The NRA should be banned as a terrorist organization. They have contributed to more deaths in the United States than any other terrorist group.

Charlie
Your Thoughts on How to Stop the Gun Lobby
Freedom State Alliance
[How ironic. The "Freedom State Alliance" endorsing the suppression of free speech, free association, and other freedoms. They have mental problems.--Joe]

In some ways the camera motion in this picture adds to the realism of the event:

There were 50 to 75 people shooting at 150 or so high explosive targets from 25 yards away. The rapid detonations at such close range gave my chest a real pounding.

It was all over within a minute or two. But then there was the fire...

Notice the burning flare just right of center in the picture above? That was one of four used to ignite the gasoline from the fireball targets.

The fire required two fire extinguishers and several gallons of water to extinguish. Even though there was no smoke or detectable hot spots two hours later I wasn't satisfied and persuaded my brother Doug to bring out the water truck and we put another 100 to 200 gallons of water on the stump and ashes. We turned the area into a muddy, ugly, soup.

Boomershoot 2007 cleanup--It was work for me but it was fun for others.

All photos are from Xenia Joy.

So however much some people might yearn for gun control, it seems unlikely that it would have prevented Cho from achieving his ends. He had substitutes available, he had more than one means available to achieve his ends, and he plotted long enough to hit upon other means — especially since those other means are described in detail on TV, in the newspapers, and on the internet every day.

Scott A. Kjar
May 2, 2007
Why Economists Tend to Oppose Gun Control Laws
[With the doors chained shut even a crude sword would have been a sufficient substitute against the victims disarmed by the bigoted politicians. And as others (Was it Ry? Or was it son James?) have pointed out, "You don't have to reload your edged weapon." A few gallons of gasoline and a book of matches would have been rather effective in that environment as well.--Joe]

I got lots of praise for Boomershoot 2007. The emails are still coming in. I also received lots of compliments received during the event. Even daughter Xenia had people come up to her and thank her for putting on the event.

It went really well. I had some great help. Scott arrived on Thursday before I did and stayed almost as long as I did on Sunday night. Tim, Ben, Sean, Rolf, Jason, Ry, Xenia, Kim, Caleb, and John also put in lots of hours to make the event great. My brothers and my parents both contributed to making the event a success too. Then there were the groupies that helped--Barb and Jennifer. They want jackets with the dates of all the events they attended.

Kim and Caleb made nearly all of the 1300 to 1400 pounds of Boomerite we used. And it was done in record time. This was in part because of what great workers they are but also because Kim came up with a great innovation in the manufacturing process. I thought I had it all optimized and was feeling pretty clever when I showed Kim how to prepare the Potassium Chlorate. About 15 minutes later she said, "Hey Dad! Watch this." Wow! I'm sure she doubled production with that little twist on things.

The fireball target that Ry built was wonderful. I just love the way that ball of fire rises up into the sky with clear air underneath it.

Gene and his crew put on the Precision Rifle Clinic and several people came up to me and told me how much they learned from taking the class and what a great value it was. One guy drove up from Arizona--mostly for the class which would have cost more to take closer to home. Which is kind of ironic because one of the instructors also drove from Arizona.

We did have a fire get a little out of control at the end of the day. No harm done. It burned an old stump and some dead branches that needed to be cleaned up anyway. We used up two fire extinguishers to put it out. Then used several gallons of water to quench the hot coals. I wasn't entirely comfortable with the end result even though I couldn't find any hot spots or smell smoke a couple hours later. I convinced my brother Doug to bring over the water truck and we put another 100 to 200 gallons of water on the burned area and turned the ashes, sticks, and dirt into a thin ugly soup.

About 900 targets were consumed in the three days. Over 700 of those were on Sunday.

And it is my claim I had the best shooting record of anyone there. I fired four shots, connecting with four boomers, using an AR-15 carbine with Wolf ammo, iron sights, and from a kneeling position.

Of course all my boomers were less than 25 yards away. Most everyone else had to shoot the majority of theirs from at least 375 yards away.

