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Shocking enough are the allegations that a long-perceived unassuming state senator tried brokering an international arms deal with military-style rifles and rocket launchers, but Leland Yee may have narrowly escaped an even more ominous label: supporter of terrorism. Yee, whose arrest after an FBI undercover sting shook the California political world last week, would likely have been charged with aiding terrorists if not for a bureaucratic label missing from the militant Filipino group that he is accused of sourcing for an international arms deal, counterterrorism experts told this newspaper. His ties to the group, whose leader has said he personally...

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- The California State Senate held an "ethics refresher course" for its members after federal indictments were issued against two senators and a third was convicted. Senate leaders are hoping to regain the public's trust. The purpose of the course is to teach members and their staffs to avoid potentially compromising situations. It's the latest in a series of moves by senate leaders aimed at putting political distance between them and their colleagues facing criminal charges. The leader of California's state senate stopped all regular business on Wednesday so everyone could go "back to school" in a...

**SNIP** The San Francisco Democrat was a fairly high-profile member of the California Legislature, but not a flamboyant one or one who was the subject of gossip and rumor. And that’s probably why the news in March landed with such a bombshell, when the 66-year old former psychologist was arrested and charged with not only corruption, but also with allegedly participating in a scheme to smuggle illegal weapons into the United States. The irony was impossible to miss: gun trafficking charges against a Democrat who made a name for himself as a fierce advocate of gun control, a politician who...

According to some analysts, the development of hypersonic weapons creates the conditions for a new arms race, and could risk nuclear escalation. Given that the course of hypersonic research has acknowledged both of these concerns, why have several countries started testing the weapons? The United States is building hypersonics for two reasons. First, we want to kill people fast, without the messy danger of a global thermonuclear war. Second, we want to be able to punch through the defensive systems of peer competitors.

DARPA's Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO) program conducted the first successful live-fire tests demonstrating in-flight guidance of .50-caliber bullets in the spring of 2014. This video shows EXACTO rounds maneuvering in flight to hit targets that are offset from where the sniper rifle is initially aimed. EXACTO's specially designed ammunition and real-time optical guidance system help track and direct projectiles to their targets by compensating for weather, wind, target movement and other factors that could impede successful aim. The EXACTO program is developing new approaches and advanced capabilities to improve the range and accuracy of sniper systems beyond the current...

'We Still Have More Work To Do'' The State Department's Rose Gottemoeller, under secretary for arms control and international security, spoke at the Brookings Institution Thursday where she reaffirmed the United States' "unassailable" commitment to putting the nuclear weapons genie back in the bottle. Gottemoeller told the attendees at the Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative-sponsored event that "the U.S. commitment to achieving the peace and security of a world without nuclear weapons is unassailable." She went on to note that the nation's stockpile of active weapons is down 85 percent from maximum cold war levels, falling to 4,804 in 2013...

Stockholm (AFP) - Sales by Russian arms manufacturers continue to expand thanks to Moscow's investments despite a downturn in global defence spending, a Stockholm-based think-tank said Monday. "The remarkable increases in Russian companies' arms sales in both 2012 and 2013 are in large part due to uninterrupted investments in military procurement by the Russian government during the 2000s," said Siemon Wezeman, senior researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Sales by Russian-based arms firms grew by 20 percent in 2013, according to SIPRI. However, figures for the 100 biggest arms-dealing nations excluding China declined for the third year...

Everyone has heard of the formidable German assault rifle, the G36—the successor to the reliable G3. Both are Heckler & Koch products. You can find the G3 all around the world, as the rifle is in the top five for small arms sales. The G36 is different. It’s actually quite rare outside of Europe. And for good reason. It’s got a bad reputation.

Has anyone heard or tried World of Guns mostly available on Steam, free of charge (pay to unlock all weapons). It purports to have extremely realistic simulated weapon operation, as well as virtual disassembly and x-ray views, complete with slow motion action. Just looking at the accuracy of the application.

If Israel has nuclear weapons, it hasn’t used them. Nor will it use them unless attacked. Iranian officials, meanwhile, have repeatedly crowed that Israel will soon be destroyed, and has defied the UN repeatedly regarding its nuclear program. So naturally, the OIC-controlled UN condemns Israel. The UN should be shut down, or at least moved off U.S. soil and cut off from all U.S. funding, as long as it is a tool of the global jihad. “UN resolution: Israel must renounce nuclear arms,” by Alexandra Olson, Associated Press, December 2, 2014 (thanks to John): UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N....

