Guns & Ammo

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Guns & Ammo
EditorEric R. Poole (2013–present)
ContributorsMike Anschuetz, Tom Beckstrand, Craig Boddington, Dave Emary, Mark Fingar, Brad Fitzpatrick, Robert W. Hunnicutt, Garry James, Joseph Kurtenbach, Kyle Lamb, Lukas Lamb, Richard Nance, Alfredo Rico, Phil Schreier, Jeremy Stafford, Keith Wood
Former editorsJim Bequette (2009–2013), Richard Venola, Scott Rupp, Lee Hoots, Garry James, Kevin Steele (1994–1997), E. G. "Red" Bell (1985–1994), Howard French (1974–1985), George Martin (1967–1974), Mike Kessee (1965–1967), Buzz Fawcett (1964–1965), Tom Siatos (1959–1964), Ken Bayless (1958–1959)
CategoriesFirearms, Outdoors, Sports
FrequencyMonthly
Circulation 420,000 (print)
Publisher Chris Agnes
First issue1958 (1958)
Company Kroenke Sports & Entertainment
CountryUnited States
Based in Peoria, Illinois
LanguageEnglish
Website www.gunsandammo.com
ISSN 0017-5684
OCLC 59807780

Guns & Ammo is a magazine dedicated to firearms, hunting, competitive shooting, reloading, and other shooting-related activities in the United States.

Contents

Content and Circulation

The magazine offers reviews on firearms, ammunition, optics and shooting gear. Also included are historical articles, gun collecting, self-defense features and celebrity interviews. In addition to monthly department columns on specific topics, each issue contains several featured articles and profiles of the firearms industry, as well as technical evaluations and new products. [1]

Guns & Ammo also publishes news and information relating to gun politics. As one journalist has stated: "Politics is implicit in cover-story headlines (“Ready to fight”) and explicit in the “politics” section of the Guns & Ammo website." [1] Its annual assessment of "The Best States for Gun Owners" analyzes each U.S. state's laws, court decisions and positions on "stand your ground" and "castle doctrine" issues. [2]

Guns & Ammo is published on a monthly basis. [3] Its annual circulation is 5.3 million copies. 97% of readers are male; readers' average income is estimated at $102,000. [4]

History

Guns & Ammo was founded by Robert E. Petersen in 1958 and has featured famed gunwriters such as P.O. Ackley, Craig Boddington, Jeff Cooper, Garry James, Bill Jordan, Elmer Keith, Bob Milek, Patrick Sweeney, Col. Townsend Whelen and John Wooters. [5] Charlton Heston, former president of the National Rifle Association of America authored a gun rights column for the magazine titled "From the Capitol" until 2007. [3]

Staff

Currently, Guns & Ammo magazine carries columns written by Eric R. Poole (Editorial), Garry James (Gun Room), Richard Nance (Gun Tech), Jeremy Stafford (Handgunning), Tom Beckstrand (Rifles & Glass), retired SGM Kyle E. Lamb (Lock, Stock & Barrel), Dave Emary (Bullet Board) and Keith Wood (Spent Cases). [6]

The magazine was involved in controversy over the dismissal of one of its writers, Dick Metcalf, in 2014. According to The New York Times, an article by Metcalf took a stance on gun laws that prompted two major gun manufacturers to state that they would no longer do business with Guns & Ammo if Metcalf continued to work there. Among other things, Metcalf's article stated: "The fact is, all constitutional rights are regulated, always have been, and need to be.” Metcalf was terminated soon after. [7]

In 2012 Richard Venola, the magazine's editor from 2007 to 2009, was arrested for shooting and killing a friend who was reportedly visiting his home. The weapon was said to be a "high-caliber rifle." [8] [9] Venola was charged with second degree murder, but two separate trials resulted in deadlocked juries. Venola died in 2021. [10] [11]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Rifle Association</span> American nonprofit organization

The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) is a gun rights advocacy group based in the United States. Founded in 1871 to advance rifle marksmanship, the modern NRA has become a prominent gun rights lobbying organization while continuing to teach firearm safety and competency. The organization also publishes several magazines and sponsors competitive marksmanship events. According to the NRA, it had nearly 5 million members as of December 2018, though that figure has not been independently confirmed.

