Free Republic

Few Americans could fathom the notion that the United States is so indebted to China that one of Beijing’s spies could get away with espionage – especially with an White House in love with espionage prosecutions. But that might be the only reasonable explanation for the Obama administration’s decision to pass on prosecuting a State Department contractor who was allegedly paid thousands of dollars to someone believed to be a Chinese agent seeking information on Americans. According to Fox News, a November 2014 FBI affidavit that was filed in U.S. district court in Maryland indicates that the FBI launched a...

How an Americanist devoted to destroying international alliances became the US envoy to the UNIn the heat of the battle over the Florida vote after the 2000 US presidential election, a burly, mustachioed man burst into the room where the ballots for Miami-Dade County were being tabulated, like John Wayne barging into a saloon for a shoot-out. "I'm with the Bush-Cheney team, and I'm here to stop the count," drawled John Bolton. And those ballots from Miami-Dade were not counted.Now that same John Bolton has been named by President Bush as the US ambassador to the UN. "If I were...

U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- A large number of people who wish to disarm the population start with the premise “If there weren't any guns”, as if, with extreme restrictions on owning and using guns, guns will eventually go away. Under extreme legal restrictions, the number of guns has increased. I recall a prominent talk show host in southern California, wailing about confiscated guns being sold: “But if that happens, we will never be rid of guns!” he cried as if his wish were plausible.Guns are a 700 to 100-year-old technology. Guns can, and are, being made in homes and small shops around...

Marine Corps Systems Command is equipping Marines with the updated M2A1 .50-caliber machine gun, increasing Marines’ survivability and lethality on the battlefield. The M2A1 is an upgrade to the legacy M2 machine gun currently used by Marines across the Corps. The updated M2A1 is easier and safer to use due to three major changes: a quick-change barrel, fixed headspace and timing, and a flash hider that reduces the weapon’s signature by 95 percent at night, according to a recent Marine Corps Systems Command press release. “M2s are the most reliable heavy machine gun,” said Maj. Harry Thompson, team lead for...

On August 24 officials from the Obama administration will be attending the UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) conference in Mexico City. The ATT was signed by Secretary of State John Kerry on September 25, 2013 but never ratified by the US Senate. Nevertheless, Gun Owners of America reports that Obama officials will be in Mexico City for the conference. Breitbart News previously reported that the ATT is an international gun control treaty designed to be implemented apart from, or in spite of, the general framework of governance for countries that are signatories to it. Thus, while it will not do...

Going through some of the high-minded but empty-headed writings of the Small Arms Survey, an NGO sponsored by a Swiss do-gooder institute that’s an offshoot of the League of Nations that prevented European war (wait… what?) one is shocked by some of the moronic drivel written there. All the usual suspects of hack advocacy are there: “many experts say” without naming one such expert; “it is generally accepted” followed by some tendentious, extreme, and woolly-headed assertion; or “the peer-reviewed literature generally” prior to repeating some assumption that underlies a raft of bad research. It is hackery wrapped in bad faith,  shackled by...

Second Amendment: The United Nations is putting the finishing touches on an Arms Trade Treaty that transcends borders and may even trample our Constitutional right to bear arms. Every indication is that the president will sign it. Like the New Start and Law of the Sea treaties before it, as well as the Kyoto Protocol and Agenda 21, the Arms Trade Treaty being finalized at the U.N. this month is one of those feel-good, can't-we-all-get-along pieces of parchment whose net effect is to accomplish little except to eat away at American sovereignty and freedom. Just as the world's worst human...

New York, NY --(Ammoland.com)- Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) proponents have lied from the beginning. And they persist in attempts to reassure people in countries that allow civilian firearm ownership that the ATT will not affect their national laws. We are told the Treaty will basically affect the illegal transfer of weapons, but not lawful civilian ownership. BullS#!t! That’s the Big Lie. Proponents insist that they only wish to control “illicit” weapons. That limited goal was repeated many times, and is the reason why so many countries agreed to hold Treaty talks. We are told that the control of lawfully possessed...

Those in a panic over the expected loss of 2nd Amendment rights should the UN Small Arms Treaty be adopted need to understand two very important facts: 1) the Treaty has no chance of garnering the 2/3rds vote necessary for senate approval; and 2) a real UN sponsored threat to gun rights in the US and globally does exist, going under the acronym of ISACS, “International Small Arms Control Standards.” The UN has been actively working to disarm private individuals and a fair number of nations for thirty years. From its inception in 1982 to the current United Nations Office...

A month ago I wrote about the Obama administration's decision last October to participate in the writing of a United Nations treaty to regulate the small-arms trade. Given the Obama team's ideological commitment to that agenda, we need to develop a strategy to stop that treaty from ever reaching the United States Senate. Last October, for the first time in history...(cont'd)

GENEVA (AFP) – Ballooning US demand and the handgun's surge in popularity drove up the global trade in small arms by more than a quarter between 2000 and 2006, a UN-backed study showed Thursday. Those weapons in the hands of civilians, security forces or armed groups were behind the deaths of 450,000 people, said the authors of the Small Arms Survey 2009. Pistols, revolvers, rifles and heavy machine guns accounted for 60 percent of deaths through intentional violence of any kind, including the use of bombs, knives or bare hands, whether in conflicts or crime, the experts said. By 2006,...

