Guns are for self-defense, hunting dangerous and delicious animals, and keeping the king of England out of your face.

Krusty the Clown

My bill will crack down on gun shows and illegal gun trafficking, ban violent juveniles from ever being able to buy a gun and close the loophole that lets juveniles own assault rifles.

From Clinton's weekly radio address, the transcript of which I encountered at http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/Clintonradio_littleton99044.html

Please note that apparently there is a loophole that lets juveniles own select-fire carbines.

Seriously, though, this is an important step forward.  If juveniles had not been allowed to own assault rifles (or even semi-automatic centerfire rifles with a black anodized coating), the two teens in Littleton would not have made pipe bombs or shot a bunch of people at their school with shotguns and pistols.

Eugene Goodrich
(Member of the Microsoft Gun Club)
Sat 4/24/99

I have virtually no interest in anything computer related right now.  Thing are unpleasant at work and I just want to escape having anything to do with computers. I actually started cleaning out the garage today.  I found my solar powered ear protection I had left in the rental car in New Mexico last month.  I called them and asked they send to me and they said they would.  But despite me asking everyone here at home no one said anything about them arriving.  I found them in a UPS plastic envelope in the recycling.  I looked up the tracking number and found they had been delivered on April 20th.

Barb and I have been spending a lot of time watching movies. Two yesterday and two today.  Nothing really good, nothing really bad.

Ry had lots of excitement last night.  Burning rubber, 60 MPH on residential streets, lots of police, and there was the car crash (hit and run) and the smoke and fire.

Never turn your back on a threatened danger and try to run away from it. If you do that, you will double the danger. But if you meet it promptly and without flinching, you will reduce the danger by half. Never run away from anything. Never!

Winston Churchill

What rational person thinks the Constitution needs restoring?

Jack Anderson
Page 15
Inside The NRA -- Armed And Dangerous
ISBN 0-7871-0677-1
First Printing January 1996

[My comment would be what rational person doesn't think it needs “restoring”? -- Joe]

We ran into a pleasant interlude up in Vermont which emphasized the wisdom and social utility of the Vermont firearms laws. It seems that some foreigner from down below was in a supermarket when he observed one of the customers wearing a pistol openly. He got all flustered and immediately called 911. In due course a cop showed up and located the complainer, who pointed out the "culprit." The cop agreed that the man really was carrying a pistol, and then he asked what the problem was. I suppose the poor fellow rushed off out the door and went back where he came from. Obviously the state of Vermont was too dangerous for him.

Jeff Cooper
From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries
Vol. 6, No. 3
March 1998

Books, not which afford us a cowering enjoyment, but in which each thought is of unusual daring; such as an idle man cannot read, and a timid one would not be entertained by, which even make us dangerous to existing institution-such call I good books.

Henry David Thoreau
(1817-62)
U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist.
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, "Sunday" (1849)
[First Amendent, Second Amendment--I would claim the same sort of criteria is useful when choosing a firearm. -- Joe]

I just finished up a presentation I am to give next week in Houston.  I looked through my collection of quotes and things and found this to conclude my talk with when I turn it over to questions and comments:

If your mind goes blank, don't forget to turn off the sound.

The attribution is hazy.  It probably was from an email received at Microsoft but I don't know who wrote it or when.

Almost all politicians and about 75% of meeting participants could benefit from this advice.

The Brits did a trial run on a biometric ID card with 10,000 people.  The results are in:

THE technology behind the government's controversial ID card scheme fails to recognise one in every 25 people, it emerged yesterday.

A Home Office trial that collected the biometric details of 10,000 volunteers showed at best the technology was 96 per cent foolproof if iris scans were used.

It was even less accurate for black people and the over-59s, and worse for those with disabilities, as the scans had more difficulty recognising them.

...

It was also revealed that the estimated cost per card had risen to £93, up from £85 in November - an amount that did not include the start-up technology costs. Running costs over ten years are estimated to be £5.8 billion.

A report on the trial said the reasons for the lower success rates among certain groups remained unclear and that more work was needed to identify the reasons.

Meanwhile, facial biometric technology was only 69 per cent accurate, while using fingerprints was 81 per cent failsafe.

...

David Winnick, Labour MP for Walsall North, insisted he would continue to oppose the bill and pointed to the government's shifting the justification for identity cards, from thwarting terrorism to identity fraud.

