The View From North Central Idaho

Via a Tweet from Sebastian I discovered Knife Rights just announced an important victory:

WE STOPPED CUSTOMS Pocket Knife Grab! The Senate has passed the conference report for the fiscal year 2010 Homeland Security Appropriations Bill with our amendment to the Federal Switchblade Act intact. The bill will now be sent to the President for signature. There is no indication that he would veto the bill.

This is the culmination of an incredible effort on the part of Knife Rights, American Knife and Tool Institute, NRA, Congressional Sportsmen's Foundation, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and many other organizations who contributed. Each organization made key contributions to the effort, without which the end result might not have turned out so well. Not many folks gave us much hope of succeeding when Customs first proposed revoking their rulings and redefining what is a switchblade back in May. At a time when bipartisanship is rare as hen's teeth in Washington, we garnered support from both sides of the aisle.

We succeeded because the coalition of groups that came together to fight Customs represented a broad swath of American industry and grassroots. We succeeded in large part because of YOUR contributions, letters and calls in support of our efforts. You can give yourself a pat on the back for your effort and a job well done against all odds. It is time to pop the cork on that bottle of champagne and celebrate a victory for your knife rights and for all America.

To help you celebrate and commemorate this incredible victory, please purchase one of our collectible "WE STOPPED Customs Pocket Knife Grab" coffee mugs, t-shirts or sweatshirts, available for a limited time only: www.cafepress.com/KnifeRights Proceeds will help pay off the incredibly high cost of accomplishing this victory.

Knife Rights has quickly grown to become America's largest grassroots knife owners organization. This latest fight against Customs Pocket Knife Grab has validated the power and importance of a dedicated grass roots organization in defending your knife rights. Now we have to finish paying pay for this effort. It took a great deal of money to accomplish all this. Carrying a fight like this to Washington cannot be done without lots of cash. The victory isn't complete until we pay the bills. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO SUPPORT THIS SUCCESSFUL FIGHT FOR YOUR KNIFE RIGHTS!

Also of interest on that same page:

Knife Rights News Slice Vol. 2 Number 19 - October 13, 2009

Knife Rights Changing Perceptions

The weekend before last I was invited to speak at the annual Gun Rights Policy Conference put on by the Second Amendment Foundation and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. While I was there, I took the opportunity at their annual awards luncheon to make a special presentation to CCRKBA President, Alan Gottleib.

When this issue with Customs first reared its ugly head, Alan and the Citizens Committee were the first to step up in support of our efforts to achieve a legislative solution when it became clear that nothing else would work. CCRKBA helped to the tune of $30,000. Lest you think that covered all the expenses, let me assure you that it DID NOT, but it was a HUGE help. Alan also offered his wise counsel at critical junctures. In recognition of this major commitment, I was very pleased to present Alan with a custom Mini Eros Gentleman's Tactical Folder generously donated by renowned knifemaker, and Knife Rights Cornerstone member, Ken Onion.

My remarks later in the day, which focused on the fact that the Second Amendment doesn't say "firearms," it says "arms," apparently struck a chord with the nearly 700 participants. When it came time for resolutions, which guide the two organizations in terms of policy, my points were reflected in a historic change to one recurring resolution and the introduction and acceptance of a second.

The "Farmer" resolution was originally passed at the first GRPC twenty four years ago. This year it was amended to say that "an attack on any class of arms is an attack on all classes of arms," in recognition that knives, as well as other arms, are due equal protection. This represents something of a watershed event for Second Amendment policy which heretofore has focused almost exclusively on firearms.

Jeff Knox of The Firearms Coalition was inspired to introduce a new resolution, which was adopted, that reads, "Whereas: The banning of any personal tool or weapon has never resulted in increased public safety,...We support the repeal of the Federal Switchblade Act and any other federal, state or local laws and regulations banning tools and weapons rather than addressing behavior." Jeff's heart is in the right place, we all know the Federal Switchblade Act was simply political theater and a sham, but the reality is that after 50 years as law of the land a legislative solution eliminating it is unlikely. However, it's the thought that counts and it once again is indicative of a historic change in attitude. Jeff's resolution is a strong statement of support for the concept that tools and weapons should not be blamed for social ills or criminal behavior and neither should they be regulated or banned for those reasons.

