Recently I had a discussion with someone that was resigned to us losing our freedom. I only weakly protested because I don't think well on my feet. I need time, sometimes lots of time, to formulate my thoughts and to make my case. My strength is in my attention to detail and in my ability to focus on problems for long periods of time. I play a good game of chess but not a first person shooter computer game. Boomershoot for example is a particularly subtle, long term, and yet I believe effective blow against the freedom haters (see also Why Boomershoot).

He claimed Jefferson was right to say, "God forbid we should ever be 20. years without such a rebellion." He said that it was too late to save our freedom. Our chance for freedom today was lost without a successful revolution 150 years ago. And he invoked this as an argument:

The average age of the worlds greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

From Bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.

Never mind that it might actually be an urban myth that Alexander Fraser Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee wrote this (see also this). It could be true or false regardless of who wrote it. And even if were true when it was claimed to be written in the late 1700's things have changed a bit since then. In the last 200 plus years the most amazing changes in human history have occurred. What is the effect of those changes? How does it affect our fight for freedom?

These questions affect us all. Do we resign ourselves, our children, and our grandchildren to a life of bondage? Is the best we can do just keep our head down so the "tiger eats us last"?

I don't have definitive answers to those questions but I have some pretty good hints. Please consider these changes from the time when the above was supposedly written:

• Long range individual owned and deployed weapons
• Incredibly cheap and rapid transportation
• Incredibly cheap, rapid, and secure communications

In the long range weapons category I don't just mean extending the range of a rifle from a couple hundred yards to a thousand or more. And I don't mean mortars that can extend that range out to well over a mile. With cell phones and/or the Internet people can now give commands to a weapon from anywhere on the planet to any other place on the planet. We can even deploy "smarts" into weapon systems that can take out a tyrant and/or his minions weeks, months, or even years after being put in place and the weapon owner is long gone or even dead.

There are many who would claim these items help the tyrant as much or more than the freedom advocate but I disagree. China, Russia, or even Canada with its oppressive gun control and socialist health care isn't any bastion of freedom but each of those governments heavily censored communication to protect the oppressors. And in each case communication recently succeeded despite efforts to suppress them and brought about reforms. As a friend said, Computers and the Internet are a far bigger problem for the government than they are for the individual. Just look at the vigorousness of the response by the Islamic extremists to our "corruption" of their society by our communication. Or the impact talk radio has had on U.S. politics. They, the freedom haters, hate it so because it is so powerful. Open communication is the ultimate enabler of freedom in a war against tyrants and communication has never been so cheap or secure as it is right now.

The rapid and cheap transportation allows the freedom advocate to attend a pro-freedom march on Pennsylvania Avenue, or take action against jack booted thugs near Waco or Ruby Ridge on a Saturday afternoon and never miss an hour of work from his or her job in Seattle or Miami. And the communication makes it possible for them to know about the event and coordinate with others in real time rather than days or weeks after it was over and far too late to participate in a meaningful manner.

My conclusion, for all it's lack of decisiveness, is that should we have the ambition and the courage to utilize the tools available to us we have it within our power to prevent the loss of more of our freedom and even regain many of the freedoms we have lost. I think the real question is, do you have the ambition and the courage to make a difference? Or are you going to give up?

If you have ambition, you might not achieve anything, but without ambition, you are almost certain not to achieve anything.

Whitfield Diffie
[Words of wisdom for freedom advocates from a self admitted lefist who perhaps gave us one of the strongest keys (pun intended) to protecting and advancing freedom in all it's forms.--Joe] 

As you probably know Canada recently received another data point on the utility of gun registration. This well worded response sums it up well:

Well thought out goals and plans do not change with the intrusion of events by one deranged individual. He had two weapons and both, actually, were registered. I don’t know what you would put in place to prevent that from happening.

In slightly different circumstances and what is just barely below the surface in this example of failure is the response the anti-gun bigots are working toward. Gun registration actually does have some utility it's just that in this particular instance the proponents were caught in a weak position and weren't able to take advantage of it. What is needed to take advantage of the real goal of registration is a emergency or crisis, real or manufactured, at the national level. In that sort of situation the bigots make the claim there is only one solution--they have no option but to confiscate privately owned firearms. This, of course, has all too often enabled the Final Solution for other "problems" and must be vigorously resisted. It fails my Jews In the Attic Test.

