Monthly Archives: December 2010

Quote of the day—Lisa

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I miss Idaho dearly. I REALLY miss being in the middle of nowhere, as strange as that probably sounds to most people. I just feel so confined in the city–almost like I can’t breathe. I feel safe most of the time (I would feel safer if I could carry on campus… but that’s another story) but there’s always this lingering thought. I never had that growing up on the farm, or in Moscow for that matter.

Lisa
December 14, 2010
1st Semester of Grad School — Finished! (Almost)
[Lisa, is my niece and grew up on the same farm I did. I completely understand what she is saying. I work in a different city on a different campus but the same restrictions apply.

It’s been 35+ years since I lived on the farm and I still feel that way.—Joe]

(Mostly) First Shots

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I met Rose through Oleg (who met her through Mike and Laurel last Spring) who got her into modeling.  She’d told Oleg she wanted to learn more about shooting, so he got her and me talking.  It took a while, but we got to the range this Monday.  It was cold, with several inches of snow on the ground, but we managed to get in a couple hours of trigger time.


We went through the safety rules, loading and unloading, manipulating the controls on a Ruger Mark II and a Daewoo DP-51 9 mm, stance, grip, sight picture, trigger control, some thoughts on anticipation (flinching), and follow-through.


Rose explained that since she is a boxer, she knows all about flinching and that it would not be a problem.  When you’re looking at getting punched in the face, you learn self control or it’s over quickly.  Good.  Shooting is very much a mental exercise.  I said that flinching is a problem for everyone, even experienced competitive shooters, and that I’ve seen a new shooter hit the ground halfway to a 10 yard target because of anticipation.


Well, her first ten rounds from the 22 auto all hit the 12″ square target, with one right in the center, from about 10 yards.  Pretty good for someone who’d only fired a pistol once, more than ten years ago.  It doesn’t always happen that way.  Usually we don’t even look at the first target, concentrating more on stance, grip and muzzle control.


She was pretty happy afterward, having hit all the 14 ounce vegetable cans with the 9 mm pistol.  We finished up with an UltiMAK equipped M1 30 Carbine, so she got introduced to the laser transmission hologram (this one had an Old Bushnell Holosight that we’d used for many years of testing at UltiMAK). 


Those vegetable cans didn’t stand a chance.


It was a pretty brief run-through, and Rose was visibly shivering from the cold, but she done good.  Though it is good practice in general, one would be well advised to treat her, especially, with respect.


I failed to tell her that she could be doing about as well at two and a half times the distance, with some more coaching and practice.  25 yards is the minimum distance in the pistol bays at the Kenmore Shooting Range, where I took my instructor training.  They teach beginners there too, and do well with it by all accounts.

More chalk dispenser video

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Our favorite chalk dispenser designers and builders have done some more tests. Here is the video:

In behind the scenes email it appears we will get a Version 3 unit for test with Boomerite by New Years Day. I plan to cut the charge in half, down to 100 grams, and see if that gives us sufficient lift for the chalk.

I also plan to modify the first unit by removing the containment box in the back and just put a specially constructed (chalk inside the target) 7” target a few inches behind the metal plate with the hole in it. I think this will work just as well and will only be a slightly more work in the field and much simpler to construct.

Quote of the day—General Nuisance

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His dress as a 20’s Chicago Gangster is probably for a Halloween party so I suspect strongly the gun is a toy.  You can’t see the muzzle in this view, but if it is a toy the muzzle would be molded from an orange colored plastic.

You guys on the left should be flattered.  D’cruz is dressed like some of your president’s strongest supporters, gangsters and Chicago thugs.

General Nuisance
December 21, 2010
Comment in the thread NRA…What Were They Thinking?
[This reminds me of a comment many years ago by Alan Gottleib, “We have sometimes joked that because of the high number of criminals in his district Chuck Schumer was just voting to protect his constituents.”—Joe]

Quote of the day—IrishPirate

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I hope one day to tell “boogeyman” stories to my grandkids about how the Brady Campaign will come back and take their guns if they don’t adhere to the 3 (4) basic rules of gun safety.

IrishPirate
December 20, 2010
Brady’s going broke, telling same old lies
[Let’s make this a reality as soon as possible. It probably won’t be all that long before I have grandkids.—Joe]

Quote of the day—john_u

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And the “occassional freak” who does something like Dunblane is ACTUALLY LESS of a PROBLEM WITH A GUN than without one !

