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As the First Committee (Disarmament and International Security) continued its general debate this morning, the United States representative told delegates that his Government had proposed measures to reinvigorate the Committee, because only a more effective body could give today’s priority security issues the full consideration that they deserved. The international community had confronted some of those security issues for decades, but others had emerged only recently, he said. His country welcomed the valuable recommendations submitted by governments to the Secretary-General on practical ways to improve the effectiveness of the methods of the work of the Committee and had tabled a...

Huge Weapons Shipment Seized At Port PORTLAND - Federal officials announced late Wednesday the seizure of possibly the largest shipment of weapons ever found in the northwest from Terminal Six at the Port of Portland. Officials with the US Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and extension of the Department of Homeland Security said inspectors seized more than 700 handguns, 900 magazines, and 450 shotguns from a container at the port on June 28. The CBP said the shipment was bound for Central America, and originated in the People's Republic of China. Authorities say they learned of the...

The Army’s new chief of staff is tearing a page from the Marine Corps playbook and insisting that every soldier consider himself “a rifleman first.” “Everybody in the United States Army’s gotta be a soldier first,” Gen. Peter Schoomaker told reporters during an Oct. 7 roundtable meeting with reporters in Washington. The specialization of jobs in the Army pulled the service away from the notion that every soldier must be grounded in basic combat skills, he said. But Iraq has demonstrated that no matter what a soldier’s military occupational specialty is, he must be able to conduct basic combat tasks...

FORT BENNING, Ga. Dismounted Battlespace Battle Lab’s lightweight shotgun system is undergoing operational inspection and test firing for 200 shotguns to be fielded to the 10th Mountain Division for future use in Afghanistan. The 10th Mountain will field the lightest variation of the 12-gauge shotgun system, which attaches under the M-4 carbine and weighs 2 pounds, 11 ounces — less than the M-203 grenade launcher. The system is a five-round, box-magazine-fed, manually operated shotgun. It uses a straight push-pull type bolt action that can be switched for either left or right-handed users. The attachment variation is 16.5 inches in length...

July 31, 2003 Release Number: 03-07-90 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE ONE SOLDIER KILLED, TWO WOUNDED IN SMALL ARMS ATTACK TIKRIT, Iraq – One 4th Infantry Division soldier was killed and two were wounded in a small arms attack at a tactical operation center July 30 at approximately 11:45 p.m. about 40 km east of Ba’qubah. The soldiers were evacuated to the 21st Combat Support Hospital for treatment. The soldiers’ names are being withheld pending next-of-kin notification.

The press is trumpeting the "failure" of the recent weapons 'Turn-In' program in Iraq. A few missing points:   We aren't disarming the Iraqis, as some irresponsible reporters are claiming - small arms are fine, RPGs and Seersucker missiles aren't.   The press didn't bother to report our 70 + days of successes following the liberation of Baghdad - of confiscating so much ammo one wrong flare could have blown holes in Baghdad big enough to hold the press corps and their egos.   How many weapons did we take in in Iraq in just 5 days last week?   From CENTCOM's DAILY police logs:   COALITION AND IRAQI...

THE POWER TO DESTROYGlobal tax on guns? Brazil, France propose international levy on arms sales to eliminate world hunger © 2003 WorldNetDaily.comSome world leaders at the G8 summit meeting are floating the idea of a global tax on arms sales, including – at French President Jacques Chirac's suggestion – a tax on gun purchases by individuals. In a speech at the annual meeting of the "Group of Eight," or G8, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pushed the arms-sales tax as a scheme whereby the world's wealthiest nations could fund efforts to eliminate world hunger, reports Bloomberg News. The...

In an open letter to the United Nations Security Council ahead of the Open Debate on Small Arms and Light Weapons which will be held on 11 October, Amnesty International called for tougher measures to control the export and use of small arms and light weapons. "Whilst we welcome the attention given to this important subject by the UN Security Council and the UN Scretary-General in his recent report, we are nevertheless concerned that the UN's recommendations on this subject do not go far enough on the key areas of supply and misuse of small arms". Amnesty International believes that...

Four major nongovernmental organizations have joined forces to urge the Bush administration to reverse its opposition to limiting the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons at the United Nations conference taking place in New York. The conference seeks to create mechanisms to control the flow of small arms to prevent their use in ways that violate international human rights and humanitarian law. In short, the goal is to keep small arms out of the hands of paramilitary forces and others who use weapons in illegal ways. U.S. Ambassador John Bolton stated on the opening day that the Administration...

Searching for the source of information that circulated on the WWW a week or so ago regarding the performance (or lack thereof) of U.S. Small Arms In Afghanistan. May also have been other than e-mail. Primary source believed to be via e-mail from unidentified author.

It has no moving parts. Yet, it can fire standard, small-caliber projectiles from multiple barrels at speeds up to one million rounds per minute. Is it still a gun? Its creators call it Metal Storm. No moving parts mean no jams in the traditional sense and a quiet operating mechanism. The high rate of fire is not just a function of the number of barrels. The cartridges are initiated with an electronic impulse. Building on earlier technology, successfully demonstrated over the past three years, Metal Storm continues to try to drag small arms technology—some might suggest kicking and screaming—into the...