The View From North Central Idaho

Senator Crapo via Joe Durnbaugh on the Lewiston Pistol Club email list. Emphasis in the letter body is mine:

From: senator_crapo@crapo.senate.gov
Sent: Monday, April 27, 2009 2:37 PM
Subject: Correspondence from Senator Crapo

April 27, 2009

Mr. Joe Durnbaugh
Lewiston, Idaho 83501

Dear Joe:

Thank you for contacting me regarding your opposition to the Inter-American Convention Against Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and Other Related Materials (referred to by its Spanish acronym CIFTA). I agree with you and welcome the opportunity to respond.

On November 14, 1997, the Organization of American States (OAS) adopted the CIFTA treaty, which among other things, aimed to curtail the small arms trading of deadly weapons often used during the traffic of illegal drugs. Although President Clinton signed the CIFTA treaty, it received less than the requisite two-thirds majority vote in the U.S. Senate. As a result, it was never ratified.

As you may know, President Barack Obama is now urging its ratification in order to combat the Mexican drug cartel. The CIFTA treaty would ban any firearm that falls under a misleading classification of "illicit" manufacturing. For example, the treaty would make illegal the assimilation of a lawful firearm from a kit. Further, it would criminalize any modifications made to a firearm. Additionally, this treaty would prohibit pro-gun organizations. Most alarming is that a broad interpretation of this treaty would call for the extradition of U.S. gun dealers.

The Second Amendment reads: "A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." I firmly believe this provision prohibits the federal government from denying citizens this right.
Let me reassure you that I do not support gun control. We must protect and preserve our constitutional right to bear arms. I will not support any legislation that requires a waiting period for the purchase of a firearm, bans the ownership of firearms, promotes or requires the rationing or taxation of firearms, or the taxation of ammunition.

As you may know, gun control advocates continue to seek creative methods of advancing their agenda, both through legislation and litigation. You may be assured that I will continue to oppose all efforts to weaken Second Amendment rights.

Again, thank you for contacting me. Please feel free to contact me in the future on this or other matters of interest to you. For more information about the issues before the U.S. Senate as well as news releases, photos, and other items of interest, please visit my Senate website, http://crapo.senate.gov.

Sincerely,     
   
Mike Crapo
United States Senator

MDC:js

If U.S. Senators are saying this does that mean I'm not really paranoid after all?

Just a hint of the current situation on primers from Powder Valley, Inc.:

At this time we are not taking any new backorders for primers that are not listed here. We currently have over 50 million primers on backorder. If you currently have a backorder in place your order will be processed as primers become available. Once we begin receiving more primers from the manufacturers and are able to begin filling current backorders we will update the website.

Via Kevin on the Lewiston Pistol Club email list.

You know what the worst thing is about the internet? It gives you concrete proof that your fellow citizens are as ignorant as you've secretly suspected they were all along...

Tamara K.
May 2, 2009
News Flash: HuffPo readers have difficulty with News Flashes.
[Not only ignorant, but stupid and bigoted.--Joe]

Guns, Democracy, and the Insurrectionist Idea recasts the gun debate by showing its importance to the future of democracy and the modern regulatory state. Until now, gun rights advocates had effectively co-opted the language of liberty and democracy and made it their own. This book is an important first step in demonstrating how reasonable gun control is essential to the survival of democracy and ordered liberty.

Saul Cornell
Ohio State University
From the publishers web site.
[Ahhh, yes. We've heard this party slogan before only with slightly different wording: Freedom is Slavery, War is Peace, Ignorance is Strength.--Joe]

Last night as Barb and I were in bed preparing to watch a DVD on my laptop computer I scanned Google News. There was a headline which read Couple arrested for sex on lawn at Windsor Castle. I passed it over but Barb read it out loud. So I asked, "Did you want to read that?" Her immediate and matter of fact response was, "Do they have pictures?"

That's my wife.

Sometimes, the most important shot is the one you don't take.

