I got an email from Scotty who is the current head of the Palouse Pink Pistols (Moscow-Pullman area). He is looking for someone to take over the position. Duties are:

...basically, take over the PP E-mail addy. try and organize get together and so forth. keep an eye on whats happening. pretty low energy.

I have way too much on my plate as it is and can't take on anything new. If someone wants take over for him send me an email (p3@joehuffman.org) and I'll forward it on.

Phil has a post up about the recent Supreme Court ruling on using race as a criteria for determining which school a child is to attend. The commies in the Seattle media and schools are going nuts and Phil takes them to task:

Leave the social work to the social workers. Schools are a place where instruction is supposed to happen. The only real lessons that the Seattle School District seem to favor are those of “If you’re not white or Asian you will need the government’s help or you will never succeed” and “If you are white or Asian, you’re only succeeding because of privilege” being taught in all twelve grades.

Disgusting.

This reminds me of when my son James took an honors level sociology class as a freshman in college. The first assignment was to write an essay on how the luck of his birth (white, male, upper middle class) enabled him to get into this “special” class. He wrote that it wasn’t luck. He had worked hard and gotten A’s in every class since the fourth grade. He got a “D” on that assignment. We counseled him he had three options. 1) Drop the class; 2) Suck it up and take the grade even though he knew he was right; 3) Make a big stink about it with her, and if necessary, the administration; 4) Give her what she wanted even when he knew it was flat out wrong. It was his choice to make but we would support whichever route he choose. He choose 4) and got an “A” in the class and to this day we refer to that class as the "socialism class".

Choosing to give the instructor what she wanted was probably his mother’s influence. I had numerous similar things happen when I was in grade school but usually in science and math classes. I always went with 2) or 3). I always got very high scores on standardized tests and occasionally the results were literally "off the chart" but my grades were only a little above average. Sometimes you pay a price for being right.

I feel like a school boy anticipating his first piece of tail.

Rick Butte
June 29, 2007
[Referring to his anticipation of Boomershoot 2008.--Joe]

Xenia has her own collection of pictures from the vacation and family reunion last week. She has a little different viewpoint than I did. Plus, she has better pictures.

It's happening in the U.K. and it will be happening here before long:

‘Firebomb’ car rams terminal at 30mph

The first afternoon of the Scottish school holidays meant the terminal at Glasgow airport was packed with families queuing at check-in desks.

Outside the building’s glass doors travellers waiting to be collected saw an erratically driven dark green Jeep Cherokee approach at speed. The Asian driver began to rev the engine furiously before wrenching the wheel and smashing the tough four by four vehicle directly into the terminal building.

Security bollards blocked the path of the vehicle as the driver tried to ram the main doors. The air became heavy with the stench of petrol. Driver and passenger, described as burly Asian men, leapt from the vehicle and it burst into flames.

Airport staff described the men as screaming “Allah” as the driver doused the burning vehicle with more fuel soaking himself in the process. His passenger began to smash bottles of petrol and his own clothes now ablaze the driver fell to the floor as police, passengers and airport staff reacted.

I had a discussion with someone recently who agreed "we have a problem" with Muslim extremists but disagreed on the solution. He insisted we just need to "contain" them. He also worried about Christian extremists too. Really? How should have the people in the U.K. "contained" the extremist Muslims bombers? And could someone give me a list of the video taped civilian beheadings and suicide bombings committed by "Christian extremists" in the last year? I have a number of issues worthy of discussion with "Christian extremists" but killing large numbers of innocent people isn't one of them.

We need to destroy their culture. Porn for peace!

Yesterday the Daily News ran the article they were working on about fully automatic firearms. I posted about the trip to the range with the reporter and the photographer on Thursday. The article itself is very factual and I would say unbiased--given the assignment of writing about full autos in the context of a multiple homicide. The "More restrictions or better enforcement..." part was probably put in by the editor and illustrates how you can get screwed by just one bigot in the pipeline of people the information flows through. Most of the article requires a fee to access on-line but here is the part visible for free:

Geoff Crimmins/Daily News
Joe Huffman of Moscow fires his STI Eagle semi-automatic competition pistol at a shooting range on Lenville Road south of Troy on Thursday. Huffman is a gun-rights activist and NRA certified instructor.

