The truth is, regardless of how many pointy tools and shampoo bottles we confiscate, there shall remain an unlimited number of ways to smuggle dangerous items onto a plane. The precise shape, form and substance of those items is irrelevant. We are not fighting materials, we are fighting the imagination and cleverness of the would-be saboteur.

Thus, what most people fail to grasp is that the nuts and bolts of keeping terrorists away from planes is not really the job of airport security at all. Rather, it’s the job of government agencies and law enforcement. It’s not very glamorous, but the grunt work of hunting down terrorists takes place far off stage, relying on the diligent work of cops, spies and intelligence officers. Air crimes need to be stopped at the planning stages. By the time a terrorist gets to the airport, chances are it’s too late.

Patrick Smith
December 28, 2007
The Airport Security Follies
[As near as I can tell the only people that argue for the continued existence or claim effectiveness of the TSA are the people of the TSA. It's not that the people of the TSA are necessarily stupid or incompetent, its that it is an unsolvable problem. It's time we considered alternatives.--Joe]

As reported earlier (and here and here) H.R. 4900 makes some reforms in the ATF regulations and Federal firearms laws. The text of the bill is now available on-line here. It's all NRA-ILA said it was and more. Alas, it doesn't do anything of interest to me in terms of explosives, but I'm very happy with what it does in regards to firearms.

The following item was reported by NRA-ILA but was lacking in detail and should be of interest to a great number of people.

SEC. 210. CLARIFICATIONS RELATING TO MANUFACTURING OF FIREARMS.

(a) Clarification of Definition of Manufacturing- Section 921(a)(10) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following: `The term `manufacturing' shall not include repairing firearms, making or fitting special barrels, stocks, trigger mechanisms, or other parts to firearms, or engraving or otherwise altering the appearance of firearms.'.

(b) Clarification of Definition of Dealer- Section 921(a)(11)(B) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by striking `or trigger mechanisms to firearms' and inserting `trigger mechanisms, or other parts to firearms, or engraving or otherwise altering the appearance of firearms'.

Striking, adding, and inserting in the original as described in the bill we end up with:

(10) The term "manufacturer" means any person engaged in the business of manufacturing firearms or ammunition for purposes of sale or distribution; and the term "licensed manufacturer" means any such person licensed under the provisions of this chapter. The term `manufacturing' shall not include repairing firearms, making or fitting special barrels, stocks, trigger mechanisms, or other parts to firearms, or engraving or otherwise altering the appearance of firearms.

(11) The term "dealer" means (A) any person engaged in the business of selling firearms at wholesale or retail, (B) any person engaged in the business of repairing firearms or of making or fitting special barrels, stocks, trigger mechanisms, or other parts to firearms, or engraving or otherwise altering the appearance of firearms, or (C) any person who is a pawnbroker. The term "licensed dealer" means any dealer who is licensed under the provisions of this chapter.

Hence gunsmiths need to have a dealers license but not a manufactures license. This is an improvement. But on the downside it means that you need to be careful if you charge a friend for helping him mount a scope on his hunting rifle or give her AR-15 a pink paint job. Conceivable you could be considered to be "in the business" and need a dealers license. This is not the case under current law as I understand it (I am not a lawyer!).

I have to wonder why the Feds should have any interest at all in "engraving or otherwise altering the appearance of firearms". I think the entire section (B) should be removed but if that is impractical then at least the engraving and appearance should be removed.

Assuming we win the Heller case then if some bigot claims the functions of the ATF in regards to firearms and explosives are reasonable restrictions then shouldn't we be justified in demanding for the creation of a government agency devoted to the "reasonable restrictions" of speech and religion?

I have this friend whose little brother is a vegetarian except for hamburgers and tacos. I'm that way except with Pandas.

Xenia Huffman-Scott
December 22, 2007
[If I explained it then it wouldn't be nearly as funny.--Joe]

Just a few of the stories that came out this year.

From Sitemeter, "can a fingerprint be recovered from a fired shell casing"? My guess is yes, at least under some circumstances. DNA from the oils left behind should be possible too.

The more interesting question is, "Who's asking?" Is it someone on the criminal side or on the law enforcement side?

