Starting Your Armory

If you’ve decided to take your personal or home defense seriously, you’re probably researching buying a few firearms, or perhaps you already own one or more. The world of firearms can be confusing, so I wanted to cover a few points every prospective gun owner should consider.

First, you need to ask yourself what the objective is. Are you planning for home defense, or is the gun going to be used for self-defense away from home? Or do you plan on hunting, and if so, what are you going to be shooting at? This distinction will start you down the right path.

Second, what is your experience with weapons? If you grew up with guns and have practiced a lot, you’re in a much different place than the person who’s never touched one.

If you read gun enthusiast publications you’re likely to hear everything from ‘buy as many guns as you can afford’ to ‘buy as few guns as possible’ and everything in between. My advice is to buy the weapons you expect to need and become an expert with them.So let’s get on to building your armory.

One of the best starting points for your armory is a revolver or semi-auto handgun that you can use for home, self-defense and even emergency hunting, and you can carry it with you discreetly. My favorite weapon for this purpose is the .357 Magnum, an all-around gun that is effective, easy to use and flexible.

By flexible I mean it shoots several different types of ammo and the ammo is widely available. There’s an old saying that the best gun is one you have with you when you need it, and with the .357 you can carry it with you without too much trouble. If you want additional capacity, I like the Glock 23, a .40 caliber semi auto that gives you the ability to carry eight more rounds than the five-shot .357.However, a semi-auto is a much more complex weapon both from an operational and maintenance standpoint. More can go wrong… so be honest about your own skill level before buying one.

Once you have a trusted handgun, I recommend you acquire a firearm for home defense, and in my opinion the hands-down winner would be a 12 gauge pump shotgun.It is a powerful and extremely versatile gun, because you can vary your ammunition based on your needs. You can shoot birdshot, buckshot, slugs, darts (flechette rounds), explosive fragments, bean bags, pepper gas, tear gas, rock salt, rubber slugs/buckshot, pyrotechnic whistles, bolo’s and even flares.With that range of ammunition you can kill almost anything you can imagine, except hunt game at long distances.

Much of personal and home defense is deterrence, and this is where the pump shotgun really shines. If some thug is scouting your place and is carrying a knife or a handgun and you show up on the front doorwith a shotgun in hand, he’s going to move on. You see, even if you’re skilled with a handgun, a person can survive and even continue firing after being hit, but with a shotgun, you’re almost guaranteed a powerful, knock-down hit and serious bleeding.

Nobody wants to face an angry homeowner with a shotgun, even if she’s a 5′ grandma. If you suffer the misfortune of facing an intruder in your home, the sound of that shotgun pumping has been known to send intruders running away… quickly.

Once you have a handgun and a shotgun, you have covered 95% of your defense needs. Anyone in your home who might handle the gun in an emergency should spend a lot of time at the range, training and shooting with both weapons.

Your third, and final component to your armory should be a rifle.The rifle gives you the ability to hunt or take down threats at a distance, and in conjunction with your other two weapons will cover virtually every need you might have.

Choosing the right rifle involves an evaluation of the stopping power, the likely uses, the range of the weapon, availability of parts and ammunition, and the weight.I also like to own different weapons that can shoot the same ammo, since it makes buying and stockpiling ammunition easy.

If you’ve purchased the .357 I recommended, one great option would be a lever-action rifle that uses the .357 magnum rounds.A lever gun is the rifle equivalent of a revolver; easy to use, easy to clean and simple and reliable when you need it. I think of my lever gun like a hammer in my toolkit… it’s really that versatile.

Now, if you want something with greater range, I recommend the .308 rifle.It has more power and precision at distance than the .357 lever rifle.It’s great for hunting many different types of game and is more effective than higher-powered, similar rifles.

One of the great things about the .308 rifle is it can fire the 7.62x51mm NATO rifle cartridge, the same round fired by the best battle rifles in the world. This means that your available ammunition now includes the most-produced rifle cartridge in the world.

These three or four firearms will make for a very robust armory that will cover almost any need. If you can envision a scenario where these weapons will not meet your need, you should probably be worried about escape and evasion rather than fighting.

The post Starting Your Armory appeared first on Off The Grid News.

BREAKING: Man Who Sold Ammunition to Las Vegas Shooter Arrested on Felony Charges

The man who sold ammunition to the suspect in the Las Vegas shooting is facing five years in prison on felony charges of conspiracy to manufacture and sell armor-piercing ammunition.

The post BREAKING: Man Who Sold Ammunition to Las Vegas Shooter Arrested on Felony Charges appeared first on The Free Thought Project.

Conspiracy Theorists Were Right: Corporate Media Finally Forced to Admit America Armed ISIS

A new investigation has concluded that 97 percent of the weapons used by the Islamic State were supplied illegally by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia.

The Very Best Ammo For Home Defense

Image source: Pixabay.com

Previously, I wrote about my basic layout for home defense, and why I like to have my weapons laid out in such a specific way. In this article, I’ll go over my thought process for choosing ammunition, and what types of ammo I have throughout my house.

Generally speaking, I select the type of ammunition that will inflict the most damage if I ever have to use it.

Shotgun

As I’ve said before, in my opinion, home defense starts and ends with a shotgun. It is absolutely the best weapon that I own for self-defense. My 12-gauge shotgun is a permanent fixture above my nightstand, and it’s always loaded with Winchester PDX1 shells.

There are plenty of different home-defense shotguns, both slugs and buckshot. Choosing the best load for your shotgun should be based on your use. If your shotgun is primarily meant for close-range engagements, buckshot would be your best bet. If you might use it at further distances, a slug would perform admirably.

You Don’t Need A Firearms License For This Weapon!

My personal favorite round is Winchester PDX1. This specific round has three buck pellets surrounding a slug. The result is an extremely deadly round. However, there are plenty of different shotgun rounds that could meet your needs.

Handgun

Regardless of caliber, hollow-point ammunition is going to be your best bet for defense purposes. Jacketed hollow-point ammunition expands on impact, as opposed to traditional target ammo, which does not. For defense use, this means that once the bullet hits your target, it will expand and impact more tissue. As a result, the round is much deadlier. While it is more expensive, hollow point ammunition is worth it for defense purposes.

Rifle

There are a few different types of rounds used in 5.56 ammo that are used in AR-15s. There is the standard full-metal-jacket ball ammo, hollow-point ammo, and also barrier blind ammunition. Barrier blind is a relatively new type of ammunition, and represents the most modern ammunition technology. Based on initial testing, barrier-blind ammunition performs very well.

However, high-grain ball ammo and hollow-point ammo also perform well in AR platform firearms. In other rifles, most quality hunting ammunition will perform well for home defense use.

