Jim shared this photo of his rifle as a boy. You can probably guess that Jim is a seasoned citizen.

“Tube Fed 06 Winchester I’ve owned since I was a little boy. No telling how many rounds I’ve run through this little rifle.“

By Luis Valdes

Those were the words uttered in 1989. The Era of the Wondernine was upon us. High Capacity 9mm Semu-Autos that had a magazine capacity of 15rds to 17rds was becoming the standard. Technological wonders from S&W, Ruger, GLOCK, Sig Sauer, and Beretta were hitting store shelves and police holsters. The thought across the gun ranges and in the roll call rooms was that the old reliable wheel gun was done. By the year 2000; we’d all be shooting lasers in the 40 Watt range and doing it on the moon.

Carry guns like this factory bobbed hammer DAO S&W Model 65 were done and no one would want them.

Only old people would be carrying such a beast. Low capacity, heavy, and large. Why would someone lug a S&W Model 13 around?

The semi-automatic was to replace the revolver like the percussion cap replaced the flintlock or the self contained cartridge firearm replaced the muzzle loader. Well, weren’t they wrong. Revolvers are still here and gaining popularity. So much so that Colt is back in the game with the Python and Cobra line after they abandoned it entirely with the belief that the semi-auto was the only future they could partake in.

Kimber has jumped into the market with an entirely new design.

S&W is making newer versions of their ever classic J-Frames without locks and they’ve even brought back the 3″ Model 66.

Ruger is selling their revolvers like hot cakes and coming out with new designs.

And ultimately, folks like yours truly are still putting the original ones through the ringer.

The revolver is not dead, far from it. It is rising from the ashes like a phoenix. Sure, the wheel gun had a slump in the 1990s and early 2000s. But in the 2010s it regained its strength and is it starting the 2020s with a hell of a demand. Folks want guns that go bang due to the rioting and pandemic. And the revolver is still a hell of a self defense gun. For a novice shooter, the revolver isn’t a bad choice. .38 Special and .357 Magnum are nothing to sneeze at and the fact that they don’t need magazines is a plus to the thrifty buyer. Since with the massive panic we’re witnessing, magazines like guns are hard to find.

From ZH.

In the early morning hours of Tuesday two Iranians were killed and three injured in a blast at a factory south of Tehran, IRNA reported.

Like with other recent explosions and fires, including one at Iran’s underground nuclear development Natanz facility, official statements downplayed this latest blast as an accident. “Human error was the cause of the blast in a factory… Two people were killed and three others were injured,” said a local official.   

“The explosion that was caused by some workers’ negligent handling of oxygen tanks…. was so powerful that the walls of a factory nearby were also totally destroyed,” he added.

What is a mystery, however, is the latest spate of “random” explosions and fires at remote Iranian countryside areas and industrial zones known for being weapons and nuclear development sites, as we previously detailed.

Meanwhile, there’s been more and more scrutiny placed on Israel and its main foreign intelligence service Mossad: 

Israel was the culprit behind a fire that caused significant damage to an Iranian uranium enrichment facility, a Middle Eastern intelligence official has claimed.

The unnamed source told The New York Times that a powerful bomb caused the explosion at the Natanz nuclear facility last week.

Declared an accident by Iranian officials, the blast led to significant damage to the facility and could slow the production of centrifuges used to enrich uranium, according to the country’s atomic energy spokesperson.

Several mysterious fires and explosions have broken out at sites in Iran in recent weeks, including explosions at a weapons depot and medical facility, along with a fire at a power station.

The incidents are now coming with such frequency that the question of foreign sabotage is impossible to ignore, also considering Israeli leaders have over the past year vowed they’ll do anything to ensure the Islamic Republic can’t possibly develop a nuke.

“The incidents have sparked speculation that Iran is under attack, with some pointing to arch-foe Israel as the culprit behind the supposed attacks,” the New Arab report continues. Iran has said it will respond if it’s confirmed that Israel or the US are behind it, including via cyber-attacks. “Speaking on condition of anonymity, the Middle Eastern intelligence official told The New York Times that Israel was behind the Natanz blast but not any of the other incident.”

Asia Times has asked: are we witnessing the “the son of Stuxnet?”

Five recent explosions in Iran may have been caused by computer viruses similar to the Stuxnet virus that disabled Iranian centrifuges in 2010.

Two of the blasts took place at power plants, one at a missile research, development and production site, one at a new uranium enrichment centrifuge center, and the last (if it can be considered part of the attacks) in downtown Tehran at a medical facility that could have been a cover for nuclear operations such as a hidden command center.

All of this has prompted a response out of Israel, with Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz on Sunday issuing a partial and somewhat ambiguous denial.

“Not every incident that transpires in Iran necessarily has something to do with us… All those systems are complex, they have very high safety constraints and I’m not sure they always know how to maintain them,” he told Army Radio.

“Everyone can be suspicious of us all the time,” Gantz said. “But not every incident that happens in Iran necessarily has something to do with us.”

Recall that just a year ago it was a long hot summer of ‘tanker wars’. And now it seems a sabotage war on Iranian soil, targeting weapons and nuclear development, despite Tehran claiming its nuclear facilities are for peaceful domestic energy purposes.