Dooce is my favorite blog and it's not because her blog became the namesake of what happened to me (fired because of blogging). Most of what I read is gun and freedom related stuff and is often sort of draining. I don't read much of the lighter stuff and Heather gives me a real boost. I really, really like Heather's humor. Today she shared what is probably my favorite post yet. She and her family were interviewed for the Salt Lake Tribune about her blog and her family life:

The story ran this past Saturday, and although Matt had said it was going to be a big story, I wasn’t prepared to walk out to the driveway that morning and find my face staring back up at me from the pavement. The story was huge, the biggest thing on the front page, and inside it covered over a page and a half. I ran back inside, threw open the paper on the bed, and Jon and I stared down at these words in the second paragraph:

He runs the washcloth between her shoulder blades and then quickly circles around to rub her breasts.

OH.

MY.

GOD.

Hello, Mormons! How about some breasts with your morning prayers?

Matt was paraphrasing this entry I had written during the few days we had talked to him, and you might notice that not once did I ever use the term breasts in reference to my own. And this is the only complaint I have about the article which as a whole is the fairest, most level-headed piece of journalism ever written about me — he didn’t try to push an opinion about whether I was a self-absorbed egotist or an insignificant mommyblogger or an incredibly juvenile nitwit, although you only have to read one sentence of this website and you’d be convinced of all three.

My complaint is that when you take some of the things I write out of context they make me sound as if I am perpetually running up and down the street in the nude waving my tattooed middle finger at innocent old ladies who are cross-stitching passages of scripture as they sit in their wheelchairs on the porch. And that is so not true. I only do that on the weekends.

Her use of exaggeration sometimes makes me want to know a little more of the real side of her family. The article and this blog posting (Xenia, please read if you haven't already) by the photographer helped satisfy that urge.

Heather, thank you for sharing.

Another book is about to come out telling you what Dr. Joe has been telling you. And that is Dr. Joe's cure for everything (more sex) helps you live a long life. It also helps you stay lean.

'Sex Diet' Claims Lust Can Make You Lean

According to an upcoming book — and celebrities like Angelina Jolie and George Clooney's former model-girlfriend Lisa Snowdon — the key to controlling weight is simple: Have more sex!

"A steamy sex life could be the best diet you've ever tried," said author Kerry McCloskey, whose book, "The Ultimate Sex Diet: The Secret Formula for a Slimmer, Healthier, More Passionate Life," will be in bookstores early next year.

...

But a strenuous sex life doesn't only help you lose weight. Other health benefits include a longer life span, reduced depression, an improved immune system and a stronger heart.

Spending quality time in the sack can also make you look better — a 1999 study by Dr. David Weeks at Scotland's Royal Edinburgh Hospital found that an active sex life can make you look up to seven years younger.

...

"Life is short, so enjoy the ride," McCloskey says in her book, "especially the free one that your partner gives you!"

Have you ever had your child threaten to kill you? Yesterday was a first for me. And I thought things were going so well too...

Background: James bought himself a new computer and Xenia asked that he give his old one to her. James thought she was being spoiled but relented and wiped the hard disk before turning it over to her. Then he couldn't find the install disk for Windows XP. I told Xenia to send me an email to remind me and I would get her a new O/S. Our story picks up from this point:

From: Xenia Joy
Sent: Sunday, October 15, 2006 3:30 PM
To: xenia@joehuffman.org
Subject: Operating System

Get me an operating system.

 

-Xenia Joy

Interesting. It's not like she even said please. It's just a command from the little princess. But she left an opening for me to have some fun:

From: Joe Huffman 
Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 1:38 PM
To: Xenia Joy
Subject: RE: Operating System

I got one. It's in the trunk of the car. Windows '95 should do, right?

-dad-

From: Xenia Joy
Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 2:54 PM
To: Joe Huffman
Subject: RE: Operating System

If you give me Windows ’95, you die.

From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 3:04 PM
To: Xenia Joy
Subject: RE: Operating System

<gulp> What happens if I get you Windows 3.0?

-dad-

 

From: Xenia Joy
Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 4:45 PM
To: Joe Huffman
Subject: RE: Operating System

You die slower.