Overall, the number of different types of ammunition available can be overwhelming. As a general rule of thumb, more propellant means a faster bullet, which means a deadlier round. However, there are a few other things to keep in mind. Modern improvements in ammunition, such as jacketed hollow point and barrier-blind ammunition, perform extremely well. They do an excellent job expanding when they hit their target. This expansion creates a much deadlier round then the traditional full-metal-jacket range ammo. When it comes to shotguns, buckshot is probably your best bet, but once again, there is modern ammunition that has both a rifled slug and buckshot built into it.

What do you prefer for home defense ammo? Share your thoughts in the section below:

South Korea Unveils Plan To Strike North Korean Missile Launchers

North Korea launched its Hwasong-15 ICBM into the waters west of Japan at 3:17 am local time on Wednesday. Barely six minutes later, South Korean artillery, air force, and Navy sprang into action and began firing missiles into the waters off eastern Korea - yet another military show of force meant to intimidate the North into ceasing its missile strikes.

The retaliatory display was calibrated to target a spot in the waters off the Korean peninsula that was exactly as far away as Pyongsong, a town about 20 miles north of Pyongyang where the Hwasong 15 was reportedly launched. The distance was meant to signify that the South Korean military could destroy the North’s missile launchers if it chose to do so, the Wall Street Journal.

But while the precision strike probably impressed any bystanders who were watching, in reality, the South’s technology for detecting and responding to North Korean missile launches is still unreliable.

But detecting missile tests is an imperfect science, involving misses as well as hits. In a conflict situation, North Korea is likely to take more steps to conceal its movements, for instance by deploying decoy launchers, said Yang Uk, senior defense researcher at the Korea Defense and Security Forum, a Seoul think tank.

 

In such a scenario, the likelihood falls that South Korean, U.S. or Japanese forces would pinpoint the exact launch site, Mr. Yang said. Still, he viewed the South’s response to the missile test as a success, especially considering the short time the military needed to return fire.

 

A spokesman for the U.S.-led U.N. Command in Korea said no U.S. or other forces participated in the response.

 

“What we saw Wednesday was an active response to a North Korean missile launch that South Korea calls its ‘kill chain’ system’,” Mr. Yang said. The kill chain is part of a larger defense system designed to pre-emptively strike the North’s missile systems in the case of a nuclear attack.

 

South Korea this year installed a U.S.-operated Terminal High-Altitude Area Defense antimissile battery that can shoot down short- and medium-range missiles, complementing its Patriot PAC-2 antiballistic missile system.

 

The new battery has a longer-range, but it can’t cover the whole country.

A retired senior South Korean military official said that the South lacks a military satellite that can watch the North, although US and Japanese satellites share images with South Korean officials in real time.

Meanwhile, analysts said North Korean officials install devices onto missiles that generate signals and send them to ground-based control towers. The South has a way to tap into these signals and track the missiles, they said.

But in a real missile launch targeting a South Korean, Japanese or U.S. city, the North Koreans may choose not to install them, said Jo Dong-joon, deputy director of the Institute for Peace and Unification Studies at Seoul National University. This means that the South might have no way to track a hostile missile, Mr. Jo said.

The retired military official also noted that the South has a network of human intelligence in the North that may have tipped off Seoul officials about this week’s launch. He declined to give further details, citing security concerns.

Details on the South’s spy network in the North remain murky, but local media have reported in recent months that the South has lost most of its human network in North Korea in recent years.
 

Satellite Photos Show North Korea Preparing Another Missile Launch

North Korea carried out its first missile test in more than two months earlier this week, ending the longest stretch of calm since President Trump took office. But according to satellite images exclusively obtained by Fox News, the North Korean military is already constructing another launch pad at the Panghyon Airbase in North Pyongyang - the same site where it carried out its July 4 launch of an ICBM.

This suggests that the North is already preparing for its next missile test.

Analysts at Image Sat International spotted the construction just days after the rogue nation launched an ICBM that North Korea claimed was powerful enough to carry a “super-heavy nuclear warhead” that could strike the “mainland of the U.S."

According to the ImageSat analysts, who are closely following North Korean military activity, this is “the first time that they have decided to rebuild a site that they have used before."

The photos, dated Nov. 23 and 24, appear to show the development of another launch pad just a few yards away from the one used during the July 4 Hwasong-14 ICBM launch, as well as a newly renovated access road.

Constructed in the 1980s, the Panghyon site is North Korea"s primary aircraft production, repair, and research facility.

The satellite images also show the construction of an aircraft hangar, as well as airplanes being moved and stored in hangers on the tarmac.

With the recent launch of another ICBM and the construction of additional launching pads, North Korea continues to defy the US-led world outrage over its nuclear program and is determined to bring it to completion.

The Hwasong-15 rocket tested by the North Tuesday was themost powerful of the three ICBMs tested by the Kim regime so far. Furthermore, the mobile night launch appeared aimed at testing new capabilities and demonstrating that Pyongyang would be able to strike back to any attempt at a preventative strike against the regime. The missile"s peak height and record flight time also helped confirm the Pentagon"s worst fears: The North now possesses the capability to strike nearly any target on the continental US.

Is Poland"s Patriot Missile Purchase A Paid Bribe To America?

Authored by Andrew Korybko via Oriental Review,

Poland announced that it will purchase $10.5 billion worth of anti-air Patriot missiles from the US.

Technically, the official news event is that the State Department approved the possible sale and that Congress has 30 days to block it, but for all intents and purposes it’s widely considered that the deal will go through as planned. This means that the Central European country will strengthen its frontline position as NATO’s anti-Russian vanguard, crucially functioning as an indispensable component of the missile defense shield that the US is constructing around Russia’s borders. In and of itself, the Patriot system is presently incapable of neutralizing Russia’s nuclear strike capabilities, especially given the hypersonic missile advancements that Moscow has undertaken over the past couple of years in invalidating this strategy, but it worryingly sets the precedent that further missile-related infrastructure could one day be deployed on Russia’s borders.

The latent threat that this represents could also see Poland acquiring cruise missiles in violation of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, or INF, whether to augment its ground-based systems or its planned submarine ones in the future. Per the former, cruise missiles could be deployed to Poland under the guise of being Patriot anti-missile munitions, with Moscow being unable to adequately ascertain whether Warsaw is building up its defensive or offensive strike capabilities. This will likely contribute to the spiraling security dilemma between Russia and NATO, and Russia and Poland in particular, though with the inadvertent consequence being that Poland is essentially paying billions of dollars to improve its anti-Russian “soft power” credentials among its own population and the West at large.

This is very important for the ruling Law and Justice Party, popularly known by its Polish abbreviation PiS, because party leader and de-facto “grey cardinal” Jaroslaw Kaczynski has staked his reputation on being the West’s most vociferous Russophobe, partly in a bid to provoke more nationalist sentiment among his base and therefore distract from some domestic shortcomings. In addition, Warsaw shrewdly believes that its anti-Russian crusade is necessary in order to retain Washington’s support amidst Brussels and Berlin’s “EuroLiberal” opposition to the ruling authorities’ revolutionary “EuroRealism”, believing whether rightly or wrongly that a strong stand against Moscow can help PiS remain in favor with the EU’s American overlord and thereby preserve its hold on power in the face of Color Revolutionary threats.

