The Second Amendment is as important as the First Amendment.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
May 11, 2005
In an interview on CNN's Larry King Live, recalling how her father took up arms to defend fellow blacks from racist whites in the segregated South.  She said her father, a black minister, and his friends armed themselves to defended the black community in Birmingham, Ala., against the White Knight Riders in 1962 and 1963. She said if local authorities had had lists of registered weapons, she did not think her father and other blacks would have been able to defend themselves.
[A reminder of how far we have come in the past few years.]

As I posted day before yesterday it's mind boggling to me that people are rioting about some U.S. interrogators are reported to place Qurans on toilets and maybe even flushed one down.  In this country, our culture, if a non-Christian were to make a show of doing that same thing to a Bible about the worst people would do is think him rude and maybe snub him or her in public.  As the protests and riots continue and I read up on it makes more sense to me what they are upset about.  Not that I agree with it, but I can make sense of it within their framework.  From this article:

 In Afghanistan and Pakistan, insults to the Qur'an and Islam's prophet, Muhammad, are regarded as blasphemy and punishable by death.

So... in their frame of reference our interrogators have committed crimes worthy of death sentences and we let them get away with it and perhaps even support those sort of “atrocities“. Our casual acceptance of these “heinous crimes” is as repugnant to them as cannibalism or human sacrifice is to our culture.

This is all extremely interesting to me.  I have no solution, short of destroying of their culture, but getting a grasp on the nature of the problem certainly can't hurt.

What is sad is that this Congress is in danger of becoming irrelevant. We are on the verge of ceding responsibility from the legislative branch to the judicial branch because we cannot stand up to [the] gun lobby. It is ironic and fitting that our inability to act in any way that satisfies the American people has spawned a series of lawsuits that could ultimately impose penalties on the gun industry far more severe than even the most ardent gun control supporters in Congress hope to achieve.

Charles E. Schumer
November 4, 1999
http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/pressroom/press_releases/PR00067.html
[Could this have been the turning point?  The instant when we held the line and our attackers directed their attention to a perceived weakness in our flank?]

Jason recorded it and put it up for us.  It's wonderful.  It's only four and a half minutes but it is great.  It's also enlightenting to see how professional video people deal with a subject with which I have often tried to capture on video and repeatedly failed to produce something interesting.

If the personal freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution inhibit the government's ability to govern the people, we should look to limit those guarantees.

Bill Clinton
August 12, 1993
[A reminder of how far we have come in the last few years.]

On Evening Magazine's home page (registration required) they say it is their top story:

Blasting out of the daily grind

Have you ever had one of those days at work when you just want to blow something up to blow off some steam? Shoot your computer with a high-caliber rifle? You're not alone.

That teaser links to the story below.  So far, so good.  I expect video will show up soon.

Blasting out of the daily grind

03:36 PM PDT on Wednesday, May 11, 2005

By KIM GRIFFIS / Evening Magazine

Have you ever had one of those days at work when you just want to blow something up to blow off some steam? Shoot your computer with a high-caliber rifle? You're not alone. What would you like to blow up?

Where the Clearwater River wanders through the hillsides, you'll find Joe Huffman planting his father's fields with a thousand pounds of explosives.

One weekend a year, the quiet of rural Idaho is blown to smithereens by gun-toting, target-shooting, explosion-loving folks.

They're teachers, physical therapists, and stock traders. They come from as far as Alaska and Florida for the chance to fire at targets that explode when you hit them.

Boomershoot, as it's named, blasts them out of the daily grind.

Kevin Wagner, a software engineer from Seattle and a first-timer at Boomershoot, found out that hitting targets nearly 400 yards away isn't easy.

Stephanie Sailor ran two longshot cyber-campaigns for Congress with her laptop. They've been through a lot together and she could think of no better way to put it out of its misery than with explosives on the screen and good aim.

But anything is fair game and after a good day of blowing things up, these folks find it easier to return to their various jobs.

Boomershoot organizers are happy to report that no one has ever gotten shot, blown up or anything like that. They say they are very serious about safety.

From CNN and others:

KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- At least four people have been killed and 70 injured in violent protests in Jalalabad over reports U.S. interrogators at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base desecrated copies of the Quran during questioning of prisoners held there. 

The trouble started as thousands of demonstrators marched Wednesday through the streets of Jalalabad, in the eastern part of the country, officials and eyewitnesses said.