From: Joe Huffman [mailto:Joe@joehuffman.org]
Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 5:32 PM
To: 'xenia@xeniajoy.com'
Subject: RE: Operating System

Hmmmm... I think maybe I like that. I like dying at the slowest rate possible. I guess this means I need to get you DOS 1.0. Will that get me a death in say 2100?

 

-dad-

From: Xenia Joy
Sent: Monday, October 16, 2006 6:56 PM
To: Joe Huffman
Subject: RE: Operating System

No, you die over a 24 hour period.

I'm amazed. 29 positions have been reserved by 43 people. That is 41% of the positions taken already. In 2001 it took until March until I sold 30 positions--which filled it up.

At this rate (not likely to continue!) it will be filled by Wednesday.

Update (10/17/2006, 22:20): The event is now 50% sold out. 35 positions taken by 53 people.

The path we have chosen for the present is full of hazards, as all paths are. The cost of freedom is always high, but Americans have always paid it. And one path we shall never choose, and that is the path of surrender, or submission.

John F. Kennedy
[I'm sure Kennedy had something else in mind but I'm thinking the freedom to own firearms. The inalienable right to keep and bear arms.--Joe]

Fox News did a report a few days ago about Jay Leno having Kah-Lee-Foe-un-yuh Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appear on his show.  It was all about the "equal time clause" and whether Leno should be forced to have Arnold's opponents on for some "equal time".

Maybe Hollywood should be forced to cast Arnold’s political opponents as the stars in several hit movies, too.  It makes every bit as much sense, what with all the pre-election exposure all those movies are giving to Arnold.  Alternatively, We could force Blockbuster to quietly pull all of Arnold movies until after the election.  Its sickening to think about it, but I'm sure there are more than a few U.S. Congresswhores in both parties who would be willing to consider doing just that.

Update:  I though I was making a joke, but alas, no.  This has already been done by some broadcast stations.

Television stations also stopped airing Schwarzenegger's movies after he declared his candidacy to avoid violating the equal time provision.

I found it striking that at no point in the fox broadcast, or in several others I found, did anyone ever mention any possibility that Leno might have a right to invite anyone on his show anytime he feels like it.  Freedom, I guess, isn't worth discussing anymore.  Instead, we're to argue in detail only about how and when we are going to exercise coercion and how thoroughly justified we are in doing so.  Apparently, fairness demands more Stalinism.

Boomershoot 2007 is April 29th.

I have confirmation that Steve Joachim will be back with his anvils and again attempt to put one of them into orbit.

Gene Econ will be putting on his, as always, sold out Precision Rifle Clinic.

And of course there will be hundreds of highly reactive targets made up of over 1000 pounds of high explosives.

Learn more about Boomershoot here. Sign up for it here.

And so I don't have to hear it from everyone else...

It will be a blast!

The underlying problem for the West is not Islamic fundamentalism. It is Islam, a different civilization whose people are convinced of the superiority of their culture and are obsessed with the inferiority of their power.

The problem for Islam is not the CIA or the US Department of Defense. It is the West, a different civilization whose people are convinced of the universality of their culture and believe that their superior, if declining, power imposes on them that obligation to extend that culture throughout the world.

Samuel P. Huntington
The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order
[Most people probably would find this book a bit dry but I find it, for the most part, fascinating. I've been listening to it (as an Audio Book) on my iPod as I travel back and forth to the Seattle area.--Joe]

Proof by example:

From: Joe S
Sent: Saturday, October 14, 2006 12:05 PM
To: joeh@boomershoot.org
Subject: little big boom

hey

i was wondering how to make a small bomb small enough to blow up in my back yard

but big enough to put a small hole in the ground(hehe).

also not to loud because i dont wont some old lady to call the cops.

I really dont wont to go buy thing that need an id.

can you help?

From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Saturday, October 14, 2006 12:41 PM
To: 'Joe S'
Subject: RE: little big boom

I'm sure I can help. Would you please tell me the number of your local police department? If I wasn't so lazy I'd just look up the Akron, Ohio police department myself. I'm sure the police will be able to get Ameritech.net, your DSL provider, to give them your exact address. From there I'm certain you will get all the help you could possible want.

