Springfield Armory M1A SOCOM II

Everyone has a favorite gun, but not many have a story quite like the one from NRA member Jim Schollhammer.

While the phrase “tools of the trade” may refer to specific items that a worker uses to ply his or her vocation, it could just as easily be a reference to the firearms, knives and other everyday carry, or EDC, gear that the average citizen uses to ensure his or her safe passage through the course of an uncertain, sometimes dangerous, daily existence.

The Spanish/Basque city of Eibar is one of Europe’s great arms-manufacturing centers, with a history in gunmaking dating back to the 1500s.

Read today's "The Armed Citizen" entry for real stories of law-abiding citizens, past and present, who used their firearms to save lives.

"Even though slated early in my training period to be a photographer, I had to go through the "firing mill" as intensively as the others. For months, we burned up so much powder, I began to be afraid there wouldn't be enough for the boys who were really slugging it out at high altitudes ..."