The View From North Central Idaho

If you are explaining, you are losing.

J.C. Watts
July 22, 2002

Say Uncle asks:

So, why do we have the fourth amendment again? I mean, I’m just asking since it seems like we don’t really use it.

The same question could be asked of virtually all the protections against excessive government in the entire constitution.  I recognize the sarcasm and know Say Uncle doesn't literally mean that but in a sense it is a valid question.  If our government isn't going to follow the rules then why not just draw up a new set of rules and try to enforce the government from crossing the new restrictions?  I say, “No”.  I take that back.  That should be, “Hell no!”  Even though we are nearly constantly reminded of government excursions into areas they are forbidden we are reminded by the existence of those violated restrictions.  It gives us something to “hang our hats on”, it gives us the moral high ground, it gives us a goal to strive for, and it reminds us why we need to hold onto our guns. 

How is that?  How does it remind us why we need to hold onto our guns?  Because rules aren't worth the paper they are written on without a means to enforce them.  I've gotten into debates on a Universal Biometric ID card and had a lawyer tell me we just needed to put “substantive rules“ in place prevent it's abuse.  As I told him:

If you believe "substantive rules ... will continue to be administered" will assure me the database will not be abused then you haven't been listening. The "substantive rules" that I would required to be put in place in order to believe the contents of the database would not abused would cause the most enthusiastic Auschwitz guard to cringe at my creativity in punishment methods, violate numerous protections of the Bill of Rights, and probably inspire several additions to it.

Government cannot be trusted to follow the rules--constant reminders of that are a good thing.

Usually I just end up jousting with windmills (and here).  But this time maybe I may have made some progress.  At least I got reasonable responses.  First this story:

Nine out of 10 Richmond-area residents support a proposed law that would close the so-called "gun-show loophole," a newly released crime-and-safety survey shows. 

The loophole allows unlicensed gun dealers to sell firearms at Virginia gun shows without making background checks of purchasers.

The survey also shows that residents in the region overwhelmingly rank crime as the biggest threat to their quality of life and that most believe the crime rate is tied to the availability of guns.

Voters are also willing to support stricter gun-control legislation and hold elected officials accountable on the issue.

...

You know how the story goes, almost for certain the survey wording was biased, the “gun-show loophole” is just a phrase invented by the freedom haters to further restrict sales of firearms, etc., etc.  Rather than explain all this to the reporter I sent a much simplier email and got a decent reply:

From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Sunday, January 23, 2005 12:44 AM
To: 'jnolan@timesdispatch.com'
Subject: Re: Closing gun-show loophole backed

Before implementing yet another gun control law people should look at the results of gun control laws world wide.  For example check out the recent report from the National Academy of Sciences (http://www.suntimes.com/output/otherviews/cst-edt-ref08x.html).

Then ask yourself just one question:

Can you demonstrate just one time, one place, throughout all of human history, where restricting the access of handheld weapons to the average person made them safer?

See this for background: http://blog.joehuffman.org/archive/2004/12/14/583.aspx

-joe-
----
http://blog.joehuffman.org
http://www.modernballistics.com
http://www.boomershoot.org

From: jnolan@timesdispatch.com
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2005 8:52 AM
To: Joe Huffman
Subject: RE: Closing gun-show loophole backed

Thanks, Joe. I'll check it out.

Then there was the editorial from someone already on our side:

Each year, the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence publishes a “report card” rating each state in the country according to their “gun violence prevention laws.” They must not be very pleased with the direction of this country, as the national average was halfway between a “C” and a “D.” (“A” being the highest grade.) In order to understand the Brady Campaign’s perspective, one must examine the relationships between state legislative environments and the Brady grading system.

...

It’s okay to make baseless claims as long as they support Brady Campaign beliefs. The Brady Campaign revises the truth and capitalizes upon people’s pain and suffering to promote a political goal: banning civilian firearms. They roll out the “for the children” refrain in an attempt to grab moral high ground and portray those who disagree as too self-absorbed with guns to care about the death of innocents, even though statistical fact indicates that it is the Brady Campaign that prefers demagoguery to reality.

I sent him the following email and got a reply:

From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2005 8:29 AM
To: 'hnemerov@netvista.net'
Subject: Brady grades.

Thanks for writing the nice article.

See also "Brady 2004 Report Card versus crime rates":

http://blog.joehuffman.org/archive/2005/01/17/929.aspx

-joe-
----
http://blog.joehuffman.org
http://www.modernballistics.com
http://www.boomershoot.org

From: Howard Nemerov
Sent: Monday, January 24, 2005 9:25 AM
To: 'Joe Huffman'
Subject: RE: Brady grades.