Without a gun, the Dunblane thing could have been done ‘better and more effectively’ with 2 cans of petrol – one poured round the outside of the building first, to prevent people leaving, then one inside to burn them out – it would kill everyone. (As Bomber Command how to kill thousands of people and the answer is fire, not shrapnel)

But we don’t ban petrol – we cart millions of gallons of the stuff through our city streets every day.

We SHOULD make guns a lot more accessible to the general public – as in Switzerland where EVERY adult male has an automatic assault rifle, no less.

john_u
December 12, 2010
WRONG – WE THE PEOPLE SHOULD BE ARMED !
[I find it encouraging this and a number of other pro-gun comments are showing up in a U.K media outlet. Gun rights is not completely dead over there.

I have sometimes considered analyzing crimes committed using firearms and showing there was a “better” way to have committed the crime without a firearm. The mass killings are the easiest to demonstrate this. And as john_u suggests fire is one of the better ways. Driving a vehicle through crowds of people and causing structures to fail are also “good” methods.

I have not done so for two reasons. 1) I’m hesitant to give people ideas on effective mass murder. And 2) There aren’t that many mass murders to analyze.—Joe]

Chalk dispenser V 2.0

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Ry and I went out to the Boomershoot site with a new version of the chalk dispenser (also known as Blastmaster 6000). An identical unit was tested in California a few days ago using Tannerite and it worked well without showing any signs of weakness. We were pretty confident that it would hold up better than version 1.0.

We used 200 grams of Boomerite in each test. By volume this one cup, which was the same amount used the designers in their first tests. They later increased the amount to a soda can full with still no structural failures. We put 500 grams of chalk dust on top of the Boomerite.

In this first pictures you can see the chalk dust on top of the Boomerite. The zip lock bag of Boomerite is just visible in the front hole.

Ry will probably have video to share in a day or three but in the picture below you can see the dispenser was moved a couple feet by the blast. The dispenser appeared to be undamaged.

IMG_4845Web2010WP_000002ChalkDispensor20101218

The second test was essentially the same as the first. The only intentional difference was that the Boomerite wasn’t poked partially through the front and rear holes. This time the dispenser was moved several feet and there was some obvious damage:

WP_000004ChalkDispensor20101218WP_000006ChalkDispensor20101218WP_000008ChalkDispensor20101228WP_000009ChalkDispensor20101218WP_000011ChalkDispensor20101228

I set it up for a third test and expected it would probably “cut loose” this time. The movement was about the same and the fractures widened. Notice the bottom of the containment area is starting to bulge and the middle “rib” is bulging out the back too.

WP_000013ChalkDispensor20101228WP_000015ChalkDispensor20101228WP_000017ChalkDispensor20101228WP_000020ChalkDispensor20101228WP_000021ChalkDispensor20101228WP_000023ChalkDispensor20101228

In terms of a long lasting target this has some problems. But it survived three uses which is as much as it really needs for the Boomershoot main event. We should consider cutting the Boomershoot charge in half because I think the ejection of the chalk will be sufficient with a much smaller charge.

On the drive back to my home in Moscow we pondered why the difference between their tests and ours. We had pretty much decided that it was because of the chalk dust on top of the explosives because we just couldn’t imagine Boomerite being that much different than Tannerite. But I replayed the video from the California tests and they used chalk too. So the only other variable that I can think of are the temperature and the Boomerite. Our temperature was about 24 F with the first test done while the metal was probably significantly above that because it had been in the warm vehicle. By the time of the second and third tests the metal was probably close to ambient temperature. Could that temperature change made the metal brittle and weaker?

Update: Ry has the video and details on other tests we did.

Quote of the day—Dave Barry

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Some of you … may have decided that, this year, you’re going to celebrate Christmas the old-fashioned way, with your family sitting around stringing cranberries and exchanging humble, handmade gifts, like on “The Walton’s”. Well, you can forget it.  If everybody pulled that kind of subversive stunt, the economy would collapse overnight. The government would have to intervene: it would form a cabinet-level Department of Holiday Gift-Giving, which would spend billions and billions of tax dollars to buy Barbie dolls and electronic games, which it would drop on the populace from Air Force jets, killing and maiming thousands. So, for the good of the nation, you should go along with the Holiday Program. This means you should get a large sum of money and go to a mall.

Dave Barry
Christmas Shopping: A Survivor’s Guide
[This comes pretty close to my view of Christmas.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Joan Peterson

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O.

