Jeff reported on the end result here but I also got an email from our new friends at the apex of the Triangle of Death we met in Reno who helped make it happen:

Based on our discussion at the GBR, I thought this would be of interest to you; an area detailing where NRA's efforts, and the efforts of the bloggers, have produced some movement in the area of BATFE reform.   Please cross post this to your lists so all are aware of our efforts on this front.

Thank you,
Glen
Glen Caroline, Director
NRA-ILA Grassroots Division
11250 Waples Mill Road
Fairfax, VA  22030

www.NRAILA.org
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Based on concerns raised by NRA, the House Appropriations Committee report on the Commerce/Justice/Science appropriations bill (H.R. 3093) includes the following language: 

"The committee has heard reports that [the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives] has pursued license revocations and denials against firearms dealers based on violations that consist largely of recordkeeping errors of various types that are unlikely to impede tracing investigations or prosecution of individuals who use firearms in crime.  The Committee encourages ATF to consider lesser gradation of sanctions for recordkeeping errors."

This is a continuation of NRA's longstanding efforts to reform the BATFE, and to ensure that any penalties administered by BATFE against FFLs appropriately fit the transgression and that BATFE does not abuse its authority.  Last spring, NRA-ILA secured passage in the U.S. House of H.R. 5092 (http://www.nraila.org//News/Read/NewsReleases.aspx?ID=8224 <http://www.nraila.org/News/Read/NewsReleases.aspx?ID=8224> ), a bill that included many reforms to the process by which BATFE punishes violations of federal law and regulations (more information on bill here: http://www.nraila.org//Issues/FactSheets/Read.aspx?ID=205 <http://www.nraila.org/Issues/FactSheets/Read.aspx?ID=205> ). These reforms would have provided a fairer process for FFLs accused of violations.  Passage of the bill followed on the heels of House hearings (also prompted by NRA's efforts) on BATFE abuses with respect to FFL enforcement and gun show operations. Unfortunately, the Senate failed to consider the bill before adjourning for the year. 

Others in the pro-gun grassroots community have reported on this issue, including Ryan Horsley of Red's Trading Post, and numerous other bloggers.  Working together, it is our hope that we can continue our mutual efforts to reform BATFE once and for all to reduce and eliminate unjust harassment of legitimate gun dealers.

Via Phil we discover there is a species that has recently been pushed to the edge of extinction in the U.S. and Europe. It has come as a bit of a surprise to officials on both continents. They are comparing it to the Giant Panda and the house sparrow:

"When the bamboo forests that the Giant Panda lives in were cut down, the bear became threatened with extinction."

...

"We learned this lesson with the house sparrow. Twenty years ago we thought, 'why bother to get one?' since they're so common," he said.

"Next thing you know, the sparrow was on the threatened species list and they're almost impossible to find in the Netherlands."

Yet despite clear evidence it's because of the reduction in their habitat I haven't seen anything in the news or heard of any proposed legislation to protect this endangered species. I can't imagine it would be difficult for the species to recover and save it for future generations. It would require some enforcement to make sure their habitat was restored but I'm sure millions of people would accept the job of habitat inspector even at minimum wage. I'll bet some people would even pay to have a job like that.

I don't know for certain but I have to wonder if the reason for avoidance of the issue is because it's primarily women that are destroying the necessary old growth vital to the survival of the species. If so, I don't want to hear how women are more caring and how the planet would be better if women were in charge. Of course women, as is typical, will probably blame it on men anyway:

Did the ‘Brazilian’ kill the pubic louse? [section P134]

The drop in pubic lice in women was around 2000 and coincided with the introduction of new trends in pubic hair removal.

Sharp as a Marble has a link to where a prosecutor talks about the D.C. ban on firearms being a good thing because:

The statute was also a mechanism for locking up individuals perceived as violent, but against whom other cases could not be brought for whatever reason.

This sort of thing happens all the time. I know that a certain county sheriff in Idaho broke up a car theft ring and was unable to find anything on the person they thought was the leader of the group other than the unregistered machine gun they found in his home.*

It's just another tool in their toolbox. The same thing with the income tax. The feds sent Al Capone to prison on income tax evasion rather than murder and bootlegging which were almost for certain the more appropriate charges.

I fully understand the temptation and desire for such tools. I'm sure there are many instances where law enforcement and prosecutors are completely and totally convinced the suspect is guilty but the witnesses are too scared to testify, someone messed up preserving the evidence, or some such thing. But having such tools available leads to their wrongful use. Whose perception that an individual is violent can be trusted? The potential for racism alone is reason enough to avoid giving these tools to prosecutors.