You can read the complete text of the two resolutions at: www.KnifeRights.org/grpc2009resolutions.pdf

Notice that The Second Amendment Foundation donated $30K as well as advice? I'm doubling my twice monthly paycheck deduction (matched by Microsoft) to SAF.

Also notice that Jeff Knox introduced a resolution similar to Just One Question? Although Jeff is aware of Just One Question his dad had something similar before I came up with it.

Remember - these are the people who would strip us of our rights. These are the people who would turn us into criminals (like them) for daring to exercise those rights. These are the people who aid and abet criminals on a daily basis. These are the people who have no respect or regard for the sanctity of human life or the self-defense measures necessary to preserve it. ...People who cannot even tell fact from fiction.

Scary, nyet?

Linoge
October 18, 2009
truth and falsity
[Good stuff, even if I do say so myself.--Joe]

Via the encyclopedic gun law brain of Joe Waldron on the Washington CCW email list last Monday:

From 1968 to 1986, all purchasers of handgun ammunition nationwide had to sign a book and provide identification data. It was discontinued because it proved useless as a crime fighting tool.

Not that anyone in the California legislature cares.

Again, the anti-gun bigots not being able to answer Just One Question is no impediment to them infringing on the specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms.

After getting their hands slapped for shoddy research with predetermined anti-gun outcomes 13 years ago the NIH is again doing research on gun control topics:

More than a decade after Congress cut funding for firearms research by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), another federal health agency has been spending millions of dollars to study such topics as whether teenagers who carry firearms run a different risk of getting shot compared with suffering other sorts of injuries.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) also has been financing research to investigate whether having many liquor stores in a neighborhood puts people at greater risk of getting shot.

Such studies are coming under sharp scrutiny by Republican lawmakers who question whether the money could be better spent on biomedical research at a time of increasing competition for NIH funding. They're also leery of NIH research relating to firearms in general, recalling how 13 years ago the House voted to cut CDC funding when critics complained that the agency was trying to win public support for gun control.

"It's almost as if someone's been looking for a way to get this study done ever since the Centers for Disease Control was banned from doing it 10 years ago," Rep. Joe L. Barton, Texas Republican, said of one of the NIH studies. "But it doesn't make any more sense now than it did then."

"Gun related violence is a public health problem - it diverts considerable health care resources away from other problems and, therefore, is of interest to NIH," Don Ralbovsky, NIH spokesman, wrote in an e-mail responding to questions about the grants.

"These particular grants do not address gun control; rather they deal with the surrounding web of circumstances involved in many violent crimes, especially how alcohol policy may reduce the public health burden from gun-related injury and death," he said.

It's not guaranteed to be a bad thing. But it should be watched just as closely as if they were studying violence initiated by Jews/blacks/homosexuals with an eye to create public policy which restricts those groups more than others.

Via Say Uncle we have some cute signs.

These remind me of the "I don't dial 911, I dial .357" and "Beware of dog. He eats everything I shoot" type signs. They bring a smile to my face but I would never put one up outside my home.

If someone in my family did use a firearm in self defense I fear the sign would be used in either criminal charges or a civil lawsuit to indicate we were looking for an opportunity to shoot someone and perhaps were just a little "too enthusiastic" about defending ourselves.

It also is an indicator there are guns inside the house which are "available for the taking" when no one is home.

Sometimes you have to just shake your head and call for the guys in the white uniforms and the butterfly nets:

The more people own guns, the more likely guns are to be used. If Cody wants to do something genuinely patriotic and helpful to her country, she should support gun control legislation.