Afghan's interior ministry reported police fired at the crowds when they began to attack government buildings.

...

Rallies were also held in several cities in neighboring Pakistan, where the religious party alliance MMA announced plans to mount a countrywide protest against the United States Friday.

The country's national assembly passed a resolution demanding the U.S. government investigate the incident and punish anyone found to be responsible.

The U.S. State Department announced Tuesday the Pentagon would investigate the allegations, which were first reported in Newsweek magazine.

The magazine quoted sources as saying investigators looking into abuses at the military prison in Cuba found interrogators "had placed Qurans on toilets, and in at least one case flushed a holy book down the toilet."

U.S. interrogators are reported to place Qurans on toilets and maybe even flushed one down a toilet and people riot in the streets.  Their “Holy Warriors” cut off innocent (but non-believing) people's heads and there is no complaint from these same people.  Someone, please, tell me how we can resolve these cultural differences in values.  These differences are just so extreme that I can't imagine a peaceful co-existence.

It's all over the news.  But what I'm thinking that none of the reports I have read mentioned is that whether it was an accidental or deliberate intrusion, this little “exercise“ gives our enemies a view of evacuation pathes and emergency responses.  Government leaders may be more vulnerable while responding to a real or imagined threat from the air when the real and greater threat could be from the ground.  I'm not sure I would want to be in the “main herd” during such an evacuation.

At the request of Kirk.

After Boomershoot 2002 I reported:

The only big down side was a 'spectator' that wanted to watch from the road next to the bullet impact area.  I called the sheriff's office and a nice deputy came out to help "keep the peace".

There is much, much more to the story.  And if I wanted to be my usual engineer/scientist/anal-retentive self the story would start over 40 years ago.  I'll spare you that version.  The short version (but probably still more anal retentive than most people care for) follows--starting with, I think, Boomershoot 2001.

Just on the other side of the hill we shoot into the land is owned by someone else who rents it to still another person known, less than affectionately, by some of the neighbors in the area as “The Dwarf“.  The owner of the land is in a nursing home but her daughter, “The Wicked Witch of the Boomershoot“, manages it.  This year the Dwarf harassed the sheriff and prosecuting attorney nearly constantly all day just before the Precision Rifle Clinic until the sheriff finally called me up and asked to come out and take a look at the site with his firearms training officer.  They came out, I got in their Jeep and we drove from one end of the range to the other and talked about things.  The prosecuting attorney and sheriff had looked all through Idaho law and couldn't find where I was doing anything wrong.  They had even printed out parts of the Boomereshoot.org website where I quoted Idaho law.  They were of the opinion that I was doing everything “by the book” and was being careful the participants knew and followed the law too.  But just to “cover there asses“ they decided they needed to talk to me too.  After looking at the range in detail, talking to me, talking to Gene Econ, and Gene's assistant Mike Haugen they only had one complaint.  That was that they wished they had known about the event earlier so they could have gotten the county snipers into Genes class before it filled up.  Gene offered to make room for them and give them free slots.  The sheriff politely turned the offer down saying he couldn't do that.  He didn't say it, but I think he was concerned it might be considered a bribe.  I mentioned that concern to Gene afterwards and he said he was just trying to be a good neighbor and that he didn't think of the angle of the offer being taken wrong.  I hadn't thought of it that way either until the sheriff declined and I heard the note of concern in his voice.  The Dwarf's one tangible concern, as expressed to the sheriff, was that he wanted to do some farming on the land he rents.  This seemed very odd to myself and the other farmers in the area.  That land was already planted and it was the best looking crop the Dwarf had that year.  What sort of farming work did he want to do on it?  It didn't really matter, if he wanted to farm the land then it was his decision to do it.  We told the sheriff what hours we would be shooting and he offered to talk to the Dwarf and find out if he could farm during the non-shooting hours.  The Dwarf was very agreeable with the sheriff and he waited until after the Precision Rifle Clinic shooting was done before working up (destroying) his fall crop in preparation for planting a lower profit spring crop.  He then left his tractor in the field just over the hill for the duration of the main event on Sunday.  We took before and after pictures of his tractor and the glass in it just in case he tried to claim a stray bullet had damaged it.  There was no further problems that year.