Israeli police seized a massive shipment of firecrackers, swords, tasers and other weapons at Ashdod port Thursday - a potentially deadly arsenal which was set to be delivered to Arab neighborhoods in Jerusalem. Two containers intercepted by authorities at the southern port were packed with 18,000 fireworks, 5,200 commando knives, 5,500 tasers, 4,300 tasers concealed in flashlights, 1,000 swords and several thousand other "cold" weapons. The lethal cargo was hidden under a layer of Christmas decorations, and had been shipped in all the way from China. The weapons were in all likelihood destined to be used against police and Jewish...

NEWPORT BEACH – Two people were in the Orange County Jail this week, after police stopped them in a van with automatic rifles and ammunition. The van contained seven AK-47 assault rifles, six 30-round high-capacity 7.62 caliber magazines, two 10-round magazines and more than 350 rounds of 7.62 caliber ammunition inside, Newport Beach police spokeswoman Jennifer Manzella said. Manzella said the arrests are significant because of the weapons seized. All of the guns were modified to fire in fully automatic mode, and one had a barrel less than 16 inches in length in violation of California state law, she said....

People will be able to walk into a police station with guns, knives and ammunition and face no prosecution tomorrow (Thursday). West Yorkshire Police is launching a ten-day weapons amnesty which will allow people to walk into Halifax Police Station and hand over weapons without fear of facing criminal action. The Force said the campaign, running from Thursday, November 20, to Sunday, November 30, will “avoid weapons getting into the wrong hands and provide members of the community with a safe place to dispose of firearms, ammunition, knives and other weapons they have”. West Yorkshire Police Assistant Chief Constable Andy...

Dem think tank secret email: ‘All hands on deck’ to sell Iran deal to public By Adam Kredo Published November 12, 2014 Washington Free Beacon A leading liberal think tank in Washington, D.C., has begun enlisting its associates in an “all-hands-on-deck effort to support” the Obama administration as it seeks to ink a nuclear deal with Iran by the end of the month, according to emails obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. The Truman National Security Project, a nonprofit think tank with ties to the administration, is assembling a “crack team of writers” to flood national and local media outlets...

The Pentagon confirmed to the Free Beacon on Wednesday that a U.S. shipment of weapons dropped into Iraq likely strayed off course and was likely intercepted by Islamic State (IS, ISIL, or ISIS) militants. After reviewing information about the weapons drop, which was intended to arm anti-IS forces near the embattled town of Kobani, the Pentagon determined that at least one of the 28 arms shipments “may have been seized by ISIL.” Reports and video emerged Tuesday that appeared to show IS forces digging through a U.S. weapons shipment that appeared to include grenades and other arms. Department of Defense...

American C-130 military transport aircraft made "multiple" airdrops of weapons, ammunition and medical supplies to Kurdish fighters fending off Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists in the strategic Syrian town of Kobane, despite Turkey labeling the Kurds "terrorists." According to US Central Command on Monday, the drops consisted of equipment from Kurdish authorities in Iraq, and were "intended to enable continued resistance against Isil's (ISIS - ed.) attempts to overtake Kobane," reports BBC. The US-led coalition against ISIS has already conducted over 135 airstrikes against ISIS over the past several weeks to defend Kobane, located strategically along the Syrian and Turkish border....

SALT LAKE CITY — A risque video shot in conservative Utah featuring bikini-clad women firing high-powered weapons and riding in tanks for a pinup calendar has raised the ire of a pair of law enforcement agencies who suspect some of their equipment and officers may be in the film.

Last year, the German armed forces announced they would purchase Heckler and Koch’s MG-5 machine gun to finally replace a World War II-era weapon. The new machine gun should put the Bundeswehr’s existing weapons to shame—and make up for past failures. “Its main feature is that it is much more accurate than its predecessor,” German army colonel Christian Brandes told U.S. Army reporters at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona during testing of the new gun on Oct. 14. The predecessor Brandes was referring to is the MG-3. That aging weapon is essentially just an upgrade of a machine gun Adolf...

The last week of September marks the anniversary of the Iran-Iraq war that began in 1980. Formal ceremonies for Sacred Defense Week include a nationwide parade, war remembrance gatherings and—of the most interest to War Is Boring—theatrical unveiling events for new weaponry. This year Iranian authorities extended the weapons unveilings into the first week of October—national police week in Iran—and then a few days more. The extensive show of military might came amid the growing threat of Sunni militia groups inside Iran. Tehran is eager to project an image of strength. But that doesn’t mean all of this new weaponry...

The 34-year-old homeless man accused of a vicious attack on two park rangers yesterday in the Boston Common was ordered held on $1 million cash bail today. Bodio Hutchinson pleaded innocent to numerous assault charges in the 4:36 p.m. alleged slashing that prosecutor Lynn Feigenbaum said left both rangers with five stab wounds each.