The October 15th issue of Chicago Reader has a picture of Stephanie Sailor shooting a Barrett .50 BMG at Boomershoot 2001.  She was wearing my coat at the time.

Barb's brother, Dow, sent us three copies of the newspaper.  You can read the article here. 

As always, there are errors in the story. But it was reasonably positive.  Especially considering this is Chicago we are talking about.  Illinois and Chicago in particular are exceedingly anti-gun.  Stephanie is very pro-gun.  The article does not attempt to hide that part of her position, but the headline is a bit discomforting.  It's not in the online version but it was the caption for the picture of Stephanie with the Barrett .50 BMG and said, “Can This Woman Take Down Jesse Jackson Jr.“ As Ry said, “I know it's a good headline, but you know, perhaps they could have reworded it.“

The Liberty Committee just sent out an alert.  Anymore it is rare for me to urge people to send letter and contact their congress critters or other low life people, with power over them.  However this issue is one I am very passionate (and I believe rational) about.  Please read the alert and decide for yourself whether you want a national ID card and database.  Then do the appropriate thing.  The following was my confirmation and letter from my efforts on this.  Please also consider the contents of my web page on this issue.

Thank you for using The Liberty Committee Mail System

Message sent to the following recipients:
Mr. Otter
Message text follows:

Joe Huffman
[snip]
Moscow, ID 83843

October 22, 2004

[recipient address was inserted here]

Dear [recipient name was inserted here],

Please work to have the House-Senate conference committee remove the
provisions that will create a master database on every American (H.R. 10,
section 2173) and the provision that will "standardize" or nationalize the
issuing of state driver's licenses -- an action which takes the final step
in creation a national ID (H.R. 10, section 3052).

I am a senior research scientist for Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
with a very high level security clearance [deleted on May 18, 2005 in an
attempt to please PNNL management].  I recognize the threat we are
facing from the Muslim extremists, but giving up these freedoms does not
make us safer in the long run.  Please do what you can to kill this
national ID proposal.  Please also see the web page I have created
addressing this threat to our freedoms.

http://www.joehuffman.org/Freedom/IDCardFlaws.htm

Sincerely,

Joe Huffman
208-301-4254

In the U.K. they have already banned real guns.  But crimes committed with guns is way up so the only thing left to do is ban imitation guns which is what these morons have proposed now.  This really should be a post for when prophecy fails.  I'll get around to that later.

Complete article follows:

Greens call for tougher gun control

22nd Oct 2004

Conference proposes restrictions on imitation firearms

In response to rising levels of gun crime (1), the Green Party's autumn conference, currently taking place in Weston-Super-Mare has endorsed tough new proposals on gun control.

The Green Party backs restrictions on the sale and ownership of imitation weapons and decommissioned weapons in response to the massive rise in their use in crimes.

Green Party Chairperson and Home affairs spokesperson Hugo Charlton commented;

"These measures are urgently required in order to combat the growing problem of crimes committed using imitation weapons. These replicas are dangerous; they are used in a growing number of crimes; they must be taken off our streets."

"Our proposals on the licensing of active firearms will put public safety above the convenience of shooters: those applying for gun licences will bear the cost of the necessary psychological tests; they will be required to produce character references; they will be made to bear the cost that

Charles Bailey, founder of the "Don't shoot" campaign, endorsed the Green Party?s position: "The Greens are taking the issue of gun crime seriously. They are putting forward policies that will really stop the incidence of gun crime on London's streets."

(1) Yesterday the Home Office released figures showing a 3% annual rise in gun crime over the past year. The figures also show a 35% rise in crimes involving imitation.

Not my Xenia.  Xenia Ohio:

At a town hall meeting Saturday in Xenia, he talked about taking his rosary into battle during the Vietnam War. "I will bring my faith with me to the White House and it will guide me," Kerry said.

I wonder what all the people who criticize Bush on his faith think of that?  Personally, I am very skeptical of anyone who professes that type of faith.  How can faith determine right from wrong or truth from falsity?  It can't.  Faith cannot be trusted and therefore people who rely on faith are suspect.  But it helps to get the vote of certain (suspect, in my book) people.

