The View From North Central Idaho

I just sent the following email to the author of an anti gun editorial.

From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Wed 3/23/2005 12:31 PM
To: zackywacks@aol.com
Subject: RE: Red Lake, Minnesota Shooting [On Gun Control]

I just read your article (http://www.useless-knowledge.com/1234/mar/article320.html).  There are a couple errors that I thought you should be aware of.

You stated:

 

As a matter of fact, according to the Brady Center there was a 66% decline under the ban for crimes that could be traced back to the use of assault weapons.

But what the Brady Center actually said (http://www.bradycampaign.org/ler/docs/doj_study_talking_points.doc)

 

The Brady Center report had found a 66% decline in assault weapons’ share of total crime gun traces from the pre-ban period to the post-ban period.

The difference is that in your statement you said the 66% decline was in the USE of assault weapons.  Whereas what they actually said was there was a 66% decline in the assault weapons' share of total crime gun traces.  "Crime gun traces" does not mean the gun was used in a crime.  Those traces include guns that were stolen and the trace was done to find the true owner.  In fact if you read the actual report the Brady Center bases their talking points on (http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/nij/grants/204431.pdf) you will find (section 6.1) "...up to a quarter of the guns confiscated by police are associated with violent offenses or shots fired incidences".  Furthermore the traces are at the discretion of the local police who confiscated the firearm.  Any changes in their policies regarding traces will affect those numbers.  Hence, the trace data is unreliable and to the extent it is reliable it does not reflect the use of that gun in the commission of a crime.

 

You also state:

 

Just prior to the assault ban being enacted it was noted that there were approximately 15 people killed per 100,000 in gun related deaths. By 2002 the death rate due to guns was down to 10 per 100,000 or 30% less. (www.inasa.org) I don’t know about you but that looks pretty effective to me!

Aside from the fact that you include ALL people killed with firearms, including those that are justified or even praiseworthy shootings by the police and private citizens using them in defense of innocent life if you read the National Institute of Justice report rather than the Brady Campaign talking points you get still more concerning errors:

AWs were used in only a small fraction of gun crimes prior to the ban: about 2% according to most studies and no more than 8%. Most of the AWs used in crime are assault pistols rather than assault rifles.

Therefore it is simply not possible that a 30% decline can be attributed to the banning of something that was only used in, at most, 8% of the crimes.  That doesn't even include the effects of criminals substituting other weapons to commit murders if the banned firearms are unavailable. 

In short your article only focuses on the adverse effects of firearms ownership and use and relies on Brady Campaign talking points rather than actual criminological results.

 

Regards,

Joe Huffman
----
http://blog.joehuffman.org
http://www.boomershoot.org

Update: Fixed some format errors in the blog post version, and a couple of typos that were in the letter I sent to the author.

They tell us, sir...that we are weak, unable to cope with so formidable an adversary. But when shall we be stronger? Will it be the next week or the next year? Will it be when we are totally disarmed, and when a British guard shall be stationed in every house? Shall we gather strength by irresolution and inaction? Shall we acquire the means of effectual resistance by lying supinely on our backs and hugging the delusive phantom of hope, until our enemies shall have bound us hand and foot? Sir, we are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of nature has placed in our power. Three millions of people armed in the holy cause of liberty and in such a country as that which we possess are invincible by any force which our enemy can send against us.

Besides, sir, we shall not fight our battles alone. There is a just God who presides over the destinies of nations, and who will raise up friends to fight our battles for us. The battle, sir, is not to the strong alone; it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, sir, we have no election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now too late to retire from the contest. There is no retreat but in submission and slavery! Our chains are forged. Their clanking may be heard on the plains of Boston! The war is inevitable -- and let it come!! I repeat it, sir, let it come!!!

It is vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, peace, peace; but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear or peace so sweet as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery?

Forbid it, Almighty God -- I know not what course others may take; but as for me -- give me liberty or give me death!

Patrick Henry
Speech, March 23, 1775

Looking over the requests for proposals from TSWG today I ran across this one:

R2016 Rapid Threat Assessment Screening

Develop a capability for the rapid, real-time threat assessment of an individual’s potential terrorist threat at ports of entry or other sensitive entrance areas. This proposed system must integrate physiological signals with biometric information. Preferred procedures are real-time and rely on non-invasive measures and on proven psychophysiological indices and psychometrically sound criteria. System performance must balance the risks associated with the threat environment. The capability must provide for the processing of large numbers of individuals at airports, embassies, border crossings, or other ports of entry where the base rate of intent to do harm is very small. The pre-screening device must be be portable and easily operable for use prior to a more in-depth interrogation.

