Free Republic

by John HillStand With Arizona Three weeks after the shooting in Sandy Hook, CT, when politicians were using the murders as an excuse to grab the guns of law-abiding Americans, one lawman was calling instead for school kids to be defended. Maricopa Country, Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio denounced efforts to ban guns, saying "bad guys will always get their guns", and that gun control "never solves the problem". So on January 9th the Sheriff announced he would deploy 500 armed volunteers to patrol outside 59 schools in metropolitan Phoenix.  Joe's 3,000-strong “Posse”  has participated in the many “immigration sweeps” the Sheriff...

556RECON.com tracks trends and pricing for 5.56x45 NATO from on-line vendors (Cheaper Than Dirt, AmmoNet, etc.), and the average price has started to drop, if just by a few pennies per round. 62gr Green Tip has dropped from $1.10 to as low as $1.03. This is the average price, the lowest PPR is at 70 cents per round. 55gr Average PPR has dropped to $.90, with the lowest price at 70 cents per round. Interestingly, Cheaper Than Dirt, where I (used to) buy, is consistently at the expensive end of the list, with LAX and Palmetto being the best buys....

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Weapons are spreading from Libya at an "alarming rate," fueling conflicts in Mali, Syria and elsewhere and boosting the arsenals of extremists and criminals in the region, according to a U.N. report published on Tuesday. The report by the U.N. Security Council's Group of Experts - who monitor an arms embargo imposed on Libya at the start of an uprising in 2011 which ousted leader Muammar Gaddafi - said the North African state had become a key source of weapons in the region as its nascent government struggles to exert authority. Libyan government security forces remain...

Yet another Islamic cleric recently made it permissible for the Islamic fighters waging a jihad in Syria—politely known as “the opposition”—to rape the nation’s women. Salafi Sheikh Yasir al-‘Ajlawni, a Jordanian of origin who earlier lived in Damascus, Syria for 17 years, posted a YouTube video last week where he said he was preparing to issue a “legitimate fatwa” making it legal (in the eyes of Islam) for those Muslims fighting to topple secular president Bashar Assad and install Sharia law to “capture and have sex with” all non-Sunni women, specifically naming Assad’s own sect, the Alawites, as well as...

The CIA is notorious for its disastrous, damaging failures. In the 1950s, the CIA’s meddling in Iran politics led to the Iranian Revolution in 1979, creating a nation that is our implacable enemy. In the 1960s, the CIA carried out the embarrassing Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba. In the 1980s, the CIA it was responsible for the Iran-Contra scandal that nearly wrecked Reagan’s presidency. In the 1980s, the CIA entirely missed the fact that the Soviet Union was collapsing. And in 2001 it was as surprised as anyone by the 9/11 attack. One would think that, with this track...

President Obama and Congressional Democrats are engaged in an assault on the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Predictably, a majority in the media is softening up resistance, highlighting terrible crimes like the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary and the theater in Aurora, Colorado. Politicians and pundits alike assert such mass murders warrant executive orders and Congressional legislation to limit the Constitutional right of Americans to bear arms. If you buy that, you're sliding down a slippery slope with government tyranny at the bottom. The Constitution of the United States established a government to “secure the Blessings of Liberty to...

_Obama Commits Treason By Arming Egypt’s Anti-American Dictatorship_ The Last Resistance [www.lastresistance.com] * Why would a US president continue to push to give billions of dollars in aid and to supply arms to a nation whose regime has declared that America and its ally Israel are mortal enemies that should be destroyed? And why would that same president who wants to arm our enemies want to disarm American citizens? Obama helped the Muslim Brotherhood, a known militant and radical Islamic group, to overthrow the government of Egypt. He supported the election of Morsi as Egypt’s new president, even when...

Egypt received four F-16 aircraft from the United States on Sunday, the Egypt Independent reports. According to the report, the country’s Defense Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi praised the growing military cooperation between Egypt and the U.S. after receiving the four fighter jets.