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I don't know if was the reporter or the ATF agent. But it was probably one of them that has a decimal point out of place or has much more valuable AKs that I have ever heard of:

Agents said Thursday they found the 42 weapons in a storage locker about 10 days ago. There guns were worth $250,000 in all: Belgian-made "FN" handguns, semiautomatic AK rifles and other pistols. They also found four olive boxes loaded with 50-caliber bullets—ammunition that's big enough to take out an airplane.

"These are, quite frankly, weapons of war," ATF special agent Tom Mangan said as he picked up an assault rifle and examined it.

"The type of fire power you're seeing here is on the increase," he said. "You're seeing sophisticated weapons, military weapons, assault type weapons, assault pistols, very expensive pistols."

ATF officials said gun runners typically gather large caches of weapons anonymously through "straw" purchases. They might give someone $100 to go into a gun show or a Wal-Mart and buy a few rifles at a time. They might buy guns over the Internet.

Any idea what an "olive box" is? Ignoring that--the 42 weapons figures out to nearly $6,000 per firearm. Could it be someone was that sloppy with the numbers? Or was it something else? If it were just the numbers I would give someone a pass for making a careless mistake. But the ATF agent is exaggerating with the other stuff too. It makes me suspicious. Mr. Mangan sure gets his name in the news frequently.

Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.

Milton Friedman
[Liberals/"progressives" take note. I want to scream this in their faces, I want to pound it into their heads with a clue by four, but I know it wouldn't matter. They just don't seem to get it.--Joe]

I believe today that I am acting in the sense of the Almighty Creator.  By warding off the Jews I am fighting for the Lord's work.

Adolf Hitler
Speech before the Reichstag, 1936.
[Tam's post from yesterday reminded me of this. Uncle made part of her post his QOTD. Read both posts and the comments.--Joe]

The fact that it is legal does not make it moral. Jim Crow was legal, but it was not moral. Denying women the right to vote was legal, but it was not moral. Denying workers the right to organize was legal, but not moral.

Rev. Jesse Jackson
President of Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
July 12, 2007
Anti-gun activists building momentum
[This is from the same article as the QOTD from yesterday where Father Michael Pfleger used this same theme to push for more restrictions on gun owners. Another thing that strikes me about this line of thinking is that they are comparing the lack of restrictions on firearms to excessive restrictions on people in years past. They are whining about excessive freedom yet invoking memories of repression. Do they even have a glimpse of the irony? I sometimes think they are incredibly stupid to use such crude attempts at emotional trickery. But I keep hearing the voice of Sean Flynn telling me otherwise.--Joe]

Update: More pictures from Xenia.

Christmas Eve Barb told me the toilet needed to be fixed. I told her the part she thought was broken still had some life in it:

But men who wish to remain married know better than to argue so I replaced it anyway.

We first went to my parents place to have dinner with them and my brothers. We then opened presents with them. Here is a picture of our gathering:

We then returned to our place and opened more presents. Among other things I received three great t-shirts and a high quality pistol case.

The third t-shirt I received says, "There are very few personal problems that can't be solved with a suitable application of high explosives."

Another awesome item was the scrapbook of Boomershoot (and other things) that Barb and Xenia made for me.

I got Barb an iPod Nano, a Bluetooth headset for her cell phone, and the items in this package which she refused to show to anyone else:

James and Xenia got some shirts too:

(I have no idea what this means.)

Xenia also learned a lesson in rattling the cage of wild animals:

Our princess Kimberly got a load of stuff but seemed to like the tools for the kitchen the best. The Christmas decoration below will come in handy next year.

Caleb got a black Boomershoot M-65 field jacket like mine but also seemed to like the Hickory Farms smoked cheese that he ate like it was a sandwich:

Merry Christmas from the entire Huffman-Scott clan.

James wanted his sister Kim to make him a costume for a gaming convention he goes to every year in August. This was the character (Siegfried):

Kim wanted to give him the sword for Christmas and wanted some help with it. What follow are some pictures of it's construction--which isn't complete yet.

Caleb, myself, and Dad are doing some tweaking of the design I had come up with.
Photo by Kim.

I'm implementing the grip Dad had suggested (it worked well).
Photo by Kim.

Caleb inspects part of the blade.
Photo by Kim.

The handle and the piece that attach to the blade.
Photo by Kim.

Cutting the handle to the proper length.
Photo by Kim.

Kim had never seen an arc welder in use before. Dad is welding the blade to the grip attachment.
Photo by Caleb.

