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

Michael Nelson / EPA

Police officers stand at attention during the funeral of Michael Crain, a Riverside, Calif., police officer and former Marine, at the Riverside National Cemetery on Feb.13, 2013. Ex-LAPD Officer Christopher Dorner is suspected in the killing of a police captain's daughter, her fiancé, Crain and Jeremiah MacKay, a San Bernardino sheriff's deputy. Dorner is believed to have been killed in a shootout at a cabin in the San Bernardino Mountains.

Jonathan Alcorn / Getty Images

A boy salutes the procession of police vehicles leaving the funeral service for Riverside police Officer Michael Crain on Wednesday.

The Orange County Register reported on Wednesday:

Officer Michael Crain loved being a policeman and was proud to serve his country -- but nothing in his life was more important than his family.

That was the message Wednesday as law enforcement officials from San Francisco to Indio joined family and friends in mourning the death of the 34-year-old Riverside Police Department officer who authorities believe was killed in an ambush by ex-Los Angeles Officer Christopher Dorner.

 

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Damian Dovarganes / AP

Riverside police Chief Sergio Diaz presents the flag to Regina Crain during a committal for her husband, Officer Michael Crain, at the Riverside National Cemetery.

Slideshow: Former Ariz. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords

J. Scott Applewhite / AP

A look at the Arizona lawmaker's rise to prominence — from high school to Capitol Hill.

Launch slideshow

By Kasie Hunt, NBC News

Former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' words during a brief opening statement at a Senate hearing on gun violence were careful, slow and deliberate.

But they were firm: "Too many children are dying," she said Wednesday, breaking up the syllables during her testimony to open a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on gun laws.

"It will be hard, but the time is NOW," said Giffords, who has embarked on an arduous recovery after being critically wounded at Tucson Safeway while meeting with constituents in early 2011. "You. Must. Act. Be bold. Be cour-ag-eous. Amer-i-cans are count-ing on you." Continue reading the full story.

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

Senate Judiciary Committee members, from left, Sen. John Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Sen. John Orrin Hatch (R-UT), ranking member Sen. John Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Sen. John Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Sen. John Charles Schumer (D-NY) and Sen. John Richard Durbin (D-IL) listen to testimony during a hearing about gun control on Capitol Hill on Jan. 30 in Washington, D.C.

Joe Klamar / AFP - Getty Images

A trash bin full of handguns collected during the LAPD Gun Buyback Program event in the Van Nuys area, north of downtown Los Angeles, on Wednesday, Dec. 26. By noon LAPD had collected more then 420 handguns, rifles and shotguns.

Joe Klamar / AFP - Getty Images

Rifles stick out of a trash bin collected during the LAPD Gun Buyback Program event in the Van Nuys area, north of downtown Los Angeles.

Joe Klamar / AFP - Getty Images

Cars come and go to bring guns during the LAPD Gun Buyback Program event in the Van Nuys area of Los Angeles.

For context about the number of guns in America, see this story by NBC's Tom Curry.

Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters

Female Afghan National Police (ANP) officers aim their weapons during a drill at a training center near the German Bundeswehr army camp Marmal in Mazar-e-Sharif, northern Afghanistan on Dec. 11.

Female Afghan National Police (ANP) officers trained alongside men at a training center near the German Bundeswehr army camp of Marmal in Mazar-e-Sharif, northern Afghanistan on Tuesday. German police are mentoring the training program for ANP, as part of an ongoing International Security Assistance Force mission, according to Reuters. Woman make up only 9 percent of the police force, according to The New York Times, as many husbands and provincial commanders are uncomfortable with women in such a role.

Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters

A female ANP officer receives her weapon for a drill at a training center near the German Bundeswehr army camp Marmal in Mazar-e-Sharif, northern Afghanistan on Dec. 11.

Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters

A German police instructor talks to female ANP officers before a drill at a training center near the German Bundeswehr army camp Marmal in Mazar-e-Sharif, northern Afghanistan on Dec. 11.

Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters

Male and female ANP officers line up before a drill at a training center near the German Bundeswehr army camp Marmal in Mazar-e-Sharif, northern Afghanistan on Dec. 11.

Fabrizio Bensch / Reuters

Male and female ANP officers take part in a drill at a training center near the German Bundeswehr army camp Marmal in Mazar-e-Sharif, northern Afghanistan on Dec. 11.

