Once the right to keep and bear arms is separated from its long-established tether to a militia purpose, it is unclear what legal standard gun laws would need to survive constitutional challenge. There is little doubt, however, that recognition of a broad private right to be armed will create a new presumption against the constitutionality of gun laws, whereas currently there is a virtually absolute presumption in favor of their constitutionality. Guns would achieve a specially protected constitutional status imposing unique limits on the legislative authority of the elected representatives of the people that would apply to no other dangerous products. Ironically, regulation of guns, the only publicly-available consumer product designed to inflict lethal injury, would be required to meet a higher constitutional standard than regulation of cars, lawnmowers and other dangerous products capable of inflicting lethal injury, but not designed to do so.

Dennis A. Henigan et al
Director of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence Legal Action Project
Some time after March of 2007
Second Amendment Fantasy--The Brady Center’s Critique of the Parker v. District of Columbia Decision
Emphasis in the original.
[Henigan et al overlook two important points:

1. Federal regulation of cars, lawnmowers, etc. is prohibited by the 10^th Amendment.
2. Regulation of a products unintended consequences is much different than that for which it is designed.

Ignoring the first point for today and concentrating on the second point a little thought will reveal the regulation Henigan supports is much different than that of cars and lawnmowers.

A regulation requiring a self-propelled lawnmower to turn itself off when the operator releases their hands from the controls would be analogous to something like requiring a gun to tolerate being dropped without discharging. Which, if it were done by a state legislature, I wouldn't pick a constitutional fight over. A regulation which restricted self-propelled lawnmowers to government employees is analogous to the type of restrictions Henigan advocates.

Beyond the above points the 2^nd Amendment specifically protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms. So yes, assuming the Heller (formerly Parker) decision goes our way, guns would achieve a specially protected constitutional status imposing unique limits on our government. This was the original intent of the 2^nd Amendment.

Therefore a more succinct response to Henigan et al would be, "And your point is?"--Joe]

I almost used this exact paragraph from here as my QOTD but decided to look around some more and save that for some other time. I then saw this exact paragraph while visiting here and again was sorely tempted. As I continued to wander my RSS feeds revealed Sebastian and Kevin eliminated my backups. Either it is a conspiracy against me or great minds think alike. I'm inclined to think the later because Say Uncle has the same complaint as I do.

I was tagged by The Unforgiving Minute a week ago which was right in the middle of Boomershoot. I'm still recovering and trying to catch up on things so this is a bit late.

The rules:

1. Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. No cheating!
2. Find page 123.
3. Find the first five sentences.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people.

When I read that I was tagged "the nearest book" was over a 1/4 mile away in someone else's house so I decided to use the nearest book to my bed where I do nearly all my book reading these days.

From Explosives Engineering by Paul W. Cooper.

Page 123 is page 5 of "Table 9.1 Heats of Formation of Inorganic Compounds" and is not broken down into sentences. I'm going to page 124 which has some actual sentences on it.

Hydrochloric acid, HCl, will react with sodium hydroxide, NaOH, to form sodium chloride, NaCl, and water, H₂O.

HCl + NaOH --> NaCl + H₂O

Calculating the standard heat of reaction from the standard heats of formation, we have:

ΔH_r⁰ = [ΔH_f⁰(NaCl) + ΔH_f⁰(H₂O)]_products - [ΔH_f⁰(HCl) + ΔH_f⁰(NaOH)]_reactants

I would tag my daughter Xenia Joy and a few other friends but they always ignore me on the meme thing anyway. So if you sort of think you know me and want to participate go right ahead.

Wrong search terms, wrong location, on the wrong website, with a webmaster that watches his log files. I'm filling out the police report now.

Greensboro is just 90 miles from Chesterfield (have you sees the news lately?):

