Wednesday Wisdom: 15 April 2026

Medal of Honor: John J. Duffy

Major Duffy directed the defense of Fire Support Base Charlie, which was surrounded by a battalion-size enemy element. In the morning hours, after a failed effort to establish a landing zone for resupply aircraft, he moved close to enemy anti-aircraft positions to call in airstrikes. At this time, Major Duffy was again wounded by fragments from a recoilless rifle round and again refused medical evacuation. Shortly thereafter, the enemy began an artillery bombardment on the base and he remained in an exposed position to direct gunships onto the enemy positions which eventually silenced the enemy fire. Following the bombardment, Major Duffy assessed the conditions on the base and personally ensured the wounded friendly foreign soldiers were moved to positions of relative safety and the remaining ammunition was appropriately distributed to the remaining defenders.

Shortly thereafter, the enemy resumed indirect fire on the base, expending an estimated 300 rounds. Nevertheless, he remained in an exposed position to direct gunship fire on the enemy positions. In the late afternoon hours, the enemy began a ground assault from all sides of the firebase and Major Duffy moved from position to position to adjust fire, spot targets for artillery observers, and ultimately to direct gunship fire on a friendly position which had been compromised. As the evening wore on, it became clear that the defenders could not withstand the overwhelming enemy forces and he began to organize an evacuation of the firebase under the cover of night. With the goal of a complete withdrawal, Major Duffy was the last man off the base, remaining behind to adjust the covering fire from gunships until the last possible moment.

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North Korean hackers hijack popular Axios open source project to spread malware

A suspected North Korean hacker has hijacked and modified a popular open source software development tool to deliver malware that could put millions of developers at risk of being compromised. On 30 March 2026 a hacker pushed malicious versions of the widely used JavaScript library called Axios, which developers rely on to allow their software to connect to the internet. The affected library was hosted on a software repository that stores code for open source projects.

Axios is downloaded tens of millions of times every week. The hijack was spotted and stopped in around three hours overnight, according to security firm StepSecurity, which analyzed the attack. It’s unclear at this point how many people downloaded the malicious version of Axios during that time span. Security company Aikido, which also investigated the incident, said anyone who downloaded the code “should assume their system is compromised.”

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3D Printed Suppressors

 

When you hear the phrase 3D printing, you likely picture a machine printing plastic toys and gadgets for Etsy. What if we told you that 3D printed suppressors are now a reality? This isn’t your cool uncle’s 3D printer. This revolutionary manufacturing style, known as additive manufacturing, uses a process called Direct Metal Laser Sintering. DMLS employs a high-powered laser to fuse metal powder into a single, cohesive, three-dimensional shape.

Traditionally, a suppressor uses subtractive manufacturing: a solid block of metal is cut and milled down to the final tube shape. DMLS flips this on its head by building the product up layer by layer. This allows manufacturers to design complex, weight-saving internal geometries that were previously impossible to achieve with standard machining, leading to extremely durable cans that offer excellent back pressure reduction and improved sound suppression.

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The Gun, the Master, and the Student

Few of us who grew up loving to watch the “shoot 'em up” cops and robbers movies will ever forget that great scene from the 1971 movie Dirty Harry where Inspector Callahan pulls out his 61⁄2 inch Smith & Wesson .44 Magnum and blows away the bad guys trying to rob a bank in downtown San Francisco. There was Clint Eastwood, looking all macho and everything, eating a hot dog, firing the “most powerful handgun in the world” while taking down the bad guys all by himself. I went back several times trying to count the number of rounds he fired to see how accurate the film makers were, after watching Clint taunt the bad guy, “I know what you're thinking, did I fire six rounds or only five... well, do you feel lucky, punk?”

 

There is not way to know how many Inspector Callahans there might have been in law enforcement carrying .44 Magnums in 1971, but the numbers would have been few and far between. That's why it was more than interesting that the El Cajon Police Department, in a small town of about 40,000 residents, had authorized their use for general duty purposes as early as 1961, ten years before Dirty Harry. You might say that Chief O'Connor, an old-time western style cop, was leading edge back then when he authorized his department's officers to carry this magnificent but not-so-popular weapon. Having consulted with Officer Elden Carl, O'Connor was convinced the Model 29 had a place in his officers' arsenal of handgun choices, particularly after reading of Elden's incredible accomplishments in pistol competitions.

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Tips & Suggestions For Surveillance Detection Operators

The following tips and recommendations come from actual operational experience, and address a few common points that come up in private sector surveillance detection operations. The recommendations I give here are not, strictly speaking, focused on covert protection, but on surveillance detection.

As always – no article, book, or seminar can actually teach people how to perform surveillance detection. Though some of the wording in this article might seem instructional, please keep in mind that this article is not intended to teach anyone how to execute surveillance detection operations.

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Those who suggest the feasibility of a nationwide pistol permit must realize that such a procedure would be un-constitutional according to the Tenth Amendment (assuming anyone still pays any attention to the Tenth Amendment). However, since the Constitution preceding the Bill of Rights makes it clear that states are bound to honor the acts of other states it would seem to follow that a citizen who has a permit to carry in a permit-to-carry state may expect his permit to honored in any other permit-to-carry state. The legal aspects of this issue are not fully understood and one should not expect the gendarme on the beat to be fully apprised of the situation. Jeff Cooper's Commentaries; Vol. 4, No. 3; February 1996

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Top Break Revolvers

 

What is a Top Break Revolver? A top break revolver uses a hinged frame that opens at the top so the barrel and cylinder can tip down. First introduced in the mid-1800s, the break top system allows faster loading and ejection compared to its gate loading counterparts like the Colt Single Action Army. 