That's pretty much what I found for rates per 100,000 population; not much difference between CCW and non-CCW states. Your spreadsheet is very good. Maybe send a copy to John Lott? The 2004 Brady report card was only slightly different from 2003, so it's still valid to do what you did. I discussed the slight variations to try to regress the report card to 2003 for a straight comparison. Thanks for reading my paper.

Howard Nemerov

I sent Mr. Lott a link to my blog on the correlation between Brady grades and violent crime.  No response yet, but it was just a few minutes ago so it's way to early to know if he will have an interest or not.

I've read (I think in Lt. Col David Grossman's book, On Killing) that most of the casualties in a battle are when one side turns tail and runs.  In a sense we have the anti-freedom gun banners on the run.  Check out these stories:

• Legislators Submit Bill To Repeal Ballistics Law (Maryland)
• There's only one way to protect ourselves – and here's the proof (The U.K.!!!)
• Packin heat?. . . a novice shares the choice she made (an AP reporter gets a CCW)
• CDC report on firearms laws (no evidence gun control reduces crime)
• Whether the Second Amendment Secures and Individual Right (U.S. Justice Department says it's an individual right)

So if we want to make sure we don't have to fight this battle again in ten years or our children fighting it in 20 we need to politically exterminate these anti-freedom extremists.  Continue with the studies and reports, repeal the stupid and oppressive laws, recruit new shooters, and most important get positive coverage in the mainstream media:

• Send out press releases about your shooting event
• Make the press feel welcome at your events
• Be well prepared for the press with “designated hitters“ for them to interview
• Thank the reporters and editorial writers when they do something right
• Politely educate reporters and editorial writers when they do something wrong
• Slap down gun owners that make us look bad

If you want some tips on dealing with the press send an email to me or Stephanie Sailor (the real expert).

We must drive our enemies deep into their caves then blow up all the exits.

Getting Equipped for the Boomershoot.  Remington 700 action, Hart heavy varmit barrel, HS Precision Stock, 8-32x50 scope, Precision Rifle Clinic...

Total cost: Too much for me to admit to in public

Take that!  You GFWs!!!!  Giving you something to REALLY worry about.  Ahhh... All warm and fuzzy inside. 

If you find yourself in a fair fight, you didn't plan your mission properly.

David Hackworth

Due to neighbor complaints (I could sort of understand their concerns when stuff kept falling off the walls) I'm reducing the target volume on the largest targets this year.  I'm gluing part of an egg carton into the bottom of the 8“ target bodies prior to filling them with explosives.

I've measured the capacity and now the 8” targets have just about the same capacity as the 6” targets while still offering a larger shooting area.  I can get all the old egg cartons I want at the recycling center but the time involved is almost painful.  Including the cutting, fitting, and gluing it's taking right at five minutes per target.  Since I plan to have 60 of these size targets that means I'm going to be putting five hours of prep time just for these targets.  Well I guess the consolation is that if I loose money on the event this year it will reduce my loss in terms of $/hour.  Instead of earning -$1.00/hour I'll earn -$0.98/hour or some such thing.  That's better--isn't it?

For some of the background on this read my web pages on Reactive Targets--especially Project Nitro.  The recipe given there is obsolete, but it will still help you understand some of what follows.

The last year the targets just didn't detonate as well as they should have.  We changed the containers we used for the targets, we ground the NH₄NO₃ much finer that ever before, we used a KitchenAid^R mixer instead of hand mixing, and we put in a small amount of MnO₂ as coloring to help us tell when it was thoroughly mixed.  Too many variables and we discovered the problem just a week before the event.  We suffered through the event and then last fall I bought some books on explosives and detonation mechanisms and have spent a lot of time reading and thinking about what is going on with our mixture.  Some of my hypotheses were shot down after doing a few thought experiments.  Some others died after some field experiments.  My latest hypothesis is that when we grind the NH₄NO₃ it absorbed the liquid fuel (proprietary) and the KClO₃ isn't able to interact with the fuel as well during the detonation initiation phase.  This might also explain why the mixture becomes more and more difficult to detonate as the targets age--the fuel is absorbed more and more into the NH₄NO₃ and it's also possible it is evaporating through the container walls.  Fortunately if this hypothesis is correct the fix is easy--add more fuel and perhaps seal the containers better.  For maximum sensitivity the mix has always been very oxygen rich and I have wanted to add more fuel just to get more bang for the unit volume of target.  If adding more fuel works out I'll be pleased for more than one reason.