Very cool if it is actually possible, some parents would love to have it for dealing with their teen-agers, and George Orwell could have used it in one of his novels.

I had problems the first time.  It was a little better the second time, but it still wasn't good.  Once when Barb and I were driving by the Red Cross Donation center I pointed it out to her and said that was where she could pick up my body if they managed to kill me.  She didn't think my joke was nearly as funny as I did.

This morning I donated for the third time.  The nurses/technicians seemed to recognize me and remember notes they had made on me from months ago (I think the last time was October). Not a good sign I suppose.  They started out really slow and gave me lots of Tums (for the calcium which mitigates the problems with the anti-coagulants) but after a few minutes I started having the tingling in my lips and they slowed things down even more and gave me more Tums.  Every 30 minutes or so it would happen again.  Then I started sneezing.  One of the people came over and asked if I just wanted to call it quits.  I said it was just allergies.  She said it was one of the symptoms.  I only had about another 20 minutes left and I said to go ahead and finish up.  I made it through and as I was being disconnected they told me that it would be best if I didn't try to donate again.  She thanked me for persisting but said it's hard on me physically and probably mentally as well.  Some people don't have problems with donations of any type, some donate whole blood without any problems (I am one) and can't donate platelets and some people can donate platelets but have problems with whole blood.  She recommended I stick with just donating whole blood.  I'm okay with that and, of course, so is Barb.

I've been exploring ways to get internet access to Boomershoot 2005.  I don't know how much it would cost yet but I found the SpeedRay 3000.  It's not quite available yet anyway.  But it's very cool.

God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.

Daniel Webster

I went in to have my teeth cleaned this morning and was pleased to have LeEllen as the hygienist. She is incredibly bubbly and friendly. She makes me smile--as much is possible when your mouth is full of hand tools and portions of her hands. She and her husband are also students of mine. They took a handgun class from me a few years ago and we frequently talk a little bit about guns when I see her. This time when she introduced me to the new dentist she told him about my being her instructor and that I was "a really good teacher". That made me feel good and caused a real smile since she had temporarily removed the tools and her hands from my mouth.

The thing that made me smile, to myself, the most was something she surely didn't intend to be funny. She talked about the new dentist and how he liked to "do everything" in dentistry--just like Dr. J that we have been seeing for the last dozen years who is the primary owner of the clinic. She then went on and on about "Dr. J. likes to do root canals and he likes to do extractions, everything!" My mind immediately thought of a sadist getting pleasure from causing pain to someone else. Not at all what she meant and certainly not what my experience with the good Dr. J. has been. But my mind twisted her words to give me many minutes of pleasure on my long drive to work this morning.  I thought of her, so cheerful and bubbly, and the gentle Dr. J. in some sort of Monty Python like skit where they do root canals and tooth extractions because they enjoy them so much.

A belief is not true because it is useful.

Henri Frederic Amiel

I finally updated numbers of the referrals from the various bloggers.  My ISP had some problems for a while and I didn't have any log files for several weeks.  That has been corrected.  I also changed the target size information.  I may change the target number (up, not down).  I need to run some numbers first.  But my guess is I need more targets now.  The new targets are four and six inch squares instead of four and six inch circles.  The rectangles will be easier to hit.  The largest target is now a 7 3/8 x 7 3/8 rectangle compared to the old 8 inch circle.  So that will be just slightly larger.

I also updated the general information page on what to bring.  The biggest change there is I removed “tarp” from the options to shoot off of.  Shooting off a slick tarp on the built up shooting positions can be “challenging”.  A non-skid shooting mat is preferable.

My family, from the farm, showed up for Barb's birthday party yesterday and I found out there have been several grass and brush fires in the neighborhood recently.  Most years there would still be snow on the ground.  But this year they are having fire problems in mid March!  I probably will have to take special precautions to reduce the chances of fire this year.  Unless of course it snows on us--which has happened.

Here are the pictures from the party.  A sample:

The video I made for the party, Barbara Scott From 1 to 50, is here.

Update: Barb requested that I make a slight change in the movie. She was right, it made it better. The original is here.

I found some more pictures in my camera, browsed through the pictures that were in Xenia's camera and put a few more up.