Of more interest is his hunting trip which was the main point in the article.  I like what the NRA said about it:

"If John Kerry thinks the Second Amendment is about photo ops, he's Daffy," says the ad the NRA said would run in The Vindicator. It features a large photo of Kerry with his finger on a shotgun trigger but looking in another direction.

But this report is even more humorous.

[snip]

So, as Mr. Kerry trundled out into the wilds under a rising sun to hunt ducks eight minutes outside Boardman, we were left with nothing to do but hunt canards.

In lieu of actual information, we put our heads together and came up with some details for this pool report. The primary area of wager was whether Mr. Kerry would return with game at all.

HE WOULD NOT: Fearing a backlash from soccer moms and PETA freaks, he decides to return empty-handed with that age-old phrase employed by failed hunters: I don't do it to kill things; I just like being outdoors. But, that could undermine the manliness that he has so carefully cultivated since launching his campaign.

HE WOULD, DEAD: Be bold. Kill something. Come back holding limp ducks by their wrung necks in your bloody fingers. Win back those security moms. This would have been the strategy advised by Bill Clinton, whom Mr. Kerry talks to by phone very often.

HE WOULD, DEAD, CLEANED, DRESSED FROM FOOD LION: Return with several fattened (thought not for their livers as that would come perilously close to something French), beautifully yellowed birds that were purchased from the local supermarket last night. This would allow him to appear bold, willing to hunt down and kill the enemy, but wouldn't be too scarily unfamiliar to people who don't hunt. "You should always come dressed for dinner," he would explain.

HE WOULD, BUT IT ISN'T A DUCK: This theory developed into the most desirous. He returns victorious, but with Osama bin Laden, who had been hiding out in the backside of the farm. Turns out that immediately after President Bush outsourced the capturing of him in Tora Bora to the Afghan warlords, Mr. Bin Laden climbed into a container of poppy gum and arrived through a port in Newark. The container, of course, went uninspected. With so few police officers on the street, Mr. Bin Laden had no problem wandering America unmolested.

[snip]

Absolutely amazing.  Here's the story.

Sen. John Kerry, bracing for a potential fight over election results, will not hesitate to declare victory Nov. 2 and defend it, advisers say.

...

Six so-called "SWAT teams" of lawyers and political operatives will be situated around the country with fueled-up jets awaiting Kerry's orders to speed to a battleground state. The teams have been told to be ready to fly on the evening of the election to begin mounting legal and political fights. Every battleground state will have a SWAT team within an hour of its borders.

The Kerry campaign has recount office space in every battleground state, with plans so detailed they include the number of staplers and coffee machines needed to mount legal challenges.

"Right now, we have 10,000 lawyers out in the battleground states on Election Day, and that number is growing by the day," said Michael Whouley, a Kerry confidant who is running election operations at the Democratic National Committee.

While the lawyers litigate, political operatives will try to shape public perception. Their goal would be to persuade voters that Kerry has the best claim to the presidency and that Republicans are trying to steal it.

Democrats are already laying the public relations groundwork by pointing to every possible voting irregularity before the Nov. 2 election and accusing Republicans of wrongdoing.

I'm compelled to tell a couple lawyer jokes.

A housewife, an accountant and a lawyer were asked "How much is 2+2?"
The housewife replies: "Four!".
The accountant says: "I think it's either 3 or 4.  Let me run those figures through my spreadsheet one more time."
The lawyer pulls the drapes, dims the lights and asks in a hushed voice, "How much do you want it to be?"

-----

A Russian, a Cuban, an American and a Lawyer are in a train.

The Russian takes a bottle of the Best Vodka out of his pack; pours some into a glass, drinks it, and says: "In Russia, we have the best vodka of the world, nowhere in the world you can find Vodka as good as the one we produce. And we have so much of it, that we can just throw it away..." Saying that, he open the window and throw the rest of the bottle thru it. All the others are quite impressed.

