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Brian Blanco / Reuters
Jim Foster, leader of the North Florida Survival Group, radios group members to check their status as they perform a land navigation drill.
Brian Blanco / Reuters
A member of the North Florida Survival Group puts a mask on his son as they gear up to perform enemy contact drills in a wooded area during a field training exercise in Old Town, Florida.
Reuters -- The North Florida Survival Group group trains children and adults to handle weapons and survive in the wild. The group passionately supports the right of U.S. citizens to bear arms and its website states that it aims to teach "patriots to survive in order to protect and defend our Constitution against all enemy threats." Photographer Brian Blanco writes about his experience:
Jim Foster is a 57-year-old former police officer and the leader of the North Florida Survival Group. Jim was the man who, after feeling out my intentions in a two-hour meeting at a chain restaurant a few weeks earlier, had granted me permission to photograph his group’s field training exercise. It was an opportunity I snatched up without hesitation. It’s not every day that a photojournalist gets an invitation to shoot a militia gathering. Understandably, they tend to be fairly secretive groups who don’t exactly keep the media on their Christmas card lists.
Foremost on their minds was gun confiscations. Meeting the group just a few weeks after the re-election of Barack Obama, the prevailing concern among the group was when the next gun ban would be coming and how they should stockpile ammunition and weapons to prepare for it.
Read more on the Reuters Photographers Blog.
Editor's note: Pictures taken on Dec. 8, 2012 and made available to NBC News today.
Brian Blanco / Reuters
Brianna, 9, of the North Florida Survival Group hands an AK-47 rifle to Jim Foster, 57, the group's leader, before heading out to conduct enemy contact drills.
Brian Blanco / Reuters
A young boy sits on a toy, upset because his sister got to carry the rifle that he wanted.
Brian Blanco / Reuters
Jim Foster (center) critiques the performance of group members during an enemy contact drill.
Related on PhotoBlog:
- 'Teeth of the Constitution:' Light Foot Militia rises in Idaho's backcountry
- Missile launcher appears at Seattle gun buyback event
- White House releases photo of Obama firing gun
Leave a Comment:
Talk about a bunch of morons. Future school shooters in the making.
The morons are the dumbed-down libs in California. Future food stamp collectors in the making.
http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_22509069/california-abandons-algebra-requirement-eighth-graders
The future of the "country"? Oh shi(r)t!
Future freedom fighters & soldiers to protect your so called free & safe society.
LOL, my god you people are retarded. Child abuse? LMFAO! You liberal pieces of trash KNOW that these kids are training for the day YOUR kids try to rob them. Teach your kids to be good citizens and quit telling them they are entitled to what other people work for. For the guy hoping one of the kids off themself on accident - @!$%# you. I hope the kid reads your comment, knows who you are, and shoots YOU before they are old enough to be tried as an adult.
The voice of a stable mind........
Clown, if there is any reason for everybody owning a gun, it's to defend themselves from you and "The Grand Supreme General Wizard Dragon."
However, a lot of the kids will figure out the grand general will never lead them in a fight, in fact he will never get too far away from the dinner table and they're being used.
If they go out and get killed, the grand wizard will pack a couple of turkeys in a suitcase for lunch and go look for more suckers to go fight, steal and die for him. In the name of liberty, justice, the constitution, God, the girl next door, apple pie and any other buzz word he can use to get obedience.
What are you even talking about? More fantasy land liberal BS that has absolutely nothing to do with the story or the comment you are replying to. Grand Dragon - LOL!
Yep AMERICA, Clown is the type of maniac that doesn't want any kind of limitation on what weaponry he can obtain - He is most likely a felon with a criminal background. The gun owners that have committed a felony after already have weapons or the ones that either bought the weapons through a straw seller, gun show or hillbilly neighbor down the street are the ones screaming the loudest about and change.
Time to amend the Second Amendment to reflect the 21st Century weaponry and re-evaluated every few years.
Well, Rev if you say so it must be true. Actually, I'm a prospective NRA member who doesn't want guns in the hands of felons. You on the other hand are a liberal that doesn't want felons in the hands of prison guards. Now please excuse me while I go off to the gun show to get some fully automatic heat seeking 50 cal rounds and some beltfed submarine guns through the gun show loophole. Oh, wait, that's right. There is no gun show loophole. Liberal fantasy from a lier who claims to love america but really hates it.
Clown, tell me about your belt-fed submarine gun. It sound like an awesome weapon. Does it shoot bullets out of the top barrel and torpedoes out of the bottom?
better to be a gun owner "nut" than an idiot anti-gun freak.
