Read some of this.  After a meeting with my supervisor and others this afternoon I'm deleting some posts of mine.  That may not be the end of it either.  My push the envelope policy has it's hazards.

Banning guns is an idea whose time has come.

U.S. Sen. Joseph Biden
November 18, 1993
Associated Press
[A reminder of how far we have come in the last few years.]

I can demonstrate airport security is a huge waste of money and have long advocated we spend that money on something worthwhile.  Last month I had another opportunity to demonstrate the inability of TSA to provide security and wrote Bruce Schneier an email in response to his posting about the ban on lighters on planes.  He asked me for permission to use my letter and then published in his monthly letter (do a search for 'Huffman' to find my email).

Here is what I said, in case you don't want to go searching in his web page:

From: Joseph K Huffman
Subject: Lighters Banned on Airplanes

One of my hobbies is explosives. I have a ATFE license to manufacture high explosives. I do so recreationally on a fairly regular basis.

I made the explosives for a recent event wearing gloves. Then had to rework some things later and did that without gloves. A few minutes later I handled a rifle case without cleaning up. On April 13th, three days later, that same rifle case went through airport security at Pasco Washington. I watched a TSA agent wipe down the handle and interior of the case and test them for explosives. Everything passed. The rifle case went with me to Albuquerque, New Mexico. On April 16th, that same rifle case made the return trip and again went through a TSA screening without questions. I have numerous stories of this nature. This is only the most recent.

As near as I can determine, airport "security", from one end to the other, only exists to make people feel better. It does not represent a deterrent to even a moderately skilled adversary. We are wasting something like $1.8 billion per year on this activity to make some people feel better.

From Jihad Watch; a Palestinian Authority Sermon:

We have ruled the world before, and by Allah, the day will come when we will rule the entire world again. The day will come when we will rule America. The day will come when we will rule Britain and the entire world – except for the Jews. The Jews will not enjoy a life of tranquility under our rule, because they are treacherous by nature, as they have been throughout history. The day will come when everything will be relived of the Jews - even the stones and trees which were harmed by them. Listen to the Prophet Muhammad, who tells you about the evil end that awaits Jews. The stones and trees will want the Muslims to finish off every Jew.

I love the observation Jihad Watch makes:

 Humm, rule the world and kill the Jews...that was tried once before as I recall..

From the Second Amendment Foundation:

NEWS RELEASE

SAF CALLS FOR 'WAITING PERIODS' ON PRESS FOLLOWING FATAL NEWSWEEK DEBACLE

BELLEVUE, WA – More than 115 dead or injured, and now a lame "apology" from Newsweek; maybe it is time for the press to accept waiting periods before exercising i ts First Amendment rights in the same way the press has backed waiting periods on law-abiding Americans before exercising their Second Amendment rights.

That's the observation from the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) now that Newsweek has acknowledged its report about the desecration of the Koran by soldiers at Guantanamo Bay was bogus.

"I wonder if Newsweek, or its owner, the Washington Post, would submit all of their stories for FBI clearance before they publish," said SAF founder Alan Gottlieb. "This irresponsible exercise of the First Amendment freedom of the press has killed and injured more people than Charles Whitman or the Beltway Snipers.

"How many times," Gottlieb wondered, "have Newsweek and The Washington Post advocated waiting periods for law-abiding citizens, who have hurt nobody, before they can buy a firearm? A waiting period amounts to prior restraint by the government. How loud would reporters scream if they faced prior restraint be fore printing their version of the news? Their double standard is hypocritical.

"The Second Amendment is the only civil right in this country that Americans can't exercise unless they get government permission," he noted. "A Newsweek story just killed or injured more than 115 people, but they don't have to face government scrutiny before turning on the press.

"Newsweek reporters and editors should be subject to the same kind of ‘cooling-off' period they advocate for gun buyers," Gottlieb observed. "In their heated rush to print a sensational story to discredit American soldiers and the Bush Administration, they started a chain reaction that ended in worldwide acts of violence.

"The blood is on Newsweek's hands," Gottlieb stated. "Their report killed and injured scores of people, yet it is the American gun owner who must endure waiting periods because of an irrational fear that they might commit a crime. Crimes were committed because of Newsweek's story. People have died."

The Second Amendment Foundation is the nation's oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 600,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control. SAF has previously funded successful firearms-related suits against the cities of Los Angeles; New Haven, CT; and San Francisco on behalf of American gun owners, a lawsuit against the cities suing gun makers & an amicus brief & fund for the Emerson case holding the Second Amendment as an individual right.

One of the bigger threats to the individual, ranking right up there with “gun control”, is a government monopoly on health care.  In addition to failing my Jews in the Attic Test we get situations like this:

Leslie Burke had asked the court to rule that he, not a doctor, is best placed to decide whether his life should be prolonged by medical intervention.

He is now in his forties and has known since he was a teenager that he has a progressive condition which is very likely to mean that he will need artificial feeding and hydration - known as ANH.

What worried Mr Burke was the possibility that doctors could make a decision to withdraw ANH on the assumption that his quality of life as a disabled person was too low to merit prolonging it.

The government allocates a budget for “health services” and ends up making decisions on “greatest good for the greatest number”.  The individual doesn't get that much of a say in things--unless they have the right connections.  It doesn't matter if you, or your relatives and friends, are willing to spend some large sum of money (had the government not taken it from you) on your health care.  The government is able to decide that temporarily saving the lives of 20 drug addicts is more important that saving your highly productive life and they use the money they took from you by force to do it.  In addition since “someone else” is paying for it or “it's free” people don't have the incentive to take care of themselves.  It's just a really, really bad idea.  Don't let it happen here.

Hypocrites, bigots, and idiots annoy me.  I had one New York City lawyer tell me how he was all concerned about the rights of the people and we needed rules and regulations as we implemented Universal Biometric Identification Cards.  Apparently he believed the government regulations would protect us from the government. This same guy claimed that if someone were to shoot someone else it was up to the shooter, and rightly so, to justify his actions to the government.  This LAWYER apparently believed “innocent until proven guilty” didn't apply if a firearm was involved.

The newspapers are filled with similar stuff but it generally goes away after a while.  I presume the reporters and editors get corrected and they drop it.  The following meme has been persisting far longer than normal and it's beginning to annoy me.

Gun control is virtually non-existent. A Government Accountability Office study recently found that 35 out of 44 applicants to buy guns were able to do so despite appearing on a government terrorist watch list.

If someone is on the “Terrorist watch list” they are suspected of having an association with terrorist organizations.  They haven't done anything wrong that we know of.  They may be deserving of being closely watched, but they are innocent until proven guilty.  The press usually has this right in regards to flying on an airplane but for some reason they get brain freeze on a constitutionally guaranteed right.

If you love wealth better than liberty, the tranquillity of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms.  Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you.  May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen.

Samuel Adams
1776

Nobody who supports the Second Amendment has anything to fear from me.

Tim Kaine
Virginia Democratic gubernatorial candidate.
Former Richmond Mayor who used city funds to help bus Richmond activists to the “Million Mom March” in Washington, D.C., in 2000.
From the Roanke Times May 15, 2005
[A reminder of how far we have come in the past few years.]

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.