Most recently the ratio of NH₄NO₃ to fuel has been 24:1 by volume. This was based upon a density measurement from a long time ago with a different batch of NH₄NO₃ and I decided to measure the density again before doing these tests.  Previously I had measured a specific density of 0.96.  This time I came up with 0.875.  Ouch!  That could be making a difference too.  Time to redo all our sensitivity tests.  Tonight I finely ground four 500 mL batches of NH₄NO₃ and mixed in 20, 30, 45, and 60 mL of fuel in the respective batches.  That gives me ratios of 25:1, 16.7:1, 11.1:1, and 8.3:1.  I was amazed at how little of the fuel shows up in the 25:1 mix.  It's almost as if it doesn't exist.  I'm expecting that after letting it “soak” for a couple weeks even the 8.3:1 mix will look pretty “dry”.  After the next IPSC match (February 6^th) I'll mix in 125 mL of KClO₃ in each mixture and do the sensitivity tests while at the range.  This year I'm going keep tweaking things until we get everything working right again.

http://www.wherefreedomreigns.com/books.html

It sounds sort of like an Unintended Consequences story line.  From the website:

The year is 2018, seven years after the successful end of an American-led world war on terrorism, but the nation is now faced with an even more horrible prospect: a war against an enemy it can not defeat—itself. In the face of the gathering storm clouds of war, Jeremiah Kincaid, 59, the Republican Speaker of the House, struggles to mediate a growing firestorm of public debate over gun control. On the left is Alexander Webster, 49, the Democratic President, who halfway through his final term, decides to make the elimination of guns from America his legacy. On the right is Edward Morrissey, 61, the Republican Governor of Idaho, who bitterly opposes the President’s position.

Exacerbating the situation, militia seize a gun club built on Federal land in the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho, which the Park Service had closed. After losing patience with Morrissey’s handling of the problem, Webster sends in Army Rangers, and in the ensuing battle many men die. The militia’s handsome leader, Thomas Porter, 34, escapes. He is a multi-billionaire with a past shrouded in mystery. The massacre on the mountain sets in motion a sequence of events that eventually leads to the secession of Idaho from the Union. As the country falls apart around her, Sarah McGill, 34, a rising television network star, finds herself falling in love with two men; a dashing Army officer, Jake Kincaid, 36, the son of the Speaker of the House, and the enigmatic Thomas Porter; and what makes this drama of the human heart all the more poignant is that Jake and Thomas are long-lost brothers.

And volume two:

Driven by emotion rather than logic, President Webster approves an ill-advised plan to kidnap Governor Morrissey using Army Special Forces. However, the attempt fails, which drives the governments of six other western states to secede and form the Continental States of America with Morrissey as its President. Eventually, President Webster is left with no choice but to declare war on the new confederacy. The brutal civil war that ensues lasts for seven days and involves the most ferocious and devastating tank battles in history. By the time it ends, the blood of over one hundred thousand soldiers has been spilled on the savaged soil of the sorrowed nation.

As I obscurely mentioned a few days ago I had freezing rain to drive through on the way to work last Monday.  Here are a few pictures of the van after I arrive in the desert town of Richland Washington.

Then today I was doing some errands around town when my daughter Xenia and I saw smoke coming from across town.  I dropped her off at home and went to get the oil changed in the van.  The smoke was coming from only a few blocks away so I walked over and took a few pictures of the house fire.  It was set deliberately by the fire department for training purposes and to get rid of an old house.

It is well known and widely accepted that homo sapiens are vulnerable to lasting denial-of-service attacks involving pyrotechnically accellerated projectiles.

Markus Kuhn, Computer Lab, Univ of Cambridge, GB
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25
In a Usenet post:
Subject: Re: StegOS - taking steganography to the next level
Newsgroups: sci.cryp
Date: 2002-06-20 04:07:12 PST

It is a historical constant that the strong rule the weak, and any shade of liberty enjoyed by the weak is nothing more than the benevolence of the strong.  You need guns because the world is full of the strong, and not all of them are benevolent.

 John Fogh
 Insights Self Defense Instructor
 April 13, 1999
 Microsoft Gun Club Email Folder

I updated Boomershoot Blogging just a few minutes ago.  All the referral counts are up to date as well as changing “Dipnut at Isntapundit” status to 'yes' on attending.  I received his entry yesterday.  No payment because he has well over 100 referrals to boomershoot.org from his site.  I'm tempted to grep through the log file for each of the IP addresses and see if any of them made it to the entry fee page.  From my quick scan only a very few made it past the opening page.  You have to give him credit though.  His post was quite to the point and got the result he wanted.

So far that makes nine bloggers who will be attending.

As Ry at Mindless Bit Spew points out there exist people in the gun communitity that have some sort of issue with homosexuals (and others with race).  I went to the forum on AR15.com that Ry was complaining about and I sort of lost it.  I posted the following:

Is there some connection between firearms and sexual orientation that I am unaware of?