You are correct. Guns are for pussies. Just ask Ted Nugent. He's always wanting to stick his gun in one and pull the trigger.
Nancy Lanza said that same thing, right up until her son shot her to death and went on a massacre.
William, when did Nancy Lanza say that? Did you know her?
Who cares? The survivalists are right: we're all doomed, anyway.
As usual reading these stories my only question is Texas or Florida??
Man I just can't get over how stupid liberals are. I just read that out of 87000 people tested for drugs, only ONE failed. You would have to be liberally retarted to belive that.
GED first, anything else second.
LOL good for you you can spell. Anyone who makes a spelling error or typo is obviously less intelligent.
No, but this site has "spell check". LOL indeed.
Not needed when dealing with focused people who can stay on topic. I;ll be a little more careful not to upset your sensitivities.
Wow! Disney World for gun nuts!! Who knew? They even have a lame kids ride (Thomas)!
Gee, a pouty couch potato didn't get his gun.
What's the worst that could happen when he gets it??
Oh, yeah..........
Just give the lad another 12 years or so of the end of the world talk and poof, American with gun and grudge one more time.
A young boy sits on a toy, upset because his sister got to carry the rifle that he wanted.
Is that what was actually happening here, or possibly just the reporter's (media's) opportunity to yet again show their anti-gun bias?
50 years ago, if it was in print, you could pretty well rely on it being factual. Now the media has shown in so many ways, in so many instances, that we can no longer rely on it to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.
ok
that looks like serious military training and those kids are going to know how to do it for sure my only question is why when speaking of ships are they sometimes refered to as a she
way out of my leauge
take their guns away and they become nothing...
Exactly right, they'll be nothing but slaves and serfs ...
This almost as weird as when the DNC has public school kids sing paens of praise to Obama;
Video of the students at the Burlington, N.J., school shows them singing songs seemingly overflowing with campaign slogans and praise for "Barack Hussein Obama," repeatedly chanting the president's name and celebrating his accomplishments, including his "great plans" to "make this country's economy No. 1 again."
One song that the children were taught quotes directly from the spiritual "Jesus Loves the Little Children," though Jesus' name is replaced with Obama's: "He said red, yellow, black or white/All are equal in his sight. Barack Hussein Obama."
"I felt this was reminiscent of 1930s Germany, and the indoctrination of children to worship their leader," said Robert Bowen, father of two children at Bernice Young Elementary.
Amazingly MSNBC failed to report this. Why do we think that was?
Because it's all part of a giant liberal DNC plot that only you were smart enough to see through? What a paranoid tool.....
I think Lenin referred to people like you as 'useful idiots' ...
I see you studied up on Lenin. Now, if they'd only offered a class in common sense.....
This guy should be going to Jenny Craig instead!
You're right, he's as fat as Michael Moore - almost
Not to fear. These Militia groups have come and always gone down to the FBI and ATF. Ask the people from Ruby Ridge and Waco TX. if any are still alive in prison. Nice to know that Skeeter and the Boys are still around playing out their combat/solider fantasies.
Actually the 'boys' at Ruby Ridge sued the Government and won millions from the government for their murders of children and women. Lon Horuchi(?) the FBI sniper who killed the woman holding a baby was hidden away to prevent murder charges being filed - I think they ended up firing him - after all if you can;'t hit a baby at 250 yards, what kind of FBI sniper are you.
They are still dead and as for money your tax dollars at work.
I guess you are right, there's absolutely nothing worse than dying is there?
Give a kid a machine gun,what's the worst that could happen??
If that SEMI AUTOMATIC AK was a machine gun, you'd have a point, but it isn't so you don't.
I love how the right wing-nuts keep bringing up "confiscating" their guns when no one has said anything about confiscating guns. They love their conspiracy theories so much they must stay up all night just to think the next one up. Training children as "survivalists" is about as low as you can go. I thought the tea-baggers had hit bottom but they proved me wrong. What's next -- bazookas in cribs??
Nobody except Pelosi, Bloomberg and Cuomo (right off the top of my head) , not to mention liberal media outlets. I'm sure all the others who say 'We would never ever do that; just trust us' are completely honest.
OBTW, you do know that bazookas are so outdated, almost no-one knows what they are, right?
You do know that conspiracy theories and tea-bagger philosophy is so outdated that no one cares how stupid they are??
If you really believe that, here's one for you: www.examiner.com/article/oregon-democrats-propose-gun-confiscation-bill-requiring-warrantless-inspections
It wasn't that hard to find. Took about 2 seconds on Google.