I suppose it depends on how you define "patriotic". If "genuinely patriotic and helpful to your country" means enabling genocide then she is absolutely correct:

• Quote from brief for amicus curiae association of American Physicians and Surgeons, Inc. in support of Respondent in D.C. v. Heller
• Quote from the book Lethal Laws on a 1928 German gun control law
• A brief refresher on genocide and gun control
• Gun control is a precondition of genocide
• Gun control and genocide in Guatemala
• Gun control and genocide in Russia

Update: Daughter Kim reminded me:

patriot, n. and adj.
 
1. a. A person who loves his or her country, esp. one who is ready to support its freedoms and rights and to defend it against enemies or detractors.
In early use, as in French and Dutch, chiefly with ‘good’, ‘true’, ‘worthy’, or other commendatory adjective: cf. ‘good citizen’. ‘Patriot’ for ‘good patriot’ is rare before 1680. At that time often applied to a person who supported the rights of the country against the King and court.

The headlines in India and across the world should have read, “Terrorists and Gun Control Claim More Victims.” Instead, the complicity of the various Indian governments – national, state, and city – was ignored and their inability to protect the victims of that tragic event was barely questioned. The truth is that, except for a few policemen on the scene, all the victims were unarmed by public policy. India has among the strictest gun-control laws on Earth, which, according to gun-control advocates, should have made Mumbai one of the safest cities on the planet. So it shouldn’t surprise anyone with common sense or a historical perspective that disarmed citizens and visitors had no way of defending themselves and were, once again, the victims not only of terrorists, but of the misguided, immoral policy of their governments.

Benedict D. LaRosa
October 17, 2009
The Horror of Gun Control in Mumbai
[I'm doing my part to help remedy the situation by teaching some of the Indians I know how to shoot. The students have enjoyed the lessons, are continuing them, and are contemplating purchasing their own firearms.--Joe]

Our task of creating a socialist America can only succeed when all those who would resist us have been totally disarmed.

Sarah Brady,
for Handgun Control Inc.,
To Senator Howard Metzanbaum.
National Educator 1994, page 3.
[Nice quote. Except it's totally bogus. I once spent several hours trying to verify it without success and concluded it probably was bogus. I thought I would try again today and almost immediately found what I expected.--Joe]

One could imagine the Los Angles Times just hasn't been listening when they say things like this when referring to requiring a background check for all firearm transactions:

None of these measures would restrict the 2nd Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens; their intent is solely to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous individuals. Though the gun lobby raises a hue and cry whenever such proposals arise, it has yet to explain why it wants to make it easy for murderers, armed robbers and other criminals to obtain the tools of their trade. Bloomberg's gun-show expose has the whiff of a political stunt, but if it gets politicians and the public talking about gun control again, it's a stunt we can applaud.

The gun lobby "has yet to explain" why they oppose such restrictions? That is total B.S. The reason we don't want all transactions to go through licensed gun dealers is because it leaves a paper trail of each and every gun. When makes confiscations like those that happened in New York City, New Jersey, and California (not to mention England, Cuba, and Nazi Germany) more likely and much easier. I have to conclude that it's not about a failure to listen on their part. I believe it is because what we are concerned about is precisely their goal.

We need to put the challenge to them instead of allowing them to challenge us. We are the ones that are defending a specific enumerate right against their proposed infringements.

The way to do it is to demand they justify the restrictions. Do people have to register with the government before they can exercise their rights to free speech or exercise their religions? Government registration and oversight of the exercise of a right is a chilling effect on that right. In addition the proponents of such paper trails have yet to show where the proposed laws have made people safer. They cannot answer Just One Question.

Robar calls their NP3 process "the ultimate firearms finish". I don't have enough data points to confirm or deny that claim but I have to admit I have been very happy with it on my STI Eagle 5.1 (link is to a 5.0, the 5.1 is obsolete). The bluing on my Ruger P-89 wore off after a few years of use and the baked on black finish on my customized Remington 700 is easily scratched. The black anodized aluminum on my AR-15 appears to hold up well although it hasn't been exposed to nearly as much abuse as my pistols have.

