse to chip away at the Second Amendment. Whether anyone likes it or not, technology has changed the game. Today, people with modest mechanical skills can use 3D printers and CNC machines to manufacture modern firearms in their own workshops. In many cases, they can produce a Glock-pattern pistol that is virtually indistinguishable from one that rolled out of the Glock factory. That genie is not going back into the bottle. Laws attempting to regulate every privately manufactured firearms or  sound suppressor are little more than political theater. They may sound impressive during a press conference, but they are virtually impossible to enforce against millions of hobbyists, machinists, engineers, and basement workshops spread across America. Then comes the familiar refrain from government officials: “We can’t trace guns without serial numbers!” Really? In the overwhelming...

The National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA) is, a clear violation of the Second Amendment. In 1934, Congress enacted the nation’s first major federal gun control law. The NFA drew an arbitrary line in the sand over which firearms Americans could possess freely and which ones would be burdened with federal registration, taxation, and criminal penalties. For more than ninety years, and through thousands of criminal prosecutions, the United States Supreme Court largely ran from confronting the constitutional issues presented by the NFA. Aside from the badly botched decision in United States v. Miller , 307 U.S. 174 (1939), the Court showed no interest in deciding whether the Act was actually compatible with the Second Amendment. In the meantime, countless Americans were convicted and imprisoned simply for keeping or bearing arms. Many had never committed an act of violence. The vast majority were collectors and firearms enthusiasts whose hobbies had been transformed into federal felonies....