78th (Highlanders) Regiment of Foot (The Ross-shire Buffs): Raised in Scotland in 1793 by Francis Humberston Mackenzie. It fought in the French Revolutionary Wars, the Second Maratha War (Battle of Assaye), the Napoleonic Wars, the Anglo-Persian War, and the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 (earning in that fight 8 Victoria Crosses).
It was amalgamated with the 72nd Seaforth (Highland) Regiment in 1881 to form the 2nd Battalion, Seaforth Highlanders.
“I asked for a mission and for my sins, they gave me one.”
Capt. Benjamin L. Willard
(Played by Martin Sheen) Apocalypse Now
“I asked for a YouTube channel and for my sins, they gave me one.”
Brent T. Wheat, Editor
(Played by Brent T. Wheat) GUNS Magazine
With apologies to Joseph Conrad, I’ve been to the heart of darkness, and his novel barely captures its essence. In my case, it wasn’t a jungle river in Vietnam or even the 19th-century hellscape of the Congo Free State — it was far, far worse.
Specifically, my journey into madness and hot hors d’oeuvres was the recent firearms video awards in Las Vegas. I won’t use the official name of this program since it might be trademarked, but mostly I’m hoping against hope the organizers won’t see this story if I don’t mention the title.
Not that it matters much — I’m pretty sure I’ll never receive another invitation, and if I do happen to win an award, it will undoubtedly feature a scene reminiscent of the movie Carrie.
If you don’t remember this 1976 gorefest, a group of teens play a horrible practical joke on a bullied girl by showering her with a bucket of pig blood just as she is crowned prom queen.
In the movie, Carrie uses her supernatural powers to kill all her antagonists in creative and gruesome ways. In my award show appearance, I can imagine the pig blood shower but at best, my telekinetic powers are limited to severe scowling so it wouldn’t have the same impact. I’ll just turn down any future award show invites.
A bit unexpectedly, it was right before the holidays when several of us associated with GUNS and FMG Publications were nominated for awards. This was a head-scratcher because, while we have a robust presence on YouTube, our audience tends to skew quite a bit older and — I believe — more experienced and discerning than the target audience of the awards.
In fact, an in-depth review of the FMG YouTube channel found only three instances of FMG onscreen “talent” using the word “Dude,” and two of those videos were referring to inexperienced horse riders.
Mostly I knew my chances were minimal after declaring during a podcast episode that I embraced the same sentiment as one of my heroes, William T. Sherman, when asked about his interest in becoming President. He famously declared, “If nominated I will not run, if elected I will not serve.”
To no one’s surprise I didn’t win. However, I was asked to accept an award for somebody who did but had a scheduling conflict. I was flattered being asked and quickly agreed. After a few dozen phone calls, a series of tantrums and a severe bout of exasperation, I managed to change my schedule to attend the award ceremony. This only required a series of flights across the globe but I did make it to Las Vegas on the day of the show.
That afternoon I met with the producers of the event and walked through my role. Essentially, after the winner was named I would leave my seat, walk onstage, offer a short message and sit down. Easy-peasy, and I had just enough stage fright to make sure I was focused and ready. However, there was one big mountain to overcome before the actual awards show — the pre-show reception.
Smile!
The whole production was done up like any other major awards show. There was a red carpet to walk — complete with photographers and TV cameras — an open bar and a platoon of tuxedo-clad staffers ready to fulfill all your urgent appetizer needs.
I walked past the velvet rope outfitted in my dressiest sport coat, tie and slacks. I wasn’t wearing a tuxedo because the cheap tux I had purchased online turned out to use Chinese sizing and the jacket wouldn’t even admit my arm, let alone both of them. Imagine trying to stuff 50 lbs. of meat into a standard sausage link casing and you get the idea.
After watching the YouTube Influencer just ahead of me hamming it up for the cameras on the red carpet — flanked by what appeared to be two professional Las Vegas “entertainers” falling out of dresses smaller than a standard sugar packet — I ducked out of the red carpet queue and skulked into the party.
The pre-party was both interesting and distressing. I saw many folks I knew and had a number of good conversations, a libation or two and sampled a variety of finger food.
Mostly, my circle of acquaintances participated in a round-robin exchange poking fun at our fellow attendees. Aside from the prevalent tactical beards and neck tattoos, several VIPs were wearing camouflage tuxedos.
This wasn’t outlandish; what drew our scorn was the fact two Ultra Dudes were wearing tourniquets flamboyantly clipped to their Digital Camo cummerbund.
I can only hope to someday become as tactically suave as these uber-men.
Fortunately, after much backslapping and loving profanities, the festival of humble-bragging ended a couple of years later and we all made our way into the opulent theatre for the show.