Ayn Rand nailed it:

The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws.

And don't forget Huffman's rule of firearms law:

Firearms law are so complex, victimless, and nonsensical that almost every firearms owner breaks multiple laws without knowing it. A general rule to compute the earned prison time for crimes committed is to multiply the number of years of activity in the shooting sports by five.

A landlord of mine once had a girlfriend that was an interning law student at a Federal prosecutor's office. I mentioned something about the changes in Federal law regarding explosives and how previously manufacture and use within the borders of a single state were outside the domain of the Feds but SEA claimed to change that. I thought that as a law student she would recognize the interstate commerce clause was the basis for the Feds being able to even talk about the regulation of explosives. Intrastate activity is supposedly beyond the reach of the Feds. But she was almost giddy about the changes because the new law would "invalidate tons of legal precedent". As a future Federal prosecutor she had just been given a whole bunch of new tools and she was eager to use them. I dropped the subject.

I regard this abuse of power as one of the most obvious symptoms of a deficiency in our constitution. There is no explicit means for punishment of members of our government who pass or enforce laws that violate the constitution. There is a law that says they can't legally do that in certain cases, 18 USC 242, but who enforces it? Federal prosecutors. But you can't expect them to enforce it upon themselves. It just isn't going to happen. There needs to be a much more general provision enforceable by some other means. The "Second Amendment reset" is just too drastic for the situation at hand.

* The Feds refused to prosecute. I suspect this decision may have been influenced by some previous "history" between Idaho and the Feds. This wasn't too long after Randy Weaver and Kevin Harris were found not-guilty of nearly all the charges against them and there were some instances where several Idaho counties were threatening and/or actually were (Lon Horichi is just one example) prosecuting some Federal employees of various types.

We are not paying money to gather in a peaceful assembly. If they don't want us there, they should vote Riverdale gun-free.

Rev. Michael Pfleger
October 27, 2007
With no permit, activists rally at gun shop again
[How ironic. Invoking the First Amendment while trying to destroy the Second Amendment. As a side note--the articles states the criminal trespass charges against Pfleger and Jackson from last June were dropped this month.--Joe]

Uncle asks, "But, you know, who can’t watch chicks in bikinis firing belt fed machine guns?"

Well, if you must ask... most women probably find that very offensive.

I find it (yeah, I know, I'm weird) a little annoying. Guns and nearly naked women just don't go together for me. These women don't really know what they are doing with the guns. They get so few rounds on target and so many in the dirt that I find it irritating.

I could go for some of the groupies (there are some hints of this phenomena at times) at Boomershoot to show their appreciation after the show but not as a part of it. For some reason the simultaneous combination of sex and guns just leaves me a little bit cold.

That doesn't mean I don't realize there is a fairly large segment of the male (and some female) population that finds the combination very stimulating. I just don't get it on the emotional level and I fear it hurts our cause with the majority of women.

I tried to post this as a comment to Kevin's post but it was automatically rejected with the explanation of having too many links. No matter, I was going to make a post out of it anyway. I'll provide a link to here from Kevin's comment section. I won't object to comments here but please consider whether the comment really should go on Kevin's blog.

Bilgeman wrote:

I ask you...what would you say of the manufacturers of crematoria, the producers of Zyklon-B, and the merchants of barbed wire who actively sought, and jealously protected, their government contracts with the 3^rd Reich?

To a lesser degree businesses that sell to many government entities in the U.S. today are no different. But Barrett rifles and others have refused to do business with certain government organizations because of the laws that infringe on the civil rights of the people.

What I would say to those businesses is that I understand their reluctance to refuse to participate (in part, I was fired from my job because of this). I also read Hitler's Willing Executioners and understand how an entire culture can go "sour" and make it difficult for people/business to stand up to the thugs in power. How many individuals/businesses refuse to sell products that aid in the war on some drugs? Or bite their tongue even though they know the war on people that smoke cigarettes is morally wrong but personally convenient? It’s very difficult to draw a line and say, “This is the limit, I will tolerate this, and beyond that I will cease to be a part of it or even actively fight it.” And it is very, very difficult to find and adhere to the line drawn beyond which you will disobey the law and endure the threat of government violence against you and/or your family. It is because of this that I wrote my essay on Civil Disobedience (see also this effort of mine).