Holding a gun in your hands does not guarantee either your safety or your life. There is no surety that someone else won’t have bigger or better weapons and can still take what you consider valuable. The whole point of holding a gun in your hands is that it raises the bar of consequence and therefore of the required level of intent for any attacker. The gun does not say, “you cannot kill me”. The gun says, “you can kill me, but until you do, I remain free”. To that end, the bigger or better the weapon is, the more...

The club and the knife were most likely the first weapons developed in human history. Their primary purpose was to kill animals to provide food. By attaching a knife to a pole, as in either a spear or an arrow, the effectiveness of the knife can be extended. Then, some humans learned that they could use these weapons to take property from other humans. The most valuable and sacred property is life itself and once that has been taken, all other forms of property become available to the attacker. If one human with ill intent is armed and another is...

"...After Clell’s first shot, Cole and he mounted their respective horses and began charging up and down the streets, yelling “Get in! Get in!” and shooting their guns in the sky, through windows, and over people’s head. Jim, Bill, and Charlie, on the bridge, heard Clell’s first shot as well and quickly rode to join the foray, using exactly the same guerrilla tactics as Cole and Clell were using. At first, it seemed that the gang was actually overtaking the citizens, but the situation quickly flipped. The citizens ran to their homes or places of business to grab their derringers,...

Russia has “overfulfilled” its yearly plan of arms exports by half a billion dollars, having sold $14 billion worth of weapons in 2012, President Vladimir Putin has said. Last year, Russia’s total income from arms and military equipment exports reached $13.2 billion, with $10.7 billion coming from the country’s sole defense exports agency, Rosoboronexport. Putin urges to seek out new arms export markets Russian President Vladimir Putin has called on the Military and Technical Cooperation Committee to “pursue a preemptive tactic” when promoting Russian military equipment in foreign markets. “Russia will definitely keep its traditional military export partners. But it’s...

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama urged Russia on Tuesday to work with the United States to "update" a decades-old agreement on dismantling nuclear and chemicals weapons that is set to expire in mid-2013. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said in October that Moscow intended to end the 1992 agreement, the latest sign that the much-vaunted "reset" in relations between the Cold War-era foes may be running out of steam. Obama, attending a conference of nuclear anti-proliferation experts at the National War College in Washington, took note of Moscow's complaints and expressed optimism the pact would be extended. "Russia has...

Several dozen members of the House have introduced a resolution that calls on President Obama not to sign the United Nations's Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). It also demands that if Obama does sign it, the government should not spend any time or money on implementation until the Senate approves it.

How US Ambassador Chris Stevens May Have Been Linked To Jihadist Rebels In Syria Michael Kelley | 46 minutes ago US Weapons Are Going To Hard-Line Jihadists Fighting To Topple The Syrian Regime The details of the September 11 attack that killed four Americans at the U.S. consulate in Benghazi are still murky and there's certainly more to be known. Former CIA officer Clare Lopez argues that the key issue is "the relationship of the U.S. government, Ambassador Christopher Stevens and the U.S. diplomatic mission in Libya with Al Qaeda." That relationship, Lopez argues, could be connected to the rise...

Self-defence in mind, working women in Delhi apply for gun licences New Delhi, July 30: Marketing professional Sapna Arora’s (name changed on request) days are a hectic rush around Delhi. But wherever the 31-year-old goes, she never forgets her .32 revolver. “Delhi has become very unsafe for women. Because of my job, I often return home late; so I applied for a gun licence last year and bought the gun. Earlier, I used to carry pepper spray but that’s not a strong enough deterrent,” she said. “The revolver makes me feel safe.” Sapna, who has received the routine weapons-handling training...

Obama blamed for failure of international arms treatyBy Julian Pecquet - 07/27/12 08:26 PM ET The United Nations indefinitely suspended action on an international arms trade treaty Friday after the United States and several other countries asked for more time. The decision sparked angry reactions from human rights groups often allied with the Obama administration, who believed a treaty to regulate the export of deadly weapons to rogue regimes was within reach. The UN had spent the entire month of July hammering out a deal, and Friday was the deadline for an agreement on a treaty that has met with...