The awards ceremony was professionally done and certainly as glamorous as the Oscars or Emmies. I found a seat in the first few rows near an aisle (for quick access to the stage) and sat back. My nerves began to rise as I pondered what to say.
Should I open with a joke? Every joke I came up with was actually a backhanded slap at prototypical gun influencers, so I decided that wasn’t the best course of action.
After all, the audience might become incensed and throw their tourniquets at me, so I decided a straightforward “thank you” would serve.
Things went along swimmingly until it was the time for “my” category. As they played short video highlights of the nominees, I squirmed in my seat and prepared to make my way to the stage.
Suddenly, the moment was at hand! They named the winner and played a short video he had provided. The end of the video was my cue to rise, make my way to the stage and physically accept the trophy on behalf of the winner. And then …
They immediately went on to the next award category.
My cameo had been completely erased. I was devastated.
The Reckoning
It wasn’t that I didn’t get my 30 seconds onstage — it was the fact I had been forced to move heaven and earth to get to the stupid show in the first place, all for nothing.
I had gotten up at 2:30 a.m. to make my first flight. At the airport I tripped on the escalator and started an avalanche, collecting several abrasions and fellow travelers in the process.
At one point I’m fairly sure I had a layover in North Korea. Or, it might have been Punta Gorda, but regardless, it was one of my most dreadful travel days ever — and for no purpose.
The award organizers did “fall on their sword” in response to my extraordinarily snarky email afterward. This might have been a reaction to my offhand mention that several of their major sponsors were personal friends and I would make it my life’s mission to lobby for them to cut all funding for the show. Otherwise I held no grudge.
The organizers claimed I was left out purely as an oversight, the kind of thing that happens during live shows.
Many of my friends believe it was because the category presenter was a competitor of GUNS. Perhaps they didn’t like the idea of introducing me? Whatever. If the situation were reverse, I would have graciously introduced them and not even discussed their rumored heroin habit or possible connections to organized crime.
But there are no hard feelings. Well, maybe there are just a shade over 1,300 words of hard feelings …
Nah the deer just dropped dead because it was his time. Come on gang, talk about click bait! Grumpy
California just put the Glock 43X CA on its handgun roster, giving Golden State Glock fans something many of us thought we might never see again: a genuinely new Glock option.
Breaking News:
On Tuesday evening, September 29th, 2026, California gun owners were surprised to see a new gun on California’s Roster of Approved Handguns. The Glock 43X, a 10-round micro-compact model from their slimline models, was added.
This means the pistol passed lab drop testing and likely met the state’s requirements for a loaded chamber indicator and magazine disconnect safety. More details will follow on the pistol itself in the coming weeks. There is no specific timeline for its appearance on gun store shelves.
There has not been a new Glock model added to the California Roster since 2006-2008, making the Glock 43X CA the first new Glock added in almost twenty years.
When California’s new restrictions hit Glock in 2026, those of us in the public heard rumors, but nothing from the company, and certainly nothing from our DOJ. California created a new class of machinegun-convertible pistols. If the gun had a cruciform trigger bar and could readily accept an available switch with only the use of household tools, it was pretty much out. We were already limited to Gen 3 guns, as those were the designs we had grandfathered in from back in the day.
Glock brought the “V” series, but due to the state’s layers of laws regarding what guns could be sold here in California, any new design would have to have a magazine disconnect and a loaded chamber indicator, something that Glock had seemed very reticent to do. What happened was the predictable price spike on anything Glock, where I saw Glock 19 Gen 3s selling for $1000 or more.
To be fair, I was very hard on Glock when it appeared they had abandoned the Golden State. Many believed it would be a cold day in hell before we ever saw a Glock of any sort again. We all started looking for options outside of Glock.
Well, then…hell froze over. We looked at our DOJ website on September 29th, and holy smoke! There, on our screens, was a newly approved gun for the California handgun roster. Not just another Gen 3 or a Gen 3V, no. It was the Glock 43X-CA edition.
I won’t lie, when I saw the rumor, I raced to my computer to see it, because I never believed we would ever see a new version of our Glock on our approved roster. Beyond that, the Glock 43X is one of the more sought-after designs here for the new CCW crowd. It’s also very convenient that the gun is a standard 10-round pistol, which is the legal limit for magazines in the state.
It should be noted that it’s because of lawsuits like Boland v. Bonta and California firearms rights people like Reno May that we are getting the new pistols in. These lawsuits, championed by the California Rifle and Pistol Association, have forced the state to halt the requirement that all handguns be equipped with Microstamping technology to be added to the Roster of handguns certified for sale.
