Background:

• Bias against self-defense
• A bias against self-defense part II
• A bias against self-defense part III
• Opening arguments to verdict in 10 hours

I got a phone call from a friend of Michael Charles Williams last night.  He was sentenced yesterday.  25 to 30 years with no possibility of parole for voluntary manslaughter.  As Ry said when I told him, "There must be something else going on."

I asked the friend if he was going to appeal but she didn't know.  When I get some time I'm going to see if I can get some more information on the case.

Laws against guns on school campuses have not prevented a single school shooting. Laws against murder have not stopped murders. Laws restricting the firearm rights of law-abiding citizens have penalized the wrong people, while criminals intent on breaking the law and harming others keep doing it.

Stop trying to hoodwink the public into believing that one more restriction on law-abiding gun owners is going to stop the Kyle Huffs of the world, because it isn't, and the gun-control extremists know it.

Alan Gottlieb & Joe Waldron
Don't let gun-control extremists exploit Capitol Hill tragedy
Seattle Times April 7, 2006
[It's giving the the gun-control extremists too much credit to think they "know it".  They shun factual knowledge and confuse deeply felt beliefs for knowledge.  They then wallow in their emotions and the emotions of others to reinforce their beliefs.  I have Just One Question for these gun-control nut cases.--Joe]

More confirmation of Dr. Joe's cure for everything.  The history of the vibrator.

They kill innocent men, women and children to achieve their objective. These folks cannot be appeased. We can't hope that nice words will change their point of view.

And so the decision I made right off the bat is we will find them, and we will hunt them down, and we will bring them to justice before they hurt America again.

President George W. Bush
President Discusses Global War on Terror at Kansas State University
Kansas State University
Manhattan, Kansas
January 23, 2006

Yesterday I got a call from some reporter at a Boston area newspaper, The Enterprise.  She was looking at the title to this web page: Want Some Help Building a Bomb?  In a very hesitant voice she ask, "Why would anyone put up a web page like that?"  I asked if she had read the web page.  "No."  Okay, so I have to start at the beginning with her...  I was tempted to ask her if she knew how to read but figured that would make a poor first impression and I generally try to stay on the good side of people that buy their ink by the barrel.  So I explained how I make explosives for recreational purposes and I get email from people wanting to build bombs and I tell them no and if appropriate forward the email on to the appropriate law enforcement agency.  She seemed particularly interested in this story about the 13 year old kid waiting in the headteacher's office for his parents to arrive. 

After telling a few stories about how stupid some of these people are--I put all this email on my website telling about how I turned in everyone yet I still get email (and calls from reporters) from people thinking I actually provide help on illegal activities.  She then got a lot more friendly and enthusiastic about what I'm doing.  It turns out that some kid in her area got caught with pipe bomb materials in his car at high school.  Talk turned to "It's so easy to find bomb building instructions on the Internet" and she was tasked with writing a story about it.  The librarian did the research and the reporter was calling the people with the web pages to ask "Why?"  She asked a bunch of questions about have I helped catch any other kids with bombs or bomb building intentions.  I told her I didn't really know because it's rare the police will get back to me with that sort of information.  I told her I did get one kid arrested but it wasn't related to my web page.

She then went on to ask about "this hobby".  I explained Boomershoot to her and she keep asking "Why haven't I heard of this before?"  Again I refrained from pointing out the obvious about this question.  She works in Massachusetts, guns are very restricted there.  Boomershoot is near Orofino Idaho.  We are separated by about 2200 miles and totally alien cultures.  I told her, "It's been in Newsweek, Outside Magazine, and this year we have a magazine coming from the U.K."  Anyway she started seemed quite interested in Boomershoot and people coming from all over the continent to this event and generally seemed quite enthusiastic.  I'll be checking out their website everyday for a while to see if she actually publishes a story on what we talked about.