Christopher Whitcomb
Cold Zero: Inside the FBI Hostage Rescue Team
[Whitcomb wrote about his experience as an FBI sniper. He was at Ruby Ridge and Waco. His insight was extremely interesting to me. It was a bit more favorable to the FBI than what I think is actually the case but that is to be expected. It was well written and I really appreciate him telling the story from point of view of the snipers who were there. Probably the thing that bugs me the most is that he said Marshall William Degan was murdered. This is false. Weaver and Kevin were acquitted of those charges. Hence Degan was not murdered. It's possible that he was saying that is what they believed at the time and did not intend for that statement to apply in a universal sense. But that isn't made clear.

I'm probably a little sensitive to that because FBI Director Louis Freeh frequently made the same claim in a context which was clearly post trial and a manner that made it clear that the trial result was irrelevant in his world view.

Ry also pulled a QOTD from the book over two years ago.--Joe]

There are many recurring themes among the left.  Then there are mantras for every leftist, but one that gets passed around, modified, recycled and reused a lot is the "America is evil for having actually used the A-bomb" meme.  The jihadists have been using that one, as have socialist and communist governments around the world, for years.  At least someone agrees with John Stewart besides a few pimple-faced high school students watching Comedy Central on their parents' TVs. 

Whittle does a wonderful job of refuting this blatant ignorance.  "Ooh! Ouch!"

Watch the whole thing.  Whittle didn't even have to mention what the Japanese did in China.

I almost feel sorry for Stewart.  Almost, but then I have to think that surely he knew all this stuff beforehand, and was just playing out a shtick on his show.  That would be giving him the benefit of the doubt I suppose.  Maybe he really is that vacuous.

The left however will be clinging to this worn-out meme for generations to come, no matter how many times it's proven wrong.  As they say; there's sucker born every minute.

If a new militia movement coalesces, its members will have no shortage of sophisticated assault weapons to choose from. At the gun show in Reno, I witnessed the sale of rocket-propelled-grenade launchers and bazooka guns; I watched a California-based dealer demonstrate how rapidly he could field strip his .308-caliber sniper rifle, then stash it in a deliberately innocuous-looking backpack and a briefcase that “looks just like a camera case.”

Max Blumenthal
April 29, 2009
Pro-Guns, Anti-Obama
[This is part of the reason the anti-gun bigots get so much traction with the public. They are willing to lie or at least have no concern for the truth. He almost for certain did not witness the sale of RPGs or bazookas since they are very highly regulated and require an extensive and expensive process involving the ATF. Combine that with the confusing the definition of "assault weapons" with the definition as used by any of the "assault weapon" laws past or present and you see why the common person would be inclined to side with the bigots.--Joe]

For the last two years I have been trying to increase target production and once I felt I had excess capacity I was going to get the cat (bulldozer) out there to expand the shooting line so I could handle more shooters.

This year we finished target production with more targets per unit time than ever before. And we had many targets left over after the event even though we had more shooting hours than usual. And I shut down target production at 1500 on Saturday. We finally have the target production up to a level where we could handle more shooting positions.

That was the plan. But it turns out there are other limits to our capacity that became (more) obvious this year.

• Target placement. Even after doubling the space at the tree line we have room for about 500 targets there. That is just barely adequate. We had 350 targets on the hillside which was about right. I don't think we can safely expand either target location without moving a lot of dirt.
• The Saturday night dinner maxed out the Ponderosa last year with about 65 people. They claim they can handle 100 but with our setup for the raffle 65 was crowded. The VFW building had more space but we had 93 people sign up for dinner this year and we maxed them out too. There is one other place in town that has more space but they are already booked for the last weekend of April 2010. It might be that we can rent the high school cafeteria or some such place but I haven't looked into that. I can also get the caterer to set up tents and tables and do it on-site for a fairly reasonable charge. But cringe at the thought of trying to do that in a 30 MPH wind with snow and hail coming down like we have had some years.
• The caterer for the Sunday lunch asked if we could break the shooters into two groups, say positions 1 through 38 and 39 through 76 and send them to the roach coach about 30 minutes apart and take 90 minutes total for lunch. There are just too many people for them to handle in a timely manner.

