The View From North Central Idaho

The successful imposition of "gun control has not stabilized Guatemala politically.  In effect, "gun control" ensures that only the wealthy may lawfully own firearms.  However, they tend to settle political problems with firearms.  What the "gun control" laws achieved -  some 90 years after the first such was enacted - was to clear the way for mass murder.

Lethal Laws -- "Gun Control" is the Key To Genocide
Page 229
by Jay Simkin, Aaron Zelman, and Alan M. Rice
Copyright 1994
ISBN 0-96442304-0-2

The 2005 edition of the Federal Firearms Regulations Reference Guide provides information designed to help you comply with all the laws and regulations governing the manufacture, importation, and the distributions of firearms and ammunition.

Carl J. Truscott
Special Message From the Director
Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives
Washington, DC 20226
ATF Publication 5300.4
[With nearly 250 pages of Federal law and regulation it appears either I or someone else misunderstand the meaning of "shall not be infringed."  I can think of better ways to help me comply than publishing this tome.--Joe]

I got an email from someone that works at the Hanford site for an organization other than Pacific Northwest National Laboratory which has close ties to Hanford as well.  He said Boomershoot.org is blocked from his work.  Interesting....  I must have quite a reputation.  Or else I just flatter myself.  I'm not sure which. 

I know it is blocked from Xenia's school.  I don't know the reason there. 

A friend who works at Cingular told me, "The website was blocked because of relating to Violence..."  I'm insulted by that. 

Although I forget who it was someone told me it was blocked from their work access because of related to criminal activities or some such thing.  Now that I am really insulted about.

I like to think these things are, as I suggest in the FAQ, because some Puritan is afraid that someone, someplace, is having fun.

Background:

• Why not think for yourself?
• A question for my readers
• My decision

I received an email from FirstName today.  She sent me the response she would like me to post.  She asked that I give her my opinion of it before I posted it.  I emailed my opinion to her and I include it here:

I detect a little bit of "sucking up" to me in your response--but not so much that I'm going to "take points off" for it.

I believe her response will be a worthwhile footnote to her writing career.  And for the record, her response to my comment was: "...there was no sucking up whatsoever...I meant every word I said."

The following is from FirstName:

Imagine you’re on top of the world…an honor student, an opinion columnist, a sorority sister, with amazing friends and a loving family…ready to take on the rest of the world ahead of you with strength and unlimited potential. And then on one ugly day in March, your world comes crashing down…and you learn that you’re unemployed at the only place that ever gave you hope, depth and honor.
 
I am an avid writer with a crazy passion for words, and I was given the opportunity to share these words, my words, with thousands of listeners. My opinion wasn’t typically respected in College Station, but this only made me stronger and more excited to write.
 
Needless to say, my time as an opinion columnist was short-lived because I blatantly cut corners. I made one of the biggest, ugliest mistakes in my life, and I undeniably regret it every single day. My facts were not well-researched and my context certainly overshadowed my opinion. I know years from now no one will even remember this happened, but I know it will haunt me forever. I am ashamed, I am remorseful, and I have paid a weighty price.
 
After much hesitation about emailing Joe about the whole situation, it turned out to be probably one of the most enlightening experiences I’ve had with someone who has contrasting opinions. Joe told me a story about the board of directors at his company who were searching for a new CEO…they wanted someone who had made a major mistake in their life for this poignant reason:
 
“People that went through life without making any mistakes or without realizing they had made a mistake were more likely to make a major mistake in the future.  They tend to think of themselves as "charmed" and/or infallible.  They trust their instincts too much.  They will charge ahead despite evidence that the path is doomed to failure.  They cut corners because they got away with it in the past.  If you really have realized you made a mistake more serious than getting caught then you may be a better person for having made that mistake.”
 
These words of Joe’s (and my other academic credentials) may be the only faith I have to hold on to in hopes of succeeding after graduation. This May, I am moving out of Texas, and hopefully moving on with my life...I am taking this chance to start over in a (hopefully) forgiving world.
 
I know I screwed up, but I am an honest woman with a good heart…and I have learned an incredible lesson. I appreciate Joe’s constructive criticism and insight, and I thank him for giving me this opportunity.