Domain Name		(Unknown)
IP Address		216.79.193.# (BellSouth.net)
ISP		BellSouth.net
Location		Continent  :  North America Country  :  United States  (Facts) State  :  North Carolina City  :  Greensboro Lat/Long  :  36.0844, -79.8209 (Map) Distance  :  2,038 miles
Language		English (U.S.) en-us
Operating System		Microsoft WinXP
Browser		Internet Explorer 6.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.30; InfoPath.2; .NET CLR 3.0.04506.648)
Javascript		version 1.3
Monitor		Resolution  :  1024 x 768 Color Depth  :  16 bits
Time of Visit		Apr 22 2008 10:34:38 am
Last Page View		Apr 22 2008 10:34:53 am
Visit Length		15 seconds
Page Views		1
Referring URL		http://www.google.co...w to bomb a building
Search Engine		google.com
Search Words		how to bomb a building
Visit Entry Page		http://blog.joehuffm...ombBuildingHelp.aspx
Visit Exit Page		http://blog.joehuffm...ombBuildingHelp.aspx
Out Click		http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=navclient&q=how to make a small bomb http://www.google.co...to make a small bomb
Time Zone		UTC-5:00
Visitor's Time		Apr 22 2008 1:34:38 pm
Visit Number		288,609

I wondered why I was getting so many hits from people using a search engine with the search terms "atf job description".

I investigated just a little bit and discovered if you use those search terms with Google, Live Search, or Ask my blog post is the number one listing. I don't think I know how to express how much that amuses me.

I just hope I can repress the urge to share my amusement with the next ATF inspector that visits me at the Taj Mahal.

Earlier today, Uncle demanded:

I’m here to ask you all to knock that shit off.

I'm here to defy his demands:

Domain Name		usdoj.gov ? (U.S. Government)
IP Address		149.101.1.# (US Dept of Justice)
ISP		US Dept of Justice
Location		Continent  :  North America Country  :  United States  (Facts) State  :  Virginia City  :  Arlington Lat/Long  :  38.8782, -77.1054 (Map) Distance  :  2,068 miles
Language		English (U.S.) en-us
Operating System		Microsoft WinXP
Browser		Internet Explorer 6.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; DOJ3jx7bf; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; InfoPath.1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727)
Javascript		version 1.3
Monitor		Resolution  :  1024 x 768 Color Depth  :  32 bits
Time of Visit		Apr 3 2008 12:14:52 pm
Last Page View		Apr 3 2008 12:15:08 pm
Visit Length		16 seconds
Page Views		2
Referring URL		http://www.google.co...e&btnG=Google Search
Search Engine		google.com
Search Words		always think forfeiture
Visit Entry Page		http://blog.joehuffman.org/2008/03/20/AlwaysThinkForfeiture.aspx
Visit Exit Page		http://blog.joehuffman.org/2008/03/20/AlwaysThinkForfeiture.aspx
Out Click
Time Zone		UTC-4:00
Visitor's Time		Apr 3 2008 4:14:52 pm
Visit Number		279,359

Okay, so I'm not going to get bent out of shape and claim the ATF black helicopters are about to touch down. I'm not really in defiance of the Great and Wonderful Uncle.

What I do want to do is point out that we got the ATF's attention when we pointed out their faux pas regarding Always Think Forfeiture. Whether they give the creator of that incentive tool a promotion and/or publicly flog someone is still up in the air. But you should note that we do have an effect on them. And every minute they spend deciding what to do about getting caught in the sheep pen with their pants around their ankles is less time they have to spend infringing the rights of the innocent. It will also be a very useful thing for our friends in congress to bring up during budget hearings with the ATF. Jed did good. Real good.

Blogging will be light for a few days while I work on Boomershoot 2008 tasks. I give you Xenia as a substitute...

It's becoming a tradition. During Xenia's spring break we go to Portland, visit Powell's, I buy books on explosives, and we get Voodoo Donuts.

And, again, Xenia captures it in pictures.

I'm going to add some of these soon:

• Register to Vote
• Write Your Reps (Congress)
• Write Your Reps (State/Local)
• Write the Media

DOJ and now DHS.

This time they are interested in the 5000 pounds of ammonium nitrate I bought and had my daughter pose for a picture with it.

I really need to do a Privacy Act request and get a copy of the file they have on me.