After talking to Barb about it for a bit (she is the one that attempts to inject some pessimism/reality into my visions) I think expanding the shooting line capacity would be the wrong thing to do. I should improve the experience for the existing shooters instead. The most obvious thing to do in that regard is to make improvements to the shooters berm. It is too uneven and doesn't have enough depth in places.

Another possibility is to make it easier to quickly put up more dingle berries. Many more...

The problem of social organization is how to set up an arrangement under which greed will do the least harm, capitalism is that kind of a system.

Milton Friedman
[The socialist would disagree of course. But that is because they always imagine that "good people" will be in government. But that kind of concentration of money and power inevitably attracts "the worst people" with the predictable results of Stalin, Castro, etc. with them and their cronies satisfying their greedy desires not to mention the substandard lifestyle of their subjects and all the torture and executions of their political enemies. As in most cases the socialists only see the possible good in their world view and not the costs.

Once I demanded that an admitted communist give me the measurement of "fair" that he used just so we could be clear on what he was talking about. He refused. It boiled down to "he knew it when he saw it". Apparently he wanted to be the ultimate judge of "fairness" because what he thought was "fair" was completely different than mine. That is how they gain power. They say vague things that most people can agree with such as "fairness", "justice", etc. I think it is fair that I keep my results of my work but they think it is fair that I share half of my income with them.

Ask them how they measure "fairness" or "justice", if they can't express it in numbers then it's just unsubstantiated opinion.--Joe]

The following should be self-explanatory.

Boomershoot (http://www.boomershoot.org) is an annual long range precision rifle event held in North Central Idaho. Each year soldiers from Fort Lewis attend and for two days prior to the main event help teach Boomershoot participants the science and art of accurate long range shooting. Some of those soldiers later went on to Iraq and Afghanistan and were injured and some were killed.

In October of 2007 my wife and I met Chuck Ziengenfuss at the Gun Blogger Rendezvous in Reno. He told us of his injuries and how Soldiers’ Angels helped him. It turns out that it was the second time my wife had met Chuck. She had also met at Walter Reed when she was visiting our nephew Jason Scott who was wounded in Iraq and also benefited from your help.

At Boomershoot this year we held a raffle with the intent that half of the proceeds would go to raffle participants and the other half going to Project Valour-IT. After the event someone quietly came up to me and gave me three $100 bills to give to you.

Below are the reference number and other information from my bank that is mailing you a check of the proceeds. If it does not arrive as expected please let me know.

-joe-

-----

http://blog.joehuffman.org/

http://www.boomershoot.org/

http://www.modernballistics.com/

May No Soldier Go Unloved.

Slogan of Soldier's Angels
[See my next post for more context. And yes, this is an exact duplicate of my post this time last year.--Joe]

So why not Owner? Owners don’t do NFA. Owners don’t do political organizing. Owners don’t buy 1200 feet of paracord to cause other owners to spends thousands of dollars on ammo they otherwise would not have spent. While I am certainly an owner, I am not an Owner.

Ry Jones
April 27, 2009
Ontologies
[Explaining why he doesn't fit any of Tam's categories of gun owners.

The 1200 feet of paracord probably needs some explain for those unfortunate people that did not attend Boomershoot last weekend.

It was Ry's idea to satisfy a frequent request for moving reactive targets. He did this by suspending camo painted, Boomerite filled, targets from trees. The targets swung, bounced, and taunted the shooters. They loved them and, amazingly enough, nailed the 0.5 MOA (and smaller) targets. Mike, the guy in position 76, who doesn't even use a spotter asked me "Are those four inch targets dangling on the ropes up there near the 700 yard line?" I told him that before lunch they were. After lunch they were replaced with three inch targets. "Okay," he said, "There is one less of them now."--Joe]

I myself have never been able to find out what feminism is; I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.

Rebecca West
[I remember having a similar conversation with Barbara either before we were married or shortly thereafter. I told her that as near as I could tell the way people defined "a lady" was in terms of the things she wasn't allowed to do and "men" in the things he did.