Update: September 18, 2006. I removed the actual name of the plagiarist and substituted FirstName LastName after she asked me to remove her name, wrote an apology, and I waited what I considered was a reasonable period of time.

I normally would have waited another week or so to mention more Boomershoot blog posts but this is a special occasion.  I forgot one posting last time and today I noticed the first ever negative posting.

• Exercising the right...
• HOW THE NEXT ELECTION WILL BE "WON"

The second one is the negative one.  And Boomershoot is just a extra brain fart from a barking moonbat that can't stay on topic.  Here is the most of the relevent text:

IT'S APPARENTLY CALLED BOOMERSHOOT AND AS FAR AS I CAN SEE IT IS ONLY FOR THE TOTALLY BRAIN DEAD. NOT THAT ANYONE WHO STOPS BY HERE FITS THAT CATEGORY OF COURSE. NOLA IS STILL A RUIN AND WE HAVE TWATS SPENDING LARGE CHUNKS OF CASH ON SHIT LIKE THIS. THE WORLD IS A SAD PLACE INDEED.

[shrug]  I left a comment thanking him for the free advertising.  It probably won't be approved but it was worth a try.

Thanks to this pointer from Raymond I can now stop stressing on why it's called WiFi.  The "Wireless Fidelity" answer just didn't sit well with me but I never bother to go searching for a better answer or rub someone's nose in the obvious nonsense name.  Cory Doctorow gives us the real story.  WiFi isn't short for anything.  I feel so much better now.  Thank you.

I checked with Cingular, Inland Cellular, Qwest, T-Mobile, and Verizon. Only Inland Cellular and Verizon have coverage at the Boomershoot site. Inland Cellular is analog only. Last year I had coverage with my AT&T phone. I switched over to Cingular and now have nothing. I will get a cell phone just for the event and give the number out to all attendees.

Gun bans, knife bans, surveillance cameras everywhere, and now the National ID Card has passed both the House of Lords and Commons.  There were some compromises made that may allow saner minds to prevail before implementation but it's still bad news.  No good can come of a National ID card.  The U.K. is making significant progress toward a police state.

Could you imagine the laughter that would result if people claimed the slippery slope of gun control would result in banned knives?  A political world where "assault weapon" bans include not just pistol grips, folding stocks, and bayonet lugs but kitchen knives is just ridiculous, right?  Wrong.  Check out what is happening in the U.K.:

A team from West Middlesex University Hospital said violent crime is on the increase - and kitchen knives are used in as many as half of all stabbings.

They argued many assaults are committed impulsively, prompted by alcohol and drugs, and a kitchen knife often makes an all too available weapon.

The research is published in the British Medical Journal.

The researchers said there was no reason for long pointed knives to be publicly available at all.

...

The study found links between easy access to domestic knives and violent assault are long established.

French laws in the 17th century decreed that the tips of table and street knives be ground smooth.

A century later, forks and blunt-ended table knives were introduced in the UK in an effort to reduce injuries during arguments in public eating houses.

The researchers say legislation to ban the sale of long pointed knives would be a key step in the fight against violent crime.

"The Home Office is looking for ways to reduce knife crime."

"We suggest that banning the sale of long pointed knives is a sensible and practical measure that would have this effect."

...

Home Office spokesperson said there were already extensive restrictions in place to control the sale and possession of knives.

"The law already prohibits the possession of offensive weapons in a public place, and the possession of knives in public without good reason or lawful authority, with the exception of a folding pocket knife with a blade not exceeding three inches."

"Offensive weapons are defined as any weapon designed or adapted to cause injury, or intended by the person possessing them to do so."

"An individual has to demonstrate that he had good reason to possess a knife, for example for fishing, other sporting purposes or as part of his profession (e.g. a chef) in a public place."

"The manufacture, sale and importation of 17 bladed, pointed and other offensive weapons have been banned, in addition to flick knives and gravity knives."

I'm having difficulty modeling what is going on in these peoples minds.  Making a knife is not like building a Pentium 4 integrated circuit.  You can't shut down a few factories and expect knifes to disappear from the hands of people.  How long have people been making knives?  Something on the order a million (or two) years, right?  Do these people believe the technology for knife making can be restricted?  Do they believe if they ban knives people will stop making them?