I try my best to recruit people that traditionally vote against gun rights into the gun rights movement and it only takes a few jerks with a random comment here and there to undo everything. Do you want to engage in a civil war to maintain your right to keep and bear arms? Or would you rather subvert the evil party that keeps trying to take our freedoms away?

Examples of some of my efforts:

Palouse Pink Pistols IPSC match
Palouse Pink Pistol Article in local paper
AP version of above story
Seattle Time Editorial based on interview with me
Palouse Pink Pistols website (I'm a charter member)
Missoulia Montana article on Boomershoot
Newsweek article on Boomershoot
Outside Magazine article on Boomershoot

When I talk to liberal reporters and writers I want to be able to dispel their stereotypes of gun owners being red necked, racist, gay-bashers. They think that if we have guns we will shoot people just because we don't like the color of their skin or because we saw a couple guys holding hands. I want to be able to say that we just want to enjoy our sports, protect our homes, families, and communities. That we aren't a threat to anyone except those that would do us grave injury. And I feel like I am stabbed in the back when this kind of crap happens. I can spend hundreds of hours on pro-gun activism and have it all pissed away by ONE person talking trash. People believe what they want to believe and if they hear just one person make a derogatory comment or see just one post that confirms their bigoted beliefs about us then my efforts have just been flushed down the toilet.

If you don't believe me about how fearful they are (to the point of being irrational) take a look at this email I got from a lesbian friend of mine.

I don't care if you have strong feelings against gays but please don't express them in the context of firearms. You just shoot us all in the foot when you do that. Please, please, shape up. We are slowly starting to win this war against us and the people on the front lines do NOT appreciate having jerks sticking it to us from the rear.

It's been quiet over there for several hours now so maybe I made my point.  I hope so.  I'm still pissed though.  I'm going to be cranky for a few days.

Ry, thanks for pointing that out.  I know you have mentioned it to me before and I didn't respond.  This time the stars were aligned just so and I got pretty heated up.

No kingdom can be secured otherwise than by arming the people. The possession of arms is the distinction between a freeman and a slave. He who has nothing, and who himself belongs to another, must be defended by him, whose property he is, and needs no arms. But he, who thinks he is his own master, and has what he can call his own, ought to have arms to defend himself, and what he possesses; also he lives precariously, and at discretion.

James Burgh
Political Disquisitions: Or, an Enquiry into Public Errors, Defects, and Abuses
London, 1714-1775

Is it just my bias? Or are the anti-gun people just naturally hypocrites? Anti-freedom advocate Michael Moore isn't the first to hire an armed bodyguard. Senator Diane Feinstein has (or at least had) a handgun carry permit, Rosie O'Donnell has (or at least had) a bodyguard for her son who was licensed to carry a gun. Ted Kennedy has armed bodyguards (with submachine guns the last I hear). Chicago's Mayor Daley has armed bodyguards. Chicago city council members voted to exempt themselves from the city's gun restrictions and numerous members carry their own guns. Sarah Brady gave her son a hunting rifle as a Christmas gift. And that's just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

You would think their followers would get a clue. Can you imagine the outrage if it was discovered the Pope had a girlfriend and was on the pill? Or how about if President Bush's daughters had abortions? Or the party that is an advocate for the little guy in America and campaign finance reform accepted tens of millions of dollars of political aid from some rich foreigner? Oh, sorry on that last example, that was the same set of people advocating gun control for everyone but themselves.

Update: There are apparently several errors in the report on Moore.  But he has hired armed guards so my comments stand.

Bolt Actions speak louder than words.

Jayson AKA SAVOIE 6
From http://www.snipersparadise.com/quotes1.htm

I've said it before and I'm sure I'll keep saying it.  The U.K. needs to be liberated.  The latest story is:

A Conservative Parliamentary candidate has been suspended after he was pictured on the internet with a range of guns, rifles and a hunting knife.

An inquiry is now to be held into why Robert Oulds, the prospective MP for Slough in Berkshire, appeared with the weapons in the camera phone images.

A party spokesman said: "We take this matter extremely seriously.

"We have suspended Mr Oulds from the list of candidates, and as candidate for Slough, with immediate effect."

The guns and knife were all legal (as if such a law were any more valid than one outlawing political expression).  There were no laws broken.  No one was threatened.  Why do they allow such repressive politicians to continue breathing?

Others have weighed in on this too:

• The Smallest Minority
• Kim du Toit

Of course we have Massachusetts, Illinois, California, and Canada that should be liberated first so we can't exactly run over to England and help those guys out until we clean out the local tyrants first.