Domain Name		dhs.gov ? (U.S. Government)
IP Address		129.33.119.# (IBM)
ISP		IBM
Location		Continent  :  North America Country  :  United States  (Facts) State  :  North Carolina City  :  Durham Lat/Long  :  35.9138, -78.8489 (Map) Distance  :  2,090 miles
Language		English (U.S.) en-us
Operating System		Microsoft WinXP
Browser		Internet Explorer 6.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; InfoPath.1; .NET CLR 1.0.3705; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
Javascript		version 1.3
Monitor		Resolution  :  1024 x 768 Color Depth  :  32 bits
Time of Visit		Mar 11 2008 4:03:01 pm
Last Page View		Mar 11 2008 4:03:01 pm
Visit Length		0 seconds
Page Views		1
Referring URL		[Link to Google image search.]
Visit Entry Page		http://blog.joehuffman.org/CategoryView,category,Boomershoot.aspx
Visit Exit Page		http://blog.joehuffman.org/CategoryView,category,Boomershoot.aspx
Out Click
Time Zone		UTC-10:00
Visitor's Time		Mar 11 2008 2:03:01 pm
Visit Number		265,742

Are these people interested about what I have to say in a friendly manner? Or are they gathering material to put in my file?

Domain Name		usdoj.gov ? (U.S. Government)
IP Address		149.101.1.# (US Dept of Justice)
ISP		US Dept of Justice
Location		Continent  :  North America Country  :  United States  (Facts) State  :  Virginia City  :  Arlington Lat/Long  :  38.8782, -77.1054 (Map) Distance  :  2,068 miles
Language		English (U.S.) en-us
Operating System		Microsoft WinXP
Browser		Internet Explorer 6.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; DOJ3jx7bf; (R1 1.1); .NET CLR 1.1.4322; InfoPath.1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727)
Javascript		version 1.3
Monitor		Resolution  :  1024 x 768 Color Depth  :  32 bits
Time of Visit		Mar 4 2008 11:31:00 am
Last Page View		Mar 4 2008 11:31:00 am
Visit Length		0 seconds
Page Views		1
Referring URL		http://search.yahoo....e=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8
Search Engine		search.yahoo.com
Search Words		cavalry arms atf
Visit Entry Page		http://blog.joehuffm...1/WeKnowThisGuy.aspx
Visit Exit Page		http://blog.joehuffm...1/WeKnowThisGuy.aspx
Out Click
Time Zone		UTC-5:00
Visitor's Time		Mar 4 2008 2:31:00 pm
Visit Number		261,851

Domain Name		usdoj.gov ? (U.S. Government)
IP Address		149.101.1.# (US Dept of Justice)
ISP		US Dept of Justice
Location		Continent  :  North America Country  :  United States  (Facts) State  :  District of Columbia City  :  Washington Lat/Long  :  38.9097, -77.0231 (Map) Distance  :  2,071 miles
Language		English (U.S.) en-us
Operating System		Microsoft WinXP
Browser		Internet Explorer 6.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; DOJ3jx7bf; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; InfoPath.1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727)
Javascript		version 1.3
Monitor		Resolution  :  1152 x 864 Color Depth  :  32 bits
Time of Visit		Mar 4 2008 10:56:34 am
Last Page View		Mar 4 2008 10:56:34 am
Visit Length		0 seconds
Page Views		1
Referring URL		http://www.google.co...&hl=en&start=10&sa=N
Search Engine		google.com
Search Words		atf whistleblower
Visit Entry Page		http://blog.joehuffm.../04/NaivePeople.aspx
Visit Exit Page		http://blog.joehuffm.../04/NaivePeople.aspx
Out Click
Time Zone		UTC-5:00
Visitor's Time		Mar 4 2008 1:56:34 pm
Visit Number		261,840

I thought Sebastian (Snowflakes in Hell) was already on my blogroll. I've been reading him everyday for months.

That oversight has been corrected.

The VPC Blog is a must have. "Everyone" is talking about it and it's good:

• New Addition to the Birdcage List!
• More Funny
• VPC Blog Satire Is Hilarious
• Han shot first
• American Hunters and Shooters Association Screech
• When it Becomes Difficult to Tell Parody from Reality...
  

The Adventures of Roberta X keeps me looking up words in the dictionary but anyone that likes guns, science fiction and geeky stuff is interesting.

Sometimes you might think you are just "preaching to the choir" and the people that can make a difference don't listen no matter what you do.