The best model I can come up with that there is some sort of mass insanity that has taken hold of these people.  We've long known that anti-gun people have mental problems.  When these people have achieved their goals of banning guns the mental problems don't go away--they merely find a new obsession and knives are the most visible target.

I just noticed an interesting search hit on my blog.  Someone in the Texas Attorney General is researching Tannerite.  It doesn't look like it was a casual search either.  They looked as deep as the first 60 Google hits.

I'm not a lawyer but from my reading of the law in some states the use of Tannerite is illegal without special licensing.  The Tannerite web site appears to claim this is not true.  If you use Tannerite please get a legal opinion you can trust before using it in your political jurisdiction.

Domain Name state.tx.us ^? (United States)
IP Address 204.64.42.# (Texas Attorney General)
ISP STATE OF TEXAS GENERAL SERVICES COMMISSION
Location

Continent	:	North America
Country	:	United States  (Facts)
State	:	Texas
City	:	Austin
Lat/Long	:	30.2779, -97.7379 (Map)

Language English (United States)en-us
Operating System Microsoft WinXP
Browser Internet Explorer 6.0 Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
Javascript version 1.3
Monitor 

Resolution	:	800 x 600
Color Depth	:	32 bits

Time of Visit Mar 29 2006 6:42:35 am
Last Page View Mar 29 2006 6:44:43 am
Visit Length 2 minutes 8 seconds
Page Views 1
Referring URL http://www.google.co...en&lr=&start=50&sa=N
Search Engine google.com
Search Words tannerite
Visit Entry Page http://blog.joehuffm...08-89f4fcb3a234.aspx
Visit Exit Page http://blog.joehuffm...08-89f4fcb3a234.aspx
Out Click  
Time Zone UTC-6:00
Visitor's Time Mar 29 2006 8:42:35 am
Visit Number 70,181

Nowadays a citizen can hardly distinguish between a tax and a fine, except that the fine is generally much lighter.

G.K. Chesterton
1992 Daily Curmudgeon Calendar

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld participated in the ceremony.  I can't imagine what Jason's mother, Katy, is going through.  She has been a lifelong "Peace Activist" and even now goes on peace marches.  At the same time she is doing an excellent job of supporting her son as he recuperates and is honored by all these people who are who her political enemies.

A naive writer is advocating gun control in the student newspaper at the University of Pennsylvania.  My responses:

In the comments:

Just one question, "Can you demonstrate just one time, one place, throughout all of human history, where restricting the access of handheld weapons to the average person made them safer?" If no, which I'm certain is the result, then I have to question your motivation for advocating restrictions on personal defensive tools.

Joe Huffman
E-mail: dailypenn@joehuffman.org
Occupation: Software Engineer
Location: Redmond Washington

Via email:

To the Editor: Just one question on gun control

Regarding "Rachel Truchil: Gun control will stem homicide uptick"

Restrictions on firearms is an appealing approach to violent crime but you have to ask yourself just one question, "Can you demonstrate just one time, one place, throughout all of human history, where restricting the access of handheld weapons to the average person made them safer?" The answer is no. With all of the gun control laws throughout history it cannot be conclusively demonstrated even one has made the average person in that political jurisdiction safer.

With that result you must realize that restrictions on weapons means you are preventing innocent, law abiding, people from obtaining the means to defend themselves from violent predators. I'm certain this is not the intended results. Please reconsider your calls for gun control. You are only creating a safer environment for the people that will obtain illegal guns as quickly and easily as people currently find access to illegal recreational drugs.

See http://blog.joehuffman.org/2004/12/15/Just+One+Question.aspx for more details.

Joe Huffman
Voice: 208-301-4254
University of Idaho '77
University of Washington '85
Senior Software Engineer

Rejecting Islam is insulting God. We will not allow God to be humiliated. This man must die.