I just had a counter intelligence (CI) guy leave my office.  He viewed my graphs, some of the email I receive, and described it as “a mini gold mine”.  He was pleased I have information going back to 2000, that the site is still up, and I'm willing to work with them (I offerred to give them the portion of the logs where bombs were mentioned)..

He works with web logs on a daily basis and has tools he wrote himself to parse the web logs.  I'm so thrilled.  Finally I can get this information to the proper agencies and don't have to worry if I have “done enough” to prevent some kid from blowing up his school, or some terrorist wanting to float a barge with a ton of explosives down the Thames.

It's kind of ironic, the CI guy's office is directly above mine in this building.  I've been in this office for two and a half years and the guy that was the answer to my concerns was so close.

Update: I just got a call from the CI guy.  He has a “customer” for the bomb logs.  I'll sort through my log files and deliver the bomb related stuff to him next week.

Coronation: The ceremony of investing a sovereign with the outward and visible signs of his divine right to be blown skyhigh with a dynamite bomb.

Ambrose Bierce
The Devil's Dictionary

Actually Boomershoot.org is.  Do a google search (without the quotes) for “simple bomb help”.  Same with Yahoo.  Same with Ask Jeeves.

I'm wondering if something like search engine placement is causing some of the flucuations in the number of searches I get rather than some worldwide change in the interest of bomb building.

I received an update from Eugene on the status of the clinic.  This is the earliest it has ever filled up.  He is accepting standby positions however.

I updated the blogger referral numbers just a few minutes ago too.  Most of the numbers are overstated just a bit because I didn't filter out the search engines web crawlers.  Another known error is that I didn't include all the referrals from AR15.com (209 unique IP referrals this month) which were all via Ry's postings.  Since AR15.com isn't his blog I didn't credit him with them on the page but I did include some of his lesser known websites that have links to boomershoot.org.  He gets a free Boomershoot coat, free entry, free shirts, and still I am indebted to him.

This is an even more blatant example of When Prophecy Fails related to the ballistic fingerprinting debacle.

Leah Barrett, executive director of CeaseFire Maryland, said police are not using the database enough, instead relying on a national ballistics database that only has ballistics images from crime scenes. As a result, she said, the national database can't lead investigators directly to the specific firearm that produced a recovered ballistic image unless the gun is eventually recovered.

She said scrapping the state program could deal a setback to better ballistics imaging.

"I think it's a real tragedy because other states are looking at New York and Maryland to see how we succeed with this," she said.

“To see how we succeed with this.”????  The possibility it has failed is apparently not in her domain of thought processes.

Without freedom there will be no firearms among the people; without firearms among the people there will not long be freedom. Certainly there are examples of countries where the people remain relatively free after the people have been disarmed, but there are no examples of a totalitarian state being created or existing where the people have personal arms.

Neal Knox
From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries
Vol. 4, No. 7
June 1996

As I was driving through four hours through the freezing rain to work today (they sent everyone home by the time I got there) I got a call from a Engineering Project Handler, Field Report Department at UL.  He wanted us to send him the heater than had the burned plug.  Since I was rather busy at the time I asked him to send me an email about it.  He did.  The important part of the letter is below:

Hello Mr. Huffman,

I spoke with you on the phone regarding the investigation I am conducting on the subject product.  It would be very helpful for UL to examine the faulty product so that we can try and determine the cause of failure.  Please sent the sample to my attention at the below address.

He also asked we send a copy of the postage receipt so he can reimburse us.  And he said once the investigation is complete he will provide as much detail about the results of the investigation as he can.

Following up on my post from last Thursday I created an Excel spread sheet with the Brady 2004 Report Card, the FBI 2003 Uniform Crime Reports, and the CDC reported suicide rates from 1990-1994.  I wish all the dates matched up better, but that was the best I could find with a modest amount of searching. The crime/suicide was expressed in terms of rates per 100K and the Brady grades were assigned a numerical value.  Then the correlation of the crime/suicide rates with the Brady Grades was computed.  The correlations I obtained were:

Violent Crime	Murder	Forcible Rape	Robbery	Assault	Suicide
0.07	-0.12	-0.31	0.38	0.01	-0.63

The Violent Crime category is the total of the murders, forcible rapes, robberies, and assaults. 

Correlation is a number between 1.0 and -1.0.  A 1.0 would mean a perfect match between a good Brady Grade and the rate of crime/suicide occurring.  A 0.0 would mean there is no apparent connection, and a -1.0 would a perfect match between a good Brady Grade and the crime/suicide rate decreasing.  As you can see it appears that overall violent crime is unrelated to Brady Grades.  Robberies show a modest increase with a good Brady Grade, and rapes tend to decrease with a good Brady Grade.  Suicide rates show a fairly strong decrease with a good Brady Grade.