Very nice of the VPC to point this out to us:

State	Number of Gun Dealers	Number of Gas Stations	State	Number of Gun Dealers	Number of Gas Stations
Alaska	844	229	Oregon	1,479	1,146
Idaho	682	663	Wyoming	550	401
Montana	1,017	597	U.S. Total	54,902	121,363

This isn't so cool.  It's just ignorance and bigotry:

The 1992 VPC publication More Gun Dealers Than Gas Stations first focused national attention on abuses by FFL holders and revealed that at the time of its release the number of Americans who possessed the Type 1 FFL outnumbered gas stations 245,000 to 210,000. The bulk of the licenses were held by illegitimate "kitchen-table" dealers who operated out of their homes or offices, an unknown percentage of which were actively involved in criminal gun trafficking. As the result of policy recommendations contained in the study that were implemented under the Clinton Administration, today only five states have more gun dealers than gas stations (see chart below). The full study contains information for all 50 states as well as policy recommendations.

"Illegitimate kitchen-table dealers"?  "Unknown percentage of which were actively involved in criminal gun trafficking"?  Are "kitchen-table" cosmetic dealers illegitmate?  I'm sure an "unknown percentage" of them are engaged criminal activities too.  By saying "unknown percentage" they only admit their ignorance and their open disregard for knowledge.  As far as the number of dealers goes, most gun owners have far more guns than cars so it's to be expected there are more gun dealers than gas stations.  At least I live in one of the states where the gun dealers still outnumber the gas stations.  And remember the gasoline is more effective in mass murders than guns.  But the "Violence Policy Center" isn't really interested in reducing violence, just the availability of guns.

More guns means more violence, no matter what. Trained or not (and many carriers aren’t anymore), anyone who’s carrying a concealed weapons represents a threat to those around them.

The Gun Guys
Our Country's Crazy Concealed Carry Laws
April 4, 2006
[I guess the police carrying guns means more violence and are a threat to those around them too.  Let's get rid of them.  I have just one question for these nuts.--Joe]

Things in Chicago and Washington D.C. could be worse I guess.  This guy had just a single cartridge (they say bullet exposing their ignorance but from the context it's a cartridge):

Bandar Seri Begawan - A 27-year-old Indonesian man was sentenced to five years imprisonment and three strokes of whipping by the Bandar Magistrate's Court yesterday after he pleaded guilty to possession of an unlicensed bullet.

The defendant, Andriyadi was convicted of possessing a three-cm by one-cm bullet without a: licence issued by the licensing officer. It is an offence punishable under rule 17(l) of the Arms and Explosives Rule of the Arms and Explosives Act, Chapter 58.

He got caught when he tried to get on an airplane:

The defendant then took his wallet out and placed it in the X-ray machine.

As the wallet was screened, one of the airport security officers noticed something that looked like a bullet inside the defendant's wallet.

The defendant was asked to take out the contents of his wallet which he did witnessed by the airport security officers.

Asked by the airport security officers about the bullet, the defendant admitted that the bullet belonged to him. The bullet was sent to the Royal Brunei Armed Forces where upon examination, the bullet was found to be a live bullet which had not been used before.

IMHO the wrong person is getting the whipping and the prison sentence.

I'm going to my room and sulk now.  Because it looks like I have feces rubbed all over my face.

Xenia Huffman-Scott
After makeup to imitate a jackal was applied to her face for the play Jungle Book.  Her post on the play is here.
April 1, 2006

The New York Times has an article about Bloombergs attack on the right of people to keep and bear arms.  They have the headline of In His War on Illegal Guns, Bloomberg is Facing Uphill.  It should be In His Illegal War on Guns Bloomberg is Facing Prison.  But he's not--even though 18 USC 242 says he should:

Section 242 of Title 18 makes it a crime for a person acting under color of any law to willfully deprive a person of a right or privilege protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States.

For the purpose of Section 242, acts under "color of law" include acts not only done by federal, state, or local officials within the their lawful authority, but also acts done beyond the bounds of that official's lawful authority, if the acts are done while the official is purporting to or pretending to act in the performance of his/her official duties. Persons acting under color of law within the meaning of this statute include police officers, prisons guards and other law enforcement officials, as well as judges, care providers in public health facilities, and others who are acting as public officials. It is not necessary that the crime be motivated by animus toward the race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin of the victim.

The offense is punishable by a range of imprisonment up to a life term, or the death penalty, depending upon the circumstances of the crime, and the resulting injury, if any.

Just like the blacks of 50 or 100 years ago the law doesn't apply when it is the rights of gun owners that are being violated.