The Cuban takes a pack of Havanas, takes one of them, lights it and begins to smoke it saying: "In Cuba, we have the best cigars of the world: Havanas, nowhere in the world there is so many and so good cigars and we have so much of them, that we can just throw them away...". Saying that, he throws the pack of havanas thru the window. One more time, everybody is quite impressed.

At this time, the American just stands up, opens the window, and throws the Lawyer through it...

I just got a call from Stephanie, who does the publicity for Boomershoot.  She received a postcard from Dave Barry declining the invite to Boomershoot 2005.  He has a fundraiser he is attending that weekend but would like to be invited to Boomershoot 2006.

She did have news that someone else of very high status will probably attend.  Details will have to wait until things are confirmed.

Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat has endorsed Kerry. 

"The president [Arafat] is frustrated with Bush's policies," he said. "The president [Arafat] thinks Kerry will be much better for the Palestinian cause and for the establishment of a Palestinian state."

...

"Arafat is waiting for November in the hope George Bush will lose the election to John Kerry," Ze'evi told Army Radio in July. "He also hopes that the Israeli government will fall, so he can take center stage diplomatically."

I came across this “debate“ and felt compelled to respond.  My response follows:

It would help the debate if the debaters did some basic fact checking. For example: "... if someone were to attend a gun show, he/she could buy a weapon at the seller's discretion..." This is false. All the laws and regulations that apply at a retail store apply at a gun store. A licensed dealer must always do a background check when selling a gun from their stock. The gun show controversy is a myth created by anti-freedom advocates. See http://www.boomershoot.org/general/Myths.htm#Loophole for more details. "Assault rifles" have been severely restricted since 1934 and continue to be severely restricted.

"Assault weapons" is another manufactured myth by the anti-freedom advocates deliberately intending to deceive the public. They admit their intent take advantage of the confusion in the minds of the public over this issue. See http://www.vpc.org/studies/awaconc.htm where they says: "Assault weapons—just like armor-piercing bullets, machine guns, and plastic firearms—are a new topic. The weapons' menacing looks, coupled with the public's confusion over fully automatic machine guns versus semi-automatic assault weapons—anything that looks like a machine gun is assumed to be a machine gun—can only increase the chance of public support for restrictions on these weapons."

Another example of lack of fact checking is when Mr. Sexton says of "assault weapons", "These firearms are solely used for the purpose of attacking other human beings..." If this were true then one would have to conclude the 100,000+ of rounds I have fired through firearms covered by the expired "assault weapon" ban, none of which were involved in an attack on a human, must be considered a failure of my firearms.

Both Mr. Sexton and Ms. Taylor think background checks are a good idea before "allowing" people to exercise a fundamental right. I'm constantly baffled this line of thinking. If there are people freely roaming in society that cannot be trusted with a firearm can these same people be trusted with a can of gasoline and a book of matches? The largest mass murders committed by an individual were committed with gasoline and matches--demonstrating that combination is more deadly than firearms. Whatever restrictions you put on firearms are also sensible to put on gasoline and matches.

I could go on for pages on all the errors in fact and logic found in this debate but the above should be sufficient to encourage a bit more research before putting words to print.

That took almost an hour.  An hour I should have spent updating the Lewiston Pistol Club website.

On our first day we went looking for an internet connection.  There was supposed to be a free wireless connection at the Krispy Kreme store just down the street from the Four Queens where we stayed the first night.  I connected to their wireless router and got an IP address but couldn't get past their router.  I asked the woman behind the counter if she knew anything about the wireless service and she didn't have a clue.  The local Starbucks was supposed to have a connection.  Not even an signal could be found there.  I asked if there was another place that might have a connection.  Again, not a clue.

I called a local “Internet Cafe“ that was supposed to be open 24 hours a day and not too far away.  They answered, “Goodfellows“.  Long pause on my part.  Then I said I was looking for the internet cafe.  He said, “Oh, we can do that too.“  We walked a fair distance to find them and the street life got worse and worse.  I saw a guy smoking something in a very small pipe inside his vehicle just before we got to the place.  Here is a picture of what we found at that address:

We went in and asked about an internet connection.  He said we would unplug his connection and I could plug my computer in to his cable.  $6.00/hour.  I stayed connected for 45 minutes or so, we paid our $6.00 and left.  We didn't go back.

