Sometimes it seems we’ll do just about anything other than pass some common sense gun laws in America. Firearm violence has been called “a preventable public health tragedy” affecting various communities across the United States. In 2024, 44,447 Americans died by firearms —an average of one death every 12 minutes. And until there’s less gun violence, I can’t blame people for wanting to be prepared and protected.

Getting in the car—be for a school run or driving to work downtown—typically involves worrying about traffic (and the price of gas), not personal safety. However, a quiet shift is happening across the country right now. The rising demand for civilian armored vehicles proves that many Americans are completely changing how they view their daily commute.

These heavy-duty rides used to belong strictly to military fleets and high-profile politicians. Today, they blend right into the pickup line at the local elementary school. The homepage of the popular Armormax service gets straight to the point: “We turn regular vehicles into extraordinary bulletproof machines.”

According to the New York Times, other industry leaders have gotten involved, too. In 2023, the Toronto-based INKAS Armored Vehicle Manufacturing opened its first U.S. dealership, Miami Armored, complete with a showroom. “We serve government, we serve banks, we serve law enforcement — and we serve high-net-worth individuals,” said Philip Daskal, the vice president of INKAS USA. “But we also serve Plumber Joe who’s driving on the freeway. A stray bullet—these are crazy times—hits the bumper, and he needs to start thinking about taking care of his family.” Why the surging interest? The people who want such protective vehicles are concerned about carjackings, smash-and-grab thefts and road rage. All of which has become more prevalent in recent years, according to the Pew Research Center.

And it’s not just retrofits. BMW sells armored versions of the X5 SUV and the 7-Series sedan. This is a niche within a niche, but the German brand has been offering it for nearly four decades and spares no expense making sure its armored vehicles can do the job when it counts.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth put the cost of the Iran war so far at $37.5 billion Tuesday at a contentious hearing where he told lawmakers the Trump administration needs nearly twice that much to continue military operations in the coming months. NBC News reported this month that the Defense Department’s internal overall cost for the war so far is $80 billion to $100 billion, including the cost of repairing damaged U.S. military bases, replacing destroyed aircraft and fully replenishing American weaponry.

The hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee was the first time Hegseth testified before Congress since the collapse of a truce between Washington and Tehran in recent days. But lawmakers also pressed Hegseth and General Dan Caine to explain the administration’s approach to the war, from President Donald Trump’s promise to destroy Tehran’s nuclear capabilities to how the Pentagon will reopen the Strait of Hormuz, moving beyond the economic upheaval its closure has caused in oil and fertilizer trade.

Democrats were highly skeptical of the request, asking why U.S. taxpayers should continue footing the bill for a war they don’t support—particularly with the Pentagon sitting on billions of unspent funding from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed last year. While Hegseth and Democrats exchanged pointed barbs throughout the hearing, tensions didn’t boil over until the final minutes of the hearing, when Democratic Sens. Jon Ossoff of Georgia and Michigan’s Gary Peters pressed the Pentagon chief on his dubious claims of victory in Iran and “failure” as a leader.

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Apple is reportedly teaming up with deferred payment processor Klarna to launch a new lease-to-own program for its devices. Bloomberg reported Tuesday that the program—dubbed Apple Upgrade—is set to launch next Tuesday, July 28. It will allow consumers to pay for their purchases over multi-year periods, including iPhones, iPads, Macs and Apple Watches.

Apparently, the lease term for iPhones and Apple Watches will be up to 24 months, while leases for Macs and iPads will be up to 36 months. The devices can either be kept or returned at the end of the leasing period, while upgrades to new devices will also be available (hence the name of the program). The report notes vaguely that, in some cases, “transactions will incur an additional fee.”

A leasing program is an obvious strategy for Apple at this point. The iPhone maker has been battling supply chain issues wrought by “RAMageddon” (the industry-wide shortage of memory chips that is driving up the price of hardware). To deal with these issues, Apple recently announced that it would be raising prices. CNET put it like this: “Apple doesn’t appear to be interested in making its increasingly expensive devices cheaper. Instead, it may make the price easier to ignore.”