I'm actually surprised the results are this bad.  I know biometrics isn't really up to the task it is being asked to do, but this was much worse than I thought it would be.  This is great news for freedom lovers everywhere and in the U.S. in particular.  Our government is running a little behind the U.K. in police state race.  To see the U.K. fail so badly in this important (to would-be tyrants) tool may mean we will be spared the expense.  Yeah, I know, Real ID passed but all it requires in terms of a biometric identifier is a digital photo of your face and your signature--two of the least accurate biometric measures.  Real ID will accomplish only one thing well--making a few people feel good and the U.K. experience will be further evidence of that.

Ry says he is not sure he will have much to say.  Wow!  He's spent many 100's of hours involved with Boomershoot.  He could talk about firearm selection.  He fired nearly 1000 rounds through an AK-47 clone to connect with his first boomer but a few years later could connect almost at will with an AR-15 with a “deep space telescope“ mounted on it.  Or if he wanted to talk about stuff “behind the scenes“ he could talk about the dozens and dozens of experiments we have done (and all the windshields we have replaced).  All the fireballs that weren't.  All the boomers that went pop.  All efforts that went into the various target bodies.  All the tests we should have done but didn't.  Or how about the games we (mostly Ry) came up with using boomers.  Why there probably won't ever be any legal gambling on a boomershoot type game.  Or the hours and hours of video we (mostly Ry again) have collected but neither couldn't make into anything sustaining our interest for more than a few seconds yet the professionals at KING 5 were able to turn similar video into four and a half minutes of excitement.  He could talk about chemistry of the boomers.  He could talk about dealing with the ATF.  He could talk about the design and building of the Taj Mahal (Ry did most of that).  He could talk about the all the unintentional fires we have create and put out--sometimes just seconds from diasater. 

Think of the handgun as a behavior modifier.  If someone is threatening you, you can use the handgun to modify their behavior...

This is the universal hand signal for GO AWAY!  (Holds handgun in firing position.)

Ninety times out of a hundred it will work.  If not, then you may have to give them the universal hand signal for LIE DOWN!  (Holds handgun in firing position and repeatedly pulls trigger.)

Greg Hamilton
Self Defense Instructor
Nov. 19, 1995

Well, they are gun grabbers so I suppose the title question is rhetorical.  But they call themselves Freedom States Alliance but they are actively working to limit freedom.  I got an email from them that, in part, says:

As we continue to fight to end the terrorist threat posed by .50 caliber sniper rifles, we work hard to ensure that you're kept abreast of all the latest developments in our struggle.  We are drawing a line in the sand and telling powerful special interest groups that there is no place for battlefield weapons in civilian hands.  There's plenty that you can do to help!

...

This campaign has only just begun, and we're picking up momentum.  The NRA and its friends in the gun industry declined comment because they know this is a battle that they will lose.  These guns are not your grandfather's hunting rifles.

With so much success after such a short time, we just wanted to take a moment to thank each and every one of you for your help.  And if you're a supporter of the campaign, won't you consider helping to spread the word to your friends and family?  Or make a donation at our website to help us get the message out.

We must stop .50 Caliber Terror.  It's just common sense.

What does “Freedom States Alliance“ mean?  Could it be they deliberately left it ambiguous so both those for and against freedom would feel comfortable contributing to their cause? 

How many crimes have been committed in the U.S. in the past 30 years using a firearm that shoots the .50 BMG cartridge?  One?  Maybe two?  How many terrorist acts have been committed in the U.S. using a firearm that shoots the .50 BMG cartridge?  Zero--right?  They say, “We must stop .50 Caliber Terror.“ but what is there to stop? 

They have no common sense.  They only have their blind hatred and an alliance against freedom.

Yes, I know the math doesn't work.  But sometimes the truth must be sacrificed to make excellent points.

Scott Adams
Dilbert and the Way of the Weasel
First Edition, Page 190, Copyright 2002

Most of America's assault rifles are in the attics, basements, and closets of patriotic Americans who never fire them and to whom war against their own government would be an unthinkable nightmare.

The problem is that millions of such weapons are now being stored in the homes of ordinary Americans, especially in the Western United States. Assault rifles have a military appearance and contribute in a subtle, psychological way to growing resistance to government oppression. Most farmers, ranchers, and loggers who see their lives and families entirely destroyed by Babbitt and retainers will never fire a shot. The existence of these weapons, however, makes resistance, even legal resistance, more thinkable to these victims.

The bureaucrats and politicians do not fear armed criminals or armed political zealots so much as they fear peaceful Americans who will probably never use their assault rifles - but whose mental toughness may be enhanced by possession of military weapons.

The gun controllers are not deterred by the facts about guns and crime, because their primary fear is not of criminals. They fear ordinary Americans whose lives and freedom their policies are destroying. In this fear and in their world, they are on target.

Arthur B. Robinson Ph.D.
Access to Energy
July 1994, Vol. 21, no. 11