But that isn't why I posted West's quote. I post it because it reminds me of what people call "reasonable regulation" of firearms. Their ideas of "reasonable regulation" appear to be based on the assumption that gun owners are, or should be, doormats.--Joe]

My wife reads a lot of "who dunnit" mystery novels.  The one she's reading now addresses long-range marksmanship and the use of hollowpoint "match" bullets.  As a person normally 100% uninterested guns and shooting, she had a very good question for me; "Why do they use hollowpoints for accuracy"?  This lead to a very interesting discussion-- one uninterested in guns was trying to understand something that few gun enthusiasts understand completely and rarely discuss in such detail.

I had to admit I was at something of a loss.  My best understanding is that the hollowpoint bullet jacket can be manufactured to higher standards of concentricity (the mass being better centered around the mechanical center so as to avoid wobble in flight) and consistency of mass and shape.  That is all true, but exactly why it is true I was at a loss to explain with certainty.  My best guesses are that it has to do with the process of forming the jacket's shape, and with the insertion of the bullet's lead core, but I don't know the actual processes used in bullet manufacturing.

I also told her it was my opinion that since the hollowpoint jacket (having a closed copper base due to the way it's constructed) allows none of the bullet's lead base to melt away during the intense heat of firing, it is going to retain its mass, and therefore its consistency of mass from shot to shot, better than the open base of a standard full metal jacket bullet.  I've also read that the open-base FMJ can allow the jacket to partially separate from the core at the base under the pressure of firing.  If so, that would certainly alter its flight slightly and at random.

She explained that it was her understanding that hollowpoints were used to cause more trauma inside the target, and I told her that she was correct.  She was having a hard time understanding that there is no direct correlation between the objectives behind hollowpoint "match" bullet designs, and the hollowpoint bullets designed to expand and cause more damage.  This was getting too technical for a layperson, but her interest was piqued by the story she was reading.  I had to explain that hollowpoints designed specifically for expansion on impact have a wide range of designs, operating velocities and applications, and that match hollowpoints have nothing to do with any of that.  The match bullets are only designed for accuracy, with no regard to their effects on a target.

That being the case, one can nonetheless do a little experimentation.  Manufacturers of match rifle bullets usually make a point of telling the customer that they are NOT intended, and should not be used for, hunting.  There is one company, Burger Bullets, that touts their match VLD (Very Low Drag) hollowpoints as hunting bullets.  I've been loading Berger 7 mm bullets in 280 Remington for my son's use at Boomershoot, and since he keeps his rifle zeroed for that load, he has also used the VLDs for hunting.  This particular bullet has a light (read weak) jacket, and while it is an awesome animal stopper, it explodes at high velocity inside the animal due to its light construction and causes major damage to any meat it comes near.  It also tears a large hole in the hide for those of us who keep the skins.  They make a tiny entry wound and a softball-sized exit wound.  That would be OK if the shot placement and angle were ideal because only the heart/lung cavity would be so effected (then too, we like to eat the heart if it's intact).  Other match hollowpoints have heavier jackets that don't behave much different, on impact, from a standard FMJ bullet.

Practicing for Boomershoot last week, we found one of our 30 caliber match bullet jackets behind a 2' diameter rotten, wet log that it had penetrated.  Just the jacket, turned nearly inside-out, with no lead core.  The hollowpoint tip was almost perfectly intact, and so behaved radically different from a hollowpoint hunting or defense bullet.  The bullet had traveled 400 yards, entered and then yawed violently sideways inside the log.  The intense pressure of deceleration caused the heavier lead core to burst out the side of the jacket, separating completely.  The open-sided jacket followed through to drop on the ground just behind the log.  These match bullets were loaded in .308 Winchester cartridges made by Black Hills Ammunition.  We were using 168 and 175 grain, "red box" new loads.  I think the bullets they use in these loads are from Sierra, but don't quote me on that.  You can call them and ask if you're curious.

It was 33 this morning when I got up. Still warmer than yesterday (29) and the day before (23). Good news for boomer shooters.

Today is the big day and we have 982 targets for them.

Dad! I need more!

Kimberly Frederick
April 25, 2009
[Daughter Kimberly was on the Kitchen Aid mixer making explosives and I was constantly bringing her more 50 pound bags of Ammonium Nitrate. At peak production our team was producing 18 4" targets in just over two minutes.--Joe]