Fully automatic; More restrictions or better enforcement could be key to questions about weapons

Jason Hamilton was armed with a semi-automatic weapon and an automatic weapon when he went on a killing spree in Moscow in May.

When the shooting spree ended, four people were dead, three were injured and 185 bullet casings littered the parking lot of the Latah County Courthouse and the inside of the First Presbyterian Church across the street.

Despite that fact, some people say there are enough restrictions for automatic weapons to keep the firearms from being readily available and used in crimes.

Geoff Crimmins/Daily News
Joe Huffman loads ammunition into a clip for his AR-15 carbine at a shooting range south of Troy on Thursday.

Geoff Crimmins/Daily News
Joe Huffman explains how to line up the sights of a gun on a target at a shooting range south of Troy on Thursday.

It's not easy to see in the picture here, it's much more visible in the dead tree version, but there are three shell casings in the air in the first picture. One just above the chamber of my pistol, one that appears to be in front of my eyes, and one just off the point of my chin. I estimated I was firing about three rounds per second. All hit the target. Nearly all were in the A with a few in the C zone of the IPSC target. The picture shows me leaning backward a great deal and it seems the pistol has recoiled a great deal more than is actually the case. I'm certain the camera wasn't parallel to the ground and that I was actually leaning into the shots. The target was probably only about three and a half feet high at the "shoulder" instead of the typical five feet.

The loading the clip picture came about because I was fighting the battle against calling gun magazines clips. My son James says the battle is over and it is lost but I keep trying and explained the difference to Omie and Geoff. They got the caption to the picture right but I'm not sure it helped my cause any.

Some good has come about from the article already--I received an email from someone who saw the article and wondered where the range was and how to join. He will probably be showing up at the IPSC match later today with his application in hand.

Just a few short months ago, I was still caught between the walls of the positive-thought-is-all-we-need-to follow box; Now I am a gun owner, and I am positively far more capable of making sure no uninvited violence enters my home. Without the freedom to reach for a weapon of my choice, I play a less-than-active part against violence; with that freedom, I get to participate in my own life, and in those of those I love.

Colleen Lawson
June 24, 2007
Don't Call Me a Gun Lover
Via Kevin's post But I Will Call You My Ally.
[She has some things to say about Jesse Jackson too.--Joe]

Today is a good day. I got the last of the new ammonium nitrate stored away at the Taj Mahal. I even had room for one more bag:

I wasn't watching really close since I was on vacation and it will take me a little bit of effort to figure out exactly when Boomershoot 2008 filled up but it is completely full now. This is ten months before the actual event! There will be some cancellations so send me an email if you want to be put on the waiting list.

Just a few minutes ago I completed the last of the important electrical work and have verified it is all working correctly (this blog post is made from the Taj Mahal using the new power supply for the WiFi access point Boomershoot2).

There's nothing but red-necked, knuckle-dragging, Neanderthals living in Idaho. Those cretins marry their cousins, they let kids play with guns, the women are ugly, and they even play with explosives. People from places like California, Florida, and Chicago who visit should just spend their tourist dollars quickly and go home before they get shot or something. I just got back from vacation and have the photographic evidence:

Phones like this are still in active use (my parents ring is three shorts). I had to explain to the tourists how to use this one at the Powell Ranger Station.

The plants are damaged. It's probably from all the gunfire and exposives nearby.

Children with assault weapons!

More guns and kids!

Me, the Cease Fear Instructor--Gays and Queers take note.

I think this is supposed to be the state flower or something.


Just over the border into Montanna near Lolo Hot Springs

Caleb on the rocks above Lolo Hot Springs.

Caleb and Kim above Lolo Hot Springs.

Daughter Kimberly Joe at Johnsons Bar on the Selway river. This is what you get when cousins (Barb and I) have kids.

Johnsons Bar on the Selway River. White water is dangerous you know.

Caleb and Kim. Can you tell they are going to be married soon?