I wrote my essay before I became a NRA certified firearms instructor in personal protection and was only a little surprised we were told to teach the importance of setting a limit and knowing what action you will take if that limit is crossed. This “drawing of the line in the sand” is very, very important. One instructor put it to me this way, “It’s far more important to know when to draw than how fast you can draw.” This lesson is applicable to far more things that most people know. Understanding this could eliminate all the “frog in the boiling water” scenarios. Governments grow out of control because people haven’t set a limit and said, “If these conditions are violated then the system has crashed and it’s time to press the reset button.” In a somewhat obscure way our Bill of Rights is such a line in the sand but the critical second portion of the rule wasn't put in place. That second portion is what action you will take if that limit is crossed. If I could go back in time to the time of the writing of our constitution and influence it's development I would insist provisions for this second portion was just as critical as enumerated powers and guarantees of rights.

This lesson is something I believe should be taught in our schools. And it’s not just because of the personal protection and “out of control government” issues. "Knowing when to hold them and when to fold them” is another way to say the same thing and perhaps enables people to see far more applications of this vital tool. The more widespread the application of this lesson the more likely it will be applied in the more difficult situations.

Draw your lines in the sand early when you have the time and a cool head. Your life or even the lives of millions may depend on it.

The odds of my politicians destroying me depend precisely on whether or not my cabinet is stuffed with guns. It is very hard to impose their will on me by force when I have the means to resist by the same means. Every single totalitarian government and dictator throughout history without exception has only managed to acquire and hold their power by first disarming their subjects. Every. Single. One.

The Armed Canadian
October 23, 2007
#6 - On "Assault Weapons" and Control
[Other than a reference to a U.S. gun control law a link to one of my posts was the only other reference. I am honored--this post, while long, is profound. This blog is so new that the link to my blog didn't show up on my radar. Ry sent me the link and I just now got around to reading the whole post. Thanks Ry and Armed Canadian.--Joe]

I don't read as many blogs as a lot of other people do so I can't say he is the best philosopher on guns and freedom. I can only say he is by far the best philosopher of the bloggers I have read. This post is what made that concept gel for me.

Kevin Baker at the 2007 Gun Blogger Rendezvous--probably thinking about his next post. Larry Weeks from Brownell's is in the foreground.

Once it is understood that gun control does not reduce crime, accidents, or suicide, it is easier to accept the philosophical core of the gun rights movement which states that even if gun control laws actually did reduce crime, they would still not be justified and should be opposed. Defense of oneself and ones family is a sacred right and it may not be discarded in the name of crime control. If rights could be so easily dismissed, then we know we could dramatically reduce crime tomorrow by simply ignoring Constitutional protections against unreasonable search and seizure and doing away with habeas corpus, and due process. But no amount of crime reduction can justify revoking fundamental rights.

Every gun owner needs to clearly understand these truths and effectively share them with everyone they know or we will continue to see our rights gradually but inevitably turned into privileges.

Jeff Knox
October 10, 2007
Back to Basics
[There is another philosophical principle in his post that important to understand too. A license to carry a concealed weapon converts a right into a privilege and we need to consider the recent progress we have made in concealed carry laws as merely a step on a muddy path. The path may have been the best and perhaps only way to get where we wanted to be but we did get soiled by walking in the mud. We must quickly traverse this path before the mud turns to concrete around our feet.--Joe]

The Supreme Court will consider two petitions growing out of the Second Amendment dispute over a District of Columbia ban on private possession of handguns at its Conference on Nov. 9, according to the Court’s electronic docket on Wednesday.

The two cases are the city’s appeal — District of Columbia v. Heller (07-290) — challenging a D.C. Circuit Court ruling last March striking down the handgun ban under the Second Amendment, and a cross-petition by five city residents — Parker v. District of Columbia (07-335) — seeking to join in the case to add their own legal complaints about the city gun control law.

Because the two sides have framed the Second Amendment question in different ways in their papers in 07-290, it is conceivable that, should the Court grant review, it might choose to rephrase the issue itself.

The earliest that an order on the fate of the two cases would emerge is probably Tuesday, Nov. 13.  The case, if granted, would probably be heard in February or March.