Previously on PhotoBlog:

• Michigan gun enthusiasts protest arrest in Birmingham
• Piecing together a fractured Afghanistan one limb at a time
• Relentless Afghan conflict leaves traumatized generation
• Afghan women learn literacy through mobile phones
• Staying up-to-date on beauty tips, even in Afghanistan

Slideshow: Afghanistan: Nation at a crossroads

Daniel Berehulak / Getty Images

More than ten years after the beginning of the war, Afghanistan faces external pressure to reform as well as ongoing internal conflicts.

Launch slideshow

Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters

Soldiers stand guard during a public destruction of confiscated weapons in Lara, Venezuela, Nov. 30, 2012.

Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters

Weapons are lined up during a public destruction of confiscated weapons in Lara, Venezuela, Nov. 30.

Carlos Garcia Rawlins / Reuters

A worker destroys a shotgun during a public destruction of confiscated weapons in Lara, Venezuela, Nov. 30.

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Jorge Cabrera / Reuters

Riot police detain an injured peasant farmer as they evict protesters near the Supreme Court in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, on August 21, 2012.

Honduran riot police fired tear gas to remove farmers who had set up barricades and burned tires to block a main avenue near the Supreme Court in the capital Tegucigalpa on Tuesday, Reuters reports.

The protesters were demanding that a decree that would have the effect of disarming farmers in Bajo Aguan be ruled unconstitutional by the court.

The Honduran Congress approved a law earlier this month prohibiting the public possession and transportation of guns in Colon, a region of the country where drug trafficking and other agrarian conflicts are blamed for the killings of more than 60 people in the past three years.

At least 20 of the farmers were detained after attacking policemen with rocks during the protest, local media reported.

Previously on PhotoBlog:

• Farmers seize land from one of the wealthiest men in Honduras
• Hunt for drug traffickers terrorizes Honduras village

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David Guralnick /The Detroit News via AP

Chris Combs, of Troy, left, and Stephanie Locke, of Clawson, cross the street in downtown Birmingham, Mich. while participating in a protest by gun enthusiasts Monday, June 11. The protest is in support of eighteen-year-old Sean Michael Combs, of Troy, who was arrested in Birmingham on April 13 while carrying a rifle. Combs was charged with brandishing a weapon, disturbing the peace, and obstructing a police officer.

David Guralnick / The Detroit News via AP

Shaun McElroy, left, of Chesterfield, shakes hands with Sean Michael Combs while participating in a protest on Combs behalf in Birmingham, Mich. on Monday, June 11. Combs, of Troy, was arrested in Birmingham on April 13 after strolling the downtown area while carrying a rifle. He was charged with brandishing a weapon, disturbing the peace, and obstructing a police officer.

From The Detroit News: Birmingham— Gun toting advocates filled the Birmingham commission chambers Monday night, displaying their firearms in holsters and strapped to their backs in protest of charges against a teen they say had the legal right to do the same in public.

"It seems like cooler heads should prevail and the charges should fall," said Dave Campbell, a Westland resident involved with AR15.com, a website and resource center for gun supporters. Continue reading this story from the Detroit News here.

Related Link:

• Some 15 million women in the U.S. carry firearms

David Mcfadden / AP

Police officers carry seized handguns, zip-tied into bundles, to a waiting truck at the police armory, in Kingston, Jamaica on Feb. 7. Roughly 2,000 seized guns were transported to a local cement factory and melted down by police and UN officials.

David Mcfadden / AP

Handguns seized by police sit piled together on the floor of the police armory in Kingston, Jamaica Feb. 7. Roughly 2,000 seized guns were zip-tied into bundles, transported to a local cement factory and melted down by police and UN officials.

Roughly 2,000 firearms were melted down in a blazing furnace Tuesday as part of an effort designed to combat gun trafficking and corruption in Jamaica while reducing violent crime.

Police, government and U.N. officials destroyed pistols and revolvers by pitching them into a kiln glowing bright orange at a cement factory in the capital of Kingston. Most of the guns were decommissioned or seized in police operations over the years.

"The removal will help to reduce the risks of these weapons being possibly diverted back into the illicit trade," National Security Minister Peter Bunting said at the Jamaica Constabulary Force armory.

-- David McFadden, Associated Press

Related links:

• U.S. guns fuel Jamaica's gang wars

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