As such, the costly $10.5 billion Patriot anti-missile system deal acquires self-interested strategic value for Poland because it allows the conservative government to “buy off” American support for its “EuroRealist” agenda, which also aligns with Trump’s ideological vision, but it dangerously risks provoking an uncontrollable orgy of nationalism at home that could easily spiral into its own set of problems.

Furthermore, Poland is reducing any realistic chance at normalizing ties with Russia after purchasing this weapons system, suggesting that the American-provoked “Cold War” between these two civilizationally similar Slavic neighbors will continue into the foreseeable future and remain a mainstay of continental geopolitics to the detriment of both states’ genuine national interests and the overall dynamics of the emerging Multipolar World Order.

Gun Control Activist Wants You To Ask Your Thanksgiving Host If They Have Weapons

Authored by Mac Slavo via SHTFplan.com,

With Thanksgiving upon us, many are planning festivities which include feasts and gatherings with friends and family. 

But some others, like gun control activists, seek to make your holiday as miserable as possible.

Shannon Watts, the founder of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, used the trending hashtag #ThanksgivingWeek to call on parents to inquire about guns in homes where their child may be visiting this year.

It’s #ThanksgivingWeek: Have you asked the friends and family your kids are visiting if there are guns in their homes and how they store them? https://t.co/pyvEUh4N3m

— Shannon Watts (@shannonrwatts) November 20, 2017

Watts has been fighting against gun owners for years, pushing for gun control legislation, and has encouraged businesses to adopt gun-free policies. She is also the board chair for Rise to Run, an organization focused on encouraging communist young women to run for office.

But once again, proving that leftists are actually the violent ones who wish for the death of those who don’t believe the same fantasies they do, the lemmings who follow Watts were out in full force.

Guns in Trunpist families should be stored as recklessly as possible.

— grailsnail (@grailsnail) November 20, 2017

What most leftists don’t realize is that most gun owners don’t care about their emotions.

They probably will relish a Thanksgiving dinner without the political diarrhea that so many gun control activists spew. If I were asked the question Watts proposed, I would tell the person asking that it’s none of their business and if they don’t like then tough.

Because the cold hard truth no liberal wants to realize, is that gun control will only affect those willing to follow those laws and punishes those who have committed no crime. 

There’s no other way to look at it, and until the communists on the left can realize that, Thanksgiving may be more enjoyable without them.

Personally, I think that liberals and communists have an issue with gun rights because those are the people who can tell them “no” and back it up.  It’s hard to control a person who’s armed when you only bring your feelings to the fight.

President Trump"s Confidence In Missile Defense Is A Dangerous Illusion

Authored by Andrei Akulov via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

The US is pushing ahead with expansion of the nation’s homeland ballistic missile defense (BMD). The effort enjoys strong bipartisan support in Congress and among experts. Many allies place a high value on BMD cooperation with the United States. However, there are ample reasons to question the efficiency of US missile defenses, especially the capability to protect against intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).

“We have missiles that can knock out a missile in the air 97% of the time,” President Donald Trump said in his interview with Fox News on October 11, adding “and if you send two of them, it’s going to get knocked down.” He was talking about the threat coming from North Korea to be repelled by the Ground-Based Midcourse Defense (GMD) in Alaska and California – the $40 billion project administered by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA).

The US military conducted the first-ever missile defense test involving a simulated attack by an intercontinental ballistic missile in May. The ICBM-type target was fired from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands toward the waters just south of Alaska. The mission was to prepare for countering an intercontinental missile launched by North Korea. The Missile Defense Agency (MDA) described the test as an “incredible accomplishment”. According to Vice Admiral Jim Syring, director of the agency, “This system is vitally important to the defense of our homeland, and this test demonstrates that we have a capable, credible deterrent against a very real threat.” The assessment appears to be exaggerated as the test was not conducted in a realistic environment.

The next test of the GMD system is scheduled for late 2018 and, for the first time, will involve firing two interceptors against one ICBM target. It makes unsubstantiated the president’s affirmation that two interceptors are enough to knock out a North Korean missile as no such tests have been conducted so far.

The US currently deploys 36 interceptors – 32 at Fort Greely, Alaska, and four at Vandenberg Air Force Base, California. By the end of 2017, there will be 44 deployed GBIs. A majority of the interceptors use the CE-I variant of kill vehicle that has scored only two successes in four tests. At least ten interceptors are to be equipped with the CE-II Block I vehicle, which has had two successful intercept tests in three tries.

It is generally believed that it takes at least four-five interceptors to hit the target. It means President Trump is off base saying the hit probability is 97%. Prior to the ICBM test, the GMD system had successfully hit its target in only ten of 18 tests since 1999. A success rate is about 56%, not 97%. But even 56% is almost certainly an overstatement, given the less-than-realistic nature of the tests.

A success rate for four-five interceptors per target may be 97% but the possibility that each successive interceptor’s chance of successful kill might not be independent of the previous one, due to correlated factors such as design shortcomings, leading to a lower overall success rate. Nevertheless, President Trump believes each interceptor has a single-shot probability of kill (SSPK) for a given interceptor of 97% (rather than 56%).

According to the Washington Post, “No single interceptor for ICBMs has demonstrated a 97-percent success rate, and there is no guarantee using two interceptors has a 100-percent success rate. Moreover, the military’s suggestion that it could achieve a 97-percent success rate with four interceptors appears based on faulty assumptions and overenthusiastic math. The odds of success under the most ideal conditions are no better than 50-50, and likely worse, as documented in detailed government assessment.”

Joe Cirincione, the President of Ploughshares Fund and the author of Nuclear Nightmares: Securing the World Before It Is Too Late, investigated anti-missile programs for almost 10 years as professional staff on the House Armed Services and Government Operations Committees. He believes that “If people took a close look at just one of these interceptor tests, they would likely conclude, as I did, that the tests bear little resemblance to real-world conditions.”

If North Korea fired an ICBM - or multiple ICBMs - at the United States, the GMD with its Ground-Based Interceptors (GBIs) is only one system that could take a shot at intercepting and destroying the warhead outside the earth’s atmosphere in midcourse flight. Other missile defense systems such as THAAD and Aegis are in no position to hit ICBMs as they’re designed for other classes of targets.

With only one test against an ICBM, the MDA is not even close to demonstrating that the system works in a real-world setting. The GMD systems have not yet been tested in the range of conditions under which it is expected to operate. No tests have been conducted at night or against complex countermeasures, such as electronic countermeasures and decoys. The tests are always rigged because the intercept team knows the timing and trajectory of the incoming missile. But even the scripted tests have often failed. What has been done so far is insufficient to demonstrate that an operational BMD capability really exists.