Abdul Raoulf
Islamic cleric, who is considered a moderate.
March 24, 2006
LifeSiteNews.com
[This attitude is something the entire world must address.--Joe]

As pointed out to me by Ry in this post about plagiarism, a hot topic around these parts lately, apparently the AP has a policy of not citing bloggers as a source:

the AP apparatchiks admitting to taking our work and using it without attribution, stating "we do not credit blogs".

Emphasis in the original.

I can't imagine why it is but for some reason I now have this image in my mind of an approach a friend of mine was inclined to implement in a different situation. 

We had a former mutual friend (let's just call him "Walter") that we were in business together with.  He sold out the company and walked away with several million dollars while my friend, my brother, and many other co-workers, and I got nothing--even our contracts for royalties on the products we owned and were being sold by the new company (lets call it "Symantec") were worth nothing.  Symantec and it's slime ball president (lets just call him "Gordon Eubanks") wouldn't allow us to audit the books even though our contracts said we could.  It was this event along with election of Bill Clinton (spit, spit), and the events of Ruby Ridge that inspired me to take up guns, and later explosives, as hobbies.  Anyway I ran across a shirt at a gun show that I just had to buy.  Not for me but for my friend that was still on speaking terms with "Walter".  I showed the shirt to him and asked him if he would like to have it.  "YES!" was the immediate reply.  I told him I would give the shirt to him on one condition.  The next time he saw Walter he had to be wearing the shirt and he had to tell "Walter" that I had given him the shirt.  "Deal."  It wasn't long before he came up with an alternate delivery method for the "message".  My friend said the proper delivery would be to attach the shirt to the front door of "Walter's" new multi-million dollar house on the lake with knife driven through the shirt like a large tack.  To the best of my knowledge the message wasn't delivered in that fashion although I derived a great deal of pleasure over just the thought of it.

For some reason that same message and the same delivery method are what comes to mind when I read what the AP apparatchiks policy is in regards to crediting blogs.

And what was the message on the shirt you ask?

The only reason some people are alive is because it's against the law to kill them.

There are only six shooting positions left for Boomershoot 2006.  Get your entries in really soon if you want to participate.

Here is the latest word from the bloggers that have mentioned Boomershoot 2006:

• Blow Shiite Up
• Range Report
• Decision Made...
• Decisions...

Ry tells us of the solution that you just know is the Microsoft way.  The City of Redmond, in their infinite wisdom and oneness with Mother Earth, has declared that when new office buildings are built that only 70 parking spaces may be created for every 100 offices.  This is to encourage car pooling, public transit, and bicycles instead of the evil, single passenger, internal combustion engine.  The Microsoft solution?  Valet parking for their employees.  The parking garage physically has enough space for the cars if the lanes between the parking spaces are utilized as well as the parking spaces.  The valet service parks the cars wherever there is empty space and shuffles the cars as necessary to allow people in and out of the parking spots.  Of course it is a waste of resources to pay all these people to just shuffle cars when the people driving the cars would have been happy to do it themselves.  But the City of Redmond made that a necessity and simultaneously made themselves looks like fools--which they are.  Yeah for Microsoft--demonstrating the law of Unintended Consequences to the pinheads in the City of Redmond government.

Now if Ry's wish is granted and Microsoft builds a facility in Orofino Idaho I'd be really thrilled.

Background:

• Why not think for yourself?
• A question for my readers

Thank you to everyone that commented, sent email and talked to me about the case.  It was very helpful.  Yesterday afternoon I sent FirstName LastName my decision.  I told her that I would post or provide a link on the post to a statement by her.  She could say whatever she wanted. She could say I am mean, hateful, SOB, or she could say she screwed up big time by taking a short cut because she was under a time deadline but learned her lesson.  Regardless of what she wrote, on the second year anniversary of my post I would remove her name from all the postings.  If I was particularly impressed with her statement I might remove her name earlier.

She responded saying she felt writing an explanation would "be even more incriminating".  Below is part of my response:

"more incriminating"? You are way past the point of plausible deniability. You committed the "crime." It's impossible to deny it to any rational person even if you were to try. In my opinion you would be better off to write an essay explaining what you have learned and why you won't be committing "crimes" again. If your prospective employer reads only the evidence against you they may be believe they would be taking a great risk by hiring you. If you can explain that you would be less likely than someone else to make a similar "mistake" in the future perhaps you would be considered a more of an asset than a liability as their employee. You may be less inclined to look the other way when someone does something wrong--because you, more than others, understand the shame of being part of some immoral act.