 

You might also want to check out these web pages to see if you can find help there:

 

http://www.boomershoot.org/general/BombHelp2005.htm

http://www.boomershoot.org/general/BombHelp2004.htm

http://www.boomershoot.org/general/BombHelp2003.htm

-joe-

You would think this would be a sufficient whack with the old clue bat to get through. But this guy responded back!

From: Joe S
Sent: Saturday, October 14, 2006 6:24 PM
To: Joe Huffman
Subject: RE: little big boom

thanks it was just what i was looking for. it will take some time to make but ill tell you the results whin im done.

Data point number 2. One would think that he wouldn't be smart enough to send an email if he is this stupid. Apparently stupidity has no limits.

My position is that if someone is so stupid that they don't know how to build a bomb and yet want to build one then one should not help them. An exception might be made under carefully controlled conditions such that they only eliminate themselves, and perhaps their immediate friends, from the gene pool.

The difference between death and taxes is death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets.

Will Rogers

This collection is an enlightening and comprehensive look at one of our planet's gravest problems. Until we regulate the trade in light weapons, arms dealers, just like drug traffickers and the slave traders, will continue to reap benefits at the cost of human lives in all countries of the world.

It is only through tackling war, militarism and weapons of all sizes, on all levels and from all sides, that we will be able to realize our vision of a world in which extreme poverty and senseless violence are nothing but sad memories of the past.

Oscar Arias Sanchez
Former President of Costa Rica and 1987 Nobel Peace Laureate
From a review of the book: LIGHT WEAPONS AND INTERNATIONAL SECURITY.
[Many in international society wish to completely infringe the inalienable right to keep and bear arms on a worldwide basis and implement a Utopian socialistic society. This has been tried many times in the last century at the cost of hundreds of millions of lives. Be on your guard for the next attempts.--Joe]

If you see a snake, just kill it - don't appoint a committee on snakes.

Ross Perot

I knew from talking to the investigators that inspect the Boomershoot explosives magazine that things were rather "tight" but I had no idea how bad it was or why it was that way.

The full report includes such items as demands for remote controlled doors, and wood flooring in the directors office that alone cost over $62,000. The millwork alone for the other wood in the office would cost $243,000. That doesn't include the executive bathroom which involved telephone, TV flat panel and radio speakers to listen/view news, quartzite tile floor to match the floor in the building atrium, a bench with a water resistant wood seat, tile wall "in horizontal straight stacked layout vs brick,” and sconces. The conference table cost $28,000. Don't get me started on the bodyguards, motorcades, and the gym.

All this while agents in the field were using expired body armor and complaining of not having enough people, and other safety equipment.

Now, I'm all for the starving the ATF for money to spend on unconstitutional activities but the money should be left in the hands of the taxpayers rather than put into a quarter million dollar office for the chief villain.

See also: Homework help from the ATF.

I spoke with an NRA spokesman the other day.  Among other things, he was bragging up the fact that the NRA had sued to get some of the guns seized in the Katrina aftermath returned to their owners.

OK, kudos, NRA.  Great.  Wonderful.  Good job.

"Lets say I had broken into your home" I said, "ruffed you up, handcuffed you, and robbed you.  I then get caught, taken in and put on trial.  Would you consider it justice if the only thing that happened to me was that I were forced to return some of your belongings?"  End of story?  Hurrah, Hurrah?  I think not.

I then asked him if he could name a single instance in which the NRA had attempted to get a violator of the Second Amendment punished for his crime.  A long silence ensued, after which I had to ask, "Are you still there?"  He could not think of a single instance, nor had he ever even considered such a question.  I then asked him if he could name a single anti-gun law that, once passed, the NRA had managed to get repealed.  Again, silence.

"If I stole all the fire extinguishers from your house, and later you started a minor kitchen fire while cooking dinner, and your house burnt down because you couldn't find a fire extinguisher, would you not hold me at least partially responsible for the loss of your house?"  After all, stealing your fire extinguishers is a violation of your rights and of the law, which limited your options in a response to an emergency.

Maybe you'd consider justice as having been served if, after you lost your house due to my violation of your property rights, I were merely forced by order of a judge to return half of your fire extinguishers a year later, all the while having continued my attempts at burglarizing other people's houses for their fire extinguishers."