We went to a show one night.  Lots of dancing topless women that were rather interesting, an incredible juggler, and some really good male dancers that did some acrobatic type stuff that was impressive.  The Startrek experience was much better than I expected.  The wax museum was a bit of a disappointment.

We went for walk in Red Rock Canyon about 20 miles west of Las Vegas.  That was nice.

Our high school classmate, Karleen, agreed to meet us for breakfast the last day we were there but then had to cancel at the last minute.

See the pictures here.

The San Diego Tribune has more details.  The highlights I am interested in follow:

"Most of the guns used in crime – 80 percent – are handguns," said Randy Rossi, director of the firearms division at the state Department of Justice. "We want to see how well this works and give it a sunset. If it doesn't work, abandon it. But there is no reason in the world to believe it won't work."

The plan would require putting serial numbers on all handgun ammunition possessed in public, sold or imported into the state. To accommodate law-abiding sport shooters and those who reload their own cartridges, anyone on their way to or from a shooting range or hunting trip would be exempt. It's unclear how this provision would work, with supporters acknowledging that details on many aspects of the system need to be worked out.

This would require it be legal to have unmarked ammo in your home.  I love the part about “details... need to be worked out.“  Sort of like, “And then angels flew out of my ass and saved the day.“  These people live in a fantasy world.  They don't seem to understand that security is like a chain and when the weakest link breaks you have complete failure.

The microstamping system under study was developed by a Washington state company, Ravensforge. The company engraves shell casings and bullets with a matching serial number. All of the cartridges in a box packaged for retail sale would have the same serial number, which could be scanned and linked to a purchaser's driver license number, Rossi said.

This would help the serial number management problem some.  Instead of a billion numbers it would probably be 50 million or so.

The state's more than 1,600 licensed firearms dealers already have the electronic equipment to record the information – scanning the code on the ammunition box and electronically swiping the driver license – in the same way they collect required personal information for gun transactions.

Rossi initially was skeptical that a bullet's number would be legible after it was fired.

A test of 200 rounds fired from close range into walls, car doors, bulletproof vests, rubber matting and a gel designed to simulate a human target convinced him the technology is sound.

Of 181 slugs recovered – including soft lead bullets that largely flattened out – the tiny code could be read on 180 of them with a simple electronic magnifying scope.

"We tried to prove this doesn't work," he said. "To have it work virtually every time, I was very surprised."

Lockyer seized on the system as an alternative to ballistics fingerprinting, which relies on unique, microscopic imperfections in shell casings and slugs. The attorney general angered gun-control advocates last year when his office concluded that ballistics imaging required a massive database and would prove ineffective unless launched as part of national system.

By tracking ammunition, which Rossi said has a relatively short shelf life, the state could develop a much broader database than an alternative that applies only to new handguns.

Hmmm... in practice ammo may not sit on the shelf for very long but if stored in a cool dry place it can easily last for 50 to 100 years.  I suspect Rossi was just making things up as he went along on this particular point.

The attorney general's aides concede the microstamping proposal faces daunting political and financial obstacles. Manufacturers, gun-control and gun-rights activists – none of whom were involved in the initial study – are raising questions.

Gary Mehalik of the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a trade association for manufacturers of ammunition and firearms, said the caliber of guns used in any test could have been a critical factor in the results.

The state tested 9 millimeter, .38, .40 and .45 caliber handguns. No .22 caliber weapons were used and microstamping has not yet been applied to .22 caliber ammunition, the most common used by sport shooters.

Rossi and Paul Curry, a lobbyist for Ravensforge, said the serial numbers could be applied for a penny or less per cartridge. But Mehalik predicted it would be expensive to add a manufacturing process that matches casings and bullets, and then packages them in a box with the same code number.