Lyle Denniston
Reporter, SCOTUSblog
Justices to consider gun case Nov. 9
October 24, 2007, 12:04 PM
[Interesting. If the two cases are combined does this mean the decision might be much broader than we have sometimes speculated? If so then even more interesting times are ahead of us no matter which way the ruling goes.--Joe]

Later, I spent several years touring the world, often in places where atrocity had recently been, or still was being, committed. In Central America, I witnessed civil war fought between guerrilla groups intent on imposing totalitarian tyranny on their societies, opposed by armies that didn't scruple to resort to massacre. In Equatorial Guinea, the current dictator was the nephew and henchman of the last dictator, who had killed or driven into exile a third of the population, executing every last person who wore glasses or possessed a page of printed matter for being a disaffected or potentially disaffected intellectual. In Liberia, I visited a church in which more than 600 people had taken refuge and been slaughtered, possibly by the president himself (soon to be videotaped being tortured to death). The outlines of the bodies were still visible on the dried blood on the floor, and the long mound of the mass grave began only a few yards from the entrance. In North Korea I saw the acme of tyranny, millions of people in terrorized, abject obeisance to a personality cult whose object, the Great Leader Kim Il Sung, made the Sun King look like the personification of modesty.

Theodore Dalrymple
Autumn 2004
The Frivolity of Evil
[Never forget why we fight to defend our right to keep and bear arms.--Joe]

I managed to drag Barbara to the Gun Blogger Rendezvous this year. It was on the condition that I didn't totally ignore her and I found time to do things with her.

We arrived at Circus Circus very late on Thursday evening and went to bed (to sleep). We had breakfast with the others the next morning then went on a walk while most of the other people went to play poker or various other games. We picked up Sebastian and Rob on our way out the door and went looking for the "River Walk" which Barb assured us would be more interesting than downtown Reno.

Barb, Sebastian, Rob

She was absolutely correct. It was much more "interesting" along the river than it was downtown or in the casino.

After walking for an hour or so we wandered back to Circus Circus in time to clean up and attend the Friday afternoon conference with the Apex of The Triangle of Death (the NRA).

Most everyone was there but I didn't take pictures of everyone and not all of the pictures turned out well.

Uncle made my ears smile with his Tennessee accent.

DirtCrashr and JimmyB

Sebastian

US Citizen (foreground), Uncle (background), and Glen Caroline from the Apex of the Triangle of Death

Rob (his back anyway), Mel and Chris, and Ashley Varner from the Apex of the Triangle of Death

I loved the part where Ashley told of going to television studios to debate some bigot from the Brady Bunch or the VPC and seeing their response when they first lay eyes on her and thinking, "I have to debate you?" For some reason Ashley doesn't fit the stereotypical image the bigots want to paint of the NRA.

Uncle saw me taking pictures and motioned me over. He wanted an ATF picture:

Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms

After getting our wheelbarrows full of cash and marching orders from the Apex of The Triangle of Death we had a little show and tell.

Uncle talking about the Ko-Tonics 6.8SPC upper

DirtCrashr and his toys

Mr. Completely with Sebastian in the background

After dinner Sebastian borrowed one of my knives and attacked the package of 6.8 SPC ammo. For a while we thought the package was going to win:

But Sebastian finally figured out the secret weapon being used against him--the package had staples which were nearly immune to my knife. He then engaged his superior intellect and defeated the wily package.

There were multiple simultaneous conversations all evening long and I constantly felt like I was missing out on something because I couldn't listen to all of them at once. The conversation continued until after midnight when, as we were headed for our rooms, Sebastian, Mr. Completely, and I witnessed hotel security go irrational on Chris. Another security guard came along and "suggested" the wacko go find something else to do. Thus Chris escaped without having to fill out a bunch of paperwork for leaving someone else's body parts littering the elevator lobby on the third floor.

Except for the last few minutes of the day it was very, very enjoyable.

Someday soon I'll post on the exterior ballistics of Saturday at GBR 2007.

Last week James just had to show me a new XBox 360 game he had been playing. He insisted I play it. It was probably painful for him to watch me. Things that he took for granted, like being able to move in a coordinated manner, were difficult for me. But he did have a point. This is a very cool game. It was more like solving puzzles than what you usually think of as video games. It was rather mind bending in a lot of ways. Imagine you have a tool, sort of like a gun, that can create a portal between any two surfaces you can see no matter how far apart or their orientation to each other. Now what can you do with it? It's a great game.

Spoofing that game concept we have this video:

I stumbled upon a link while (mostly) lurking in the comments of Kevin's post.