2 seconds is about right for the length of time that the wing-nuts can concentrate. You could have saved at least 1 of those seconds and just quoted the fat loud-mouth druggie speaker for all republicans the one and only (thank goodness) rush Limpbutt!
Actually, I am what the "wing-nuts" would call a liberal commie bastard, or something to that effect. I just happen to enjoy the facts and reason, instead of emotion and hyperbole. You should try it!
And I would rather shoot myself in the face than listen to that fat, hypocritical, @$$hole.
The funny thing is that I've never met a republian who listens to Rush. His audience is mostly liberal P'sOS who love to hate him.
Dude, really not trying to insult you but do you intentionally not pay attention to anything that upsets your frail sense of being. There is a bill in NYS (my home state) where all weapons need to be registered and those deemed illegal either have to be turned in to the state or shiped out of state. Grow up
Just when I think GOP self-delusion cannot rise to another level.............
William, you're an Idiot.
Gee Mo with your attitude we should just let the Government of china move into the White house or better yet how about Obama friends & family from the Middle East. I heard his followers & wife yelling Heil Obama before the election. Are a believer???
Consider for a moment
If we remove the weapons and the presumption something is off kilter, I see parents interacting with their children, having a relationship, and enjoying a past time that is very much alive and well outside of urban cities.
Consider for a moment that Carlos Hathcock - our most decorated Marine sniper - grew up in Arkansas and learned to shoot at a young age. His ability in Vietnam to save lives (and take), including the influence on sniping in the military, was from knowing how to handle a weapon
Parents and kids have hunting and shooting events all the time. Does that make them crazy or sinister? I think not
if anything, we should bring back shooting and firearms handling so proper firearms technique and safety can be taught properly and consistently.
BTW - for all the racist and uninformed comments about "rednecks", this inner city kid would gladly hang out with his Southern "redneck" friends any day, any time, over my urban "liberal" friends. I like you both but I tend to like down to earth real over elitist pontification.
Does this really surprise you? This is NO DIFFERENT than the ALQeda camps in Pakistan * the middle east. They are breeding hate and the only way to solve problems are with an automatic rifle.
N.R.A------Al Qeda, no difference...
So now we hear the great opinion of another moron. The NRA does not preach hate-that is just a lie generated by the types like you.
2 seconds is about right for the length of time that the wing-nuts can concentrate. You could have saved at least 1 of those seconds and just quoted the fat loud-mouth druggie speaker for all republicans the one and only (thank goodness) rush Limpbutt!
You win the dickhead award of the day.
The supporters of schools teaching correct homosexual techniques and safe drug use really don't like this story.
Every adult involved should be charged endangerment, neglect and anything else related. Their children should be permanently removed from the homes. There is no place in 21st century American society for these simpletons.
I'll swear out a warrant for their arrest as soon as you can tell me what law they have broken.
People like you are what they need the training for. Fascist bastards trying to eliminate anyone who thinks differently. Do you ever get tired of being compared to Hitler? You probably think it's perfectly fine to smoke around your kids and let them eat peanut butter by the jar full, hugh? A regular at the mcdonalds drive through no doubt.
Come and try to charge me for teaching my children how to safely handle a weapon. we should charge all you Obama idiots who talk like this for letting your children run around all day disrespecting their teachers and every other authority figure. You are the runner up for the dick head award for the day. I have lost all civility when dealing with you people.
Who are they expecting to run up against in the woods with all that military hardware, the Chinese army? If they continue to back anti-Obama recovery and in fact support government overthrow they will be learning Mandarin Chinese, as there's no chance the kids and the fat man will be able to stave off the Red Army.
I just hope they don't have to run from anything in the woods. This bunch, kids included, is in dire need of physical conditioning.
A bunch of retards running around in the woods with lethal weapons teaching their kids to be retards with lethal weapons. Lovely.
This sight is crawling with paranoid liberals.
Lol - "paranoid liberals" but righties are the ones who think they need "survivalist camps" where they have "enemy encounter drills." Who is paranoid again?
repub.....A wise man once said good luck is when planning meets opportunity.
Exactly, the "paranoid liberals".
Please stay a private militia, we don't want obese cretins protecting us from the gubment they hate. In all seriousness, the children are the only ones that belong there; I gave up playing army a long time ago, these adults should consider doing the same.
Boy pouting on Thomas the Train can go home and get the AK-47 and clips, kill his sister for having it first, kill the parents, and if he is trying for most killed, hopefully will kill all the survivalists at camp before going public. Good thing he knows how to handle it. Only in Florida! Stand your ground, killers. Too bad when 'old sparky' died it was not replaced with firing squads.