After I got my STI back from being repaired it looked like one of those cars you see sometimes with a the hood a different color from the rest of the body and a door or two with still different colors. I took it to the range a put a few rounds through it to verify the functionality and the very next day sent it and several of my magazines to Robar for an NP3 make over.

When I called and asked how long it would take before I would get my gun back they said "we are currently running five to six weeks". It took four weeks to the day.

They disassembled the gun, stripped all the old finish off, and treated most of the internal parts as well as the external. Here is what they say about it:

What is NP3?
NP3 is a surface treatment for steel and metal alloys that combines sub-micron particles of PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene), otherwise known as Teflon, with electroless nickel.

NP3 - THE PROCESS
The application of NP3 is auto-catalytic, that is, not requiring any form of electricity. This process is preferable to standard electrolytic plating as all active surfaces are evenly plated, which is not the case with any electrolytically deposited coating. With Robar's well-equipped laboratory, coating thickness can be maintained to within .0002" or two ten thousandths of one inch, guaranteeing consistent quality coatings. With the PTFE evenly distributed and locked into the nickel-phosphorus matrix, NP3 is a true composite. If wear occurs, fresh particles of PTFE are exposed to keep the opposing surfaces lubricated throughout the life of the coating.

NP3 - THE ADVANTAGES

Very accurate and even coatings on all activated surfaces.

No lubrication is needed on opposing surfaces.

Cleaning is minimal, usually requiring only a soft cloth.

Permits firing for longer periods of time between cleaning, as dirt and powder residue has no wet or oily surface to cling to.

NP3 has a micro hardness of 48-51 Rockwell as plated (nickel matrix).

NP3 is very corrosion resistant, a 1 mil (.001) coating exceeding a 240 hour salt spray test.

NP3 has a high lubricity and low friction co-efficient; therefore, the life expectancy of a firearm will be greatly increased due to reduced friction wear.

The coating is strippable with no effect on the base metal, allowing other coatings to be applied or a new coating of NP3 to be applied, if necessary. 

NP3 plated onto stainless steel guns will prevent galling, a problem common with stainless steel.

NP3 is a satin gray, non-reflective color ideal for all firearms.

NP3 can be plated to all internal parts giving a smoothness to the action not found with any other coating.

In cases where the NP3 has been perforated, the corrosion shows no tendency to spread or migrate under the coating.

NP3 is guaranteed against corrosion, peeling or flaking for the lifetime of the firearm.

I think it looks great:

Before I use it for carry or competition I will take it to the range and do some more functional testing. When I got the gun back after getting the original NP3 finish I discovered the gun had a tendency to go full auto on me. I had to take it back to the gunsmith for some minor tweaking of the fire control system. I don't know if it was a disassembly/assembly error or the slick Teflon on some critical surfaces that caused it to misbehave.

If you have a gun in need of a new finish I strongly suggest you consider the NP3.

I carry a gun with me everywhere I can without getting in trouble. Since I sometimes work and play in some extremely dirty environments my carry gun gets very dirty as well (story for the picture below is here):

My Gun Blog 45 has been my carry gun while my STI was being repaired (see also here) and it has been exposed to my daily life. Perhaps I'm expecting too much or the dirt was too much but I'm disappointed in the finish. The paint is wearing off in a number of places:

It took 10 years to get a similar amount of wear in the NP3 finish (custom enhancement, not the default configuration) of my STI. To be fair there was another variable that may have contributed. Most of the holster time for my STI was spent in a leather holster. It may be that the hard plastic Blackhawk holster for the last two months contributed to the excessive wear on the Para gun.

* I didn't invent the phrase "Painted Ordnance" to mock Para Ordinance (now Para USA). I first heard that phrase from another blogger (who will remain nameless unless I have permission to reveal their name) who may or may not have stopped using it out of politeness. Since I, obviously, don't worry all that much about being polite I thought it appropriate to use the phrase for a blog post title.

'Tis a common observation here that our cause is the cause of all mankind, and that we are fighting for their liberty in defending our own.