In 1836, Samuel Colt's Paterson design introduced a revolver that would serve as the blueprint for decades of cap-and-ball wheel guns. Early Patersons were slow to load, however, requiring disassembly and the removal of the cylinder. Some later iterations, like the Ehlers Improved Paterson models in the 1840s, incorporated an attached loading lever and capping window, enabling faster powder charging, ball seating, and capping directly on the frame.

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Don't Post Photos of Your Keys!

Few among us would knowingly hand out copies of our keys to strangers. Many of us do, however, provide strangers with all the necessary information to generate a working copy of our key(s). Within two minutes of scanning this site I found at least half a dozen unredacted photos of common, residential keys - bad business.

First, it is important to understand the pieces of information necessary to generate a key. They are the key profile, the number of cuts, and the depths of each cut. All of this information is available from the lock itself by a sufficiently skilled attacker, but the information is much more easily acquired from the key. If you're interested in learning key generation, go to Deviant Ollam's outstanding Keys to the Kingdom: Impressioning, Privilege Escalation, Bumping, and Other Key-Based Attacks Against Physical Locks.

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Scoping Gang Violence

 

To say that gangs are the principal source of gun violence in America is akin to saying a Russian invasion is a little noisy. We at Gun Facts have repeatedly noted that gangs cause most of the bloodshed. A new (to us) academic work helps to illustrate this and to compare with some of our estimates as well. It’s worse than we thought in some respects. Take-aways. Gun homicides are primarily street gang related.

This violence is highly concentrated in a handful of metro areas.
Focusing on core gang members reduces street gang gun homicides.

Gang related… multiple definitions. We first must discuss yet another problem with criminology data consistency. There is no single and uniformly applied definition of “gang related” for crime circumstances. Each locality applies their own… if they even bother with writing down a formal definition. Hence, any national data you have seen concerning gang-related violence is ± a lot.

How broad are the definitions? Enough so that one academic review of crime data claims that between 30-50% of homicides are gang related. That’s a wide gap, and that is far below our estimate of 85%.

Much like the concept of “mass shootings,” the devil is in the definitions. The “Chicago definition” holds that a homicide is gang related only when there is evidence the killing was motivated by gang concerns. Conversely, the Los Angeles definition is when gang members participate even if the motive is not clearly gang driven. Because of this, LA will report gang-related homicides at twice the rate of Chicago.

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The Compact, Concealed Handgun in Law Enforcement: A Fascinating History

Most uniformed law enforcement personnel in the U.S. carry a full size ‘service’ pistol. Among plain clothes officers, smaller variants, such as the Glock 19 and Glock 27 are very popular. This offers plain clothes and undercover officers the ability to carry full power pistols, but in a more concealable package. While the advantages of this are obvious, the story of how this came to be is fascinating, and for the most part, untold.

The first practical, multi-shot ‘service’ handguns were the Colt Paterson, created in 1835, and the Colt Walker, created in 1847. These were initially called ‘Holster’ pistols by the factory, not because they were intended to be carried in holsters on the belt, but because they were intended to be carried in Pommel Holsters on a horse. When you consider that the .44 caliber Colt Walker weighed in at 4 lbs., 8 oz., and had a 9-inch barrel, then horse carry, with the nick name of ‘Horse Pistols’ becomes obvious. These huge revolvers were used with great success by the Texas Rangers, but it goes without saying that attempting to carry one concealed would be a challenge at best. (Comment: Link downloads a .pdf file)

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That Time Germany Wussed Out

In mid-April of 1918, Germany rained high-explosives and chlorine gas on American troops protecting the French village of Seicheprey … for a solid 36 hours. Then, 3,000 elite Sturmtruppen overwhelmed the American trenches with flamethrowers and stick grenades, forcing the battle into a house-to-house brawl.

Germany’s objective at Seicheprey wasn’t to gain ground, but to embarrass America. Nonetheless, the 102nd Infantry rallied at nightfall and repelled the Sturmtruppen back to their original trench lines, thereby reversing Germany’s humiliation attempt: the Kaiser deployed his very best, and America’s Doughboys sent them packing.

In addition to encountering U.S. grit for the first time, Germany was also introduced to a new American weapon that helped turn the tide at Seicheprey, and beyond. Except … the Germans couldn’t figure out what this Sturmtruppen-defeating armament might be. The High Command demanded answers! After all, their elites couldn’t possibly be defeated in a fair fight. The enemy must be winning through some unnatural means.

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Controlling Fear

When a responsible person first begins going armed, he is usually haunted by two recurring questions, or self doubts:

-- If I’m really attacked, and my life is at stake, will I be able to handle it?

-- What if I screw up and kill an innocent person?

This is a normal reaction, and to a degree it is healthy. We do, however, need to address these issues and resolve them, before a conflict, so that they will not raise their ugly heads when we should be concentrating on winning the fight. Remember, if an unavoidable fight is thrust upon us, we MUST WIN! The alternative can be death, or crippling injury.

The first issue to face is that of FEAR. Fear is a normal reaction to physical violence for most people. In addition, since most of us no longer have military experience and live in “civilized” surroundings, we may not have ever actually engaged in a true fight before our moment of truth in a criminal attack. This fear of the unknown is, for many, worse than the fear of being hurt or killed.

Unless you are an exceptional person, a nutcase, or a liar, and you have actually been involved in armed conflict, you have tasted fear. I’m not ashamed to say I have been scared several times, and I fully expect to be scared again before my life is over. What you must learn to do is control your fear and do what you must to win. 

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