After Words: Larry Kahaner, author of "AK-47: The Weapon That Changed the Face of War," interviewed by Peter Singer On Saturday, December 9 at 9:00 pm EASTERN: repeats Sunday, December 10 at 6:00 pm and at 9:00 pm on BookTV (C-Span2 weekends) Description: In his book, "AK-47: The Weapon That Changed the Face of War," author Larry Kahaner traces the rifle’s role in wars from Vietnam to Iraq. According to the author, no tool has spread so much raw power to so many people in so little time in the history of warfare. Mr. Kahaner discusses the book with Peter...

CREDIT: CP PHOTO/Adrian Wyld Detective Sergeant Greg Getty gestures towards guns seized during recent police raids at a news conference at police headquarters in Toronto, Friday. Police says 106 suspected members and affiliates of the Jamestown Crew -- considered one of the city’s most violent gangs -- were arrested Thursday. OTTAWA — Canadians want a tighter grip on the flow of guns and ammunition in and out of the country, according to a survey released Monday. A report by the Control Arms Campaign, a joint initiative by Amnesty International, Oxfam International and the International Action Network on Small Arms,...

After Port Arthur, Australia set off a universal gun-control revolution TODAY we remember the Port Arthur murder victims in church services and vigils, prayers and concerts, books and documentaries. The cross listing their names overlooks the memorial garden, a quiet place for contemplation and tears in honour of those so brutally slain on April 28, 1996. Another memorial to those killed and wounded on that awful day is less visible or tangible but powerful nonetheless: Australia's nationally uniform gun laws. Out of horror and insanity, something positive and rational was forged. Ten years later it is hard to believe the...

A/CONF.192/2006/PC/CRP.7 9 January 2006 English only Preparatory Committee for the United Nations Conference to Review Progress Made in the Implementation of the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects New York, 9-20 January 2006 IMPORTANCE OF THE SUBJECT ON CIVILIAN POSSESSION IN THE COMBAT AGAINST THE ILLICIT TRADE OF SMALL ARMS AND LIGHT WEAPONS (CONCEPT PAPER SUBMITTED BY MEXICO) According to the Center for Humanitarian Dialogue, 60% of the global stockpile of small arms and light weapons is in hands of civilians. The users range from...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 19, 2005 – A U.S. Marine was killed by small-arms fire in Ramadi, Iraq, Dec. 18, military officials announced today. The name of the deceased, assigned to the 2nd Marine Division, 2nd Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward), is being withheld pending notification of next of kin. In other news, soldiers from three Iraqi battalions kicked off a cordon-and-knock operation, called Operation Moonlight, east of Ubaydi today. The operation is aimed at disrupting insurgent activities along the Euphrates River, officials said. Operation Moonlight participants include soldiers from 1st Brigade, 1st Iraqi Army Division, backed up by U.S. troops from 3rd...

12/16/2005 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- Thirty people from the military security forces of five countries gathered for a coalition weapons training exercise at a desert air base Dec. 15. The training was a cooperative training program to enhance international understanding within the security forces, said Master Sgt. Kevin Follis of the 386th Expeditionary Security Forces Squadron. The sergeant works with the squadron’s combat arms training and maintenance section. “We wanted to build a better working relationship between all defense forces on base,” he said. Participants chose from nine types of firearms using 9 mm or 5.56 mm ammunition or...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 22, 2005 – Two Task Force Freedom soldiers were killed Nov. 19 by small-arms fire while on patrol in Mosul, Iraq, officials said today. The soldiers' names are being withheld pending next of kin notification. In other news from Iraq, after witnessing insurgents firing from their car into another car on Nov. 21, killing a civilian driver, Iraqi troops chased the insurgents but lost sight of them. Later, they received a tip about where the insurgents lived, entered the home, positively identified the shooter and arrested him and four others. The soldiers are members of the 3rd Battalion,...

UN meets next week to chart progress on suppressing illicit trade in small arms 8 July 2005 – Calling small arms the real weapons of mass destruction because of their daily toll on human life, the heads of a conference next week to review how United Nations Member States have implemented a programme to eliminate the trade in illicit weapons today said that despite some progress, much more needed to be done. The Chairman of the Biennial Meeting of States on the illicit small arms trade, Pasi Patokallio of Finland, said the welcome news included the entry into force a...

VIENNA, Austria - Iran is quietly building a stockpile of thousands of high-tech small arms and other military equipment - from armor-piercing snipers' rifles to night-vision goggles - through legal weapons deals and a U.N. anti-drug program, according to an internal U.N. document, arms dealers and Western diplomats. The buying spree is raising Bush administration fears the arms could end up with militants in Iraq. Tehran also is seeking approval for a U.N.-funded satellite network that Iran says it needs to fight drug smugglers, stoking U.S. worries it could be used to spy on Americans in Iraq or Afghanistan -...