Sheep can be controlled by the sheepdog for the same reason they fear the wolf -- they are both predators.  The same relationships hold with the general population, the police, and the criminals.  Most people are sheep, but you don't have to be.  If you have the skills and attitude of a predator the criminals will leave you alone -- because they will recognize you as a predator and there is easier game available.

Greg Hamilton (paraphrased)
Self Defense Instructor
February 5, 1997

Barb's sister Susan asked me to do this.  Xenia helped with scanning the older pictures.

It never troubles the wolf how many the sheep may be.

From Sir Francis Bacon essays.
Attributed to Virgil; a Roman writer 10/15/0070 – 09/21/0019 BC

From Periodic Journal of my wanderings.  Two of my favorite hobbies but I never combine them in any fashion what so ever.  These two did-- with disastrous results.  How many safety rule violations can you count here?

 WEST VIEW, Pa. -- A Ross Township man accused of shooting his girlfriend waived his right to a preliminary hearing Wednesday

Authorities say a 17-year-old McCandless girl was shot in the groin on Feb. 27 at Timothy Madden's Perry Highway apartment.

The girl and the 23-year-old Madden were engaged in "bedroom activities" when the gun discharged, police said.

Details are graphic, but police said the incident involved a .45-caliber handgun with a condom on it, and the weapon somehow went off.

"The act itself did involve what anyone reasonable would conclude are some bizarre, strange, sexual fetishes and activities," Ross Police Detective Bill Barrett said. "(The girl) is very lucky, I think, to be alive. Everyone is amazed."

Madden said he and the teen are still a couple, and he looks forward to seeing her again soon.

"I'm very glad to see that the person that I love most is doing better, and I'm very glad that she came to see me (in court) and I hope that she does much better in the future," Madden said. "This was a mistake. It was an accident."

Madden is charged with aggravated assault, reckless endangerment and corruption of a minor. No trial date has been set.

Jack Straw has vowed to lead a global drive to force the world's arms exporters to sign a treaty controlling the £15bn-a-year trade in conventional weapons.

Warning that a person is shot dead every minute in the world, the Foreign Secretary said "more misery and destruction" was caused by smallarms than by tightly controlled weapons of mass destruction.

...

Mr Straw said legally binding controls could be drawn up on conventional arms exports to match those on nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. He promised to put the issue on the agenda of the June meeting of the foreign ministers of the G8 group of politically powerful nations, which he will chair.

...

A LETHAL BUSINESS

* In 2003, global military expenditure and the arms trade was estimated to be $950bn

* One person a minute is killed by small arms

* 14 billion ammunition rounds and eight million small arms are made every year.

* There are 639 million small arms on the planet, 60 per cent in civilian hands. There are more guns in the world than cars. In the Democratic Republic of Congo there are 800,000 illegal guns.

* 300,000 child soldiers are involved in conflicts.

* About one million guns are lost or stolen every year.

Guns aren't the cause, people using the guns are.  And assuming the point about one person a minute is by someone using small arms is true--So what?  If those were all people that needed to be shot then we should be working to increase the rate.  By itself that statistic is totally meaningless.  Beyond that guns and ammo are too easily made and too easily smuggled to restrict any more than you can restrict recreational drugs--including alcohol and tobacco.  Other than increasing his personal power I can't imagine what he thinks he can accomplish with such an agenda.

Liberate the Mideast, the Midwest, Canada, and then the UK.

I wrote about this last September, but other people have been talking about Zeus which is actually in the field and while very cool doesn't have near the coolness that Close Quarters Shock Rifle has.  I did some more research on it and found another article.  I can't talk about the briefing and pictures I saw last summer, but think Startrek Phasor and/or a Starwars light saber:

While I was talking with Pete Bitar, yesterday, I told him that basically, with the XADS Stunstrike CQSR "you're shooting lightning at people", to which Pete said something to the effect of "yeah, that's pretty much it". What's interesting about the StunStrike is that the lightning bolt that comes out is visible (just like natural lightning), and has an ending point, like a light saber. Pete told me that the electrical "beam" is both visually and audibly intimidating, and should prove to have a profound psychological effect on people. Basically, it looks and sounds scary, which is usually what you want with a less-lethal device.

Imagine a mob of Allah worshiping thugs trying to storm a US embassy calling us heathens and blasphemers.  A couple of Marines on the roof then educating them on the name of the one true god, Uncle Sam, and strike them down with lightening bolts from above.  I get all warm and fuzzy just thinking about it.