FYI no one I have talked to, especially my wife, believes it was a "mistake." Many of the sentences you used were almost word for word that of the Brady Campaign. You cannot have believed that wasn't plagiarism. Had you quoted some numbers from a discredited research paper without checking them that would have been a mistake. You did worse than both. You used the words of a admittedly biased (as is the NRA) organization and represented them as your own.

I don't know if this will really "sink in" or not and the name Robert Heinlein probably doesn't mean anything to you anyway. Mr. Heinlein was a science fiction author that influenced me a great deal as I was growing up. In one of his books a character said the following and I wrote it down in my personal collection of memorable quotes. When my first child was born I wrote a computer program to select one quote at random and display for me when I booted up my computer. I wanted to be reminded of various things and try to instill that knowledge in my children. Here are a couple Heinlein quotes that I think are applicable in your case:

If it can't be expressed in figures, it is not science; it is opinion.

And the one that inspired me to collect the quotes to begin with:

Do not handicap your children by making their lives easy.

I think you will be better off by composing an apology, an explanation, and why it won't happen again--unless you don't think you can do that with sincerity. If not, then you will never get a chance to explain. Your resume will be thrown out before you are ever given a chance to tell them what you have learned from your foolish actions.

I have not heard from her since I sent her that email at 5:01 PM last night.

Update (03/29/2006): There has been several emails from FirstName that I haven't reported on.  Two of them since this posting was made.  She now says:

Of course I want to write something...otherwise, everyone will only know yalls side of the story. I appreciate the chance to do this, to explain myself, to attempt to move on...

But I do feel like Ive said a lot to you about the whole situation in my emails, and you seem to only post the stuff that makes me sound like I don't care.

I will write something short & sweet, and I hope I can slowly but surely put this all behind me.

Your time spent on all your emails, your advice, your encouragement, everything... has all been taken to heart. I sincerely appreciate it. Expect my response no later than Friday.

Thank you Joe,

FirstName

The religion of Islam is one of tolerance, therefore, if he recants his Christian faith, he will not be executed.

Ansarullah Mawlazezadah
Trial judge in the case of Abdul Rahman an Afghani former medical aid worker and Christian convert from Islam.
March 24, 2006 LifeSite

The same thing that always happens when people without guns go up against people with guns.

Eric Finch
A character in the movie V for Vendetta.
[James and I simultaneously turned and looked at each other, for the only time during the movie, when this line was spoken.  After the movie James said, "I'm surprised they had the balls to make that movie."--Joe]

I do not believe that a lasting peace is achieved by armed force but I pay tribute to their courage and thank those who played a part in my rescue.

Norman Kember
British hostage held in Iraq for almost four months.
March 25, 2006
After being rescued by British, Canadian, and U.S. military forces.
[Mr. Kember apparently thinks we are still at war with Germany, Italy, and Japan.--Joe]

The gun control lobby has done a pretty good job of misleading people. They’ve been predicting doomsday since these laws started. For some, it took 46 states to approve it to see that it hasn’t materialized.

Chris Cox
National Rifle Association’s chief lobbyist
Answering the question, "So what took Kansas so long to pass a concealed weapons law?"
Kansas to allow hidden weapons, March 24, 2006
Kansas City Star

Wendell Joost, a friend of mine, is a NRA firearms instructor instructor instructor. Yeah, he trains the people that will train NRA instructors.  As you might imagine he is a strong advocate of self defense.  He recently gave the following speech in his run for office and I thought it would be appropriate to share with a little larger audience.  He agreed and so here it is:

The first corpse that I ever saw was Bud Kramer.  His murderer hit him over the head with a baseball bat, poured gasoline on him and set him on fire.

Bud Kramer was killed because he was gay.

Harvey Milk, Roxanne Ellis, Michelle Abdill, Matthew Shepherd.  All killed because they were gay.  Martyrs for a cause.