I may have read it sometime before. I seem to recall the name of the author, Theodore Dalrymple, and certain passages invoke a vague Deja Vu. If I have read it before and forgotten there is a good reason for it. It is very dark and invokes a mood of hopelessness in me. But it is a brutal reminder of why I fight to preserve the right to keep and bear arms and to oppose socialism in all it's forms. And I thought Uncle had experienced sufficient contact with evil to adequately remind of this.

Read The Frivolity of Evil at the risk of losing your own mental well being. But vigorously insist that people that oppose freedom, who insist on victim disarmament or have even a hint of Marxism in their political leanings read it.

I won't sleep well tonight, but I thank you Ed "What the" Heckman and Theodore Dalrymple.

Fellow blogger here at The View From North Central Idaho, Lyle @ UltiMak, took Thursday off from work to drive to the Seattle area to spend three very long days becoming a NRA (apex of the Triangle of Death) certified firearms instructor. Not only is he a trained killer he is now a certified trainer of killers--to hear what the Brady Bunch and others think of us.

I thought maybe he would mention it after he recovered from his grueling four day weekend (one day of travel then three days of instruction) but since he hasn't I'll at least bring up the topic. Maybe Lyle will elaborate on it later.

He didn't return home back in eastern Washington until well after midnight early Monday morning. You have to admire that level of commitment of time and money. And you know it wasn't so he could teach people how to kill. It was so he could instruct people in Personal Protection.

Via email from Stephanie.

I like the part where the scientists who have supposedly been "paid off" are lamenting about not receiving their wheelbarrows full of cash. It's the same story as us gun bloggers not getting our payoff from the NRA.

It's telling when someone thinks its money that is the reason someone is opposed to a viewpoint. This is a strong indicator the proponent of the viewpoint is a Marxist. Evidence and logic appear to be irrelevant to these types hence they must resort to some other explanation for people to be opposed to them. Money, the root of all evil, must therefore be the reason.

Marxism has killed and impoverished more people than any other political philosophy yet they keep trying. "Global warming" is just one more tool in their bag of tricks to try and destroy capitalism. It may not be the conscious motive for the masses but I'm certain the people at the top know it's nothing more than a scam to propel them to power. It's simply not possible for them to not know the facts if they put any serious effort into researching it.

Dave has a picture of Boomershoot 2007 cleanup. Boomershoot is a difficult thing to capture. The cleanup in particularly tough. The video is good but even ignoring the inability to capture the true dynamic range of the audio there is so much going on that it doesn't capture the visuals all the well either. Dave's picture helps get nonparticipants a little bit closer to understanding what it is like to be there.

Because there's no way in hell the two of you together can take Allen, if you give him the slightest chance.

I'm serious, Russell. Trust me on this, all right? Backshoot him, the second your sights bear, or I promise he will kill you for days. Longer days than you can possibly imagine.

Zudie, a character in Very Bad Deaths, page 175, by Spider Robinson
[It's possible one can imagine taking the law into your own hands. Robinson sets up a situation. In this case a telepath gets knowledge of a brutal murder about to occur. It's a true vigilante justice situation. It's a good story.--Joe]

Uncle is correct in saying "feeling threatened by an empty holster is beyond silly". Bigoted is the word I would use. The same as if people felt threatened by blacks wanting to use the same drinking fountains. Perhaps even more so.

Our analysis of the current stalemate in the national debate over gun control has led the Ed Fund to believe that activists must challenge the idea that guns protect freedom and democracy. We have begun to fuel a debate among academics, journalists, progressive leaders, and the general public over the relationship between guns and the values that define us as Americans. By demonstrating how the "insurrectionist" philosophy of the National Rifle Association has helped to build and sustain the conservative movement, the Ed Fund hopes to drive a wedge between the highly partisan and ideologically extreme leaders of gun rights organizations and moderate gun owners, as well as the non-gun owning public. We believe this strategy will give policy makers the best chance of enacting sound, progressive gun laws at the federal and state level that will ultimately save lives.

Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence
Objectives for Fiscal Year Beginning 01/01/2007
[They are correct about driving wedges but not about saving lives via their wedges. They need to answer Just One Question and reevaluate their objectives.--Joe]

Thoreau said, "That government is best which governs least".

Kevin explains in greater detail.

One of the ways the KKK and Aryan Nations were defeated was by driving them into bankruptcy. It appears we are doing the same thing to the anti-gun organizations.

The following are some numbers from some of the non-profit anti-gun organizations. There are other organizations but these appear to be the largest and oldest. My entire spreadsheet is here (.XLS Office Excel format). I obtained the numbers from the IRS filings I found here. The 1998 numbers were not available for Brady and the VPC. I used 1997 numbers instead. All numbers are in dollars.