Nancy says the scar on her nose doesn't show nearly as much as it used to. She probably got it while in a fight with her sister Barbara over who was going to marry their cousin Joe.

Tourists from Chicago and Florida spending money.

The guide took their money and led them off into the woods. I haven't seen or heard from the tourists since.

Another example of when cousins have kids. Daughter Xenia whose expression says, "Don't bug me when I'm taking pictures."

Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.

Mahatma Gandhi
[Closely related is Erich Fromm's "There can be no real freedom without the freedom to fail.” Those that advocate gun control or claim health care is a right need to study a bit more philosophy.--Joe]

Terrorists generally select targets where they can cause most damage, inflict mass casualties or attract widespread publicity. VBIEDs can be highly destructive.

National Counter Terrorism Security Office (U.K.)
Police explosives experts prevent carnage at the Tiger Tiger Club
[Just in case you have forgotten, I gave you the minimum evacuation distances for Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Devices (VBIEDs) here. It's only a matter of time before we see them in the U.S. You should be prepared.--Joe]

I got a call a few days ago while I was away on vacation from Omie who is a a reporter at the local newspaper. She wanted to talk about class 3 firearms--full automatics in particular. I arranged to take her and her photographer, Geoff, to the range as soon as I got back. This morning we went off to the range with the closest thing I have to what she wanted--"An Evil Black Rifle".

Omie had zero experience with firearms. I didn't ask but I suspect she is doing a summer internship at the paper. She did say she was assigned the topic and that it was partially motivated by the recent courthouse shooting. Geoff's background with firearms was essentially zero as well.

We talked a little bit about the history of NFA 34 and how infrequently legally owned full-autos are used in crimes. And what my opinion of full autos are. Basically I don't have use for them because I can get more shots on target per unit time with a semi-auto than I can with a full auto. And the full-autos are so much more expensive to feed. But they are fun to shoot and I don't think they should be so heavily restricted.

We talked about the 1994 "assault weapons" ban, it's history, and the statistics related to crimes committed with those type of firearms. I told them of the definition of an "assault weapon" and that I had an example for them to shoot today.

We also talked a little about my history as a gun owner (inspired to buy my first gun by the election of Bill Clinton), as a gun rights activist, and director of Boomershoot.

After that I gave them some safety lessons and did some dry fire exercises with my STI Eagle. I didn't want them to dry fire the rim-fire gun I was going to start them with. I then started them out with my Ruger Mark II (.22LR) from about 10 feet away. They did pretty good. I could tell Omie was a little scared. The first live round caused her to jump quite a bit. Her second shot wasn't even on the paper. She then settled down some and did okay. Geoff did well even with his first shots.

After this we talked a little bit. Omie confessed she was afraid that if she held a gun she might do something terrible with it, like shoot herself. I told her about my fear of heights. When confronted with a situation where it is possible to jump off of a high cliff/building/whatever I feel an urge to do so. For years I thought there was something wrong with me for feeling this. I then found out it is a common manifestation of a fear of heights. I suspect the same thing happens with a lot of people about guns. She told us she has a similar fear of heights and seemed to agree that her reaction to firearms was similar.

I moved them to about 20 yards away and did some more dry exercises with the AR-15 before going live. Geoff was really nailing the 10 ring and I was actually rather impressed. Omie didn't do quite as well and I could see her shaking some even when she wasn't holding the gun.

Geoff with an Olympic Arms AR-15 carbine.

Omie with the Olympic Arms AR-15 carbine.

I didn't notice until after looking at the picture above that Omie was looking over her glasses through the rear site. That could explain part of why she didn't do quite as well as Geoff.

They then wanted pictures of me shooting so I emptied several magazines from my STI into an IPSC target and explained a little bit about "Practical Shooting".

I think things went well. We'll see how the article turns out.

Update: I messed up the spelling of Geoff's name. I originally had it as Jeff. If I were to change the title now it would break the link in Sebastian's post.

Update2: Sebastian says he'll fix his link so I fixed the title.

Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable... the art of the next best...