This is consistent with the recent National Academy of Sciences report.  From their news conference:

The literature on "right-to-carry" laws has obtained conflicting estimates of their effects on crime, despite the fact that data and methods used in these studies differ in only minor ways. Thirty-four states have enacted these laws, which allow qualified adults to carry concealed handguns. However, we found no credible evidence that such policies either decrease or increase violent crime.

...

And although research does show associations between gun availability and suicide with guns, that research does not show whether such associations reflect actual cause and effect.

What should I expect with three hours of research?  Nothing earth shaking here.  The Brady Campaign wants to restrict our freedoms but would be unable to promise any improvement in the violent crime rate.  On the other hand we can't say the violent crime rate would go down if they would repeal the repressive gun laws either.

If you download the spreadsheet you might want to check my numbers.  Make sure I copied the crime rates correctly, did my calculations correctly, etc.  Let me know if you find mistakes.

True wisdom is less presuming than folly. The wise man doubteth often, and changeth his mind; the fool is obstinate, and doubteth not; he knoweth all things but his own ignorance.

Akhenaton
Egyptian pharaoh c 1350 BC

With the latest round of entry fees I paid off $400 on the loan and bought a new generator.  The one we used last year and it's back up both failed.  I wanted this one.  But ended up buying this one. I was so tempted to pay $200 more for 2500 fewer Watts and 70 fewer pounds.

3500 W is more than I will probably use.  I got by on 600 W from '98 until '03 but things have a way of expanding to consume the resources available.  A friend is working on a machine to produce the explosives without blenders and Kitchen Aid mixers.  Just dump in the raw materials on one end and then package the output from the other end.  No idea how much power it will consume--assuming it works and is safe.  Plus there are the lights.  I can power lots of lights now...

Verification of this is lacking but it does sound plausible.  I really need to write up a proposal for the lab where I work and try to do a valid research project on airplane security alternatives.  Everyone knows the current system is a total failure.

From Ms. Malkins post:

He and his partner were assigned to a flight (the airline, airport, and destination were not disclosed) in their customary undercover security role. They boarded the airplane early in order to meet the flight attendants, at which time the cleaning crew was still on the airplane -- somewhat longer than expected. My patient and his partner sat together in seats near the middle of coach class.

The passengers began to board, and he and his partner noticed a single Middle Eastern man sitting near the front of first class. After a number of passengers had boarded, two Middle Eastern men walked by this man and made eye contact, but said nothing. They sat down together in the front of coach class. Shortly thereafter, two other Middle Eastern men also walked by the man in first class and made eye contact without speaking. They sat near the back of coach class.

Shortly after the flight attendants completed their post-boarding check of the overhead bins, an announcement came from the cockpit: the pilot stated that there had been a security breach, and everyone needed to deboard the plane for a second, more thorough, security screening. The Air Marshall and his partner were confused, as they had not triggered the security alert nor been notified of it prior to the announcement.

After all the passengers had deplaned, the Federal Air Marshalls checked with the flight attendants for more information. During a final check of the overhead bins, a flight attendant had noticed that one of the blankets was slightly unfolded, and he repositioned it in the bin. At this time, a razor blade fell out of the blanket. Concerned, but still believing this might be a straightforward mistake, the flight attendant began to check other overhead bins. Several additional incompletely folded blankets were noted, and hidden in each one was a box cutter: a total of five. It appeared that these had been placed there by the cleaning crew prior to the boarding of the airplane.

After the repeat security screening, the passengers reboarded -- all except the five Middle Eastern men, who were nowhere to be found. The flight proceeded to its destination uneventfully.

If you are even the slightest bit 'connected' in the gun rights movement you will already know about what happened in Maryland.  They implemented a database of fired bullets and shell casings from all new handguns sold in the state.. This was an attempt to track down the owner if a bullet or shell casing were found at the scene of a crime.  Gun owners and manufactures told them it wouldn't work.  They did it anyway.  Now they find out it didn't work for all the reasons they were told it wouldn't work plus some at least one new reason.  That reason is that different materials take on the markings differently.  Some bullets are made primarily of lead, some have copper jackets, and some even have steel jackets.  There are numerous alloys of lead too, some even use silver.  Shell casings are made of brass, aluminum, and steel.  If the manufacture supplied a bullet and shell casing made of one material and the criminal used another then the chance of a match is greatly reduced.

What amuses me the most about this is that the system failed and they suggest an alternate scheme that I am certain will also fail.  I have posted on it here:

• Update on ammo marking
• More info on bullet serial number scheme
• Naive gun control

This qualifies Maryland for a When Prophecy Fails mention.