Seattle Gay News ran an article this week about a community forum at the LGBT Community Center.  They will be discussing the need to revive Seattle's Q Patrol because of concerns about escalating violence against gays and lesbians in our community.

After Matthew Shepherd was killed, Jonathan Rausch wrote in Salon Magazine, "We have tried to make a political virtue of our vulnerability but the gay bashers are not listening."

Who here has been out and heard, "Hey, faggot!"

The first time I heard it, I ran - fast.  Ten years later, I heard it again. This time, I laughed.  There were 8 of them and 2 of us, but we had them outnumbered.  They were loud and obnoxious, we were quiet, polite and armed.

I have been a certified pistol instructor for over 10 years.  In Washington State, it is easier to get a concealed pistol license than a drivers license.

If you want to help stop gay bashing, get training, get a permit and get a gun.  Let's make gay bashing dangerous.  If they can't tell which one of us is armed, they won't mess with any of us.

As Washington State Mr. Leather, I will host self-defense seminars in Seattle, Bellingham, Spokane, Vancouver and anywhere else people want self-defense training.

Let's make gay bashing dangerous to ensure that we have no more martyrs.

Background: Why not think for yourself

The person in question sent me an email on Tuesday asking that I remove her name from the post.  Basically saying she lost her job almost immediately (a year ago) at the college newspaper over her "mistake" and has now paid a sufficient price.  She is about to graduate, is looking for a job, and when Googling for her name my blog shows up.  She doesn't want her mistake to haunt her for the rest of her life.

Question: Should I remove her name from my posting?  Elaborate on your answer.

I have my own inclinations but want the thoughts of others.

Thanks.

Update: FirstName responds.

Update2: September 18, 2006. I removed the actual name of the plagiarist and substituted FirstName LastName after she asked me to remove her name, wrote an apology, and I waited what I considered was a reasonable period of time.

We just don't think that unelected bureaucrats and people in the Attorney General's Office should be making the decision about whether I can protect myself.

John J. Thompson
Lobbyist for the Delaware State Sportsmen's Association
March 23, 2006
Testifying before the Delaware Legislature on concealed weapon legislation.
The bill was passed by the House Public Safety by a vote of 4-2.

There seem to be but three ways for a nation to acquire wealth: the first is by war, as the Romans did, in plundering their conquered neighbors-- this is robbery; the second by commerce, which is generally cheating; the third by agriculture, the only honest way, wherein man received a real increase of the seed thrown into the ground, in a kind of continual miracle, wrought by the hand of God in his favor, as a reward for his innocent life and his virtuous industry.

Benjamin Franklin
[As a farm boy I would like to agree with this but times change and Mr. Franklin did not have perfect foresight of those changes.--Joe]

Barb and I had lunch with my parents on Sunday.  We stopped by the Boomershoot site on our way home so I could measure the shooting line in both the .50 BMG and smaller caliber shooting areas. 

I have plenty of room for all the .50 BMG shooters as well as the people with 'normal' guns.  I currently have only 11 out of 60 slots left with at least one more entry "in the mail" so I expect Boomershoot 2006 will be completely filled.  The shooting line will be over 250 yards long which reminds me that I need to get some handheld air horns for the range officers.  The battery powered horn worked fine when the line was only a couple hundred feet long but it just can't be heard well enough 100 yards away.

The site is still very wet with ducks swimming in the standing water in the field, and the grass is still brown from the winter.  But for the middle of March it's doing fine.  But with the clouds it made for a nice picture from the shooting area:

Most people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do so.

Bertrand Russell
[I'm specifically thinking of people in favor of gun control but it applies to freedom haters of all types.--Joe]

I have a minor glitch with the ATF regarding the locks I'm using on the Taj Mahal (my explosives storage magazine for Boomershoot).  I was pretty annoyed with things but I tried not to let it show in my email to Crystal--my contact at the Spokane office.  It wasn't her fault and from my vantage point it appeared she was doing everything right.  My email was polite but she was smart enough to read between the lines and gave me a call about two minutes after I pressed send.  We had a nice chat and I think we are on the path to getting things all straightened out.  She gave me suggestion on a "last resort" means to make do with what I have if I can't get through all the bureaucracy in time.  It was something I had pretty much planned on doing anyway with a minor twist.  And I didn't know that it would be officially sanctioned as a means to get around my problems.

