Free Republic

The Obama Administration’s endorsement of a Swiss global oversight scheme for government defense and security contractors is a warning for not only the shooting industry, but for civil arms rights and democratic national sovereignty. Geneva --(Ammoland.com)- On August 16th 2013, the Obama Administration signaled tentative plans to support a new scheme to legally bind government contractors into complying with international humanitarian law, human rights law, arms control and disarmament law, as well as other requirements of the United Nations (UN) Security Council.[1] The scheme applies to private military and security services contractors (and their subcontractors) doing business with the United...

Iran will support Syria "to the end" in the face of a possible US-led military strike against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad as punishment for his alleged use of chemical weapons against civilians, the commander of the Islamic Republic's Quds Force vowed on Wednesday, Iranian news agency Fars reported on Thursday. "The aim of the United States is not to protect human rights ... but to destroy the front of resistance [against Israel]," Qassem Suleimani was quoted as saying in a speech made to Iran's Assembly of Experts that supervises the country's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He...

About 20 percent of Quicken mortgage applications are for adjustable rates, up from 5 percent earlier this year. Why? As Treasury and mortgage rates started to rise around May 1st, housing affordability has declined. As a result, more borrowers start selecting the lower mortgage rate product hwhich is the 5/1 ARM. armsfrms080913 The spread between the 30 year FRM and the 5/1 ARM is 93 basis points, indicating that the 5/1 ARM is almost a full 1% less expensive. armfrmspread080913 Now, you may say “Why should I use a 5/1 ARM when everyone is saying mortgage rates will rise???” A...

Dozens of CIA operatives were involved in an arms smuggling operation on the ground in Benghazi, Libya during the deadly attack on the U.S. compound last September, reports CNN and the U.K. Telegraph. According to these outlets, the spy agency has gone out of its way to keep the information from the public through intimidation of CIA personnel. Four Americans were killed, including U.S. ambassador Christopher Stevens that evening in Benghazi almost one year ago. In light of this new information, either the Congress’ “Gang of Eight” knew about the operation and misled the public about what they knew, or...

The CIA has been subjecting operatives to monthly polygraph tests in an attempt to suppress details of a US arms smuggling operation in Benghazi that was ongoing when its ambassador was killed by a mob in the city last year, according to reports. Up to 35 CIA operatives were working in the city during the attack last September on the US consulate that resulted in the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans, according to CNN.

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama, in a major foreign policy speech in Berlin on Wednesday, is set to make the case for a new phase in nuclear weapons reductions, according to senior U.S. officials briefed on the plans. Despite mounting tensions with Cold War adversary Russia over the Syrian civil war and missile-defense, Mr. Obama is expected in the speech to say that the U.S. and Russia can reduce their arsenals of deployed nuclear weapons by up to another one-third, beyond the cuts mandated under the 2010 New START, or Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, without undercutting deterrence

Earth's Milky Way Neighborhood Gets More Respect Old picture: Local Arm a small "spur" of Milky Way. New picture: Local Arm probable major branch of Perseus Arm. CREDIT: Robert Hurt, IPAC; Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF. Our Solar System's Milky Way neighborhood just went upscale. We reside between two major spiral arms of our home galaxy, in a structure called the Local Arm. New research using the ultra-sharp radio vision of the National Science Foundation's Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) indicates that the Local Arm, previously thought to be only a small spur, instead is much more like the adjacent major arms,...

Time reports Assad already has several air defense systems from Moscow in his quiver, according to analysts who monitor arms shipments. While they agree that the S-300s are more accurate and have greater range than Assad’s current weapons systems, Time adds they say the Syrian leader is far from powerless without them. “We have seen over the past few years Russia supplying several different air defense systems,” says Pieter Wezeman, senior researcher in the arms transfer program of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri), which tracks weapons flows worldwide. “They [Syrian government] have really increased their capability. The missiles...

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...