I agree with Joan Peterson

It’s a rare thing but this time I (partially) agree with Joan Peterson on this issue (H/T to Sebastian). She says, “Don’t carve pumpkins with guns”.

I took two almost new shooters to Idaho this weekend to do a little pumpkin “carving” at the Boomershoot site.

First we prepared some chemicals:

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Then we mixed them. Yes, she was a little apprehensive at first. This whole Kitchen Aid mixer making Boomerite is a little “different”. Six weeks ago had you told her she was going to be traveling to Idaho, making explosives to “carve” pumpkins, and shooting a rifle before Halloween she would have said, “No way!”

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Here are some sample pictures of the pumpkins being “carved” (thanks to Barron for bringing them to the party):

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The picture below was taken a fraction of a second after the picture above. Notice that the pumpkin pieces have slowed and are further from the origin. I wonder what the BC of a pumpkin seed is.
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The picture above almost duplicates a picture Ry took a few years ago. Here is a cropped version of the same picture:
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There are hazards to pumpkin “carving” with Boomerite. Max wasn’t really “entertainingly close” by some peoples standards but it was close enough that he sometimes turned away to avoid getting hit in the face with pieces of pumpkin. I was extremely pleased that his finger came off the trigger and he kept the gun pointed in a safe direction:
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I’m sure Ms. Peterson will be pleased to know we didn’t use guns as our primary tool for carving the pumpkins. It was just the remote detonator for the explosives. And these new shooters will share their experience and pictures with friends and family which will add to the set of people who recognize modern sporting rifles in common use are not “assault weapons” which should be banned. But instead many of them will desire their own and to share in the fun of the gun and Boomershoot culture. And what does Ms. Peterson and the Brady Campaign have to counter this?

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10 thoughts on “I agree with Joan Peterson

  1. I read Joan Peterson’s blog, and looked over her website.

    My immediate conclusion is that it’s a “dancing in the blood” site, nothing more. She claims to run a blog about gun safety, but I see no deference to common sense rules, such as the NRA’s Four Rules.

    I disagree with her “don’t have a gun out on Halloween” screed, because when else would a home-invader have such cover to create his mayhem? As THIS retired LEO sees it, your chances of a home invasion rise exponentially on Halloween, especially for the later hours when the teeny-boppers are out. I will be armed, but carrying concealed, when I answer my front door on Halloween. My security lights will be on full-wattage, full time instead of dim-on-sensor. Every light in the house will be on and all the drapes/curtains will be open. I will do some outside patroling, and will have a shottie nearby inside the house.

    I live in one of those neighborhoods known for it’s generosity with candy, so we get van-loads of kids from the lesser parts of town, and I have never recognized any of the cars as locally-owned.

  2. PLEASE post a video of this. Do some voiceover stuff and show Hickok45 and the japete blog post and then show the exploding pumpkins. I’d love to see her go into full meltdown from the mockery.

  3. Of all the things I have been able to do while in the United States of America, celebrating Halloween by shooting a pumpkin filled with Joe’s special blend is one of the things I will treasure the most.

  4. Great effect, is it from the way the pumpkins fragment? Lots of neat “stringers” to the blasts, looks cool.

  5. Hey! Who’s that fella in the black cap! Finally a picture of me taking out a boomer and not just making them! You wouldn’t happen to have a bunch more? I showed the picture to my mother and she loved it.

  6. I somehow ended up on Ms. Peterson’s website for the first time in a long time, on the same article you mentioned. Just for fun I then scrolled through a few of her posts and read the comment thread on one.

    As has been the case with every visit I’ve ever made to her site, I came away amazed at the Peterson Syndrome on display in both her posts and her responses to commenters. I’d have a great deal of sympathy for the difficulties her thought processes must cause her in life, except that she is indeed intent on removing fundamental human rights from people because of her own warped thinking.

  7. Perhaps we should all carve pumpkins with wooden spoons since knives could be used to hurt somebody.

  8. @Sean, I might have time this weekend to work on the video.

    @Darrell, In part. Regular explosions look similar. The pumpkins just add more material to the “cloud”.

    @MD, Check your email.

  9. As a dedicated squash hater, I always enjoy seeing pumpkins being disassembled. 🙂 Especially like this!

  10. I started working on the video but was hoping to get more footage from Joe before I finalized it. That said, there is video from the last two times we did it.

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