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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.
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- '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:
Picture #4 says it all, and "Big Bubba" is a laugh as far as survial is concerned, couldn't run for it if he ever had to.
Ya know, I was leaning towards a little more common sense GUN measures. Maybe banning a few high powered, high capacity weapons, maybe better mental health/ back ground checks and maybe a liability tax on ammo. After this kind of CRAZY CRAP - This country needs to amend the Second amendment and really put a dent in the degenerates.
Keep preaching. People like you have sold more guns in this country than the survivalists could have ever dreamed of.
clown must be a felon
My high school had a rifle club. No one was ever shot or threatened with a gun.
OK guys you were a little weak hitting the buffet, you know the rules no fruits or veggies just animal protein and fried foods. Some of you caught up at the Sundae Bar, good job all around.
lol They should be hunting Twinkies!
LOL. If we were to throw the word "Muslim" in front of this groups title, they'd be called a terrorist group. I wonder how many of these "Patriots" and "future Patriots" have or will actually grow up to join the armed forces and actually defend their country instead of running around in the woods pretending to be a "Patriot"?
Well, that's because of the real connection between Islam and terrorism. These people are not terrorists.
The danger is not that kids are learning how to manage firearms. The danger is that they are being exposed to the paranoid delusions of survivalists who imagine that the government is coming to take their guns away and leave them vulnerable to "spics, spooks, jews, and liberals". < the ratial epithets were merely a literary device>
Who is the paranoid one?
the survivalists who think the government is going to take away their guns.
If there is ever a Zombie Apocalypse, then the skills this hillbilly trash is teaching his kids may come in handy. In the 21st Century Information Economy....these are future welfare recipients...he thinks guns will prevent him from becoming a "slave". He is too simple to realize that it is HIS actions that are making the kids slaves...
Hey look another liberal racist hate monger.
I find it hilarious that gun nuts call shooting guns "survivalist skills." lol I hope they can shoot water pure and shoot fresh vegetables to grow. I wonder if they can shoot protective shelters up or tell time and direction with a Commie rifle?
Survivalist my ass! And BTW "Gun Experts" - you're playing with Commie/Terrorist guns. Didn't your daddies ever teach you that? I thought you were ALL AMERICAN.
And that fat kid is gonna get his eye shot out.
What a total waste of time! No wonder many Americans remain ignorant most of their lives!
This is a great idea ! It teaches self reliance and suvival skills, instills self confidence for the kids and they
won't grow up to be Obama ass-lickers !
I will look into this for myself.
Jim Foster ate all those people. And probably the puppy.
exactly the type of people that should NOT be allowed to own guns. scary that these idiots are allowed to "raise" children.
I wonder if that's what Jesus would do, teach children how to use guns.
The next generation of stuck on stupid.
Training for the next school shooter.
White culture! Gringo culture! This is the way Gringos bond with their children! Don't you guys know anything? And then they think Taliban is strange, weird and dangerous!
Imagine the psychology of these kids??? These are the new "kid soldiers" like in Congo, Sudan...etc. They are going to be ruthless and will slit any Joe's or Jane's throat in Florida without remorse or regret. But these White people deserve each other. Look at Florida's Governor...he looks like a Nazi and talks like one!
The map for secession (everyone should sign): Everything from Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, Florida will be one country. The United States of Gun Slinging Mercenaries and Kid Soldiers (who cannot read but can shoot). Democrats from these States will be given refugees passports to the rest of the continent.
New Jersey, New York and New England States will be the new United States of Bankers and Financiers (that everybody will be waging cyber war against for taking their money and screwing their lives) who hire people from United States of Gun Slinging Mercenaries to defend their corruption.
West Coast of the US will be the new Unites States of Sane and Sensible people who will ask the UN for a new membership and protection.
Sign the secession petition now! :)) You guys don't know the half of it!
The west coast is nothing but "wetbacknation" that lives on welfare from the heartland.
"Next school shooter"??????????????????????
I dont think any of the school shooters have had proper training like this. The training also comes with a respect for guns and what they can do, the very thing ALL of the school shooters have lacked.
It is paramount that these kids leard how to defend themselves from communist liberals and kill them if they must.
actually Adam Lanza's mother took him to the range to teach him to shoot....
My wife can protect herself from a rapist with a handgun but my daughter in DC can't. Why can't my daughter own a handgun to prevent a destroying event in her life like rape just like the 2nd amendment guarantees she can? Why are the gun control nutz pro rapist and anti women?
Those youngsters do not have experience in good judgement or the maturity of the adults who are teaching this kind of activity with guns. Those parents are responsible for those youngsters until they are 18. All it takes is one mistake of mishandling a gun when they either shoot themselves or someone else by mistake. Those parents have to be accountable and will have to live with the outcome. Is that worth it? I call it insanity. Now we have to wonder if some of those parents fit into the mental impaired, who perhaps shouldn't even have guns.
I
I find interesting what people are affraid of and how they they choose to expose this fear. The people in these photos seem to be affraid that one day they will be forced to defend their lives or their way of life through one scenario or another. And to combat this concern they train themselves to defend themselves and survive in inhospitable circumstances while training their children to do the same. The scenarios for which they train seem unlikely to me, but should the hsit hit the fan, they will be right and I will be wrong. Should things remain relatively the same for the remainder of our lives: all that will have happened is they spent their money, used their time and raised their children exactly as they wanted.
What's seems a little harder to pin down is the reaction to these photos. If one has a reasonable argument to put forth it seems that presenting these ideas in a rational and respectful manner would be in order. I mean, if you're arguing for something it stands to reason that (ultimately) you're trying to convince the parties with whom you disagree that they are in ere. But it only takes a cursory glance through the posts on this thread to see that isn't often the case. Insults and demeaning epithets seem to formulate a great many of the points being put forth. Of course, there is a certain sense of security that comes from screen names and avatars. In this we have a certain measure of fear and its exposure.
More insane gun nutz. It is the job of our military to defend our country, not a group of backwoods nut jobs.
How to ensure the extinction of our species in ten easy lessons.
Welcome to America, where we are free to do as we choose. I see nothing wrong with what these folks are doing, it's their prerogative. Shooting guns is more American than apple pie. At least these kids are learning safety and responsibility instead of simply learning to kill kill kill on X-Box...
Loonies.