Benjamin Franklin
[Although our fight for the right to keep and bear arms is just a small part of the total "liberty package" it is the essential liberty that enables all the others to be realized and to be held. For that reason our fight is like that of Franklin's day. It is a fight for the liberty of all mankind. Our cause is just and our cause is not just for the residents of D.C., Chicago, or New York. It is for the future of mankind. Will mankind be forever in fear of the next tyrant or thug or will the individual be able to defend themselves and their community against perpetual servitude?--Joe]

So even though I don't pay much attention to them it was hard to avoid hearing about "the criminals in the White house" and all the "criminal acts" and the charges of treason against the Bush administration. But what I don't get is why I don't hear anything about Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels when he does stuff like this:

A new city of Seattle gun ban takes effect this week - prohibiting firearms in places like city parks and community centers.

But the law is already generating controversy with many asking is this new rule truly enforceable? Washington state Attorney General Rob McKenna and some community gun advocates say, no.

"What this does is put Seattle on a collision course with state law," says Dan Sytman, the Attorney General's office spokesperson.

The questionable deeds that Bush administration did at least had prior approval from the U.S. Attorney General's office. Nickels is doing something that all legal advisers, except the city lawyer who found a contorted rational, say is illegal.

So where is the outcry from the left?

Apparently they don't really care about politicians engaged in illegal acts. They just wanted to remove their political opponents by whatever means possible. Having their own politicians commit illegal acts on their behalf is just fine.

See also what Ry has to say on the topic.

So, do you still give chemistry lessons on the white-board in your office?

Suresh Parameshwar
October 15, 2009
[See also another time when I quoted Suresh.

Suresh was my mentor at Microsoft when I first started working there full time. Almost two years ago he left Redmond to go back to India (still working for MS). He was back in Redmond this week on business and stopped by to visit friends. A bunch of us had dinner at our old boss's house last night and stay up talking until almost midnight.

Before he went back to India on more than one occasion Suresh and I had discussions about explosives and I explained the chemistry to him on the white-board.

The above question was one of the first things he said to me when I saw him last night.--Joe]

The tepid response by Missouri to this episode is frankly appalling. If no record of who produced and approved this trash exists, then the entire leadership who was working at MIAC at the time of this report being drafted and issued should be fired and barred from future law enforcement service.

Bill Wilson
President Americans for Limited Government
October 15, 2009
ALG Blasts Missouri Information Analysis Center For Retaining No Records of Erroneous MIAC “Modern Militia Movement” Report
[H/T to Dave Hardy.

Remember the "Modern Militia Movement" document that came out last February? Well via a Freedom of Information act request they say the don't know who wrote it or approved it. They don't even have anything but a draft version of that document.

Typical. I have FOIA requests to Pacific Northwest National Labs that were supposed to be answered within 20 days and it's been, what, 2+ years and they haven't done anything but acknowledge receipt of the requests. Then there was the one request I involved my congressman, a lawyer, and the DOE on and documents that I originally wrote which were completely open suddenly became For Official Use Only. But in order to tell my lawyer that they revealed material that was classified as Secret -- without telling him it was classified.--Joe]

Last Saturday daughter Kim, her husband Caleb, and I went to the Boomershoot site to deliver the last of the supplies (we still need a few thousand rubber bands but I'll wait on those) for Boomershoot 2010.

We only needed a couple more concrete blocks but I bought a bunch extra. It turned out we used all the extras and then some when I thought of a new project we could do while there.

Caleb finished up setting the steps down to the "well" in concrete. We had originally thought the hard dirt was sufficient footing but in the wet spring the steps became unsteady. This should fix the problem:

I soldered and taped the electrical connections to the new solar panel. Kim and Caleb put in the new screws that hold the panel to the side of the shed while I went and got the bulldozer.

Kim also folded several hundred more target boxes:

We now have 1595 boxes folded and ready for the event. All of our crates are full (except for one):

The plan is to fold another 500 or so after we use up targets on the Friday and Saturday evening High Intensity shoots.