But the Senate will never ratify, you say? Guess what, they don't need to... Speaking on Fox and Friends this morning, Dick Morris explained that when the US signs such an international treaty, the nation is bound until the Senate rejects it or the President renounces it. In just nine days from now, the terms of this treaty will be finalized. Morris went on to say that this heinous agreement -which would in-affect repeal the the Second Amendment and deny us all of the divine right to self-defense- will likely be signed by Obama... then Harry Reid will simply...

France’s President Francois Hollande has reaffirmed his commitment to nuclear arms. Boldly going where no French head of state has gone for almost 40 years, Hollande took a three hour trip off the coast of Brittany on the submarine ‘Terrible’.

Arms bill supporters fight claims US citizens will be robbed of gunsBy Julan Pecquet - 06/24/12 05:27 PM ET Advocates of a pending arms trade treaty are billing it as a way to strengthen U.S. import/export laws as they seek to counter claims that it will rob citizens of their guns. The United Nations is slated to craft a long-delayed international treaty next month, with the Obama administration's blessing. Groups that support the treaty's stated goal of crafting “common international standards for the import, export and transfer of conventional weapons” are organizing a slew of events starting next week to...

Robert Tilford Wichita Military Affairs Examiner + Subscribe The Russian Armed Forces will take delivery of a new 9-mm handgun to replace the Makarov pistol, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said. This is part of the military’s effort to upgrade its military forces. The Strizh handgun has said to be better performance than the Austrian-made Glock 17, a favorite of special forces worldwide, Rogozin said. According to the article, the weapon is a 9 mm, has a slim-profile polymer frame, an easy-to-rack slide with rear and front serrations, an ambidextrous magazine release and a Picatinny rail for mounting special sights....

(Reuters) - The Defense Secretary Leon Panetta promised on Wednesday to let India buy America's best weapons technology and jointly produce and develop equipment in a bid to increase trade with the world's top arms importer. India last year agreed to buy a fleet of C-17 transport planes and P-81 maritime surveillance jets from U.S. company Boeing, as well as Lockheed Martin's Super Hercules. It is at a late stage of talks to buy more than a dozen Boeing Apache helicopters and last month cleared the purchase of 145 M777 Howitzer artillery guns. Panetta made no public mention of these...

A report issued by the State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China has included U.S. gun ownership among a list of human rights violations, Law Enforcement Examiner Jim Kouri reported yesterday. "The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2011" was published last Friday on the PRC’s Consulate General in New York website. “The United States prioritizes the right to keep and bear arms over the protection of citizens' lives and personal security and exercises lax firearm possession control, causing rampant gun ownership,” the report claims. “The U.S. people hold between 35 percent and 50 percent...

Syria remains the top destination for Iranian arms shipments in violation of a U.N. Security Council ban on weapons exports by the Islamic Republic, according to a confidential report on Iran sanctions-busting seen by Reuters on Wednesday. Iran, like Russia, is one of Syria's few allies as it presses ahead with a 14-month old assault on opposition forces determined to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. News of the panel's report came as Tehran and the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency try narrow their differences on how to tackle concerns over Iran's atomic program, and as Iran prepares for talks with...

Syria remains the top destination for Iranian arms shipments in violation of a U.N. Security Council ban on weapons exports by the Islamic Republic, according to a confidential report on Iran sanctions-busting seen by Reuters on Wednesday. Iran, like Russia, is one of Syria's few allies as it presses ahead with a 14-month old assault on opposition forces determined to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. News of the panel's report came as Tehran and the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency try narrow their differences on how to tackle concerns over Iran's atomic program, and as Iran prepares for talks with...

Ohio’s police departments are stockpiling military equipment and weapons, including mini-tanks, through a Defense Department program that gives communities free access to surplus gear.   Last year, Ohio police got $12 million in weapons and gear through the Pentagon program, which gave out $500 million worth of free military goods to law enforcement agencies around the country, according to the Dayton Daily News.