The US has not publicly conducted any tests to see whether the missile-defense radars can distinguish a missile from chaff. Even cheap inflatable balloons can make all intercept efforts go down the drain. With no air resistance (or drag) in space, a decoy like a balloon shaped like a nuclear warhead could travel in the same way as the true warhead, making it difficult for a missile to distinguish the real thing from the decoy. Balloons are light enough to enable a sophisticated warhead launch 20 or 30 decoy balloons to obscure the path of the warhead, swamping the defense system with fake signals.

In February and April 2016, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) assessed that the MDA has not “demonstrated through flight testing that it can defend the US homeland against the current missile defense threat,” relying on “a highly optimistic, aggressive schedule” to upgrade the system.

The US abandoned the Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in 2002, which greatly obstructed arms control process. Efficient or not, the US current and potential BMD capability is taken into consideration to influence Russia’s military planning. It provokes Moscow into taking countermeasures to respond to BMD plans and negatively affects the prospects for future Russia-US arms control agreements. With uncertainties raised about the strict balance of arms agreed upon in New START, a chain reaction is triggered leading to arms race.

Philip Giraldi, a highly respected expert and the Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, believes that the American people are being fooled by the administration, which tries to make them think that a nuclear war is thinkable. According to him, “If that is the message being sent by the White House, it would encourage further reckless adventurism on the part of the national security state.” Mr. Giraldi hit the nail right on the head. The GMD effort creates a dangerous illusion that a victory in a nuclear conflict is achievable and no money should be spared to spur the implementation of the MDA plans. In reality, the US defense industry is the only benefactor while the taxpayers throw money into the drain. The result: further erosion of arms control and reduced security.

Putin Personally Launches 4 ICBMs During Russian Strategic Nuclear Force Drills

While North Korea hasn"t fired a ballistic missile since mid-September over alleged concerns of further retaliation from China, Russia has no such qualms, and on Thursday night, Russian President Vladimir Putin took part in strategic nuclear forces command and control drills, presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday. "The exercise practiced interaction of the Strategic Missile Force, nuclear-powered submarines of the Northern and Pacific Fleets and long-range aviation of Russia’s."

According to Tass, Putin then personally launched four ballistic missiles: "The supreme commander-in-chief made launches of four ballistic missiles," Peskov said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Thursday that a planned training exercise was held on that day to practice command and control of the Russian Strategic Nuclear Forces.

 

During the exercise, three intercontinental ballistic missiles were launched from the nuclear-powered submarines while one missile was test-fired from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in north Russia.

 

All the practice targets were successfully destroyed.

In addition to the ICBM test launches, the Russian Defense Ministry reported that the exercise involved strategic Tupolev Tu-160, Tu-95MS and Tu-22M3 bombers, which took off from their airbases Ukrainka, Engels and Shaikovka, and launched airborne cruise missiles against ground targets at the practice ranges Kura (Kamchatka), Pemboi (the Republic of Komi) and Terekta (Kazakhstan).

"The training assignments were accomplished in full and all the practice targets were successfully destroyed," the Defense Ministry said.

The exercise was held in accordance with the training plan of the Russian Armed Forces, the ministry said.

Federal Bureaucrats Have Millions Of Dollars Worth Of Guns And Ammo, Whom Are They Planning To Battle?

During the last two years of the Obama administration (Fiscal Year 2015 –  2016), law enforcement agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security spent $138 million on new guns and ammunition. But what’s strange, is that $20 million was spent on guns and ammunition for federal bureaucrats.

Four notable examples of paper pushers and bureaucrats arming up, according to Forbes, are as follows:

1) The 2,300 Special Agents at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) are now carrying AR-15’s, P90 tactical rifles, and other heavy weaponry. Recently, the IRS armed up with $1.2 million in new ammunition. This was in addition to the $11 million procurement of guns, ammunition, and military-style equipment procured between 2006-2014.  What could go wrong when tax collectors have guns?

2) The Small Business Administration (SBA) spent tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to load its gun locker with Glocks last year. The SBA wasn’t alone in the purchase of guns either. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service modified their Glocks with silencers.  And recently a vote on the bill to allow civilians the freedom to hunt with a silencer was “indefinitely postponed.”

3) The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has a relatively new police force. In 1996, the VA had zero employees with arrest and firearm authority. Today, the VA has 3,700 officers, armed with millions of dollars’ worth of guns and ammunition including AR-15’s, Sig Sauer handguns, and semi-automatic pistols.

4) The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) agents also carry the same sophisticated weapons platforms used by our Special Forces military warriors. The HHS gun locker is housed in a new “National Training Operations Center” – a facility at an undisclosed location within the DC beltway.

Last year, Forbes released their OpenTheBooks.com Oversight Report: The Militarization of America in an editorial published with the help of former-U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn at The Wall Street Journal. The report quantified the $1.48 billion spent by 67 non-military federal agencies on guns, ammunition, and military-style equipment from 2006-2014.

Spending on guns and ammo at 58 non-military federal agencies (including 40 regulatory, administrative agencies) amounted to $158 million.  The continued growth of the federal arsenal begs the question: Just whom are the feds planning to battle? 

Federal bureaucrats are amassing arsenals of weapons and many agencies are now battle ready, but that is not a goo

In the aftermath of the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history, many Washington politicians have tried shifting the conversation to the Second Amendment, reinvigorating the call for tighter gun control. President Trump has an opportunity to propose changes concerning gun control, but not in the way his opponents are calling for.

Trump should listen to the advice former U.S. Senator Dr. Tom Coburn memorialized at Forbes last year after the Orlando nightclub massacre: the non-military, non-law enforcement – paper pushing administrative federal agencies – are the ones who should be subject to stricter gun control laws, not the general public. –Forbes

It may be too late, however. When you give the government socialist powers, somehow, someone is going to be needed to enforce all the rules an all you have to do, is offer them a paycheck – a paycheck stolen from those who they now power over.  It isn’t a difficult concept.  It looks like the government will enforce socialism at the barrel of a gun.  Humans don’t want to be stolen from and told what to do, and the only way to make them complicit slaves is by threatening to shoot them.    It takes a lot of guns and ammo to enforce a socialist and communist society.

"Fake Nukes": Iran Faked Ballistic Missile Launch

On Saturday, when a defiant Iran allegedly confirmed the existence a brand new ballistic missile it has unveiled just hours earlier at a military parade in Tehran, we reported that Iranian state television released video footage Friday claiming to show the launch of a new type of medium-range ballistic missile.

But it turns out this was "fake news", or rather "fake nukes", as Iran never actually fired a ballistic missile, according to Fox News government sources, and instead the video released by the Iranians was more than seven months old – dating back to a failed launch in late January, which resulted in the missile exploding shortly after liftoff, according to two U.S. officials.