Otto von Bismark
[This is probably more true than I like to acknowledge. It also applies to engineering, as in this quip, "There comes a time to shoot the engineers and ship the product." As freedom activists we want perfection but that is seldom possible. If we want any action in our favor we probably must accept far less than our ideal. When fighting a restriction on our freedom we are sometimes better off working to make the proposed legislation less onerous than we are to fight a losing battle against a greater infringement. That is achieving what is attainable rather than what should be.--Joe]

I've known of Hillsdale College for some time, but only recently did I learn from their publication, "Imprimis" that they long ago swore off federal funding, and the restrictions that naturally come with it.  Here's a sample, but you'll want to read it all:

The thousands of young men and young women who have studied here have been taught some fundamental truths; among these is that the freedom guaranteed them as citizens of this great country is the freedom to dream and aspire without limit and the freedom to fulfill their dreams and aspirations without interference; that our country’s greatness is the result not of government benevolence but rather of individual initiative and enterprise; and that responsibility is the counterpart of independence.

We hold these views to be as valid today as they were in 1844 despite the appearance and growth of a contrary philosophy based on government paternalism.

It is our conviction that this contrary philosophy is negatory to the traditional beliefs and teachings of Hillsdale College and is to be deplored as harmful to the continued development of our country, both morally and economically.

It is therefore the decision of the Board of Trustees of Hillsdale College to reaffirm its historic independence and to resist subsidization of its affairs by the federal government. Acknowledging that the possibility of failure is a concomitant of independence, the Trustees place their trust in God and in the dedication and generosity of students, alumni and friends who share their views.

They have courage and good principles.  You have to give them that.  The feds even tried to claim rule-making jurisdiction over the college based on the fact that some of the students were taking federally guaranteed student loans (surprize, surprize).  Well, Hillsdale was having none of that, so they started their own financial aid program and today they are flourishing.  Hillsdale is apparently one of the few institutions of higher learning that does NOT serve as a socialist indoctrination center.  Imagine that.

Now I have to find out if they support concealed carry on campus.  According to packing.org, Michigan and Washington State have a reciprocity agreement.  That's a good start.

Now I have another reply for those people who have "Support our Troops, Opposed the War" bumper stickers:
"Support Education, Pull the U.S. Out NOW!"  I could go on about mistakes, quagmire, and how the Department of Education is nothing but a political tool for the empowerment of a few politicians and enrichment of the largest labor union in the world, but I won't.

Peace: In international affairs, a period of cheating between two periods of fighting.

Ambrose Bierce
The Devil's Dictionary
[I don't know if it's wisdom or just cynicism, but as I get older I'm more and more inclined to believe that fighting is the normal state of affairs in the interaction between large groups of people.--Joe]

Now that most of the months-long hype (or was it years? It seems like years) over the Durham / Nifong scandal has died down, we can discuss it here ('cause now we actually know what happened and we can't indulge it guesswork and flapjaw).

All I can say is, well, both Ann Coulter and Thomas Sowell say it far better, so I'll add just one point:

Nifong needs to hang.  Literally.  Its not because I hate him-- I've never met him.  Its because he committed the worst possible form of betrayal: Someone in the Public Trust turning Public Predator.  Someone who's sole job it was to protect Liberty & Justice turned enemy of Liberty & Justice.

I pity the fool, yet at the same time realize that if he doesn't receive the maximum possible sentence, others will more likely follow in his footsteps.  If he gets away with disbarment and saying he's sorry, we will have demonstrated that the cost of such a despicable and far-reaching crime is quite low.  We will have invited more of the same and we will get more of the same.

As much as I love Liberty, as much as I love my children and want them and every other American to live in Liberty, free to pursue their dreams of excellence, I want this pile of crap, and a few others who went along with him, to swing.  In Public.  Justice demands it, as an example to anyone who might get similar ideas, and as an example to all of us that someone believes our Liberty to be worth defending.  This society (our country of millions!) is not a toy for the cheap amusement of a few thousand public "servants".

I want to shoot the black rifle!

Jonathan Ryan
Age 9
June 26, 2007

Me giving instructions to my nephew Jonathan. Photo by my daughter Kim.