If you have differences to work out with the "jack-booted thugs" it's best to get things straightened out over the phone rather than having their SWAT team explain things to you at 3:00 AM.  Crystal has done a good job of keeping me from getting a visit from her friends on the other side of the hallway and I'm grateful for that.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is just another east coast barking moonbat saying something stupid about guns:

...he has offered up a diatribe questioning the sincerity on Capitol Hill, warned against the erosion of First Amendment rights and renewed his push for tighter federal gun control.

What happened here?  Did he stop reading after reading the First Amendment?  Did he drop out of school before he got to the Second Amendment?

From the same article, when asked whether he wants to run for president:

Which letter of the word 'No' do you not understand?

On that same line of thought... Mr. Bloomberg, which word of "shall not be infringed" do you not understand?

This study shows that the District's ban on handguns and assault weapons works to prevent youth suicide by keeping guns out of D.C. homes. The findings highlight the sheer lunacy of Congressional efforts to repeal D.C.'s tough laws. Congress would virtually be writing a death sentence for some young people by repealing District laws that are working to prevent youth suicide.

Kristen Rand
Violence Policy Center Legislative Director
From the July 12, 2005 Press Release: New Study Shows District of Columbia's Tough Gun Laws Work to Prevent Youth Suicide
[Ms. Rand neglects to mention the total suicide rate in D.C.  I guess it doesn't matter if you kill yourself by slitting your wrists or with a drug overdose.  And also of apparent no concern is that the murder rate in D.C. is extremely high despite, and many would say because of, the severe restrictions on firearms.--Joe]

Ry came over last night and helped move my blog over to my new high bandwidth web host.  The original intent was to get my photo album moved over.  But we failed that task after a couple hours of attempts.  More research is required.  Having the blog moved was a worthwhile accomplishment however.  As I sit here and watch the blinking lights on the network switch for the old host they only blink occasionally as compared to constantly before we moved all 23 of my (and my family's) domains and a similar number for Ry off of this machine.

Assuming you have a fairly high speed connection yourself my blog and all my websites (except for joehuffman.org/*) should load much faster than they did a week ago.  And except for my photo album all the joehuffman.org contents can be accessed off of the high speed site via http://www.joehuffman.info.

Although I mention it on my blog occasionally (such as here) if you spend much time around me in person you will find this is really a hot button for me.  CBS spells it out in greater detail and to a much wider audience.  Keeping bomb making materials off of planes is not practical:

Between October and January teams of undercover federal investigators walked through various airport checkpoints carrying common household items in their bags. By themselves the materials were not bombs. But they were ingredients which could have been mixed together in an airplane restroom to make an IED, an improvised explosive device.

Because the GAO report is classified, officials will not identify the airports involved or the "household items" that were part of the test. But, security sources confirm, screeners using wands, x-ray machines and explosive trace detectors all failed to find the potential bomb-making materials.

The Department of Homeland Security questions the validity of the test, saying in a statement that the threat revealed is only "hypothetical."
"While random items commonly found under a kitchen sink could conceivably be concocted into an IED... we find it highly implausible," the statement reads.

I seem to recall there were people, prior to September 11th 2001, that said the hijacking of airplanes and flying them into building was only hypothetical too.  But all parties in the article miss the correct conclusion.  The correct conclusion is that airplane security as we presently know it is a waste of time and money.  There are better ways to expend our security resources.

Insights is offering Y2K compliance testing for firearms systems.  You bring your guns to class and we go out on the range.  Then we set our watches to January 1, 2000 and we see if everything still works.

Greg Hamilton
Insights Chief Self Defense Instructor
February 6, 1999
[A reminder that frequently the simplest tools are the most reliable.  Compare the 911 system to a .357 or even the more complex 1911 system.--Joe]

A family member recently returned from Bolivia points out that they do not seem to have a gun problem in that country. They have what may be the ideal gun control laws - there are none. Additionally, cocaine in various forms is available on the open market, and they do not have any trouble with drug lords.