Their revenue has been falling and they have reduced expenditures some but the net asset numbers have crashed. This is great news for us and partially explains why the politicians are paying attention to the NRA. The NRA and other pro gun organizations numbers are increasing (analysis some other day).

Total Revenue

Expenses

Net Assets

The Brady assets are 34% that of their peak in 1999.

The VPC and Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence (EFSGV) assests are currently so small it's tough to see them on the graph and most individuals have a greater net worth.

The VPC as of the end of 2005 was down to $98,162 This is 11% of their peak in 2002.

The EFSGV as of the end of 2005 was down to $30,624. This is 8% of their peak in 2003.

We need to keep the pressure on and drive them completely out of business. If we could only use some sort of lawsuit such as what the Southern Law Poverty Center did to some other bigoted organizations. Organized bigots have no place in our society.

A gun range exposes kids to a lot more than just lead dust. It also exposes them to the fascination of shooting guns.

Shooting ranges and rifle clubs have plummeted over the last several decades which used to be a "gateway" for youngsters into target shooting. From there, gun marketers hoped teens would grow into adults and become gun owners and hunters. But now the gun industry and lobby have taken more extreme measures. To rescue its declining gun market the gun lobby is desperately trying to lower the hunting age in several states to lure children into the industry's "gun and hunting culture".

The Gun Guys
October 18, 2007
Gun Range in Middle School Should Close Now, Not Wait Until 2010
[It's interesting he uses the same terminology frequently used to reference recreational drug use. Apparently in his mind firearms and recreational drugs are morally equivalent.--Joe]

Importantly, we need real financial privacy because the goods and information cost money.  When you buy or sell or communicate, money is going to change hands.  If they can track the money, they can track the trade and the communication, and we lose the privacy involved.

John Gilmore
A transcript of remarks given at the First Conference on Computers, Freedom, and Privacy, March 28, 1991
[Jews in the Attic Test again.--Joe]

It appears there will be a special Boomershoot event November 11th, 2007. This is for the benefit of a U.K. film company doing a documentary. For some background see this blog posting.

If you would like to participate send me an email. I will be charging $50.00 per shooter for this event and everyone can have their own shooting position. Depending on the weather we may not be able to get targets up on the hill and they may all be at the 375 yard tree line. We won’t know until the day of the shoot. But there will be lots of targets including fireballs to help keep us warm.

It’s not for certain yet but I estimate the chances of this happening on this day at about 75%.

While at Gun Blogger Rendezvous 2007 I received some very favorable comments about one of my concealment holsters. I was wearing blue jeans and a t-shirt and people had not noticed that I was carrying a STI 2001 Eagle 5.1 (the 5.0 is nearly identical) with a 18 round magazine.

This is the holster.

None of this is easy for someone raised to believe that the Second Amendment was the dividing line between the enlightenment and the dark ages of American culture. Yet, it is time to honestly reconsider this amendment and admit that ... here's the really hard part ... the NRA may have been right. This does not mean that Charlton Heston is the new Rosa Parks or that no restrictions can be placed on gun ownership. But it does appear that gun ownership was made a protected right by the Framers and, while we might not celebrate it, it is time that we recognize it.

Jonathan Turley
12:15 AM/ET, October 04, 2007
A liberal's lament: The NRA might be right after all
Jonathan Turley is the Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at George Washington University and a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors.
[We are winning. I hope to have some numbers and graphs ready for posting by tomorrow sometime.--Joe]

If some terrorist gets a bomb through security TSA (A Security Theater) is apparently going to tell them try again because they missed it the first time or three. But since it's coming from that liberal haven (read "logic impaired") of San Francisco it all sort of makes sense:

USA Today revealed that a Transportation Security Administration (TSA) report found screeners at SFO failed to find small bomb parts 20 percent of the time during a recent 12-month test.

SFO spokesperson, Mike McCarron, said the failure rate is unacceptable.

But McCarron said the TSA may have simply made the test too hard.

See also these news items on airport security:

• Report: U.S. screeners not catching bombs
• Airport security 'not where we need to be'
• US baggage control still lacking: report
• TSA: Turbans Don't Have to Be Removed

This last item is of particular interest because the TSA is telling everyone, "Hide your stuff here, we won't look there."

I've been harping on this for a long time and I don't see any evidence to invalidate my conclusions. It's time to consider alternatives to TSA because what we have now is just Security Theater.