I expect I'll open up entry for Boomershoot 2008 by the end of the month. Prices will remain the same as 2007. The date will be a weekend near the end of April or the first of May. Expect it to fill up sometime in June or July of 2007.

Heavy sigh. Barb cried watching it. I felt my eyes getting moist.

Xenia's senior prom video.

I had two old computer hard drives that needed to be disposed of and James had another. I had deleted everything on mine then overwrote the free space with random data and wasn't too concerned about someone getting their hands on it. But James hard drive failed in a strange manner. He could read from it just fine but couldn't write to it. He transfered all the data to his new drive but couldn't delete the data off of the old drive. "Dad", he said, "I think this is something for you to take care of. Boomershoot is next weekend, right?"

The two cardboard boxes on the sides each contain about two pounds of Boomerite (a impact sensitive high explosive manufactured by FlashTek). The cardboard box on the top contains another pound of Boomerite. We call this stress testing.

Here I am about to initiate the stress test with a shot to the top cardboard box.

The stress test is completed in microseconds.

This is where the hard disks used to be. That is my size 14 boot for comparison purposes.

Although there are lots of smaller pieces in the crater this is the majority of the mass we were able to recover from the three hard disks.

Les Baer Custom is Illinois' garbage. Assault weapons manufacturers in Illinois are getting kicked to the curb. And for good reason.

Leah Woodward
April 30, 2007
Executive director of Iowans for the Prevention of Gun Violence
LeClaire council holds off vote on Les Baer Custom Inc.
[Bigots. Imagine the uproar if it were blacks or gays moving out of a place where the laws were hostile to them and at the proposed destination people called them garbage.--Joe]

The recent truck accident and resulting overpass collapse must have Rosie convinced that Bush has done it again, but here's the deal:

Even a C-average Jr. high school shop student knows that steel loses almost all of its strength when you heat it ('cause, you know, they actually work with the stuff).  I can't say this loud enough, but here it goes, "***The steel does not have to melt, nor will it melt in a typical structure fire, in order to fail as a support material***".

Get it cherry red hot, and its like putty, or molding clay, in consistency long before it gets hot enough to "melt".  Adding chromium and molybdenum will help reduce, but not prevent, this phenomenon, which is one reason why so many gun barrels are made of chrome/moly steel.

No matter; every account I've heard to date in reference to WTC, and this latest event in Caleeforn-ya, has used the word "melt" or "melted" to refer to the resulting structural failures, displaying in sharp relief the monumental ignorance of not just the average journalist, but every last one of them.

And not a single one of any import, it would seem, bothered to look up the properties of various steels at various temperatures on that there internet thingy, presumably because it would have taken a whopping fifteen minutes of one assistant's time.  Looking up facts is not in their job description, apparently, nor in Rosie O's.  Facts get in the way of so many things...

On a related note:  After hearing of the scope of the recent lorry crackup in California, "Republican" Gov., Arnold Schwartzenblather, who ran his campaign using conservative-sounding rhetoric, made the following statement in his response: "Everyone is going to get a free ride." (And he meant it)

That is a perfect example of why the Republican Party does not now own the House, the Senate and the Whitehouse for the rest of the foreseeable future-- they just cannot grasp the concept of Liberty, but instead merely talk about it as part of their shtick, offering themselves as the less socialist socialists in the big, socialist bag of nuts.

America wasn't founded so that we could all be better.  America was founded so we could all be anything we damn well pleased.

P.J. O'Rourke

If you going to do something you might as well overdo it.

Ry Jones
April 29, 2007
[That works on so many levels for Ry. This time it was in reference to his construction of the fireball target for Boomershoot 2007. It worked well. It was also more "entertainingly close" that I and some of the audience really wanted. None of the injuries broke the skin or required medical attention. See also Ry's blog post.--Joe]

Do you guys think that was even remotely funny?

Good!

That indicates you have at least a tenuous grasp on reality.

