American Rifleman TV is in Springfield, Mass., to visit the Smith & Wesson Performance Center, where some of the gunmaker's finest custom firearms are manufactured. What is unique about S&W Performance Center firearms is that although many of the firearms might contain special features that are typically found only in "one off" custom guns, the manufacturer produces them in large enough quantities to keep them affordable and available to everyone. Many Performance Center guns—like the new Ported M&P Shield—originate from standard designs and are then customized and tuned for precision, while others are created from the ground up to include hand cutting and fitting.
April 2025 marks 250 years since the momentous events at Lexington and Concord—the opening salvos of the American Revolution. Today, exhaustive research of primary accounts and surviving firearms and artifacts give us a clearer picture of what really happened.
On April 19, 1775, simmering tensions between Great Britain and her colonists erupted into warfare with the engagements at the Massachusetts towns of Lexington and Concord.
Watchtower Firearms, a veteran-owned firm based in Texas filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection in late February 2025 to restructure and re-organize its financial structure.
The militiamen who stood in defiance on Lexington Green are the first who fired upon the British regulars, but the road to revolution was paved long before gunfire erupted on that cold April morning in Massachusetts.