Others have commented extensively on the report from Maryland:

• CCRKBA SAYS MARYLAND REPORT ON BALLISTIC IMAGING SHATTERS GUN TRACKING MYTHS
• Ballistic Fingerprinting Doesn't Work (Kim du Toit)
• Nation of Rifleman Forum (Kim du Toit)
• Why Ballistic Fingerprinting Doesn't (and Won't) Work (The Smallest Minority)
• That's one expensive way to say “Duh!“ (the Hobbesian Conservative)
• Told ya (Say Uncle)
• The failure of so called “ballistic fingerprinting“ (More Eclipse Ramblings)
• Ballistic Fingerprinting Fails (Chaos-In-Motion)
• Updated: State Police Call for Shutting Down Maryland`s Ballistic "Fingerprinting" System (From the NRA-ILA)

I have included the entire Maryland report below for those interested in the details.

2. Integrated Ballistics Information System Remains under Scrutiny

Background

The Maryland Integrated Ballistic Identification System (IBIS), operational since October 1, 2000, provides police investigators with a tool to focus an investigation around a firearm. Chapter 2,

Acts of 2000 (Responsible Gun Safety Act of 2000), required that manufacturers submit a test-fired shell casing with each handgun shipped for resale in the State.

The dealer then sends the casing to the State Police after the gun has been sold. The IBIS system receives the casing from the dealer, and firearms investigators and technicians perform a full analysis of the casing. The investigator uses microscopic technology to identify striations and other markings

that are unique to each individual gun. The striations are formed when the gun is fired, as the firing pin strikes the back of the casing, creating a unique series of identifying marks. The aim of the system is to create a massive database of identifying marks, so that any spent shell casings recovered at a crime scene can be compared against the IBIS database, to try to identify the gun used in the commission of the crime. Based on then-current handgun sales statistics, the State Police anticipated that 30,000 cartridge casings would be received annually for input into the IBIS system. As such, the system was designed to hold around 300,000 casings over a 10-year period.

The system has thus far received around 35,000 cartridge casings for input, including around 2,000 from trooper-issued semi-automatic 40-caliber Beretta firearms. There have been 160 requests to match crime-scene casings with the IBIS system, resulting in four "hits" or matches.

Costs

DSP anticipates continued maintenance supplies and personnel costs of $435,269 for fiscal 2005 to continue to operate the IBIS system. Initial start-up costs of $1.4 million were absorbed in fiscal 2001. IBIS requires one full-time equivalent position to maintain the system. DSP’s Forensic Unit currently assigns three forensic examiners to this program, each devoting one-third of their time to the IBIS system.

Problems

The State Police are concerned about the lack of hits yielded by the IBIS system, and there have been problems with the system. Some of these problems are the result of operational failings and others simply the result of circumstance.

Number of Cartridges Stored – No Link to the National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN): Chapter 2 of 2000 included ‘external safety lock’ requirements and the shell casing identification provision. Gun manufacturers were required to add ‘integrated mechanical safety devices’ to firearms, as well as external safety locks to any firearm sold in Maryland.

These two provisions made up an effort by the General Assembly to make the prospects of accidental shootings less likely. These two mechanical requirements, coupled with the requirement to test-fire the gun and submit the cartridge casings, has effectively reduced the number of firearms sold in the State. While DSP had anticipated 30,000 casings submitted annually from 215 qualifying manufacturers, the number of casings received since October 2001 stands at around 34,000 from only 49 manufacturers.

In essence, the guns most often recovered from crime scenes are not sold in Maryland, and therefore, not linked (via cartridge casing) to the IBIS system. DSP has also indicated that .38 mm revolvers are often used in crimes, and these guns are less likely to leave spent shell casings.

The Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (ATF) division of the U.S. Treasury Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have a system in place, similar to the Maryland IBIS system. The NIBIN is a system that uses identical technology to IBIS, to create a national database of crime scene shell casings and bullets. However, a memorandum of understanding between the ATF and State and local law enforcement agencies prohibits the linking of NIBIN to any State or local system, such as IBIS. In that the guns used in Maryland crimes are less likely to be sold in Maryland, the inability to link IBIS to NIBIN prevents the largest field of possible matches from being searched.

Time to Crime: The Maryland IBIS system has been in place since October 2000. Criminology research suggests that if a legally obtained firearm is going to enter the stream of criminal activity, it takes between three and six years for this to occur. This ‘time to crime’ statistic indicates that the guns and cartridge casings inventoried in IBIS since 2001 will start to match firearms used in crimes from 2004 to 2007. The statewide deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) inventory saw a similar preliminary waiting period until the number of matches increased dramatically. The DNA database began in 1994, had its first hit in 1998, and has had 72 hits to date. Of these 72 hits, 39 have come in 2003.

