It is evil, and we must defeat it.

Charlton Heston
1997
This quote was used in the "No on I-676" campaign. Initiative 676 was a gun registration and mandated training scheme.
[Heston died yesterday.

Yes, he was an actor but I don't pay much attention to actors. What I remember him for was his contribution to the rights of gun owners.

During the "No on I-676" campaign Heston and others from the NRA showed up and gave speeches all around the state. The Citizen Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms invested a lot of time and money into as well. And of course I and thousands of other gun owners in Washington state spent a lot of time and money working on this. We ended up sending it down in flames (71%-29%) and Heston probably did as much or more than almost anyone else to make that happen. It was such an overwhelming defeat the anti-gun bigots in Washington state (Washington Ceasefire) has not tried an initiative since then and even the legislature has been somewhat timid on guns since then.

I didn't meet Heston. I did meet and talked to Tanya Metaksa for quite a while on election night. I was probably in Idaho the weekend when Heston did his thing in the Seattle area. But I did buy the t-shirt (see below).--Joe]

I'd never heard of Jim Pontillo.  I found him through a link on Jewish World Review.  Liberalism's Tragic Soul is a long post, but there are a lot of very quotable statements in it:

...you are victim to the liberal propaganda which suggests CEOs are big all controlling evil despots who can set policy and control the population at their whim. CEOs in a truly capitalist society are the biggest slaves of the planet. They are enslaved to the whims of the market—to you and me.

That one reminds me of a good friend, who opened a retail store in a small village that had a two-store monopoly.  The two stores had been price-fixing for years.  My friend saw this monopoly, correctly, as an opportunity.  He did his homework and found out he could provide goods at vastly lower prices and still make a good profit.  So long as his property rights were protected against coercion and other forms of force, he could do a nice business and in the process he'd be giving every resident of this little village a raise, in effect, by lowering the prices on all the goods they needed.  He did just that, and has done very well for many years.  That's the value of a free market right there, in microcosm.  There can be no lasting, anti-consumer monopoly in a free market, since anyone taking undue advantage of the consumer is merely creating an opportunity for their competitors.  That is, unless government steps in and screws it all up.

The next time you get into an argument about freedom with a liberal, the freedom they profess to defend, the freedom that conservatives venture to usurp with their fascist beliefs, ask them what freedom they are talking about.  Is it the freedom to possess firearms to protect ourselves if government fails to, or the freedom to keep most of the money we earn, or the freedom to speak candidly about religion, or the freedom to provide the best for our families; or is it the freedom to hand our lives over to some elected official where he will decide what is best for us...

We believe that this domestic violence prevention strategy "should" be implemented. However, we recognize that it would be difficult to implement all these measures due to the clout of the gun lobby and subsequent lack of political will and resources.

In lieu of this, GunGuys.com has considered launching a new "cultural change" campaign with a simple message to young women:

"I Don't Date Boys Who Own Guns."

Mike of Gun Guys
With So Many Men Owning Guns, Domestic Violence Is Difficult to Prevent for Justice System
April 4, 2008
[I wonder if he has also considered a campaign with these simple messages to young women "I Don't Date Black (Jewish/Italian/Chinese/whatever) Boys". It would be entirely consistent if he did. One form of bigotry is just as valid as any other.--Joe]

The idea that the only way we think we can make a safer, better society is for everyone to carry a gun is incredibly sad. It's also individualistic--the answer to racism, rape, and gay bashing is to carry a gun, not have any form of social organizing.

Gwen
January 10, 2008 10:48 PM
Comment in Equal Opportunity Gun Ownership
[This is very revealing of their mindset. Apparently "social organizing" makes individual responsibility obsolete and justifiably deprives all individuals of the right to defend their lives. The collective is to defend the members it deems worthy of defensive. And of course we know how that works out. The "leaders" get their armed guards and the ordinary individual gets a dysfunctional and corrupt police system. The issues is that in the U.S. the elected officials are supposed to be "public servants" not "leaders". When the government successfully claims a monopoly on the use of force they have dropped all pretense of being "public servants" or "leaders" and have declared themselves to be "rulers".

Although Gwen didn't make the blog post she was commenting on she is a co-editor of the blog.

As Kevin pointed out "everyone" is blogging about this post and the comments. It was the source of my own QOTD yesterday.--Joe]

This is more like what I expect from Xenia.

"This makes ten" refers to the tenth bone she has broken in her life. It's not entirely obvious from the post.

Gun control serves violence, oppression, genocide, and other evil purposes. Opposing it serves peace, freedom, human dignity, and the triumph of intellect over brute force. Choose your side. Do you want the side that was supported by the KKK, racists, Nazis, rapists, gay-bashers, and other scum, or do you want the side that is supported by fine folks like the brave Jews who fought back against the Nazis, and men of peace like Ghandi?

The choice is yours, and history will remember you by it...

maineshark
April 3, 2008 5:37 AM
Comment in Equal Opportunity Gun Ownership
[H/T to Tam and Uncle. I'll probably use another comment from that same post as my QOTD tomorrow.--Joe]

The best minds are not in government. If any were, business would steal them away.

Ronald Reagan
["Best" doesn't necessarily mean brightest. It can also mean ethical. Now think about how much time the current presidential candidates have spent in government versus private business.

Reagan was right.--Joe]

Boomershoot 2008 shirts, caps, mugs, etc. are now available.

Update: The link has been updated. I had a private link before.

Lame.

Xenia, I know you can do better than that. 2007 was better and so was 2006.