The scout rifle is a conceptual class of general-purpose rifles defined and promoted by Jeff Cooper in the early 1980s that bears similarities in the design and functionality of guide guns, mountain rifles, and other rifle archetypes, but with more emphasis being placed on comfortable portability and practical accuracy, rather than firepower and long range shooting.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colt AR-15</span> Semi-automatic rifle

The Colt AR-15 is a lightweight, magazine-fed, gas-operated semi-automatic rifle. It is a semi-automatic version of the M16 rifle sold for the civilian and law enforcement markets in the United States. The AR in AR-15 stands for ArmaLite rifle, after the company that developed it in the 1950s. Colt's Manufacturing Company currently owns the AR-15 trademark, which is used exclusively for its line of semi-automatic AR-15 rifles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assault weapon</span> Terminology used in United States firearm legislation

In the United States, assault weapon is a controversial term used to define firearms with specified characteristics. The definition varies among regulating jurisdictions, but usually includes semi-automatic firearms with a detachable magazine, a pistol grip, and sometimes other features, such as a vertical forward grip, flash suppressor, or barrel shroud. Certain firearms are specified by name in some laws that restrict assault weapons. When the now-defunct Federal Assault Weapons Ban was passed in 1994, the U.S. Department of Justice said, "In general, assault weapons are semiautomatic firearms with a large magazine of ammunition that were designed and configured for rapid fire and combat use." The commonly used definitions of assault weapons are under frequent debate, and have changed over time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.44 Magnum</span> Revolver cartridge designed by Elmer Keith and Smith & Wesson (S&W)

The .44 Remington Magnum, also known as .44 Magnum or 10.9x33mmR, is a rimmed, large-bore cartridge originally designed for revolvers and quickly adopted for carbines and rifles. Despite the ".44" designation, guns chambered for the .44 Magnum round, its parent case, the .44 Special, and its parent case, the .44 Russian all use 0.429 in (10.9 mm) diameter bullets. The .44 Magnum is based on the .44 Special case but lengthened and loaded to higher pressures for greater velocity and energy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">7mm-08 Remington</span> Necked down .308Win

The 7mm-08 Remington is a rifle cartridge that is almost a direct copy of a wildcat cartridge developed around 1958 known as the 7mm/308. As these names would suggest, it is the .308 Winchester case necked down to accept 7 mm (.284) bullets with a small increase in case length. Of cartridges based upon the .308, it is the second most popular behind only the .243 Winchester. However, the .308 is more popular than both. In 1980, the Remington Arms company popularized the cartridge by applying its own name and offering it as a chambering for their Model 788 and Model 700 rifles, along with a limited-run series within their Model 7600 pump-action rifles during the early 2000s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">.30-30 Winchester</span> Rifle cartridge designed by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company

The .30-30 Winchester cartridge was first marketed for the Winchester Model 1894 lever-action rifle in 1895. The .30-30, as it is most commonly known, along with the .25-35 Winchester, was offered that year as the United States' first small-bore sporting rifle cartridges designed for smokeless powder. Since its introduction, it has been surpassed by many cartridges in the long-range shooting attributes of speed, energy, and trajectory, yet remains in widespread use because of its practical effectiveness in forested hunting situations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeff Cooper</span> American firearms expert

John Dean "Jeff" Cooper was a United States Marine, the creator of the "modern technique" of handgun shooting, and an expert on the use and history of small arms.

<i>American Rifleman</i> Shooting hobbyist magazine owned by the NRA

American Rifleman is a United States-based monthly shooting and firearms interest publication, owned by the National Rifle Association of America (NRA). It is the 33rd-most-widely-distributed consumer magazine and the NRA's primary magazine. The magazine has its headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia.

The Marlin Model 336 is a lever-action rifle and carbine made by Marlin Firearms. Since its introduction in 1948, it has been offered in a number of different calibers and barrel lengths, but is commonly chambered in .30-30 Winchester or .35 Remington, using a 20- or 24-inch barrel. Currently, the model with a 24-inch barrel is only available in .30-30 Winchester. The Model 336 is now back in production as of March 27, 2023.

Clifford Neal Knox was a board member and officer of the National Rifle Association, gun magazine writer and editor, gun rights activist, and prolific author of technical firearms articles and articles related to his interpretation of the Second Amendment and views on firearms laws.