In 2002 the Precision Rifle Clinic was in progress when I got a call on the walkie-talkie from Brandon up the road watching for traffic near the Witch's property.  He said there was a woman walking (strolling really) down the road.  She and some guy (it turned out to be the Dwarf) had parked their car and had been walking around up there.  Brandon said I should probably come up to talk to her because things were “kind of weird“.  For Brandon (also known as “Random Brandon”) to say things were weird probably meant someone was doing some really wild drugs.  We shut down the shooting and I drove up the road.  I pulled along side of her, opened my window and asked, “May I help you?”.  The expression on her face went from a contented smile to as if I had just slapped her.  She snapped, “No!”.  Things deteriorated from there.  I told her we were doing some shooting and that we didn't consider it safe to be on the road.  I would be glad to give her a ride someplace if she would like.  Everything I said was met with an answer that was almost completely unrelated to what I had just said.  She talked about me “owning the sheriff and prosecutor“ and other random outlandish things.  It was a very strange disjointed conversation and I said good-bye, which seem to irritate her also, and drove back to the shooting position on the “grassy knoll”.  I told my story to the people waiting and then called 911 to chat with them a while.  They said no crime was being committed and there wasn't much they could really do as long as she stayed on the road.  But the dispatcher offered to send a deputy out to “keep the peace” but that would take at least 30 minutes--maybe more.  I accepted and thanked her.  Bob Coval and Michael Thyng came up to me and commented on how dusty the road was and that if it just so happened there was a lot of traffic on the road the Wicked Witch of the Boomershoot (which is how she got her nickname) probably wouldn't stand around in the dust for long.  It just so happened that Ry had some things he needed to talk to Brandon about that couldn't be said over the walkie-talkie and he zoomed down the road in his Jeep to chat with Brandon.  The witch had strolled back up the hill and was near Brandon's vehicle, on a bit of a corner, when Ry arrived.  It was a tight fit but Ry managed to thread his Jeep, drifting sideways just a bit on the gravel road, between the witch and Brandon.  The witch had several inches of dust and gravel filled air between herself and the Jeep but, we later found out, for some reason she decide it was her turn to call 911. This was fine with us because now she was out of sight behind the hill in her car using her cell phone and we started shooting again.  Ry talked to Brandon for a while then came back to the shoot for 30 minutes or so before he had to leave and go back to Moscow for the night.

Brandon radioed in an hour or so later saying a Country Sheriff's vehicle was on the road behind him and someone was talking to the two people in the car.  It was a deputy who soon interviewed Brandon, then came down to the shooting area to interview me and asked to talk to Ry.  Ry was gone but I gave the deputy Ry's cell phone number and said he lived in Moscow.  We chatted for a while and he said the Witch (he used some other name which I am less familiar with) reported someone had tried to kill her by running over her.  I was tempted to express my skepticism as to her being in actual danger because I was under the impression it took a bucket of water or house falling on a witch to kill her but although the deputy did seem to have a good sense of humor I didn't think it was wise to exercise it at that time.  He said he needed to fill out a report and wanted to know the events of the day from my perspective.  I told him everything I knew, he thanked me, asked a few things about the Boomershoot and as he left we both had smiles on faces and there were no further problems that year.  I don't think Ry even got a call from the deputy. [Update: Yes, Ry did have a chat with the deputy.  See the comments sections.]

The next year was quiet.  Nothing from the Witch or the Dwarf.  In 2004 the Dwarf created his own shooting event, sporting clays, just across the road from my parent's place.  It is open year around and during his big spring tournament this year, the week before Boomershoot, we saw something like four or five vehicles parked over there and heard an occasional shotgun blast.

KING 5 Evening Magazine has a teaser up on their web site (registration may be required) for their adventure at Boomershoot 2005:

Have you ever wondered what to do with some of your old things? We'll take you to rural Idaho for some explosive fun.

It airs tonight.  See also the videos Jason M. took of the producer and the cameraman shooting boomers.

I think, as I said, what Governor Florio did and what Governor Wilder did, I think will contribute to Americans facing this and trying to reconcile our absolute obligation under the Constitution to give people the right to handle a firearm responsibly and our obligation to try to preserve peace and keep these kids alive in our cities.