Joan Peterson
Brady Campaign Board Member
December 16, 2010
Response to the question, “How few murders have to be committed with firearms before the push for new, more restrictive laws ends?”
[Thanks to Bob S. and others for setting her up for and catching this.

I presume she meant “zero” rather than “Oh” but I’ll give her a pass on that. I remember when some typewriters didn’t have the digits ‘1’ and ‘0’ because you were supposed to use a lower case ‘L’ and a capital ‘o’ for them. I will not give her a pass on the intent.

Zero is not possible as long as people and guns exist. No matter how lives are saved with guns, not matter how successful “gun violence prevention” programs are, no matter how many court rules there are that the right to keep in bear arms is a specific enumerated right, this Brady Campaign Board member will demand evermore restrictions on that right.

What she is saying is that guns are somehow different than other tools used to commit murders. If she were to advocate for a position like this in regard to sticks, stones, fists, or feet she would be hauled off to the loony bin. But somehow with a constitutionally protected right at issue there exists an organization that makes her a board member.

The whole lot of them are essentially politically extinct at the Federal level because more and more people are getting a clue as to just how disconnected from reality these people are. We just need to drive them into extinction at the state and local level.—Joe]

Lying—it’s all they know

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Via John Richardson we find the anti-gun bigots attempted to do one of their usual tricks of twisting the facts. This time it was in the Chicago “assault weapon” ban and they got caught:

The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Appellate Court defense of the county gun ban (Wilson, et. al. v. Cook County, et. al.)  got off to a bad start when briefs filed by the county before the First District Appellate Court were found to contain factual errors.  More specifically, these factual errors included the misquoting of U.S. Supreme Court decisions in the DC v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago cases.  (The ISRA was a Plaintiff in McDonald).  When these errors were brought to light by the plaintiffs, the county hastily filed a motion to withdraw the erroneous briefs in favor of amended versions.  Presently, the plaintiffs in the case have moved to strike the amended briefs as the amendments do not remedy the ramifications of the misquotes contained in the original set of briefs.  In fact the County may have used their own “errors” to further violate the Court’s rules and to additional arguments and bolster existing arguments in their amended brief.

“We find it interesting that the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office would blame ‘electronic errors’ for the tainting of its briefs with misquotes,” commented ISRA spokesman, Richard Pearson.  “This situation is made all the more curious given that the misquotes would fundamentally alter the intent of two landmark Supreme Court decisions – D.C. v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago.  In the county’s briefs, the two high court decisions are erroneously quoted as addressing ‘common handguns’ whereas the decisions, as written, do not contain the phrase ‘common handguns.’  There is a clear difference when one addresses handguns versus ‘common’ handguns in that the latter would drastically reduce the types of firearms whose ownership is protected under the Second Amendment.”

“If I were a cynic,” continued Pearson, “I’d suggest that these ‘electronic errors’ were just poorly executed attempts by the Cook County State’s Attorney’s office to re-write the Heller and McDonald decisions more to Mayor Daley’s liking.”

How can anyone not see the bigotry in these actions? How is this any different than the way the politicians of 50 to 70 years ago in the deep south kept the blacks repressed? They have been shown to be in violation of the highest law of the land and yet they continue to resist conforming to it “dragging their feet” and lying every step of the way.

At what point are we going to finally send in the U.S. Marshalls and National Guard to arrest these bigots and/or force them into compliance?

In a somewhat related post see Sebastian’s post where he asks, “How long before the gig is up, and even the die hards realize it?” I think the U.S. Marshalls arresting the politicians enforcing unconstitional laws would pretty much cause even the most dimwitted to get realize the exit light was glowing.

Quote of the day—Jim G.

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The constitution is too long.

It should have started with “Fuck you!” and ended with “Fuck you!” In the middle it should have said, “Provide for the common defense.”

The 1st Amendment should read, “Congress will make no law” and we are done.

Jim G.
December 14, 2010
[I had lunch with Jim. Instead of the usual gun control issues we were talking about the TSA and health care. This wasn’t even the portion of the conversation where the water I was drinking spurted out my nose.

Jim has some strong Libertarian leanings.—Joe]

If You’re Clueless, Take a Poll

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The NRSC sent out a mass e-mail this week, linking to a web-site poll they have going.  Seriously, guys; you haven’t been listening all year?


It may just be that poll-taking is a pet peeve of mine, but really; if you came into the field (any field) not knowing what you want do and why you want to do it, why are you there at all?  You ran for office, in this case, and really, really wanted to win.  You spent tons of money and long hours getting elected, and now you don’t know why you’re there?  Whiskey…Tango…Foxtrot?