After the footage was aired, Iranian media claiming a successful test launch – though it apparently showed the failed January launch. At the time, Iran was attempting to launch its new Khorramshahr medium-range ballistic missile for the first time. It flew 600 miles before exploding, in a failed test of a reentry vehicle, officials said at the time. The failed late January launch was first reported by Fox News and prompted the White House to put Iran “on notice” days later.

However, apparently news of the fake launch was not filtered by the US "intelligence" apparatus before it reached Trump who responded to the reported launch in a late-Saturday tweet, saying, “Iran just test-fired a Ballistic Missile capable of reaching Israel. They are also working with North Korea. Not much of an agreement we have!” Last week, speaking before world leaders at the United Nations, Trump slammed the Iranian regime and called the Iran nuclear deal an “embarrassment” to the United States. 

“We cannot let a murderous regime continue these destabilizing activities while building dangerous missiles, and we cannot abide by an agreement if it provides cover for the eventual construction of a nuclear program,” he said. As reported previously, Trump later told reporters he had made up his mind about the deal, but he has yet to explain if that means the United States will be pulled out of the nuclear accord.

Meanwhile, Iran"s President Hassan Rouhani, speaking at the U.N. one day after Trump, claimed his country’s missile program was “solely defensive” in nature.  “We never threaten anyone, but we do not tolerate threats from anyone,” he said. Rohani returned to Tehran two days later to preside over the missile parade featuring the new medium-range design and said his country would build as many missiles as necessary to defend itself. 

Ironically, Iran’s new medium-range missile is based on a North Korean design—Pyongyang’s BM-25 Musudan ballistic missile, which has a maximum range of nearly 2,500 miles, putting U.S. forces in the Middle East and Israel within reach... assuming its problems have been fixed of course.

“The very first missiles we saw in Iran were simply copies of North Korean missiles,” missile proliferation expert at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies Jeffrey Lewis, told Fos News. “Over the years, we"ve seen photographs of North Korean and Iranian officials in each other"s countries, and we"ve seen all kinds of common hardware.” 

A senior Iranian general said last weekend that the missile had a range of less than 2,000 miles. "The Khoramshahr missile has a range of 2,000 kilometers [1,250 miles] and can carry multiple warheads," Iran’s official IRNA news agency quoted Revolutionary Guards aerospace chief General Amir Ali Hajizadeh as saying.

The missile “is capable of carrying multiple warheads,” Hajizadeh added.

“I am not sure why the Iranians are lying about the range,” one U.S. official said. “I think they don’t want to piss the Europeans off.”

While U.N. resolution 2231, put in place days after the Iran nuclear deal was signed, calls on the Islamic Republic not to conduct ballistic missile tests, but does not forbid them from doing so, after Russia and China insisted on the watered-down language in order to pass the resolution. Iran is "called upon not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology," according to the text of the resolution.

Iran possesses the largest arsenal of ballistic missiles in the Middle East, with more than 1,000 short- and medium-range ballistic missiles. Tehran has conducted over 20 missile tests since 2015. Tehran claims the tests are legitimate because they are defensive in nature. 

Are We Really Capable Of Shooting Down North Korean Missiles?

Authored by Daisy Luther via The Organic Prepper blog,

According to some analysts, Americans may be overly confident in our military’s ability to shoot down North Korean missiles if the country were to attempt to strike.

Maybe the reason we haven’t shot down North Korea’s test missiles is that we can’t. While we all certainly hope that our military would be able to successfully defend the country against incoming missiles, we need to be prepared for any possibility.

According to an article by Joe Cirincione of Defense One, the reason we don’t shoot down North Korea’s missiles when they fire them over Japan is because…

We don’t have the capability.

Joe Cirincione is the president of Ploughshares Fund and the author of several books about nuclear weapons, including Nuclear Nightmares: Securing the World Before It Is Too Late.

According to Cirincione, when Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said, “We didn’t intercept it because no damage to Japanese territory was expected,” this was only partially true. It wasn’t a threat, but they didn’t have the capability to shoot it down due to the altitude.

Neither Japan nor the United States could have intercepted the missile. None of the theater ballistic missile defense weapons in existence can reach that high. It is hundreds of kilometers too high for the Aegis interceptors deployed on Navy ships off Japan. Even higher for the THAAD systems in South Korea and Guam. Way too high for the Patriot systems in Japan, which engage largely within the atmosphere.

All of these are basically designed to hit a missile in the post-mid-course or terminal phase, when it is on its way down, coming more or less straight at the defending system. Patriot is meant to protect relatively small areas such as ports or air bases; THAADdefends a larger area; the advanced Aegis system theoretically could defend thousands of square kilometers. (source)

Well, that’s unsettling. So, what if we engaged the missile before it reached that high?

Cirincione says that too is unlikely to be successful.

There is almost no chance of hitting a North Korean missile on its way up unless an Aegis ship was deployed very close to the launch point, perhaps in North Korean waters.

Even then, it would have to chase the missile, a race it is unlikely to win. In the only one or two minutes of warning time any system would have, the probability of a successful engagement drops close to zero. (source)

But don’t take Cirincione’s word for it. In his article, he cited other experts who echo his sentiments.  Jonathon McDowell, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, tweeted in response to someone questioning why we didn’t shoot down NK’s missiles:

As well, he quoted Jerry Doyle, deputy business editor for Asia at The New York Times:

“It’s actually virtually impossible to shoot down a missile on the way up. Midcourse or terminal are the only places you have a shot.” (source)

While I’m not sure how a business editor has special knowledge of our nuclear defense system, all of these sentiments certainly raise the question:

IF WE HAVE THE ABILITY TO SHOOT DOWN NORTH KOREAN MISSILES, WHY HAVEN’T WE DONE SO?

If we attempted to shoot down a North Korean missile and missed, it would be a major propaganda coup for Kim Jong Un.

When our military practiced this, they managed to shoot down 2 out of 3 missiles.

A lot of people are putting a great deal of hope in American missile defense systems, but it’s important to note that a couple of weeks ago in a test over the Pacific, our defense system failed. This was subsequent to a previous success.

A medium-range ballistic missile was launched from a test range in Hawaii at 7:20 pm local time, but the interceptor missile fired at sea from USS John Paul Jones, a guided-missile destroyer, missed the target.

 

“A planned intercept was not achieved,” the statement said. (source)

That’s disconcerting. After the failed test, there was a third test which was successful, but it’s very important to realize that our military isn’t infallible. If our rate is 2 out of 3 missiles shot down, that means that 1 out of 3 still gets through and wreaks destruction.

So, could we actually shoot down a missile “gift package” as Kim Jong Un creepily calls it?

The unsettling answer is, maybe.

Maybe, if we were expecting it, if the conditions were right, if we were close enough, if it was low enough, if we were in a perfect position.