Bill Clinton
March 1, 1993
Remarks in discussion with National Service Volunteers

[Florio banned the sale and severely restricting the possession of semi-automatic rifles and pistols in New Jersey.  Wilder implemented gun rationing in Virginia.  Notice that Clinton talks about “giving a right“?  If something is “given“ then it isn't a right, it's a privilege.  And then just seven months later he talks about doing weapons sweeps.  A reminder of how far we have come in recent years.]

Jason M. has put up a nicely edited video of the KING 5 producer Kim Griffis shooting a boomer here.

I also have Boomershoot History (through 2004) up on a server now (thanks for the bandwidth Jason).

The Clinton Administration has underestimated the extent to which high-tech and privacy groups oppose the Clipper and Tessara chips -- encryption technologies that would allow federal agencies with court orders to eavesdrop on data and voice communications.  At the recent conference on Computers, Freedom and Privacy, an Administration spokesman asked: "Do you really want to live in a world where law enforcement can not do its job because of the need for privacy?"  Pressed to explain how crooks and terrorists smart enough to use encryption could be stupid enough to use the government's own encryption standards, the spokesman insisted: "You shouldn't overestimate the I.Q. of crooks."

New York Times
March 26, 1994 p.19
[In the mid 90's we were being assaulted on all sides, the gun issue, the surveillance issue, and our medical and financial records (remember “Know your customer“?).  We have made good progress but have work yet to do.]

He called to tell me a few things:

• The “Wicked Witch of the Boomershoot” (long story from a few years ago) came by trying to get him involved in shutting us down in the future.
• She said that if she has to she will build a house at the top of the hill (actually it would have to be a little ways over the top of the hill) to shut us down.
• He repeatedly asked what her problem was and she kept saying, “It's not regulated.“
• One of her tactics is to get it shut down on noise considerations.  He pointed out to her that she lives in Orofino and probably can't hear it from there even if she tries.
• He referred her to another neighbor to see what his thoughts were.  I laughed and laughed at that.  That particular neighbor asked for a Boomershoot 2005 hat (shipped on May 7th) to annoy someone in cahoots with the Wicked Witch.
• He repeatedly thanks me and the entire Boomershoot crowd for driving slow past their house to keep the dust down and for keeping the explosions at a scale such they didn't have things falling off the walls.

I told him she is a problem for lots of people in the area.  As near as we can tell she just likes to cause trouble.  He is in agreement and wants nothing to do with her plans. 

Others have plans to keep her busy for a while so maybe she will leave us alone once she is engaged elsewhere. 

Seth A. sent me an email asking if I was going to rant about the “Real ID” passing Congress now.  Heavy sigh.  It's so wrong on so many levels and I just don't have the energy for something I can't do something about.  Bruce Schneier works it over if you want the details.  And as both Seth and Bruce point out activists can go here for some coordination on the protest.

My attitude, which sucks on this, is if we have our guns the harm done by this piece of crap is minimized.  Yeah, we end up paying $100+ million for something that probably decreases security but one should fight the battles you have a chance of winning and not wasting energy on things that are foregone conclusions.  And we can still fight it in the implementation and funding stages.  Make it much more costly and make it fall flat on it's face. Point out that the risk if information like gender preference, or and/or ethnic origin (”I see you are a homosexual Jew! Your cattle car is waiting for you right over there.”)  were available from your ID card and is required to be shown to cops, employeers, and banks.

Update: The Bruce Schneier link was broken.  It's fixed now.

I already sent email out to everyone on the Boomershoot aliases, but figured there were some people reading this that wouldn't be on the aliases.  I think they may put the video on their website if you don't mind registering.  Ry plans to put it on DVD for us too.

-----Original Message-----
From: Kim Griffis
Sent: Monday, May 09, 2005 9:43 AM
To: Stephanie Sailor
Cc: Joe Huffman
Subject:


Hello Stephanie and Joe,

It looks like the Boomershoot story will air "this" Wednesday (the 11th).
Please let everyone know they can see the story Wednesday on Evening
Magazine -- that's 7-pm on KING-5 in Seattle. I know the show replays on
Northwest Cable News in Spokane, Portland and Boise, but I am not sure the
time of the re-air, I think it depends on the cable system.
We had a fun time with you. Thanks for all your help.
We hope you like the story!

