Free Republic

The gun-control lobby has a new target: Your children’s Lego sets. A new "study" touted by libs decries the prevalence of weapons in the brick construction kits: I kid you not. The gun-grabbers have their panties in a twist over harmless fantasy play with teeny-tiny plastic parts. LEGO building kits are becoming increasingly violent as toy manufacturers are engaged in an “arms race” to appeal to children, a New Zealand study says. Researchers at the University of Canterbury concluded from research that examined LEGO catalogues from 1973 to 2015 that weaponry is now included in 30 per cent of...

Rep. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) said on Thursday that visas issued to terrorists turn the documents into “weapons” by allowing them entry into the United States without proper vetting. “We also know that in the hands of terrorists, visas can become weapons,” Forbes said at a press conference at the Capitol. Forbes – along with co-sponsors Reps. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.) and Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) – introduced the Visa Integrity and Security Act of 2016 on Wednesday. The Visa Integrity and Security Act of 2016, which “strengthens the Visa screening process to combat immigration fraud, utilize social media to detect threat indicators,...

For roughly a 20-year period from the mid-1970s to the mid-'90s the MAC-10 submachine gun was everywhere. At least that’s what you might think if your only exposure to the weapon is action films and T.V. shows from the era. The compact MAC-10 first registered in America’s collective imagination when John Wayne wielded one with lethal prowess in the 1974 police thriller McQ.

The U.S. Army has released its 2016 Weapons Systems Handbook, which is available at www.army.mil/e2/c/downloads/431298.pdf. For more on military equipment, including weapons, visit Military.com's Equipment Guide.

The U.S. Army is about to acquire a new weapon that could dramatically impact infantry warfare. The U.S. Army is introducing a new shoulder-fired weapon that has the potential to change infantry tactics and revolutionize infantry warfare in a way unseen since the Battle of Königgrätz in July 1866. That battle, which marked the beginning of the end of the line infantry attack, saw Austrian troops carrying muzzle-loaders outgunned by Prussian infantrymen carrying breech-loading needle guns. According to its fiscal year (FY) 2017 budget request, the U.S. Army will produce 105 so-called XM25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement (CDTE) weapons, a...

As part of the Navy's push towards "distributed lethatlity," littoral combat ships will soon be equipped with the Norwegian built Naval Strike Missile (NSM), an "over-the-horizon" antiship cruise missile with a range of about 115 miles.

In 1929, German gun-maker Waffenfabrik Walther began developing a new nine-millimeter pistol for military use. The development violated the Treaty of Versailles that ended World War I, so Walther kept it secret. Early Walther attempts focused on scaling up its “PP” line of pistols to chamber the larger nine-mil round. This pistol, the Militarpistole, wasn’t strong enough to withstand the pressures and recoil of the nine-by-19-millimeter round. Walther began work on a new design in 1935 following a request from the Heereswaffenamt, the German army’s weapons-technology agency. The Heereswaffenamt wanted a pistol to replace the Luger P08 — one that...

World War I is supposed to be about men stuck in the mud of trench warfare, a static stalemate with little movement. Yet there were numerous patrols and attacks along the Western Front, the kind of action where portable automatic firepower could give soldiers a tremendous advantage. The Maxim and Vickers machine guns of the time were effective but heavy. Those weapons were for infantry support from fixed positions.

(CNSNews.com) - "I've been around guns all my life. I know how to use them, and arming our people on our military bases and allowing them to carry concealed, privately owned weapons -- I do not recommend that as a force protection," Army Chief of Staff General Mark Milley told Congress on Thursday. Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) asked Milley what the Army is doing to provide force protection at military bases and facilities in the United States, following last summer's attack on a Marine recruiting center and a Navy Reserve facility in Chattanooga, Tennessee, that killed four Marines and one...

WASHINGTON – The tip of the spear may be losing its edge. Navy SEAL teams don't have enough combat rifles to go around, even as these highly trained forces are relied on more than ever to carry out counterterrorism operations and other secretive missions, according to SEALs who have confided in Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif. After SEALs return from a deployment, their rifles are given to other commandos who are shipping out, said Hunter, a former Marine who served three combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. This weapons carousel undercuts the "train like you fight" ethos of the U.S. special...