Glock Casings Unreliable: It has been learned that cartridge casings submitted by Glock firearms did not match the casings recovered from the same gun at crime scenes. As a result, all cartridge casings submitted by Glock were flagged in the IBIS system, and a list of the guns affected by the problem has been generated. Any firearm sold in Maryland from the list was also flagged. The Glock Company indicated that this problem has since been resolved.

Change in Striations As Firearms Age and Break-in: Research suggests that as firearms age and are broken-in the internal characteristics of the firing pin may change which will result in different striations being left on the spent casings. This makes the casings submitted by the manufacturer less reliable. The more the gun is fired, the more the striations will change.

Modification of Firing Pin by User: Gun users with working knowledge of the assembly process can alter the firing pin of the weapon, which would significantly change the striations left on the cartridge casing.

Different Cartridge Casing Materials Used: There is no standard material used to make cartridge casings. These different materials absorb the striations differently. Additionally, if a different material is used in the manufacture process and by the user, it is possible that a spent cartridge casing will not match the casing stored in IBIS.

Increase in Database Size Decreased Likelihood of "Hit": As the number of similar guns stored in the database increase, the likelihood of a match decreases. As an example, there are approximately 2,000 cartridge casings from Trooper-issued firearms. Tests have been run, using spent casings from these guns, and the system has not yielded a match in the top 15. However, the more experienced the examiner who inputs the casing, the more likely that the input will be accurate and reflect the unique characteristics of the gun.

Remote IBIS System Failure: DSP purchased a remote IBIS unit to run a search of the found cartridge casings and to submit the findings to the IBIS database to be tested for a match. This device has not worked due to overheating and data transmission problems. The manufacturer has since stopped producing these units. Not only can these casings found at crime scenes not be compared to IBIS while on-site, but DSP cannot link to any other State forensic facility.

Future and Alternatives

A new technology exists to perform a similar task as the IBIS system. This version of nanotechnology creates a ballistic ID or fingerprint on cartridge casings. The technology would create a number or symbol on the firing pin of the weapon, and this marking would be transferred to the cartridge casing each time the gun was fired. However, this technology would have to be done at the manufacturer level and would lead to resistance from the industry. Research suggests, however, that this ballistic fingerprinting method would be less expensive and more accurate than the IBIS, as the "serial number" imprinting removes the subjectivity inherit in digitizing a visual set of striations. DLS recommends that DSP comment on whether, in light of circumstantial difficulties, this program has justified continued operation.

If I knew for a certainty that a man was coming to my house with the conscious design of doing me good, I should run for my life.

Henry David Thoreau
(1817-62), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist.
Walden, "Economy" (1854).

I just received this email:

Greetings all,

I have spoken to Chris Knox (one of Neal Knox's son) and told him I wanted to make our subscribers aware of this. He agreed with me that the timing was critical.

It comes with great grief and sorrow to break the news that Neal Knox is very ill, and nearly to the point of death due to cancer. Essentially, if Almighty God does not intervene with a miracle, Neal may succumb and die within a few short days, possibly even hours. We just don't know how long he has. Regardless, nothing less than a miracle will bring him out of this.

If you have ever believed, or do believe in prayer, please pray for Neal.

Neal Knox's website is http://www.nealknox.com/

And above all requests, PLEASE PRAY FOR A MIRACLE FOR NEAL.

Read more about Neal Knox: http://www.gunownersalliance.com/knox_bio.htm

Sincerely,

Gun Owners Alliance
Chris W. Stark - Director
Director@GunOwnersAlliance.com

Neal Knox is one of the smartest and most faithful defenders of the 2nd Amendment I have ever known about.  I met him at Gun Rights Policy Conference 1999 in St. Louis.  We talked for a while about computer security.  I worked at Microsoft at the time and he had concerns about how secure PGP email was.  I also was privileged to listen to Neal and Alan Gottlieb (Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms) discussing political strategy for dealing with Congress.  I was amazed at the depth of knowledge and the way they went about their 'chess game'.  The compromises they would make in one house knowing they could defeat it in the other.  The favors they could pull in from some congress critters and the favors they would give to others.  It was wondrous to see how they mapped out the game plan for things that would happen months in the future.  Who was really on our side and who would “play with us” as long as they could do it without endangering their seat.

I don't believe in miracles.  His death will be a huge loss in our fight for freedom.  I'm glad he got to see the expiration of the AWB and I hope we can continue the fight to see the defeat of all the unconstitutional gun laws.  The job will be more difficult without him.