Kim

Kim Griffis
Reporter/Producer
KING-TV Evening Magazine
333 Dexter Ave N.
Seattle, WA 98109
206-448-2977

We are at war.  Please don't forget that.  And although we have been fighting it on the turf of the enemy for the past few years they DO want to bring home to us again.  Read this, make plans for your safety and your loved ones, then be alert.

New York City hospitals are on the lookout for impostors trying to scope out health-care facilities and locate radioactive materials following warnings late last month from the Department of Homeland Security and the city Police Department about an emerging pattern of "suspicious incidents" in some American cities.

In an April 22 bulletin, the Department of Homeland Security warned hospitals that a string of people falsely representing themselves as inspectors for the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations had visited hospitals across America at odd hours, demanding information about the inner workings of the facilities.

The incidents occurred in Los Angeles and Boston, where the impostors entered hospitals at 3 a.m., as well as in Detroit and at several hospitals in New Jersey, the bulletin said. After hospitals received the Homeland Security alert, another incident was reported, in Indianapolis.

"These said individuals were attempting to gain public health service information from hospital personnel, and behaved in a manner inconsistent with legitimate inspection professionals," the bulletin warned.

Although the department said it knows of no specific terrorist plot, the bulletin said: "These most recent nationwide impersonations are more noteworthy when seen in the broader context with similar incidents which have occurred from October 2004 to February 2005." The letter went on to detail a series of incidents in that period in which people were caught taking unauthorized pictures of hospitals, asking for hospital blueprints, requesting information about the whereabouts of medicines that would be used in biological attacks, and inquiring about the institutions' capacity for cardiac care, trauma care, helicopter access, and private rooms.

...

"We really don't know why these incidents are happening," he said. "There are a lot of things in a hospital that are desirable. Medications. Drugs. Equipment. In a post-9/11 world, one's mind can wander and assume the worst."

The past few days I've been posting a Quote of the Day which reminds us of how far the gun rights movement has come in the past few years.  Analog Kid suggests we should use it as a reminder to be vigilant.  I certainly agree with that suggestion but my intent is much larger in scope.  I believe we are in a position to drive the anti-gun bigots into political extinction and ultimately repeal nearly all the repressive anti-gun laws in this country and perhaps even liberate other countries.  To do that we have to focus our energies properly.  How I think we should do that is coming soon in an essay I intended to deliver as my Boomershoot Dinner speech but didn't have time to write.

And we should -- then every community in the country could then start doing major weapon sweeps and then destroying the weapons, not selling them.

Bill Clinton
October 1, 1993
[A reminder of how far we have come in the past few years.]

I used to be fan of all the Star Trek series except DS9.  We dropped our cable subscription years ago and so when Star Trek: Enterprise began I didn't see it.  In fact I have only seen just part of one episode when I stumbled across it while channel surfing in a hotel once a year or two ago.

Yesterday I bought season one on DVD.  I would have started watching it last night but James wants to watch it too and I'm going to wait for him so we can watch it together.  He was busy gaming last night and, today is Mother's Day so it may not be until next weekend when we can schedule a time to begin.

Rep. Charles Schumer (D-NY), Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Sen. John Chafee (R-RI) made their big anti-gun push after Terry and Florio lost. They are all going to be back in the 104th Congress and they have said nothing to indicate that they will not keep pushing. Schumer and Feinstein got only part of what they wanted. Chafee didn't get his bill to ban all handguns in the last Congress, so he can be expected to file it again.

Schumer's agenda still calls for passage of Brady II, which would require, among other things, that all handguns be licensed by the states along federal guidelines on a "needs" basis, that the licenses would have to be shown to buy handgun ammunition for the particular licensed guns, that the licenses would be renewable every two years at high cost, that people who own more than 20 firearms (rifles, shotguns and/or handguns) or 1,000 rounds of ammunition or one box of primers would have to pay for an expensive arsenal license and be subject to home inspection by the police. Brady II will be filed again, in part because Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), who was re-elected also, called for its passage during his election campaign.

Hindsight from The New Gun Week Dec. 9, 1994
Nov. 8 Election Commentaries
by Joseph P. Tartaro
http://www.ccrkba.org/pub/rkba/hindsight/hs941209.txt
[A reminder of how far we have come in the last few years.]

I think -- you know, we can't be so fixated on our desire to preserve the rights of ordinary Americans to legitimately own handguns and rifles...

Bill Clinton
March 1, 1993
A reminder of how far we have come in the past few years.