[And so he did. It was interesting to me that he came up with the name of "The Black Rifle" on his own. We were shooting lots of other firearms but the kids all seemed to like the AR-15 the best. Scott, age 18 and with lots of shooting experience, said it was the most fun to shoot gun he had ever shot. Yeah, they are pretty fun to shoot.--Joe]

It bugs me every time I hear it or see it in print, but I haven't been able to articulate it.  I will try anyway:

I do not want (nor could I ever believe it would be possible) for someone in government to "keep me  safe".  I feel all icky whenever a politician, or anyone else, but especially a politician, tries  to assure us that they're working hard to "keep us safe".  I liked Joe's title to a post on June 24th ("Help Kill Terrorists") because it more clearly and directly addresses the job at hand.

When our president, blowhard senator du jour, or DC culture kool-aid drinker talks about "public  safety" I feel a lot like I did after a middle-aged man approached me at a Spokane, WA city park  when I was around 7 years old.  He asked me if I wanted to earn five dollars.  "OK" I said,  whereupon he led me to the restrooms and asked to see my underwear.  I dashed right out of there of  course, and never forgot the lesson: Someone you should be able to trust can turn out to be a predatory scumbag who sees you as nothing more than a means to his self gratification.

So here's the deal.  I DO NOT want to be kept "safe" by my government.  Letting them try is far too dangerous.  I want my kids to feel reasonably safe, sure, and aware of their surroundings at the same time, but that is my responsibility and mine alone.  It is not the government's job to make us "safe".  It is the government's job to be there to retaliate when someone violates our rights, and to make it known that the retaliation will be sure and swift.  To value human rights is to demonstrate intolerance for human rights violations.

In the best of circumstances you are going to be exposed to many risks (some of the richest lives are full of risks) and guess what; you are still going to die.  Its what we DO WITH OUR LIVES that matters, and for that we need maximum Liberty.  Living in a padded room in solitary confinement might be considered "safe" but somehow I doubt that is what the Founders of this Republic had in mind when they wrote the Bill of Rights.

When it comes to terrorism I want one thing and one thing only--  I want the Jihadi sons of bitches to die.  That is all.  I want them, and anyone who supports them, hunted down, shot (or bombed, etc.) and left to die in the dirt.  Let their countrymen clean up the mess, too-- that's not our job.  That killing the jihadis might make a few of us more "safe" is a side benefit.  Liberty and Justice are the aim here, and they're not the same thing as safety.  They are very different, though slightly overlapping, concepts that should never be confused.

Meanwhile, I will not be trying to delude myself into believing that I am ever safe, either from the jihadi idiots, or from politicians trying to chip away at my rights for their self gratification.

I want to live in a civilized, polite society.  I do NOT want to live in a society with barriers, checkpoints, restrictions, surveillance, or some dipshit walking up to me and demanding, "papers please" no matter how "safe" a few deluded individuals might feel, and no matter how important it makes a politician or a woman in uniform feel.

So, Mister politician, lay off the talk about "safety" and start talking Liberty.  You couldn't take the danger out of life even if you genuinely tried.  I want to you to protect our Liberty, and though there may be some overlap with safety, Liberty is a very different and far more precious thing.  It is the American way, and as much as you might like to forget it, you are sworn to it.

I think the slogan for the web site, American Snipers, then, should read: "Help real snipers get the real gear they need to kill more terrorists more efficiently."  I like that.

I think people have the right to bear arms at a hunting reserve. But you're not hunting deer with semi-automatic weapons. We're going to keep protesting until America becomes more conscious of the domestic terrorism allowed by guns.

Rev. Jesse Jackson
Arrest motivates Jackson to fight for gun control
[Interesting. I've read the 2^nd Amendment many times, as well as several state constitutions. It's only been in recent years, and in just a few states, that I've seen any mention of a right to hunt. Jackson must be living in some other reality. But I suppose it could depend on his definition of "hunting reserve". If you define "hunting reserve" as all 50 states with no bag limits on government employees then he is in line with the true meaning of the 2^nd Amendment.--Joe]