Then there are other times when you think maybe someone in a position of power is paying attention:

Domain Name		senate.gov ? (U.S. Government)
IP Address		156.33.24.# (U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms)
ISP		U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms
Location		Continent  :  North America Country  :  United States  (Facts) State  :  District of Columbia City  :  Washington Lat/Long  :  38.9097, -77.0231 (Map) Distance  :  2,071 miles
Language		English (U.S.) en-us
Operating System		Microsoft WinXP
Browser		Internet Explorer 7.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; InfoPath.1)
Javascript		version 1.3
Monitor		Resolution  :  1024 x 768 Color Depth  :  16 bits
Time of Visit		Feb 25 2008 7:56:41 am
Last Page View		Feb 25 2008 7:59:25 am
Visit Length		2 minutes 44 seconds
Page Views		2
Referring URL		http://www.google.co... state park firearms
Search Engine		google.com
Search Words		idaho state park firearms
Visit Entry Page		http://blog.joehuffman.org/default.aspx
Visit Exit Page		http://blog.joehuffman.org/default.aspx
Out Click
Time Zone		UTC-5:00
Visitor's Time		Feb 25 2008 10:56:41 am
Visit Number		255,384

Domain Name		senate.gov ? (U.S. Government)
IP Address		156.33.24.# (U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms)
ISP		U.S. Senate Sergeant at Arms
Location		Continent  :  North America Country  :  United States  (Facts) State  :  District of Columbia City  :  Washington Lat/Long  :  38.9097, -77.0231 (Map) Distance  :  2,071 miles
Language		English (U.S.) en-us
Operating System		Microsoft WinXP
Browser		Internet Explorer 7.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1; InfoPath.2)
Javascript		version 1.3
Monitor		Resolution  :  1024 x 768 Color Depth  :  16 bits
Time of Visit		Feb 25 2008 7:23:21 am
Last Page View		Feb 25 2008 7:25:12 am
Visit Length		1 minute 51 seconds
Page Views		2
Referring URL
Visit Entry Page		http://blog.joehuffman.org/2008/02/22/WoooHooo.aspx
Visit Exit Page		http://blog.joehuffman.org/2008/02/22/WoooHooo.aspx
Out Click		The View From North Central Idaho http://blog.joehuffman.org/default.aspx
Time Zone		UTC-5:00
Visitor's Time		Feb 25 2008 10:23:21 am
Visit Number		255,369

May 16-18 is the NRA convention and the Second Amendment Blog Bash in Louisville. Initially I said I would wait and think about it until April or so. Uncle told me to make my reservations then cancel later if I decided to because the hotels fill up quickly.

I procrastinated* for a month or so and Kevin started asking if I was going. I talked to Barb and we decided if she didn't have to work that weekend we would go. I looked it up on the calendar and found out she had to work and couldn't go. So told Kevin no and dropped it.

Last week Barb said she wanted some time with her sister in California. I prefer to avoid repressive regimes** so Barb suggested she would go to California sometime and and I could go to Louisville.

I just finished making my reservations. I got a non-smoking King bed at Red Roof for $55.50/night (Fri and Sat, Thu and Sun it’s $45/night). Most of our group is staying at the Executive Inn but it is full. Red Roof is about two miles from the Executive Inn and Convention Center so I rented a car. I’ll willing to give people rides if you want to stay at Red Roof or the Super 8 next door.

See you in Louisville!

The pass was still closed (they are saying maybe by midnight one of them will be open) when I woke up this morning. I chatted with Barb for a few minutes and was reading a few blogs and posting my QOTD when I  got a text message from Ry:

We went to Beth's and I finally got on the outside of one of their six egg omelets (they have two sizes, six and 12 egg, both come with all the hash browns you can eat).

I took a couple pictures of drawings on the wall:

From there we went to Kerry Park and took some pictures:

We left the park to visit Glazer's.

At Glazer's I bought a new camera bag and some minor camera accessories.

We then continued south to Cabela's in Lacy. I have never been in a Cabela's before and Ry had only been to the original store in the Midwest. The store was pretty amazing.

The most amazing thing happened there. Someone recognized our Boomershoot coats and my hat and said hi. He said he reads my blog!

I bought a bunch of strange flavored licorice (Piña Colada and blue raspberry among others) some bullets (not loaded ammo, just the Berger, .30 caliber, 210 grain VLD bullets). Wow! Those have gone up by a factor of two since I last bought some. But I figured they weren't going to get any cheaper.

From way down south in Lacy we went way north to Monroe for the "Fun Show" as Ry likes to call them. Actually it was one of the WAC events. I walked by all the tables and didn't really see anything of much interest.