Sean Flynn
April 28, 2007
[I think maybe Rolf's and Tim's puns were a little over the top at the time. But when you've been making explosives for hours a little release of tension is required now and then.--Joe]

Today we started making the targets. It started with Scott, Barb, and I setting up the canopy, table, and other stuff. Barb brought Ben and Tim over then a little later when daughter Kim showed up Barb brought her over too. Together we built hundreds of targets. The worst thing that happened so far is that I printed some of the labels on the wrong side of the paper. Other than that everything has been going great. Gene Econ put on his Precision Rifle Clinic today finishing up with the consumption of 40 4" targets and 20 7" targets. The only ones that didn't detonate were the ones they didn't hit or a couple that were just nicked and the contents drained out.

Things are going very well so far. The weather today was great and the forecast is looking great for both percipitation and wind--actuallly the lack of both.

My cousin Julia from Santa Barbara showed up to visit for a while. She had lunch with us onsite and then hung around watching us build targets for a while before going on to visit my parents and brothers. Not the typical thing you experience when visiting your cousin. But then she did a little boomershooting of her own a few years ago.

Who would have thought? British targets.

Rolf Nelson
April 27, 2007
[At the time Rolf and Sean were putting lime in the targets to be used at Boomershoot on Sunday. With Rolf the puns materialize at about the rate of one a minute for every waking minute you are around him. At least he shares that many. It could be he only shares a fraction of the ones he comes up with. Whatever the case, Rolf comes up with more puns per unit time than anyone else I know by at least a couple orders of magnitude. The lime is to reduce the acidity of the soil to help control the lead from the bullets. It also make a more visual display as it is scattered by the explosion.--Joe]

Sean and Rolf helping make the "boomers" today.

Joe Huffman’s Boomershoot! 2007 is upon us — this weekend, in fact. This is a terrific, exciting event Joe puts on each year in Idaho. Be there or be square.

Jeff Soyer
April 26, 2007
Boomershoot!
[Technically it's the Lewiston Pistol Club's Boomershoot but if I got tired of doing it no one else would take it over. So, in a practical sense it is my event. Also of possible interest is that I'm sitting on the shooting berm at position 41 looking down range at the wind flags and steel set up for the Precision Rifle Clinic tomorrow and Saturday. Yes, free WiFi at Boomershoot.--Joe]

I'm back in Idaho early. Tomorrow I go on site and begin preparing. The weather forecast is great. The toilets are already on site. The helpers have all confirmed (with one in Orofino already).

It's going to be a great event. Spectators are welcome.

Directions are here.

Try firing a Lefty Prof for advocating socialist revolution, then sit back and listen to all the claims of violating civil rights, our precious academic freedoms being squashed, etc., etc..

Professor fired over class discussion of shootings.

This time however, you have a professor discussing a current event, with apparent overtones of support for the Bill of Rights.  So he gets fired (what "obscene epithet" was used is not made at all clear).

There's no real news here, in that most of you would have accurately predicted the outcome.

My question is; How is this going to be turned around?

My answer is; As soon as we get government out of the education business (you think that if people had a choice in the matter, they'd choose to fund this sort of bilge?)

And yet there is no apparent movement in the direction of a free market in education.  Why?  Will anyone, when pressed, actually stand up and proclaim that they believe a socialist institution will outperform a free market-- that a coercively funded, compulsory institution will find better and more efficient ways to serve the public than a free and unfettered marketplace defined by competition and choice?

Any takers on that one?  Hmmm?   Tell us how Marx, Lenin, Stalin and Mao had it all figured out, and how Jefferson, Washington and Franklin were a bunch of idiots!  Get it all off your chest!  This is your moment!  Stand up and make yourselves proud!  Include full details.

Update:  Yeah, I know.  It is defined as a Catholic Liberal Arts School.  Still--don't tell me this sort of thing would be at all common in a free market.

They have a "Campus Preparedness Committee " there.  One wonders what they do there for preparation.