There are way too many “ifs” in there for me to feel fully confident in our ability to shoot down North Korean missiles before they strike the mainland, which experts now believe they have the ability to reach. We also know that North Korea also possesses the ability to create hydrogen bombs. And as I’ve written before, if you believe this is all a big set up for a false flag event, that would hardly matter to those nearby if such a thing were to happen.

If you aren’t prepped for the potential of a nuclear strike, it’s time to start learning what you need to do. (This article and this class can help you.)

Hoarding Ammo: How Much Should You Store?

Image source: Pixabay.com

As gun owners and advocates of defensive living, we’re constantly scrutinized for exercising our Second Amendment rights. I’m sure many readers have numerous firearms available to them. Good. But the long-term concern, at least in my estimation, is the ammunition to feed those firearms.

While we are enjoying the right to keep and bear arms, it’s worth pondering the possibility of having firearms, but not ammunition. Consider in just the last few years there have been attempts to restrict ammo purchases due to environmental or public safety concerns.

Let’s not forget the bare shelves of just a few years ago because of the political climate. .22 rimfire is just now becoming reasonably available again.

While many readers are surely prepared in the ammo supply arena, from conversations with students, I’d venture a guess that most aren’t. The question is not just for you, but perhaps generations to come. Teaching students on an ongoing basis, I find it not uncommon for folks to struggle to come up with a couple hundred rounds of handgun or carbine ammo to conduct even baseline training.

Discover The Secrets Of The Word’s Top Survivalists!

Back to my original thought of: How much ammo? Well, it depends on what your primary, secondary or other uses may be. That, of course, varies from person to person.

So here ya go … my top five reasons to hoard ammunition.

1. Hunting. For most standard big-game considerations, I could probably get along for quite some time with a couple hundred rounds. But thinking down the road for many years, I would like to have 500 to 1,000 rounds per caliber of any hunting rifle. Small game means shotgun and rim fire; the round count here could increase exponentially.

2. Sport/Competition. If it’s USPSA, IDPA, 3Gun, Trap, Skeet, Silhouette or others, start thinking in the thousands of rounds or even higher for the long term.

3. Training. This is where things could get interesting. Shooting well is a perishable skill (yes, dry fire can take place of live fire to some extent). I shoot almost on a weekly basis, at least handgun. That may not be sustainable in tough times. I focus most of my weekly handgun shooting on 9mm to keep it economical. I like to keep a minimum of 5,000 rounds available if possible.

4. Defensive. I store several hundred rounds of good quality handgun, shotgun and rifle ammo that fits this category on hand … per caliber or gauge. A sub category here would be the battle rifle or fighting carbine, at which point there is no such thing as too much ammo.

5. Bartering. The sky’s the limit. All common calibers and rimfire ammunition is in high demand even now. Imagine ammunition over-the-counter availability being gone overnight! In really tough times or a run on the supply, ammunition will always retain a high trade value. So the question is, how much do you need to have for yourself and family versus how much you can afford to sell or barter with?

It goes without saying that the cost, storage and transportation of ammunition may require logistical planning. Ammunition is heavy! Storage can have its own challenges. Basically, prioritize cool, dry and durable storage when it comes to ammo. The military style 30- and 50-caliber ammo cans or the sealed spam cans of ammo make good long-term storage options.

Other than your local Walmart or hardware store, where might one find ammo today without breaking the bank? Some obvious choices may be your local gun shows (or similar events) and some online ammo sales sites (these sites have also been under fire in recent months). A few less obvious locations to find ammo at sometimes below wholesale prices are flea markets, estate sales and garage sales.

This may bring up the question: How long will ammo store? In my experience, if it has been stored properly and out of the elements, it can be good for decades. I have shot military surplus that was 50-plus years old, without issues. Not to disparage any hand loaders, but I stay away from reloaded ammo that I do not know the source of. I say this because you will run across such ammo at flea markets and garage/estate sales.

Someone once called ammo the precious metal of the future. I couldn’t agree more.

How much ammo would you store? Share your thoughts in the section below:

North Korea Seen Moving ICBM Into Position For Possible Launch: Report

The USDJPY and 10Y yields snapped lower and gold kneejerked higher following the latest North Korea-related headline out of Bloomberg, according to which:

• NKOREA STARTS MOVING ICBM FOR POSSIBLE LAUNCH BEFORE SAT.:DAILY

Bloomberg references a just released article in the Asia Business Daily, according to which North Korea started moving the ICBM-class missile, produced at a new Pyongyang research center, on Monday following Sunday"s thermonuclear test.

The report confirms overnight intelligence from South Korea: recall first thing this morning, Yonhap reported that South Korea"s spy agency said it had detected that North Korea is making preparations for a possible intercontinental ballistic missile launch, a move that would further raise tensions a day after it conducted its sixth and most powerful nuclear detonation.

Chang Kyung-soo, acting chief of the defense ministry’s policy planning office, told lawmakers on Monday that North Korea was making preparations for a missile firing, according to Bloomberg while Yonhap adds that South Korea"s spy agency said there was a chance the North could fire an ICBM into the Pacific Ocean, saying that the isolated state was able to conduct a nuclear test at any time.

According to the just released Business Daily report, there is high chance N. Korea will fire ICBM missile before Sept. 9 national founding day. More details from the original report, Google translated:

According to the authorities, one ballistic missile produced by a weapons research institute dedicated to the production of North Korea"s ICBM was found to be moving to the west of Hwanghae Island after being mounted on the 4th Mobile Launch Base (TEL) on the day after the 6th nuclear test.

...

Earlier this year, North Korea built a 1980-square-meter weapons lab, which could manufacture ICBMs, in Pyongyang. It was last February that the weapon laboratory was released to the outside world. Although it was a wilderness until 2009, it has now been transformed into a strategic hub for North Korea"s major missiles.

...

According to a joint US-ROK report, North Korea has a maximum of 900 ballistic missiles, and it has been confirmed that there are 108 aircraft capable of launching surprise attacks. According to ballistic missiles, the number of Scud missiles and TEL that can mount Scud missiles are the most common. The number of Scud missiles is 430 (TEL 36).

The report concludes by noting that according to S. Korean intel, "if North Korea conducts further ICBM provocations there is a high possibility that it will choose an unpredictable time and place. To this end, Pyongyang may launch missiles directly from the mobile launch base, or launch multiple missiles at multiple locations simultaneously."

The report also notes that the ICBM mobile launcher is moving "at low speed mainly during the night time" to avoid detection by foreign intelligence authorities. In other words, the US now has a conveniently moving target and a due date by which North Korea will likely launch its next rocket, effectively giving Trump a greenlight for a "preemptive" strike over the next five days.

The market"s reaction to the news, while not as dramatic as to Sunday"s nuclear test, confirms just how much on edge traders remain for every headline out of North Korea.

10Y Yield:

USDJPY:

Gold:

ES:

Putting North Korea's "Bomb Test" In Context

On Sunday, North Korea tested its most powerful nuclear bomb yet, detonating a device that caused a 6.3 magnitude tremor.