Future talks will determine what defense equipment could be supplied, although Gazmin told reporters without elaborating that Japan has initially offered a surveillance aircraft. “This agreement would really substantiate the Philippines and Japan being strategic partners,” Gazmin said in remarks during the signing ceremony at the Department of Defense in metropolitan Manila which was not opened to the press. “Let me stress that what underpins this agreement is not only our desire to enhance our respective defense capabilities but also to contribute to regional peace and stability.” Neither side mentioned China’s increasingly assertive behavior in disputed areas but that has...

New Russian tanks sent to Syria have been able to survive hits from US-made TOW missiles, although their anti-missile counter-measures have yet to be seen in combat. In a report on new weapons in the Syrian conflict, Robert Fisk noted tank-based anti-missile systems, as well as night vision and reconnaissance systems. Although new the tanks supplied to the Syrian army have the ability to deflect TOW-like missiles, their full implementation has yet to be seen. A video released by rebels showed the T-90 surviving a hit by a TOW missile, but an open hatch prevented the deployment of an aerosol...

Jihadis in Syria are using Facebook as a marketplace to buy, sell and barter a wide variety of American-made weapons and munitions ranging from rocket launchers to machine guns. A Facebook page called "The first weapons market in the Idleb countryside" showcases posts with photographs of weapons, claimed to be CIA-supplied, inviting buyers to contact page administrators privately using popular messaging application Whatsapp to discuss sales and transactions. An AGS-17 Soviet-era grenade launcher is listed for $3,800 and below that a thermal camera made by Oregon-based company FLIR, is listed alongside posts advertising the sale of 105mm cannon shells.

Since 1928, the battlefields of the world have seen an oddball Soviet-era weapon that proves the truth of the old saying, “Looks aren’t everything.” Its nickname was once “Stalin’s phonograph” — and the staccato tune it plays is the sound of automatic fire. Used by the Russians to gun down both the Finns and the Nazis, hefted by Chinese communist and North Korean troops fighting United Nations forces, and carried by the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese when attacking American soldiers, the Ruchnoy Pulemyot Degtyaryova Pekhotny — better known as the DP light machine gun — has spilled a...

A.J. Strata informs us that Sidney Blumenthal has leaked the fact that NSA is assisting Israel in tracking weapons shipments from Iran and Syria to Hezbollah, gaining him anti-Israel supporters and (one hopes) a chance to talk to the grand jury investigating NSA leaks: Why would Sydney Blumenthal risk everything to publicize the fact he has been leaked – and is publicizing – classified information? The leftwing, anti-Israel sites are lapping this up. But my guess is Sidney just won himself an invite to a Grand Jury looking into leaks at the NSA:

The top U.S. intelligence official told Congress on Tuesday that Iran could move forward with the construction of a nuclear weapon at any time and that there is no way to know the Islamic Republic will build these weapons following the implementation of a landmark agreement hailed by the Obama administration as a definitive step towards preventing an Iranian nuclear bomb. James Clapper, the director of national intelligence, told Congress during an open hearing that despite an intelligence budget in the billions, his office remains uncertain about Iran’s nuclear intentions. “We do not know whether Iran will eventually decide to...

Russia has deployed the new version of the Pantsyr air defence system to its Humaymim airbase in Syria, footage broadcast by the RT news channel on 3 February has confirmed. Russia has had at least one Pantsyr-S1 at Humaymim since 3 October 2015, when its Ministry of Defence released a photograph showing one in the background.

Wartime U.S. presidents have taken keen personal interest in picking the most lethal gun for the military. But in President Obama's first foray into small-arms procurement for the armed forces, his Jan. 4 executive order on gun control directs the Pentagon to find ways to make not so much more lethal firearms, but safer ones. His direct order has brought a few snickers among retired combatants who argue that the commander in chief is issuing his directive at a time of more pressing small-arms priorities. The military, critics say, fields a flawed personal rifle and has spent more than a...

U.S. Army Sgt. Ivan Schwartz survived D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge by remaining very, very careful. Schwartz had landed on Utah beach, going ashore when the sand was littered with dead men and smashed vehicles. He carried rounds for an 81-millimeter mortar, survived a close call when Allied planes dropped bombs close to friendly lines, and strung wire for a field telephone to a forward observer post while under artillery fire — an act that earned him the Bronze Star.

Russian Kamov Ka-52 (NATO reporting name “Hokum-B”) helicopters would be about to deploy to Syria according to a source who talked to ITAR-TASS.