Outdoor Sportsman Group, Inc., a subsidiary of Kroenke Sports & Entertainment (KSE), is an outdoors media group in the United States. They publish 19 hunting, fishing and shooting magazines, and own the Sportsman & Outdoor Channels, and World Fishing Network specialty channels, as well as the MyOutdoorTV.com internet TV network, and 19.9% of the Canadian Sportsman Channel having purchased the Sportsman Channel from its founders in June 2007. In 2014, KSE acquired Outdoor Sportsman Group from InterMedia Partners. InterMedia had acquired the magazines from Primedia in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kimber Aegis</span> Semi-automatic pistol

The Kimber Aegis is a series of M1911 pistols chambered in 9mm Luger as well as .45 ACP and is manufactured by Kimber Manufacturing. It includes the subcompact Ultra Aegis II, the compact Pro Aegis II, and the full-sized Custom Aegis II.

The Winchester Model 1895 is an American lever-action repeating firearm developed and manufactured by the Winchester Repeating Arms Company in the late 19th century, chambered for a number of full-size military and hunting cartridges such as 7.62×54mmR, .303 British, .30-03, .30 Army, .30-06, .35 Winchester, .38-72 Winchester, .40-72 Winchester and .405 Winchester.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Craig Boddington</span>

Craig Boddington is a multi-media outdoor journalist, TV show host, author and retired Marine.

Abe Walsh is an American author who has written extensively about his hunting, fishing and back-country adventures. He has written for over 25 magazine titles, and authored or ghost-written several hardcover books on the subject. He has also appeared on-camera on television hunting shows.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">AR-15–style rifle</span> Class of semi-automatic rifles

An AR-15–style rifle is any lightweight semi-automatic rifle based on or similar to the Colt AR-15 design. The Colt model removed the selective fire feature of its predecessor, the original ArmaLite AR-15, itself a scaled-down derivative of the AR-10 design by Eugene Stoner.

Dick Metcalf was an American journalist best known for having written for Guns & Ammo, where he also served as a technical editor, as well as having been in TV programs such as the Sportsman Channel's "Modern Rifle Adventures TV". Having "devoted nearly his entire adult life" to discussing the arms industry, he also is a U.S. Army veteran that has served as a faculty member of the history departments at the Yale and Cornell Universities. He died on October 14, 2023, at the age of 77.

Cimarron Firearms is an American firearms importer that has been in operation since 1984. The company's field of specialty is reproduction firearms from the American Civil War to the end of the Old West period. Founded by Mike Harvey in Houston, Texas, the company is now based in Fredericksburg, Texas.

References

  1. 1 2 LaFrance, Adrienne. "The Secret to Guns & Ammo's Success". The Atlantic. Retrieved September 6, 2023.
  2. Wood, Keith. "Best States for Gun Owners: Ranked for 2022". Guns & Ammo. Retrieved September 6, 2023.
  3. 1 2 Gregg Lee Carter (2002). "Gun Magazines". Guns in American Society: A - L. Vol. 1. ABC-CLIO. p. 249. ISBN   978-1-57607-268-4.
  4. "Guns & Ammo Magazine". Echo Media: Print Media Experts. Echo Media, Smyrna GA. Retrieved September 6, 2023.
  5. Dennis Hevesi (March 27, 2007). "Robert Petersen, Publisher of Auto Buff Magazines, Dies at 80". New York Times. Archived from the original on January 8, 2014.
  6. "Guns & Ammo magazine". Outdoor Sportsman Group. August 2021.
  7. Somaiya, Ravi (January 4, 2014). "Banished for Questioning the Gospel of Guns". The New York Times. Retrieved September 6, 2023.
  8. Hawkins, Dave (May 3, 2012). "Former Guns & Ammo editor arrested in Arizona shooting". Las Vegas Review-Journal. Retrieved September 6, 2023.
  9. Morales, Laurel. "Former Guns & Ammo Editor Shoots, Kills Friend". KPBS Morning Edition, San Diego CA. Retrieved September 6, 2023.
  10. Hendley, Matthew. "Former Guns & Ammo Magazine Editor's Murder Trial Ends With Hung Jury". Phoenix New Times.
  11. Poole, Eric and Miller, Payton. "Richard Venola: September 18, 1958 - February 6, 2021". Guns & Ammo. Retrieved September 6, 2023.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)