The weapon"s sheer power has caused alarm but the fact that Pyongyang is claiming it can be fitted inside an intercontinental ballistic missile is sending shockwaves through Asia and beyond.

Using data from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Statista"s Niall McCarthy presents the following infographic provides an overview of the strength of all North Korean nuclear tests since 2006.

You will find more statistics at Statista

Sunday"s detonation was estimated to have been 100 kilotons or more, far more powerful than previous tests and the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. How does it compare with the warheads inside current U.S. and Russian intercontinental ballistic missiles?

According to the Economist, the U.S. Trident and Russian SS ballistic missiles have a yield of 455 and 800 kilotons respectively.

Vault Containing $70 Billion In German Gold To Be Evacuated As Frankfurt Defuses Massive Bomb

Approximately 60,000 residents of Germany’s financial capital, Frankfurt, will be ordered to evacuate their homes on Sunday as the city"s emergency service staff will attempt to defuse a massive World War Two bomb, discovered recently at a local building site. The 1.4-tonne HC 4000 bomb dropped by the British air force during World War Two was uncovered on a building site on Wismarer Strasse in Frankfurt’s leafy Westend where many wealthy bankers live.

“We have never defused a bomb of this size,” bomb disposal expert Rene Bennert told Reuters, adding that it had been damaged on impact when it was dropped between 1943 and 1945.

Bomb disposal experts who examined it said the massive evacuation could wait until the weekend. “We are still working on the modalities of the evacuation plan,” a spokeswoman for Frankfurt police said on Wednesday.

As a result, ahead of Sunday"s planned evacuation, more than 100 hospital patients, including premature infants and those in intensive care, were evacuated from two Frankfurt hospitals on Saturday, city councillor Markus Frank told Reuters television. 

Every year more than 2,000 tonnes of live bombs and munitions are still found in Germany, even under buildings. In July, a kindergarten was evacuated after teachers discovered an unexploded World War Two bomb on a shelf among some toys. During World War II, Germany was pummeled by 1.5 million tonnes of bombs from British and American warplanes that killed 600,000 people. German officials estimate 15% of the bombs failed to explode, some burrowing six meters (yards) deep.

And while local residents have been eager to comply with the unprecedented evacuation, the biggest since the war, Frankfurt fire and police chiefs said they would use force and incarceration if necessary to clear the area of residents, warning that an uncontrolled explosion of the bomb would be big enough to flatten a city block.

Frankfurt’s residents have to clear the area by 8 a.m. on Sunday and police will ring every doorbell and use helicopters with heat-sensing cameras to make sure nobody is left behind before they start diffusing the bomb.

Where this otherwise trivial evacuation takes on a more sinister, "Die Harder" spin, is when looking at what other structures are impacted by the 1.5 km evacuation radius: these include Frankfurt’s Goethe University, police headquarters, two hospitals, transport systems... oh and the Bundesbank headquarters, which as a reminder ten days ago completed the accelerated repatriation of 674 tonnes of gold - some three years ahead of schedule - from New York and Paris to its vault deep underground.

According to Reuters, the Bundesbank vault which stores 1,710 tonnes of gold deep underground - approximately half the country’s reserves - is located less than 600 meters from the location of the bomb. Well, that particular vault which now holds $70 billion in gold (including $28 billion in freshly repatriated physical) and everything around it, is about to be evacuated. All that"s missing are several dozen dump trucks to take advantage of the massive evacuation that will leave thousands of gold bars without security for 1.5 kilometers in any direction.

While airspace for 1.5 kilometers around the bomb site will be closed, we doubt that will prove a major hurdle to anyone eager to take a stab at a real-life reincarnation of the second Die Hard movie.

Still, to prevent anyone from getting any ideas of following in Simon Gruber"s footsteps, a spokesman for the German Bundesbank said, that "the usual security arrangements" would remain in place while experts worked to disarm the bomb.

The fate of half of Germany"s gold aside, bomb disposal experts said they will make use of a “Rocket Wrench” to try and unscrew the fuses attached to the HC 4,000 bomb. If that fails, a water jet will be used to cut the fuses away from the bomb, Bennert told Reuters. The most dangerous part of the exercise will be applying the wrench, Bennert said.

Roads and transport systems, including the underground, will be closed during the work and for at least two hours after the bomb is defused, to allow patients to be transported back to hospitals without traffic. It is not unusual for unexploded bombs from World War Two air raids to be found in German cities, but rarely are they so large and in such a sensitive position.

Meanwhile, Frankfurters can spend the day at shelters set up at the trade fair and the Jahrhunderthalle convention center. Most museums are offering residents free entry on Sunday, and a few of them will open their doors earlier in the morning than usual.

South Korea Releases Footage Of Ballistic Missile Test Capable Of "Mass Retaliation"

Just hours after North Korea fired a ballistic missile across Japan, South Korea has released footage of its testing of a new ballistic missile, in a show of "overwhelming force."

While The White House has yet to respond to North Korea"s provocation, South Korea"s Blue House has stated that:

"We are considering the development of strategic assets in the US and we will consult with the United States."

US strategic weapons include B-1B strategic bombers, B-52 long-range nuclear bombers, stealth fighters, Aegis destroyers, and nuclear propulsion submarines.

But not wanting to rely solely on Trump, Yonhap reports the release of the following 86-second-long video clip showing the test-firing of a 500-kilometer-range ballistic missile with improved warhead power and that of another one with a range of 800 km. 

The footage shows the missile being fired and accurately hitting mock targets on the ground and in the water.

It was released by the state-run Agency for Defense Development (ADD)...

"We conducted the last flight test on the 24th to deploy the new 500-km ballistic missile and the 800-km ballistic missile, which are being developed under the leadership of the National Defense Science Institute."

"We are building a Korean three-axis system to respond to North Korea"s threats. To achieve this, we have developed a new ballistic missile (BM) with increased range and increased accuracy through diversification of warheads and improved accuracy. "

The 500-kilometer ballistic missile is "a new type of ballistic missile capable of accurately penetrating and destroying all of North Korea"s core facilities and is a key force in mass retaliation."

China Unveils New Weapons - From Stealth Fighters To ICBMs

Authored by Jeffrey Lin and P.W.Singer via PopSci.com,

As part of the People"s Liberation Army"s 90th anniversary celebration - it was founded on August 1, 1927 -  President Xi Jinping (in military fatigues) hosted a giant parade at the Zhurihe Training Center.

Zhurihe - Zhurihe certainly has enough room to hold all the people and equipment for a parade with thousands of soldiers, hundreds of tanks and armored vehicles, and dozens of ICBMs. -Xinhua News Agency

Here, PLA"s most elite forces demonstrated how far China has come in modern warfare. CCTV broadcast the session, which means a domestic and global audience of millions saw the army"s showcase of tanks, stealth fighters, artillery, and ICBMs.

