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A ZRIntel Publication

Firearms Insight Magazine

Firearms Insight Magazine is the professional publication of ZRIntel. Field-earned knowledge, technical analysis, legal commentary, and contributor intelligence from the practitioners who define the industry.

Share Your Work
5–10 min
ZRIntel Insight PanelMeet the contributors
InsightBy David Johnson

The Industry Has a Fire Damage Problem

When a firearm comes in from a house fire, most shops make a call at the door without running a single measurement. That is not caution. It is a process failure, and the people paying for it are not the shops.
InsightBy Brian Greco

What Your Training Is Hiding From You

Training Gaps and the Systems That Protect Them
InsightBy Justin Wertman

The Problem Isn't Too Much Gear It's Not Knowing What Matters

More gear does not automatically create more preparedness. Justin Wertman examines how overloading belts, bags, and body armor often reflects a lack of feedback-driven training rather than tactical necessity. By reframing equipment selection around mission requirements, accessibility, and stress-tested performance, the article argues that professional readiness is built through clarity and repetition not through carrying every possible tool.
InsightBy CJ JIANG

The Record Is Already Being Written

A publisher's note on knowledge, structure, and what it means to be in the archive.
InsightBy Seth Cohen

Five Years Without a Trade Publication the Craft Noticed

Five years after American Gunsmith closed, the industry faces a compounding crisis: critical craft knowledge is not being transferred. Because this trade is legally constrained and highly specific, expertise did not migrate to digital platforms; it remains locked with senior practitioners who lack a medium to document it, putting the craft's institutional memory at risk
InsightBy Mike Magowan

You're Not Training for a Gunfight

Most shooters train for control tight groupings, clean mechanics but real violence runs on speed, proximity, and chaos. The article exposes a dangerous assumption: that technical skill equals readiness. In reality, fights unfold faster and closer than expected, often before the defender has time to react.
InsightBy Bruce Simmet

When They Close the Shop, You Figure Out What You Actually Are

Most gunsmiths do what pays, not what they love. After two decades running a full-service shop, Bruce Simmet discusses the transition from managing liability to mastering the one-off historical pieces that define the essence of the trade.
InsightBy Herfel Torres

What Holds Up After the Shot

Why most firearms training prepares you for the moment but not for everything that follows
InsightBy CJ JIANG

Qualified Is Not Ready

Why the gap between passing the qual and being prepared for the street is a system problem, and what closes it.
InsightBy James Smith

Twenty-Three Out of Twenty-Five

Why Most Instructors Fail Before the First Shot Is Fired

About Firearms Insight Magazine

Firearms Insight Magazine is an evolving repository of firearms intelligence designed to preserve technical judgment, practical field experience, and the craft knowledge often lost between training bays, shops, and passing news cycles. The archive covers firearms law, gunsmithing, marksmanship, tactical decision-making, and industry developments with an emphasis on context, mechanical clarity, and operational relevance.