I pointed out to Kim and Caleb where I had cleared some brush a few weeks ago to make a "parking area" and then later thought it would be better used as a tent site if I had only thought of it sooner. They thought the tent site was a great idea and Kim said she might even go out there camping "just for the fun of it". Caleb suggested a fire pit would be a good idea too. That was when I decided I didn't really have a choice anymore. I had to go get the cat and make the tent site.

The ground was incredibly dry. At times it was like working with flour (or as Caleb said, "Sifted potassium chlorate") and very dusty.

Kim and Caleb make a fire ring with nearby rocks in the area I had cleared which was the proper ATF specified distance from the explosives magazine:

I then thought of another thing we could do. I could make a toilet out of the extra concrete blocks we had! I dug a hole with the cat around the corner behind some trees and brush. Even down about four feet the ground was dry as a bone.

We will probably put up a tarp for better privacy when we have our entire Boomershoot crew or a private event out there. I plan to plant some trees or shrubs to make the tarp unnecessary.

We then stacked the concrete blocks into the proper shape:

We filled in around it and planted grass everywhere we had dug up the ground. I'm hoping we get some rain soon so the grass will get started a little bit this fall.

The other things we got done was that Caleb replace few broken stepping stones and added some more to our work area outside the shed and I winterized the pump and repaired the sabotage we blame on "The Dwarf" who lives nearby.

I wanted to call the simple toilet "Kimberly's Throne" but for some reason I was vetoed on that. She said I could build her a real throne if I wanted. But a "[deleted] cold concrete" toilet didn't cut it.

Note that L.A. gangs are notorious for rejecting diversity and multiculturalism, according to LAPD estimates. The most numerous gangs are Latino, with 22,309 non-diverse members, and blacks (Crips and Bloods), with 14,515 non-diverse members. Rumors that white, oriental and other gangs will be filing Title VII discrimination charges could not be confirmed at press time.

Alan Korwin
October 13, 2009
1,400 arrest 46
[If such a lawsuit were actually filed it would probably cause me to spontaneously break out into giggle fits for a month.--Joe]

No tyranny is so irksome as petty tyranny: the officious demands of policemen, government clerks, and electromechanical gadgets.

Edward Abbey
[I'm not so sure about the electromechanical gadgets but the other stuff strikes a nerve with me.

I'm reminded of this by the ammo sale restriction bill just signed into law in California. It's more than just irksome, but it isn't so dangerous or infuriating that it's worth starting a civil war over.--Joe]

John Fogh offers this advice from John Holschen:

Believing that the 5.56 “stopping power problem” is solved by a different bullet and/or cartridge is likely delusional in my opinion.

This statement doesn't stand on it's own because I'm pretty sure a 16" shell from the Missouri is an instantaneous (for all practical purposes) man stopper. Just the muzzle blast will kill. But that's the nit-picky engineer in me. And besides, Holschen qualifies it as referring to handheld firearms:

The stopping power “problem” is based on the misconception that there exists a hand-held firearm which can instantly terminate hostile behavior (reliably and repeatedly).

But the most interesting part to me was the conclusive evidence that:

...[A] BG was hit 12 times with an AR at a range of 9-12 yds.

• 10 rounds struck his torso producing fatal damage to his liver, spleen, heart and both lungs.
• 1 round struck his right femur fracturing same (and starting his fall toward the ground.)
• 1 round entered through his left eye and destroyed a significant portion of his brain (this was the last shot according to forensics but they noted the BG was already falling at the time this round hit him.)
• The shooting was captured on both video and (separate) audio recordings. The elapsed time from the LEO’s first shot to his 15th shot (total rounds fired) was just under 5 seconds.
• During those 5 seconds the BG continued to fight, firing 6 rounds from a .357 revolver.

The LEO fired three rounds per second and got 12 of his 15 shots on target and one of those was a head shot, all while being shot at by the bad guy. Impressive. Had he been shooting a .30 caliber rifle I doubt he could gotten near as many shots on target in that time frame. What this may mean is that in a similar event the .30 caliber rifleman would have put only two or three shots in the target and the BG stopped his attack in the same amount of time.