Combat support vehicles were not forgotten. Combat engineering vehicles, BZK-006 UAV launch vehicles, communications vehicles, and even fuel tankers followed.

There was plenty of air power, too. A trio of J-20 stealth fighters flew over the parade, followed by Y-20 heavy transport aircraft, KJ-2000 AEW&C aircraft, J-16 strike fighters, J-15 carrier fighters, and J-10B fighters. The latest H-6K bombers, along with H-6U aerial tankers and Y-9 transports, also made an appearance.

J-20 - Three J-20 stealth fighters led the aerial portion of the PLA"s 90th anniversary parade. -Xinhua News Agency

Z-10 attack and Z-18 transport helicopters showed up, flying in formations shaped like "90," as well as the Chinese characters for 8-1 (a reference to August 1), with the Z-18 transports landing to disgorge airmobile infantry.

The highlight was likely the public debut of not just one, but 16 DF-31AG intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). The DF-31AG is an improvement over the 7,146-mile-range DF-31A ICBM. It carries a larger, reinforced missile canister likely carrying a more powerful missile with increased range or payload. The DF-31AG also uses an all-terrain 8X8 launch vehicle, enabling it to go off-road, which will make it much harder to find compared to its truck-launched predecessor. 

DF-31AG - Sixteen DF-31AG ICBMs marched in the parade. China likely has more DF-31AGs in addition to those, thanks to a recent, rapid build-up of Chinese nuclear forces. -Xinhua News Agency

The presence of 16 new ICBMs (there are likely other DF-31AGs not present at the parade), along with several dozen other ICBMs, shows that China"s nuclear global strike capacity is growing in size and capability. 

Other missiles present: the DF-31A ICBM, the DF-26 intermediate-range ballistic missile, and the DF-16 short-range ballistic missile. Surface-to-air missiles were well represented by HQ-9B and HQ-16 SAMs, as well as LD-2000 and PGZ-07 anti-air cannons. The surface-attack options were represented by CJ-10 cruise missiles, YJ-62 and YJ-83 anti-ship missiles, and YJ-12 supersonic anti-ship missile.

The fact that the parade took place not in Beijing, but in Inner Mongolia, was symbolic. Zhurihe hosts the PLA"s annual Stride exercises. These wargames pit the resident "Blue Team" (a mechanized infantry brigade that uses NATO tactics) against visiting PLA units. These wargames are played in a variety of urban, hill, and open-area locations, often under intensive conditions, including simulated nuclear battlefields.

Kim Jong Un: "The Entire US Territory Is Now Within Our ICBM Range"

Confirming a Friday report by David Wright, physicist and co-director of the UCS Global Security Program, that the newest North Korean ICBM - which on Friday night flew for 45 minutes, reaching an altitude of up to 3,725 kilometers and traveled just under 1,000 kilometers before landing in Japan waters - can strike half the major metro areas on the continental US, overnight North Korea"s leader Kim Jong-Un said that “we have demonstrated our ability to fire our intercontinental ballistic rocket at any time and place and that the entire U.S. territory is within our shooting range.”

Quoted by the Korean Central News Agency, he also expressed his “great satisfaction” with the ICBM test - the country"s second after an earlier test on July 4 - which reaffirmed that the missile was able to deliver a “large-sized, heavy nuclear warhead" to the United States. The test  was part of the "final verification" of the Hwasong-14 missile’s technical capabilities, including its maximum range.

As a reminder, Wright"s calculations showed that the ICBM could have a range 10,400 km (6,500 miles), not taking into account the Earth’s rotation, which if added would increase the range of missiles fired eastward. And, calculating the range of the missile in the direction of some major US cities gives the approximate results in Table 1, which showed that Los Angeles, Denver, and Chicago appear to be well within range of this missile, and that Boston and New York may be just within range while Washington, D.C. is just out of range.

Melissa Hanham, a researcher at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in California, confirmed the findings saying that the test showed North Korea is now capable of hitting U.S. cities such as Denver or Chicago.

Also on Saturday, Kim said the test was a “serious warning” to the US, which has been “meaninglessly blowing its trumpet” in threatening Pyongyang.

In response, U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a statement that "as the principal economic enablers of North Korea’s nuclear weapon and ballistic missile development program, China and Russia bear unique and special responsibility for this growing threat to regional and global stability." He added that even as the US seeks a peaceful denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, Tillerson said, “we will never accept a nuclear-armed North Korea nor abandon our commitment to our allies and partners in the region.”

In a late Friday statement from the White House, Trump rejected North Korea"s claims that its nuclear program is designed to prevent an attack by the U.S. or other, saying it had the “opposite effect.”

“By threatening the world, these weapons and tests further isolate North Korea, weaken its economy, and deprive its people,” Trump said.

China also responded to the launch, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang saying in a Saturday statement in the People’s Daily newspaper that Beijing also opposes North Korea’s launch and its violations of Security Council resolutions, while calling on all parties to show restraint.

As Reuters subsequently reproted, Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, discussed “military response options” in a phone call with his South Korean counterpart, his spokesman said in an emailed statement that didn’t elaborate. While Trump hasn’t ruled out a military response, Dunford warned in June that an armed conflict with North Korea would leave the millions of residents in Seoul, South Korea’s capital, to face casualties “unlike anything we’ve seen in 60 or 70 years.” This month he told a security conference in Colorado that “what’s unimaginable to me” is allowing the capability for “a nuclear weapon to land in Denver, Colorado.”

Shortly after the North Korean launch, the US and South Korean militaries responded with their own display of military strength, firing live surface-to-surface missiles from rocket launchers, amid renewed tension on the peninsula. Videos posted by the South Korean Ministry of Defense showed the US-made Tactical Missile System, known as ATACMS, as well as its own Hyunmoo Missile II.

The missiles hit the East Sea on Saturday morning, where North Korea’s ballistic missile is believed to have landed, as part of a live-fire exercise to demonstrate its “precision firing ability,” the US 8th Army said. US Forces in Korea said two missiles were fired from the ATACMS along with two Hyunmoo system missiles. The ATACMS is a Lockheed Martin surface-to-surface missile, with a range of 160km that can be fired from a range of rocket launchers.

The South Korean ministry said it was responding “to provocations of North Korean ballistic missiles.” “The systems can be rapidly employed to provide deep-strike precision capability, enabling the ROK-U.S. Alliance to engage a full array of time-critical targets under all weather conditions,” the 8th Army said on Facebook.

South Korea also said it would deploy four additional THAAD [Terminal High Altitude Area Defense] anti-missile launchers after North Korea’s test. The THAAD deployment had been delayed after South Korean President Moon Jae-in ordered an environmental assessment. Meanwhile, China on Saturday said it had grave concerns about the possibility of more Thaad launchers in South Korea. It called on the U.S. and South Korea to stop the deployment, saying the launchers hurt the strategic balance in the region.