Ry and I were out the door of my house in Moscow by 7:30 AM then traveled the hour to the Boomershoot range and made about 45 pounds of reactive targets by 11:00.  We tested them with .223 and .50 BMG ball ammo.  With the .223 we got detonation 50% of the time at 460 yards which figures out to about 1700 fps.  On the .50 BMG there have been problems in the past.  Smaller calibers were popping them off just fine but the .50 in ball wouldn't.  No problem today -- at least at 460 yards.  We also tested some steel targets with the .223 (no damage at 460 yards with VMAX bullets).  Targets six weeks old detonated from 20 yards away with a .223 (last year targets just a four weeks old wouldn't detonated with a .223).  Just as we were leaving some guy drives up, walks up to the driver side of the Jeep as we are pulling out on the road and asks, "Are you going to be doing that next weekend?"  "No."  "Good!" and he walked off.  <shrug>  It will be four weeks before we detonate about 1000 pounds (in one and two pound increments) instead of just fifty pounds.  Oh well.  He'll find out soon enough.  I dropped Ry off at his van, parked at Microsoft, about 12:20 AM.  And now I'm ready for bed at 1:20 AM...

Pictures of Barb's Jeep later.  I got a comment of "Been four-wheeling, huh?" when we stopped for a bathroom break in Ellensburg.  I didn't know mud covered Jeeps attracted the attention of pretty college-age girls... I'll have to keep that in mind for the next time Barb is out of town.

Update: Ry has a couple posts up here and here about our adventures this weekend.  And here is the picture of Barb's Jeep after we got back from the Boomershoot range:

We are going to have peace even if we have to fight for it.

Dwight D. Eisenhower

We note with amazement that Bill Clinton has had the chutzpah to pose as a devotee of Theodore Roosevelt. For a draft dodger to presume to align himself with the hero of San Juan Hill is possibly the crowning impertinence of the 20th century.

As it has been mentioned, the Clinton administration may be quaintly characterized as "the evil of two lessers."

Jeff Cooper
From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries
Vol. 4, No. 11
September 1996

On February 15 I posted about some tests I did with the new Boomerite mix.  At 630 yards the targets didn't detonate with with .223 ammo I was using.  I was using muzzle velocity numbers from several years ago for the same brand of ammo in the same gun but I didn't trust the numbers because the point of impact was lower than I expected.  I measured the muzzle velocity again and found the MV was 135 slower than my previous numbers.

Using the new MV I recalculated the target velocities of my tests in February.  My best estimate is the target velocity was 1182 fps.  Too slow to expect detonation.

Assuming the weather holds Ry and I will redo the tests tomorrow to find out if 1500 fps .223 bullets will detonate the targets.  1500 fps is the expected velocity of my .223 bullets at about 550 yards under Boomershoot conditions.

They couldn't just wait any longer.  Xenia and John got married.  Details and pictures are in Xenia's Live Journal post.  Here is one of the pictures:

The ring is the one I gave Barb (which she wore for about a week)

Update: If you click on the link to Xenia's LJ and follow it to the bottom of the page you will see it's--April Fools Day!

I saw an ex-marine buddy of mine back down two Seattle Seahawks in a bar once -- scariest thing I have ever seen.  This guy is only about 5'8", the Seahawks just towered over him.  Things escalated to the point where they said, "We are going to mop the floor with you and what do you think you are going to do about it?"  The ex-marine eyes are just as black as death and he said, "I don't know, but we'll find out if you try."

This was the perfect thing to say.  It didn't challenge them, and it wasn't submission (although submission and running might have been a good way out for most people).  It drew a line for them and told them there WOULD be a response if they stepped over it.  His body language made it clear that he would respond.  The Seahawks backed down -- they didn't feel a need to find out what the response might be.

Greg Hamilton (paraphrased)
Self Defense Instructor
February 5, 1997

The successful imposition of "gun control has not stabilized Guatemala politically.  In effect, "gun control" ensures that only the wealthy may lawfully own firearms.  However, they tend to settle political problems with firearms.  What the "gun control" laws achieved -  some 90 years after the first such was enacted - was to clear the way for mass murder.

Lethal Laws -- "Gun Control" is the Key To Genocide
Page 229
by Jay Simkin, Aaron Zelman, and Alan M. Rice
Copyright 1994
ISBN 0-96442304-0-2