Anyone would be a damned fool to think so.  It would be a sick joke, wouldn't it?  Yet this is exactly the situation we face with regard to our Second Amendment rights and I dare say no one is doing anything about it.  People are being disarmed and thereby exposed to an increased risk for injury and death, and we're supposed to jump for joy, singing "Happy Days Are Here Again" at the news that a few of the weapons are returned a year after they were illegally confiscated?  What about the perpetrators (I say, criminals-- enemies of the Republic) who confiscated the weapons in the first place?  What happens to them?

Dead Silence.

We have a certain body of law in this country.  It is defined as the Supreme Law of the Land.  It is the Constitution of the United States. All of our elected officials are sworn by Oath to uphold, defend and protect the Constitution, and many of them set out immediately to circumvent, compromise, dilute, and willfully violate that Constitution.

Yet when was the last time you can recall any individual ever being punished for that violation?  It does not happen.  These people are law breakers.  They have been entrusted with, and then broken, the most important law in our society- the one that protects the very fabric of our Republic, and it seems to me that the very worst that has happened to any of them as a result is that they stand a small chance of being forced into early retirement (losing an election) and taking a life-long pension at the tax payers' expense.

Until those who violate our constitutionally guaranteed rights are held personally liable for their crimes, they have no real incentive to stop.

Having said that, I have a friendly message for all you legislators, cops and judges out there-- those of you who feel so comfortable attacking the rights of your fellow countrymen:  Your words, and your actions, are a matter of public record.  They will follow you for the rest of your life and in a time when intercommunication is increasing exponentially.  How much are you willing to bet on the notion that We The People will never actually get serious about protecting our rights?

I wonder if the ATF would have helped my nephew's with his high school homework had I asked really nicely:

The man who recently departed as director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives ordered his staff to help with his nephew's high-school homework, wasting the agency's time and violating ethics rules, an inquiry found Wednesday.

The nephew's project — a documentary about the ATF that took 10 months to complete — was one of a half-dozen examples of lapses in judgment Carl Truscott committed before he resigned in August, says the report by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine.

Probably not. But it would have been just as constitutionally justified as any other activity they are involved in.

We are not afraid to entrust the American people with unpleasant facts, foreign ideas, alien philosophies, and competitive values. For a nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.

John F. Kennedy

I heard the story a few days ago but now Xenia has posted the details on her Live Journal so I can talk about it here too.

It's kind of a nice story actually. Except for the barfing part. But that will make the story telling so much better for the grandkids.

My blog evolved from a Crawly Amphibian to a Flappy Bird in just two days and in the process pegged out the inbound link-o-meter:

Actually most of this rapid evolution was due to some sort of bug in the TLB ecosystem. I've had 50 some odd inbound links for quite some time but they weren't showing up right. After the Gun Blogger Rendezvous everyone started linking to everyone else and the dam sort of burst on my inbound links.

The rise in the number of viewers late last month is probably due to all the links Say Uncle has been sending my way recently.

Reno was the first time for me. I've had lots and lots of encounters where it could have happened had they given me enough attention. There have been dozens of times I certainly was making the moves on them and wanted something to happen. But it seemed they just weren't interested in me. Oh well. You try as best you can and it doesn't happen it doesn't happen.

At the SeaTac airport on my way to Reno I wore my Boomershoot 2004 t-shirt and my Boomershoot 2006 hat. On the way back I was a "good boy" and didn't wear the provocative shirt. But when they ran the swab over the edge of my gun case and ran it through the explosive sniffer it came back with a positive indication for explosives. The guy didn't quite know what to do and called a supervisor. They talked about it a bit and seemed to think the boxes and boxes of ammo (probably about 300 rounds of .223 and another 100 rounds of .40 S&W) could have influenced the test. I pulled out my ATF type 20 license (license to manufacture high explosives) and showed it to them and explained I have a lot of contact with explosives. They looked at it but didn't seem to know what to do with that information either.

Finally they removed most of the ammo from the case and pushed on the foam in the case looking for "something" underneath the foam. They didn't touch the gun. My guess is they are not authorized to do that. Finally they put all the ammo back in the case and said I could go.

Why this time I wonder? It could be because I've never had this case sniffed before and I do use this gun and case a lot to test my reactive targets. Some of those tests result in prills of ammonium nitrate flying back at me (and the gun case). That rifle has been handled a lot after I was mixing up explosives. Whatever. I don't really think it was the ammo.