"We'd have to analyze the costs, but I can tell you that it would create a logistical nightmare inside the current production systems," Mehalik said.

It's been a while (35+ years) but I have receive a tour through an ammo manufacturing plant but from what I remember Mehalik is right on with this point.

A leading gun-rights group dismissed the proposal as an ill-conceived, high-tech version of gun registration.

"The technology is certainly there, but all of the technology can be defeated by anyone who wants to defeat it," said Sam Paredes of the 30,000-member Gun Owners of California.

Many gun owners make their own ammunition and reuse lead and shell casings, Paredes said.

"Gang members in South Central or East Los Angeles, they're going to know this ammunition is tainted," Paredes said. "So they're going to pay somebody a little bit of money to load some ammunition for them and they're clean."

But they won't be legal if caught with unmarked ammo in public, Rossi said.

And almost for certain they won't be legal if they are caught with a gun in public either.  Carrying a loaded gun in public is already illegal in CA except for the politically connected and certain celebrities.  And if they have a felony conviction they are illegally in possession as well.  So how would this help?  It's just one more way to demonize and increase the expense for people exercising their inalienable rights.  In that regard it will probably succeed.

My plane left Pasco at 6:10 AM. which meant I had to get up about 4:30.  I'm not a morning person.  We arrived about 16:00 and arrive onsite to set up about 17:00. I set up my demo, we eat dinner, and check in to our hotel.  I crashed.   The demo is at 7:30 -- east coast time.  I have to get up at 5:45 (EAST COAST TIME) to shower, check out, eat breakfast and get to the office by 7:15.  We do the demo, which goes well, get a briefing on other stuff they are involved in, eat lunch, then get on the plane and fly back to Pasco arriving about 19:00.

Grumble.... I'm still trying to catch up on my sleep and get my system in synch with “normal”.

The California Attorney General is either incredibly naive or incredibly draconian in his thinking (complete article follows).

California Attorney General Bill Lockyer has called for a new law requiring bullets sold in the state to carry an identifying code.

The tiny serial numbers, which are almost invisible to the naked eye, would be inscribed on both bullets and casings with a laser. The codes would enable police to trace bullets used in a crime back to the buyer.

Speaking at a conference on gun crime in Los Angeles, Lockyer said the proposed law would be "a good tool to fight gangs and other criminal activity."

Although no U.S. state currently requires identification numbers on ammunition, the proposed branding technique is similar to that used to identify auto and aircraft parts. The process would add about one cent to the cost of each bullet.

Gun rights advocates have already registered their opposition to the proposed law, and it is considered likely that the issue will spark a major debate over gun control in California.

Those opposed to the law say it would require a costly bureaucracy to administer, yet it would be an easy task for criminals to bring in ammunition from out of state.

The problems are many -- apart from the ones mentioned in the article.

1. There would spring up a black market in hand loaded ammunition.  Bullet, powder, primers, and shell casings are available as individual components and even if they were required to have serial numbers on them the serial numbers could be defaced before assembly.
2. Shell casings can be reused many times before failure.  People could collect them from the local range, make their own bullets from melted down wheel weights (without a serial number), assemble the cartridges and the person who purchased the original shell casing would be blamed when his shell casing was used in a crime.
3. Collectively the private citizens of the U.S. go through billions of rounds per year.  Assuming CA consumes 1/10 of the total you still have something approaching a billion serial numbers to track each year.  No small task.
4. Stealing ammo is easier than stealing guns.  It's smaller and a missing box or even a few rounds from a box is much less likely to be noticed than a missing gun.
5. If the numbers are nearly invisible to the naked eye then someone could swap out a few rounds from a different box either in the store at the range when the owner wasn't watching and the wrong user would get blamed.

I'm sure there are lots of other things wrong with this idea, but you get the point.  It's far too easy to get around.  Just like gun serial numbers and registration of them (crimes solved via gun registration lists are almost non-existent) only worse.

[Update]: CCRKBA has issued a press release on this hare-brained scheme.