As usual, the poll questions are multiple choice, and as usual the answers could be easily interpreted in opposite ways, depending on the observer.  Unlike many polls however, there are places to enter comments.


They start with; “What do you think should be the first legislation addressed by the new Congress?”


There are four choices, plus “Other”.


I left them all blank and then entered this comment;



It’s really quite simple; if you understood the American Principles of Liberty, you wouldn’t need to take a poll.  The fact that you’re asking tells me you’re fishing for a position, trying to figure out what it is you should PRETEND to believe.  Crack a history book or two and figure it out, then run on those principles, actually stand for them in practice, and win big.


Then came; “Please rank in order of importance to you personally, the following issues” and there were nine choices, starting with abortion (really?) plus “other”.  I left them all blank, and filled in the next comment box;



Regarding #4; See, there you go again.  I don’t see liberty on the ballot.  Never have.  Hence the problem.  This isn’t rocket science, people.  Defeat the left.  Go for the jugular and drive them and their programs into political extinction.  Get Progressivism out of the Republican Party so we can win more elections, shrink the federal government (I mean real, meaningful contractions, and closure of departments) and “promote the general welfare” BY  PROMOTING LIBERTY.  It doesn’t work any other way.


Do we demand perfection immediately?  Of course not.  1; There is no such thing as perfection, and 2; things take time.  The point is; if you have the Ideals, you naturally trend toward them.  If you don’t have the Ideals, stand aside and make room for someone who does.


But after you submit the poll, you’re taken directly to a donation form.  Chances are, no one’s interested in the poll (it’s a piece of jr. high school crap anyway) so much as they’re interested in the raising of funds.


Here’s another (bonus) message for you Senate Republicans;



I’ll consider sending you money after I see some results.  I’m tired of supporting mushy, confused Republicans who can’t decide what it is they should pretend to stand for.  Been there, done that, and I’m never doing it again.


You know about all those eligible voters who sit out election after election?  Yeah; maybe that’s a clue you’re still not getting, and maybe, just maybe, it’s a sign that there are millions of votes available to someone who will, for once, actually stand for American ideals rather than simply jabbering about them during campaign season and hoping we’re still dumb enough to fall for it.  Time is running out.


Really?  You guys didn’t see the spontaneity and scale of the tea party movement?  You really didn’t understand a bit of it?

Don’t bring a knife

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In Washington State it is legal to carry a pistol openly (or, with a license, concealed). But an apparently brain dead lawmaker (Representative Appleton) wants to make it illegal to carry a knife with a blade greater than 3.5 inches long.

This is entirely consistent with the Seattle ordinance that prohibits public carry of Airsoft guns and slingshots while real firearms are allowed.

I guess this could be considered the legislative command “don’t bring a knife to a gun fight” but I somehow don’t think that is what she had in mind.

Quote of the day—Irma E. Gonzalez

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Unlike section 12031, the District of Columbia law did not contain, and the Supreme Court declined to infer, an exception for self-defense. Id. The Heller Court did not reach the question of whether the law would have been constitutional had there been an exception for self-defense. See id. As a consequence, the Court declines to assume that section 12031 places an unlawful burden on the right to carry a firearm for self-defense.

Irma E. Gonzalez
December 10, 2010
United States District Court Southern District of California
Case 09CV2371-IEG (BGS), Order (1) Denying plaintiffs’ motion for partial summary judgment, and (2) Granting defendant’s motion for summary judgment
Page 8, lines 18-22.
[Sebastian also has a post on the topic  as does John Richardson.

I’m reminded of Aesop’s fable of the fox and the grapes—with a twist.

The Brady Campaign is quite pleased with this order because it says concealed carry is not a guaranteed right. But what they don’t mention is that the reason given by the judge that it doesn’t infringe is that an exemption exists for open carry. While the courts don’t always rule consistently this does imply that some sort of public carry is believed to constitutionally protected. Hence the Brady Campaign may be crowing about how sweet the grapes are because concealed carry restrictions are upheld while open carry becomes a guaranteed right beyond their reach.—Joe]

Blacklist updated

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I know this is late. I updated my Righthaven Blacklist utility within a few hours of hearing the news a week ago but didn’t have time to create the blog post at the time and then forgot about it…

Via Clayton Cramer, No Lawyers – Only Guns and Money, and Sebastian (this last site is down for at least a few more hours) there has been additional online news sources that are suing people for using excerpts from their sites. The utility has been updated to include these new sites.