SINGAPORE - Singapore, better known for its clean-cut image and electronics exports, is seeking a place in the global arms industry by exploiting technological expertise honed on its own amply funded military. From armoured personnel carriers used by British forces in Afghanistan to ammunition and firearms, the city-state is trying to enlarge the overseas market for its homegrown weapons and defence systems. Its arms exports were in the limelight recently when India's defence ministry banned six weapons manufacturers for alleged involvement in a 2009 bribery case -- one of them a relatively little-known company from Singapore. ST Kinetics, part of...

“It has come to our attention that Arms Trade Treaty proponents are attempting to change the rules mid-stream, prior to the upcoming Treaty negotiations in early July,” researchers Paul Gallant, Alan Chwick, and Joanne D. Eisen wrote in a breaking story published yesterday in AmmoLand Gun News. “Ted R. Bromund, Senior Research Fellow at the Heritage Foundation, alerted the public to the very real possibility that ATT proponents are changing the meaning of the term ‘consensus’ and to the political ramifications for the US if ATT proponents prevail,” they warn. “Until now, ‘consensus’ has been understood by the US and...

When Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the National Rifle Association (NRA), spoke at CPAC on February 10th, he predicted that if Barack Obama wins a second term it will usher in an all-out attack on the Second Amendment. In so many words, he said the same people who brought us Fast and Furious, “a criminal enterprise” for which there has yet to be prosecutions, will use four more years to gut constitutional protections on the right to keep and bear arms. And anyone who wonders what this assault on the Second Amendment might look like need look no further...

Calling for an "UP IN ARMS ACROSS AMERICA DAY" Peaceful PROTEST, ON Sunday, May 20, 2012 (also World Communication Day!) when and where all "fed-up with Obama and his Administration" Americans, who are against and "up in arms" over his Affordable Care Act, his Executive signings, his dismantling of the Constitution and his taking away our God given and Constitutional freedoms and rights, link arms across America (much like the Hands Across America event and publicity campaign during Ronald Reagan's Administration) and finally once and for all be seen and heard as the "majority" of the American "will and demand...

The execution of citizens of the town of Bochnia by the Germans during the occupation of Poland, 18 December 1939. Fifty-six people were executed that day in an exercise of "government monopoly of violence." Three Death Penalties for Prohibited Arms Possession. A special German court in Zamość [near Krakow] sentenced to death 19 year-old Franciszek Pokrywka of Powieki, 27 year-old Iwan Zilnyk and 35 year-old Paweł Huzar, both of Ułazów, for prohibited possession of firearms as well as for violating the duty to report possession of firearms. Pokrywka had an automatic pistol with six cartridges and, despite the universally-known order...

A reliable Pentagon source confirmed that the U.S. is selling a huge $60 billion arms package to Serbia.The source spoke on condition of anonymity because minor details are still being hammered out. Afterwards there will be an official announcement made by the Defense Security Cooperation Agency.The Pentagon source said the huge $60 billion arms package sale to Serbia is being made to counter the increasing dangerous militant Islamist threat in the region.The source noted Turkey's shift away from the secularism of Attaturk to fundamentalist Islam reflected by the ascension to power of Erdogan's AKP Islamist party.That is reflected in Turkey's closer ties with the Iranian regime and increasing hostility towards Israel and the West. The...

The White House announced on Thursday a major arms sale deal to Saudi Arabia worth around 29.4 billion dollars. "The United States and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have signed a government-to-government agreement under the Foreign Military Sales program to provide advanced F-15SA combat aircraft to the Royal Saudi Air Force," White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Joshua Earnest said in a statement. The agreement includes production of 84 new aircraft and the modernization of 70 existing aircraft, as well as munitions, spare parts, training, maintenance and logistics, according to the statement. "This agreement reinforces the strong and enduring relationship...