Caleb, myself, and Dad work on the attachment. The new tractor tires I told you about are in the background.
Photo by Kim.

The main part of the blade is made of two pieces of 16 gauge steel. These had to be clamped down on the edges and then welded.
Photo by Kim.

Near the tip we used a wood spacer to make the blade thicker along the centerline.
Photo by Kim.

Here I'm using my cousin Allen's MIG welder on the blade edges.
Photo by Kim.

Smoothing off the edges where the tip will attach.
Photo by Kim.

Caleb and Kim clamping the tip in place prior to welding.
Photo by Joe.

The tip is welded on one side. Kim is turning it over so I can weld the other side.
Photo by Joe.

Me welding.
Photo by Caleb.

All the metal assembly is done and it's "usable".
Photo by Kim.

Kim is pleased.
Photo by Joe.

Caleb thinks is it pretty cool too.
Photo by Joe.

James thinks it is awesome. Now if he can just figure out how he can get it back to the Seattle area.
Photo by Xenia.

Kim and Caleb still have some work to do on it. It needs to be buffed (it will take on a mirror like finish), coated, the grip wrapped in leather, and minor other tweaks.

It is surprisingly stiff. When smoothing out the welds with his grinder Caleb said he supported it on opposite ends and used it as a bench. And that it was strong enough to sit on.

If you have the muscle for it this would be quite the "assault weapon". It never needs to be reloaded and if it had an sharp edge it would be as deadly as any ordinary firearm.

Slavery was legal, it wasn’t moral. Apartheid was legal, it wasn’t moral. We have to have the understanding that laws have to be changed if they are wrong.

Father Michael Pfleger
Pastor of the Faith Community of Saint Sabina Church
July 12, 2007
Anti-gun activists building momentum
[This is so ironic. He invokes memories of repressive racist laws while demanding repressive laws which had racist origins in the U.S. But what do you expect? Many anti-gun bigots have mental problems.--Joe]

I shot in a steel match yesterday. Results are here. I'm improving. I'm only 10 seconds down from the winner. On "Smoke & Hope" I cut almost two seconds off of my September time. And the weather conditions were a little more challenging than in September. The pictures are below. Again I need to point out that a lot of the Seattle area ranges stop their outdoor matches in the winter. But this isn't Seattle. This is Idaho. The Seattle area shooters are wimps.

Mike claimed he had a little trouble with the contrast between the white targets and the backstop.

Notice the snow build up on the bill of Rogers hat?

Mike brought tamales!

The scorekeeper stayed under cover when it was snowing.

USA Today has an online poll for the question: "Does the Second Amendment give individuals the right to bear arms?". I'm annoyed with the question. The questions presumes facts not in evidence. The Bill of Rights does not give or grant any rights. It guarantees certain rights. In the case of the Second Amendment this has clearly been articulated in U.S. v. Cruikshank:

The right there specified is that of 'bearing arms for a lawful purpose.' This is not a right granted by the Constitution. Neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence. The second amendment declares that it shall not be infringed...

In any case, even with no really acceptable answer to such a misleading question the results are encouraging. The bigots are getting punished pretty badly.

[Thanks to Hal for the email.]

Ry reports on a Seattle area incident.

James and I went to see the movie on Saturday night. This was apparently at about the same time as Kevin and his wife. James thought it was really good. I thought it was very well done but came away feeling not quite right about it. I couldn't put it in words for James or Barb but if you take what Kevin said and multiply it by about 0.8 you get pretty close.

Our playgrounds have become battlegrounds. Our streets have become cemeteries. Our schools have become places to mourn the ones we’ve lost. I’m sick and tired of seeing our young people gunned down.

Think about that. At a time when we’re spending $275 million a day on a war overseas, we’re neglecting the war that’s being fought in our own streets.

We also have to recognize that part of the reason that guns are so deadly in our society and in our communities in particular is because we’ve got young men standing on the streets without anything else better to do than gangbang. We need to express our collective anger through collective action.

Barack Obama
Aug 5, 2007
Obama delivers message tough on guns
[I "like" the part about collective action. I think it's very telling.--Joe]

I consider one additional magazine as minimum standard gear.

As to the likelihood of needed it….

John Holschen
December 12, 2007
Insights Training Center List
John is an instructor at Insights.