We then headed out of town a little way to visit a friend of Ry's that has a rifle range Ry has permission to use. "A couple hundred yards", Ry said. Things were in the process of changing. Soon it will be over 850 yards! We stood around and talked with the owner and a friend of his for probably an hour. Maybe next spring when there is more daylight in a day and the longer range is available I might visit again with a long range rifle.

Next we ate dinner at the Old Country Buffet and I dropped him off back at his place and came back to my bunker.

That was a nice day. It was much better than moping around writing buggy code for The Borg like I had planned.  Thanks Ry.

But the bummer part of it was Barb had an extremely light day at work and would have been able to spend a lot of time with me at lunch and then gotten off work early to spend more time with me had I been able to make it over the pass and back to Moscow last night.

It was quite a while back that I invited Lyle to blog here. Via many long conversations and numerous lengthy emails it was clear he had penetrating, even brutal, insight that others would benefit from. He told me (IIRC) for me to offer him this forum was like the P.J. O'Rourke line about giving power and money to the government. But that he would think about it. Within a day or two the temptation overcame him and he made his first post.

Lyle hasn't posted that often and I always thought he was holding back some. But then he would get links to his posts from certain bloggers I had never gotten links from and that made me a little bit envious. Still, the razor sharp penetration, straight to the bone, wasn't on display as much as I expected.

His most recent post--now that's what I'm talking about.

From my Sitemeter it appears someone is looking for a good time on New Years Eve:

Domain Name		rr.com ? (Commercial)
IP Address		69.76.1.# (Road Runner)
ISP		Road Runner
Location		Continent  :  North America Country  :  United States  (Facts) State  :  Idaho City  :  Coeur D Alene Lat/Long  :  47.6609, -116.8343 (Map) Distance  :  65 miles (local visitor)
Language		English (U.S.) en-us
Operating System		Microsoft WinXP
Browser		Internet Explorer 7.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 5.1)
Javascript		version 1.3
Monitor		Resolution  :  1024 x 768 Color Depth  :  32 bits
Time of Visit		Dec 31 2007 12:47:41 pm
Last Page View		Dec 31 2007 12:47:41 pm
Visit Length		0 seconds
Page Views		1
Referring URL		http://www.google.co... parties north idaho
Search Engine		google.com
Search Words		orgy parties north idaho
Visit Entry Page		http://blog.joehuffman.org/default,month,2005-12.aspx
Visit Exit Page		http://blog.joehuffman.org/default,month,2005-12.aspx
Out Click
Time Zone		UTC-8:00
Visitor's Time		Dec 31 2007 12:47:41 pm
Visit Number		227,546

Sorry, we won't be having that type of party at our place tonight. It will be spent with our kids, Barb's sister, and her family. And when I say that, keep in mind this is Idaho, not West Virginia or some such place.

Rather than preparing to prosecute anti-gun politicians and organizations someone at the DOJ just visited my blog:

Domain Name		usdoj.gov ? (United States Government)
IP Address		149.101.1.# (US Dept of Justice)
ISP		US Dept of Justice
Location		Continent  :  North America Country  :  United States  (Facts) State  :  Maryland City  :  Potomac Lat/Long  :  39.023, -77.1993 (Map) Distance  :  2,059 miles
Language		English (United States) en-us
Operating System		Microsoft WinXP
Browser		Internet Explorer 6.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SV1; DI60SP1001; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; InfoPath.1)
Javascript		version 1.3
Monitor		Resolution  :  1024 x 768 Color Depth  :  16 bits
Time of Visit		Nov 20 2007 9:47:26 am
Last Page View		Nov 20 2007 9:47:26 am
Visit Length		0 seconds
Page Views		1
Referring URL		http://search.msn.co...ze%3Alarge&FORM=SZIR
Search Engine		search.msn.com
Search Words		cake imagesize:large
Visit Entry Page		http://blog.joehuffm...date,2006-06-25.aspx
Visit Exit Page		http://blog.joehuffm...date,2006-06-25.aspx
Out Click
Time Zone		UTC-5:00
Visitor's Time		Nov 20 2007 12:47:26 pm
Visit Number		212,525

I wonder if they were really looking for the vagina cake. The thumbnail they clicked on here should have made it clear what they were going to end up with when they came to visit.

You just have to wonder what they want a Saiga 12 gauge for. Is it Aliens? Or maybe a Predator? My bet is it's for replicators. A shotgun worked quite well on those bugs.