The other day in Seattle some nut case (literally, he was considered mentally ill) randomly attacked an innocent person and had him down on the ground before the victim was able to draw his .357 and shoot the attacker. The attacker died. The Seattle Times now has an article about concealed carry permits. It's neutral. Very factual. Here are a couple facts I didn't know but have wondered about:

Statewide, there are about 239,000 active concealed-pistol licenses. King County has slightly more than 48,000, Forth said.

The only thing that could be considered negative in the article is that they say there isn't any requirement for training to get a CPL. But they mention an instructor and quote him extensively on what his class covers:

Although Washington's law on concealed weapons is fairly detailed, it doesn't cover the responsibilities and potential liabilities that could come with using a gun for self-defense, said Paul Nickle, an instructor at Wade's Eastside Guns and Indoor Range in Bellevue. He teaches a course called "Legal Aspects of Armed Self Defense."

Whether a shooting qualifies legally as self-defense depends on the ability of and opportunity for the attacker to do the potential victim harm and whether the person threatened is in jeopardy, Nickle said. "But it's not just the legal requirements [of shooting a person] that gun owners have to consider," he said. "It's the repercussions — legally, financially, emotionally.

"The first question I'm often asked in class is, 'When is it OK to shoot?' I tell them the question should be, 'How can I avoid having to shoot?' "

Nickle said his students — some new gun owners, some seasoned — often don't realize that just because they might be in the right legally if they shoot in self-defense, they could end up being liable in civil court. His class is designed to fill in some of the gaps in the state's law on self-defense.

"The law is still very gray when it comes to using deadly force," Nickle said. "You have to ask yourself if you can live with the consequences if you do shoot."

I know Paul. He attended Boomershoot 2001:

Paul Nickle and Joe Huffman at Boomershoot 2001

The article even has links to the CPL application and other links to useful information for gun owners. And most of all I love the title of the article: "State's concealed-weapons law among nation's most liberal." They use the word "liberal" in the classic sense.

If you know who Ms. Rand is (Legislative Director, Violence Policy Center) you know what she is going to say if she gets space for two or more words, "Ban guns". In a letter to USA Today today she does not disappoint:

The fact is that such mass shootings are preventable, but the United States lacks the will to do what needs to be done: Ban handguns and semiautomatic assault weapons, and regulate the gun industry to control the firepower available to civilians.

I responded with my own comment:

M. Kristen Rand advocates banning some firearms. She gives the U.K. as an example. Apparently she has not looked at the violent crime rate before and after their ban. I just have Just One Question (http://blog.joehuffman.org/2004/12/15/Just+One+Question.aspx) for Ms. Rand: 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?

It's a pleasant thought to believe you can pass a law against something and that something will no longer exist. But it didn't work with laws against recreational drug, laws against guns near schools, and laws against murder. The only thing a law banning firearms will do is disarm the victims. World history is full of such examples and the associated tragedies. The Amish school shooting is only one of the most recent examples.

No, I didn't get into the bigot and "gun nigger" aspects of my recent proposal. It would not have been appropriate for this venue. However, I did have the "state of mind" I proposed. Go on the offensive. Make them justify their bigotry even if you don't flat out call it bigotry. We'll get there. Just keep pushing the envelope.

I believe that guns don't kill people. Husbands that come home early do.

Larry the Cable Guy
Blue Collar Comedy Tour Rides Again

I knew they shot my brother, and I thought they were gonna shoot me. I had a better chance with the police.

Nicholas Artry
(Attempted) robber of an Indianapolis jewelry store. His brother was killed by the owner (five shots from a .38) and an employee (one shot from a .44).
This came from the second posting on Wayne LaPierre's new blog.
[This quote matches well from the results of Rossi and Wright's survey described in their book Armed and Dangerous: A Survey of Felons and Their Firearms. In this book the researchers discovered that robbers are more afraid of being shot by a home owner than by being arrested and sent to prison by the police. Hence they avoid breaking into homes that might have guns.

I have the same complaints about Wayne's blog that Say Uncle does.--Joe]

It stands to reason that self-righteous, inflexible, single-minded, authoritarian true believers are politically organized. Open-minded, flexible, complex, ambiguous, anti-authoritarian people would just as soon be left to mind their own fucking business.