It's been known for a long time that picture ID is almost completely worthless.  Numerous papers have been written on the absolutely appalling performance of people who check photo ID.  But this is a little extreme even from my jaded viewpoint.  Numerous checkpoints didn't even notice the gender was wrong:

The appallingly lax state of security at Britain's airports has been exposed once more after a teacher flew from London to Spain using her husband's passport.

Geraldine McCauley, 41, passed through three security checks at London's Luton airport and Spanish passport control, before realising she had accidentally travelled with her husband's second passport instead of her own.

Despite the heightened threat of terrorist attacks on UK targets, not one member of staff noticed that she was carrying a passport bearing her husband's photograph.

The author lives in a flatland where self-reliance is in an inaccessible direction called 'up'.

Sean Flynn
3/30/98
In reference to a rabid anti-gunner.

I find this incredibly funny:

I saw it coming in November

At about 7:30 central when my fundie meighbors were celebrating the coming apocolypse. I knew then and I know now we're going to get some nasty foul shit shoved down our throats.
If we aren't headed to full pitched civil war by this time next year, then it'll surprise the hell out of me.

The Promise of America

has become an oily, black, bottomless cesspool.

THERE IS NO POLITICAL SOLUTION NOW. We've passed that point.

Bouncy Ball, the only time people will be marching in the streets is on their way to the local GITMO.

Did they forget something?  Like maybe it was their political party that has been restricting weapons for the last 20 years?  So who do you think owns all the personal weapons, knows how to use them, and who the instructors are?  I just wish they could see this as a “teaching moment.”

Kim du Toit and friends have their favorite quotes from this same thread too.

Some police are advising people to just comply with a mugger/rapists demands in hopes of not getting hurt.  The next time someone does that I'm going up to him and start taking down his pants.  When he asks what I doing I'm going to tell him I'm raping him and he should follow his own advice and submit so he doesn't get hurt.

Greg Hamilton
Self Defense Instructor
February 6, 1999

I dropped off the three girls (Xenia and her two friends) in Sunnyside, about 35 miles west of Richland, where they were spending the night with a friend. As I start back to Richland I call and leave a message on her voicemail. She should have been in Richland by then and I hope she has just left her phone in the car while she is visiting a friend in Richland. About 10 minutes later she calls back and is quite agitated. She left Interstate 84 and has been driving on Oregon highway 207, as per her mother's directions, for about 30 minutes without seeing signs for Pasco, Kennewick or Richland or even Washington State. It turns out she has been driving south on 207 instead of north as her mother believed. Kim is not happy with mother. I tell her not to call her mother and detail her faults. Barb has had enough "fun" for her birthday without dealing with an angry daughter that knows how to push all the "right" buttons. I tell her to drive north, back the way she has come, and I can probably meet her at about the same place she got confused before. I headed south and pulled into a rest stop on I-84 at 19:46, four minutes after she arrived. We utilize the facilities, she ate a cereal bar I had in the van, and then we look at the map together. I give her a walkie-talkie and I lead her back to Richland.

At 21:02 she parks in my driveway--finally. She's been driving almost constantly for 14 hours. She only stopped for gas and to wait for me at the rest stop. Xenia and friends had put the sheets in the washer before we left but I hadn't made it back to put them in the dryer yet. Kim doesn't care, "The bed has blankets, doesn't it?" "Yes." "That's all I need." I persuaded her to take out her contact lenses, she can use my spare case and solution so she doesn't need to go back out to the car. She didn't want any food, just sleep. She kicked off her shoes and got into bed with all her clothes on.  I try to ask her about going to breakfast with me in the morning but she had the blankets pulled almost all the way over her head, like her mother does, is very groggy. I kiss her forehead, turn out the light, and close the door. My baby is safe for the night.

And I'm not there to comfort her.  I can only listen to the reports on the telephone.

• High wind warning in effect for her area of operations (home health).
• Truck accident completely blocks a road to one of her patients.  Her Jeep is able to cross the ditch and bypass the truck by going through a field.
• Bloody nose starts after a sneeze.  Massive amount of blood all over the inside of her Jeep and her clothes.  Quick Care tells her to go to emergency room.

Just wait until she finds out what her siblings have planned for her at the party on Saturday in Potlatch (call Nancy Amos if you want to attend).