The Second Amendment Foundation, SAF, and Alan Gura filed an amicus brief AGAINST the open carry of firearms. I believe they have been hiding their real agenda for some time now. I believe their agenda is to establish a permit or licensing scheme for the bearing of arms. If anyone has read their briefs, they do not seem to want open carry as an option. Here is a link to the brief which was filed 12-5-2011 https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B4xDZlk5vthcODdkNmEzZWMtYTFkYi00ZWZmLTg3ZDYtZTY4OWQ0Yzk2NzZm

A federal lawsuit filed in Texas last year seeks to repeal the prohibition, as part of the Gun Control Act of 1968, on handgun purchases by 18 to 20-year-olds from licensed dealers. That lawsuit has hit a snag, with U.S. District Judge Samuel Cummings dismissing it yesterday. From the Statesman: In a 17-page order, U.S. District Judge Samuel Cummings dismissed a challenge to a 32-year-old [actually 42] federal law barring handgun sales by licensed gun dealers to people under the age of 21. Judge Cummings' rationale is especially . . . interesting: "The Court is of the opinion that the...

Post-Gaddafi chaos exposes arsenals of small arms and chemicals to raids by smugglers and militants. The collapse of strongman Muamar Gaddafi’s government and the ensuing chaos in Libya could prove to be boon to the militant groups in Africa and the Middle East by opening up arsenals of weaponry ranging from small arms to chemicals, experts are warning. Rebels have seized much of the country including most of the capital Tripoli, but as of late Thursday they were still battling Gaddafi loyalists and struggling to establish law and order in a country wracked by six months of civil war. Unorganized...

PESHAWAR 25 August 2011, National Database and Registration Authority (NADRA) will receive applications till August 29 to revalidate arms licenses issued by the interior ministry. Talking to a Media Person the spokesperson for NADRA said that the authority had established 158 centers across the country where a separate counter in each designated centre has been established to receive the applications regarding the renewal of arms licenses. He said that 13 NADRA Registration Centers (NRC) in Regional Headquarters Multan, 30 NRCs in Provincial Headquarters Quetta, 14 NRCs in PHQ Lahore, 10 NRCs in Regional Headquarters Sargodha, 32 NRCs in PHQ Peshawar,...

Under licence, for self defence MADURAI: Revenue authorities or police officials cannot refuse to issue arms licence by citing the likelihood of law and order problem as all citizens of the country are entitled to possess weapons, under licence, for self-defence unless their antecedents or propensities do not entitle them for the privilege, the Madras High Court has ruled. Justice D. Hariparanthaman passed the ruling while allowing a writ petition filed by an agriculturist who was denied licence by the Commissioner of Revenue Administration as well as the Theni District Revenue Officer in 2005 and 2004 respectively to possess a...

Russians should be given the right to bear arms, albeit with strict regulations, believes acting upper house speaker, Aleksandr Torshin. I believe that law-abiding citizens should be returned the lost right to bear small arms,” he told journalists, as cited by RIA Novosti. According to the senator, carrying a gun is “a huge responsibility”, but “citizens should have an opportunity to defend themselves, their families' lives and their property”. Torshin believes that if people were allowed to carry weapons, they would have a fair fight with the “lamebrains and villains” in the event of an attack. If journalist Oleg Kashin...

A cream which promises to give women 'Obama Arms' by shaving up to two centimetres of fat off dreaded bingo wings is set to go on sale in UK this week. Arm Sculpt makers Rodial claim applying the £60 cream to the affected spot twice a day destroys fatty cells and tightens skin giving the user toned arms like Michelle Obama. In trials it showed that 22 per cent of the fat can be dispersed if the cream is applied properly and that 56 days use will see an incredible 2cms disappear.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Top Pentagon contractors have been bleeding secrets for years as a result of penetrations of their computer networks, current and former national security officials say. The Defense Department, which runs its own worldwide eavesdropping, spying and code-cracking systems, says more than 100 foreign intelligence organizations have been trying to break into U.S. networks. Some of the perpetrators "already have the capacity to disrupt" U.S. information infrastructure, Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn, who is leading remedial efforts, wrote last fall in the journal Foreign Affairs. Joel Brenner, the National Counterintelligence executive from 2006 to 2009, said most if...

When you run down the list of issues the Oath Keepers are worried about, it reads a lot like a bill of particulars from the American Civil Liberties Union. The Oath Keepers don't like warrantless searches. They're upset that the executive branch has claimed the power to classify American citizens as enemy combatants, detain them indefinitely, and try them before military tribunals. They worry that a large-scale terrorist attack similar to 9/11 could lead to the mass detention of Arabs or Muslims, just as Japanese Americans were detained during World War II. They worry about crackdowns on political speech, protest,...

