A ballistic weapon stand has a base plate for mounting armor panels having front and rear faces. The armor panels are fastened to and extend upwardly from the base at an angle in the range of 10 30.degree. with respect to the vertical to define a protected space behind the panels. Struts are welded to the base plate and extend upwardly toward and through an opening in a middle armor panel and between the edges of the middle armor panel and side armor panels. Welding plates are constructed and arranged for welding to the struts on the rear faces of the armor plates. The welding plates extend over the rear faces of the armor plates at junctions between the armor plates. A weapon platform is disposed on a second portion of at least one of the struts for mounting a weapon in the protected space to fire out past the front face of the armor panels. A transparent projectile defeating shield is mounted to swivel with the weapon, preferably on the weapons stand. The transparent shield may have one-way visibility so that a gunner is not visible to adversaries, but adversaries are visible to the gunner.