I've been thinking about this for a long time and Sunday while waiting for the ferry to cross over to the island to visit Mr. Completely and Keewee I made my decision. The event that confirmed everything was the dog sniffing for explosives around the vehicles waiting for the ferry:

There were two things that really struck me about this. 1) The dog didn't take any particular interest in my car even though I had been making explosives and driving that car just a week earlier. No special precautions on cleanliness and the dog didn't hit on us. I also had several hundred rounds of ammunition in the trunk. Therefore the dog and all the WSP officers standing around are just more Security Theater. 2) Why isn't this considered an illegal search? We were on public roads doing nothing suspicious and we get searched.

After a few minutes of thought I realized the game I had been playing was over. For years I have pushing for restoring our freedom and yet we have suffered more and more infringements. There is always some "justification" for the infringement. Before 9-11 it was because of crime and recreational drug use. Now it's the threat of terrorism. Nearly all of the infringements are mere theater in regards to addressing the problems they claim to be concerned about yet they adversely affect the ordinary citizen.

With this realization I concluded I have been playing the game wrong. Therefore I have decided to change sides. From this moment forward I am on the side of Islam. Yes, I know, for the most part they are a bunch of losers. But I have my reasons:

• I think I can make a major contribution to turning their loser ways around.
  • I have thousands of pounds of explosives materials available for immediate use.
  • I have long range rifle experience and equipment.
  • I have computer security expertise.
  • I have extensive engineering experience.
• The U.S. Constitution is dead. It was killed by neglect years ago and there is no hope for its resurrection. This great hope for freedom has died and pretending otherwise is a fraud.
• If we can't have freedom then the next best thing is peace through uniformity of belief. Islam is the best hope for that.
• I'm getting older and so is Barb. Those 72 virgins for eternity are looking better and better.

I know I am handicapping myself by making this public announcement but I feel morally obligated to tell my friends and family the truth. I don't play the part of secret traitor well--I have to look at my face in the mirror each morning. As Winston Churchill once said in regards to formal declarations of war, "When you have to kill a man it costs nothing to be polite."

My apologies to Uncle and others who (correctly at the time) said, "I’m glad he’s one of the good guys." Things change and perhaps you should too.

When Barb left this morning she didn't know. It was just returning to work in Idaho as she does every other week after spending the last several days with me. But that was the end of a 34 year run we had. Our first date was in March of 1974. This was a picture I took of her on that date, a walk along Dworshak Lake:

It was nice but she was only a virgin once. She just can't compete with 72 virgins for eternity.

You might ask, "What are you going to do?" and that's a fair question. I figure I have at best a few months before I am caught and probably killed but I am certain I can make a significant impact in that time frame. Think for a moment about how long a city could last if all the bridges, roads, water, and electricity were cut off with the repair crews taking sniper fire from 1000 yards away. Draw a circle with a radius of 1000 yards around each of the severed connections and imagine trying to protect the crews from someone, someplace in that area. And as law enforcement is searching for me there they won't really know if I am there are not. I could be several hundred miles away getting ready to sever another city from food, water, and power. You don't need nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons to create mass destruction. By creating the appropriate circumstances you can cause the delicate fabric of society to collapse and let nature do the rest.

Ry and I have observed it's rare that a single person can kill more than 200 people before being stopped. It is my ambition to set a record in the 10s of thousands and perhaps higher. I want my name to be in the history books as a demonstration of just what one determined person can do.

Allahu Akbar!

We've been waiting for this one a long time. The steps have been slow and incremental, but now, thanks to this judicious and far-sighted law, we can finally take full advantage of the Second Amendment rights guaranteed us under the United States Constitution. No longer will we have to become a convenience store owner or an elementary school teacher just to get our mitts on some of this tasty ordnance.

Sally Ack-Ack
Spokesman for the NWMDA (National Weapons of Mass Destruction Association, formerly known as the NRA).
October 9, 2021
Tactical Nuclear Weapons Approved for American Consumers
[I suspected "Sally Ack-Ack" was actually an alias for Ashley Varner at the NRA working on plans for a post Heller world. I sent an email and got a response that neither confirmed or denied:

Hey, at least they finally got the quote right! It's "guaranteed by the Constitution," NOT GRANTED!

Cool! Just wait until I upgrade Boomershoot to the new ordnance.--Joe]

Position 75 just opened up. This is a position that requires a shooting bench. You can see the pictures and sign up to take the position here.

The shooter in position 76 lost his spotter and:

I need a single entrant from Seattle area that can share gas and lodging expenses. I will be leaving Friday morning and returning Sunday night.

If you would like to be that person send me an email with your contact information and I will forward the information on.

I've made the big time.

If you mouse over the link to me it even says, "He blows stuff up."

Free entry to Boomershoot to whoever is writing this great blog.

If there is anything the nonconformist hates worse than a conformist it's another nonconformist who doesn't conform to the prevailing standard of nonconformity.

Bill Vaughan
[Continuing the theme of humans as pack animals.--Joe]

If anyone doubts that there's an epidemic of gun violence in this country, let these statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explain just one category of it: In 2004, 5,292 young people ages 10 to 24 were murdered -- that's 15 per day -- 81 percent with a firearm. Homicide is the second leading cause of death in this age group.

And here is a sad commentary on how far removed the nation is from confronting this scourge that leads to the deaths of thousands of children a year and wounds thousands of others, not to mention many more adults: The discussion inevitably gets bogged down in conflict over gun rights and gun control.

The Patriot-News
March 30, 2008
Rather than get bogged in rights vs. gun control, focus on why so many are bent on destruction
[I just thought people should know that someone 24 years old is considered a child. Apparently someone changed the definition and never bothered to tell the rest of us. And that includes Merriam-Webster.--Joe]