Hillary Clinton has paved the way for the United States to arm the Libyan rebels by declaring that the recent UN security council resolution relaxed an arms embargo on the country. As Libya's opposition leaders called for the international community to arm them, the secretary of state indicated that the US was considering whether to meet their demands when she talked of a "work in progress". The US indicated on Monday night that it had not ruled out arming the rebels, though it was assumed this would take some time because of a UN arms embargo which applies to all...

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan is beefing up its arsenal of nuclear-capable missiles by embracing China as its new strategic arms partner and backing away from the U.S., analysts have told Fox News. Pakistan earlier this month test-fired a nuclear-capable missile from an undisclosed location – the second in a month of try-outs for its short-range surface-to-surface Hataf 2 class rocket, co-developed with the Chinese. It was the latest in a series of arms collaborations between the two nations, which view their strategic partnership as a counterweight to a boldly confident India, which has American support. Until the mid-1960s, the United States...

Palestinian sources say arms depot belongs to Hamas' military wing; attack comes after two rockets and several mortars were fired into southern Israel earlier Thursday; IDF to deploy Iron Dome next week, Channel 10 says. The Israel Air Force bombed an arms depot in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, which according to Palestinian sources, belonged to the military wing of Hamas. The attack was carried out around 8:30 P.M. local time, after two rockets and several mortars were fired from Gaza at southern Israel earlier Thursday. According to Palestinian reports, IDF forces also attacked a military facility which was...

Moscow – The graying bear is getting a make-over. Russia's military is launching its biggest rearmament effort since Soviet times, including a $650 billion program to procure 1,000 new helicopters, 600 combat planes, 100 warships, and 8 nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines. Analysts say Russia, while already the world's fifth-largest military spender, needs strong conventional forces to reduce its overreliance on its aging Soviet-era nuclear missile deterrent. Valentin Rudenko, director of the independent Interfax-Military News Agency, says it could create "a whole new ballgame." "For about two decades we've had no real modernization, at least not like what's being proposed now,"...

A recent post by former BBC North American editor Justin Webb expresses puzzlement at the pattern of gun ownership in the U.S., reporting that the zip code he used to live in, an area safe enough so that people routinely left their doors unlocked, had a surge of gun purchases after the Supreme Court found unconstitutional the D.C. ban on handgun ownership. He thinks it is obvious that his one-time neighbors have no need for guns to protect themselves, and attributes the pattern to a peculiarly American belief in a link between private ownership of firearms and political freedom. I...

Operating from a small US Special Forces base on a snow-speckled field here is a newly minted US ally who represents either a brighter future or everything that is wrong with Afghanistan’s troubled past. The former Afghan insurgent is despised by the head of the provincial council, who calls him “a thief, a kidnapper and out of control.” He is disparaged by police, who view him as a dangerous fighter and dissolute hash smoker. But to the US military, Noor ul Haq’s past means less than his willingness to fight the Taliban. In these dangerous villages of northern Afghanistan’s Baghlan...

This is a pure opinion piece – a rant. Most of the times I write about what I think the Iraqi Security Forces are doing or report on what they are actually doing. Some readers think that I agree with what is being done to develop those forces. Not true. I think that they are making some very dangerous errors. Politics – the Ruling Politicians are in Fantasyland When I outlined my top 5 procurement priorities if I were the Iraqi Minister of Defense in an e-mail, one of my regulars replied: “Actually DJ your top priority should be the...

Earlier this year, as part of the tools of war series, At War published photographs of Taliban small arms from Helmand province, along with data on the types of firearms in insurgent use. The photographs included images of bolt-action rifles, including one, a Lee-Enfield rifle, that dated to 1915. In spite of their advanced age, Lee-Enfield rifles, along with Soviet Mosin-Nagant bolt-action arms, have seen continued service in Afghanistan for two reasons: they offer greater range and accuracy than the assault rifles in more common circulation, and their ammunition remains available on Afghan black markets. Many readers wrote with questions...