So which caliber has more "stopping power"? Remember, you can double the effectiveness of any bullet by putting another round through your target.

I often find that true wisdom comes from simple stories, and one of the great story tellers was the one called Jesus of Nazareth.

According to the writer known as Luke, Jesus was traveling through the borderlands of Samaria and Galilee on a journey to Jerusalem. He stopped in a village and told his listeners a story about a widow and an unjust judge.

He said that in a certain town there was once a judge who cared nothing for God or man. There was a widow in that same town who constantly came before the judge demanding justice against her opponent.

For a long time the judge refused to grant the widow justice. But in the end he said to himself, “True, I don't fear God or care about men, but this widow is so great a nuisance that I will see her righted before she wears me out with her persistence.”

In this simple story there is a great political lesson that is often easy to overlook. The persistent widow is a reminder to those who seek justice that we should never lose heart. We must continue to press on, and will be rewarded if we do so.

Michael Beard
October 12, 2009
Wear Them Out
[Good advice. The anti-gun bigots have nothing but hate and fear to sustain them. That is very draining. It saps their energy. It is depressing. It is lonely. It is a very anti-social mindset. They are very unhappy people.

Freedom loving people have a myriad of social outlets and rejoice in competitions. They acquire new skills. They learn about the mechanics and physics of simple but incredibly clever and precise machines that can propel small pieces of metal at Mach 3+ across distances that take you 10 minutes to walk and hit objects that are impossible to see at that distance with the naked eye. They hunt and bring food home to their families. Guns are part of the Olympics. What do the anti-gun people have to show to compete with the thousands of competitive events each year and the Gold, Silver, and Bronze metals that are recorded in the permanent history of mankind? Nothing but news releases that dance in the blood of innocents killed and maimed by criminals.

The People of the Gun know history is made with guns and love to learn that history. They know it is guns in the hands of everyday people that keep the would be tyrant from attempting to gain power and brutalize them, their family, and their neighbors because they happen to have the wrong skin color, the wrong religious beliefs, wear glasses, or own property. They know the gun is civilization and although it can and has been used for evil it is far more often used for the protection of innocent life and property against those that do not respect life or the property of others.

Because gun ownership is a positive thing it makes it easier for us to be persistent over the long haul. The Million Mom March was founded in August 1999, reached their peak in May of 2000 with, according to their own (probably inflated) numbers consisted of nearly one million people. Now they don't even have a website of their own -- http://www.millionmommarch.org/ redirects to the Brady Campaign. They were a flash in the pan because it's hard to hold onto hate for very long. The Brady Campaign is 35 years old but even after merging with the MMM have so few adherents they don't even bother to have a way to join their organization. They have nothing to offer prospective members except hate and fear. The NRA is 138 years old and has thousand of instructors, millions of members, a history of competitions, they helped blacks protect their communities in the darkest days of the KKK, they teach hunter safety, and helped Great Britain prepare for the expected invasion from Germany in WW II.

Make the most of that persistence. The other side frequently has an unfair advantage with the assistance of a duplicitous press and their own willingness to twist the truth and ignore the facts but our numbers, our love of people and freedom, and our righteousness give us the long term advantage. They made a big play for the win during the Clinton years and many or even most gun owner rights activists thought the bigots had won. But they ran out of steam and we are now winning.

Let's keep doing what we do best. For some people that will be a great gun blog, mocking those that hate freedom, playing the political game, teaching new shooters, teaching experienced shooters to be better than they ever thought was humanly possible, getting good press for gun owners, or it might be just being a proud and responsible gun owner who takes a new shooter to the range every once in a while.

Michael Beard is right that persistent is important and that characteristic will enable our eventual win. But I suspect it was some sort of Freudian slip that resulted in that recognition of his. Michael Beard is on the losing side of this epic struggle for freedom. He recognized the persistence of his opposition and envies it.--Joe]