Per most people who know the industry here, the new Glock 43X CA will likely have the California-required mag disconnect safety and loaded chamber indicator. If that concerns you, remember, before this thing ever made it to the California DOJ, it had to go through Glock’s own testing. Those complaining that the new systems incorporated are somehow going to compromise the safety of the gun, I think, will discover this is not the case.
If the state wanted to pick a Glock to approve that could make as many people happy as possible, from the gun control crowd to the gun owners crowd, this was strategically a brilliant move. There is already rumor and scuttlebutt about what California’s move means and whether it signals room for additional Glock models.
I already have a standard model of the 43X. It’s a great CCW weapon, complete with the Glock reputation for reliability. While not as ergonomic as my S&Ws, the slimline Glocks fit nicely in the hand without the blocky feeling.
That is part of why the Glock 43X CA makes so much sense here. California’s growing CCW crowd gets a slimline Glock configuration that many shooters already know, while the standard 10-round format fits neatly into the state’s magazine limit. After years of watching the roster dictate what Californians could choose from, seeing the 43X-CA show up feels like a much bigger deal than one more model number on a government webpage.
I have reached out to Glock USA for information, but they are being tight-lipped for now, although I suspect they are being inundated by media calls regarding the new 43X-CA. Hopefully, once they get back to me, I can update you all.
Currently, as I’m writing this, the list price is in the $600 range from the big box stores. There are scant details on the pistol, such as whether it will be an MOS setup or not, nor whether this will be a gun made in Austria or Smyrna, Georgia. We will keep you posted as this develops.
| Model | Glock 43X CA |
|---|---|
| Caliber | 9MM |
| Barrel Length | 3.41″ |
| Capacity | 10 rounds |
| California Roster Date | 09/29/2026 |
| Current Price Context | List price is in the $600 range from the big box stores |
We still don’t know if the Glock 43X CA will be an MOS setup or not, and we don’t yet know whether the California version will come from Austria or Smyrna, Georgia. Those aren’t small details for Glock buyers, especially with optics-ready carry pistols being so common now, but at this point they remain exactly that: unknowns.
What we do know is that a genuinely new Glock has landed on California’s Roster of Approved Handguns after an almost twenty-year drought. That alone is excellent news for California Glock fans. While hopes are high that other Glocks will be added to our Roster of Approved Handguns, potential future models or timing are unknown.
How will this affect you if you’re in a state that banned Glocks? The answer to that is unknown, but you can bet they’re watching this.
California has often been a test case for what manufacturers will redesign, certify, or simply decide isn’t worth the trouble. If Glock has really built a California-specific 43X that satisfies the state’s current requirements, shooters elsewhere will naturally be watching to see whether the same approach opens doors in other restrictive states.
For now, the biggest story is simply that the Glock 43X CA exists on California’s roster at all. A few months ago, plenty of us would have bet against seeing a new Glock configuration make it onto that list. Now it’s there in black and white.
We will continue to monitor this and keep you all posted as Glock USA releases more information, stores begin talking about availability, and we learn exactly what separates the California version from the standard Glock 43X.
The quest for treasure has consumed human imagination for centuries, whether buried pirate gold or submerged, shipwrecked Spanish doubloons. But what about finding long-lost firepower? Florida-based Bowman Arms says it’s bringing a load of surplus Thompson submachine guns to the market after they spent decades “submerged” in a secret location.
Bowman Arms hasn’t said the actual location of these submachine guns, but originally, they were Model 1928 Thompsons owned by the British military in World War II. After World War II, the Brits packed them with grease and hid them away—they stored them so carefully that according to Bowman, they figured the Brits planned to come back for them later.
Bowman showed the Thompsons in a thread on Reddit, starting off with these details:
“These are British surplus WW2 (Model 1928) Thompsons. Dumped on 1946 at a now submerged zero oxygen Alpine location. Recovery efforts are slow but all will be saved through time. These fire after simple power washing and often times are still covered in oil and grease.”
That’s purposefully vague, and it sounds like wherever these guns were wasn’t originally flooded. Maybe they were in an old mountaintop bunker or a mine?
Some of the first-recovered sub-guns were pitted, but functional, says Bowman. And, hard as it may be to believe, there are thousands at the dump site, wherever it may be—”Almost the entire British supply of 1928 Thompsons,” they figure.
That’s a lot of surplus Tommy guns, and Bowman says that despite the indignities that must be performed to bring these full autos into the States, they have a market for them. Once they’ve met customer demand in the U.S., they plan to sell them in the EU as well, as dewats. And, Bowman says “We hope to by then store them in an FTZ stateside to save them.”