Jeff Cooper
From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries
Vol. 4, No. 16
December 1996

From the Philadelphia Inquier:

Members of the Million Mom March and CeasefireNJ will hold a rally in Trenton on Saturday, the third anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. The antigun advocates' mission: to point out that while New Jersey has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation, shooting deaths in its major cities surged last year.

These people are delivering our message--gun control doesn't work to reduce crime.  It's just another example that these people have mental problems.  Someone needs to ask them Just One Question.  I also love how they somehow tie in the invasion of Iraq.  Their minds are just a jumble of mixed up emotions and are nearly totally lacking rational thought.

I'm asking everyone that will be shooting a .50 BMG to let me know in the next few days.  Even if you have already told me before I would like another email.  I need to allocate spaces much more carefully this year and I need to make sure there is enough room for the .50 Caliber guys.

You probably haven't noticed but the Boomershoot website is now on a very high bandwidth 'pipe'.  Videos, sound, and pictures should load much faster than before.  Downloading Boomershoot History 2004 (~140 MBytes) is almost reasonable under certain circumstances.

Things still on my list of things to do:

• Buy a box of large plastic gloves for mixing the chemicals
• Buy the cardboard boxes for the target containers
• Figure out how many .50 BMG shooters I can handle
• Chose a winner for the t-shirt slogan
• Create the t-shirt images for Boomershoot 2006

More Boomershoot blogging:

• AMERICA!
• Boots
• Stuff done...
• Boeing Employee's Rifle and Pistol Club Meeting
• Blogads
• Ready, Aim... BOOM!
• Lemme see, this about sums it up.

Since the Second World War many more people have been killed as victims of domestic massacres and partial or total genocides than by international war.  State-perpetrated massacres are a greater danger to the world community than war itself.

Professor Robert F. Melson
University of Chicago
Revolution and Genocide

What does it take for Americans to do great things; to go to the moon, to win wars, to dig canals linking oceans, to build railroads across a continent? In independent thought about this question, Neil Armstrong and I concluded that it takes a coincidence of four conditions, or in Neil's view, the simultaneous peaking of four of the many cycles of American life. First, a base of technology must exist from which to do the thing to be done. Second, a period of national uneasiness about America's place in the scheme of human activities must exist. Third, some catalytic event must occur that focuses the national attention upon the direction to proceed. Finally, an articulate and wise leader must sense these first three conditions and put forth with words and action the great thing to be accomplished. The motivation of young Americans to do what needs to be done flows from such a coincidence of conditions.... The Thomas Jeffersons, The Teddy Roosevelts, The John Kennedys appear. We must begin to create the tools of leadership which they, and their young frontiersmen, will require to lead us onward and upward.

Dr. Harrison H. Schmidt
Sen., New Mexico
[If we succeed in bringing democracy, capitalism, and peace to the Mideast then in the years to come this will be considered such a "great thing".--Joe]

...this is something we’ve got over the Europeans: the ability to organize a friendly outing of shooting rifles at targets packed with home-made explosives out in rural Idaho is our birthright.

On the other hand, in Cambodia, for the right fee, you can shoot an RPG at a live cow. So there’s that to consider.

Outlandish Josh
March 13, 2006
In his blog posting AMERICA! 

Millions for charity but not one cent for gun-grabbing church bureaucrats!

John Snyder
Press release from St. Gabriel Possenti Society (Patron Saint of handgunners)
Titled: Stop Gun-Grabbing Church Bureaucrats with Pro-Gun Coupons in Church Collection Baskets

As I mentioned last week (and here) I interviewed for two different positions and both groups were interested in hiring me.  Our son James interviewed with two other groups with the same company the Friday before (March 3rd).  Then last Friday (March 10th) James got an email saying both the groups he interviewed with were also interested in him and he has to make a decision between them.  And no, I didn't have anything to do with him getting the interviews nor did he interview in the same groups as I did.

James will graduate from the University of Idaho with a B.S. in Computer Science this spring (currently he has a 4.0/4.0 GPA) and so it's not surprising he would do well on the job interview front.  We are very proud of him and assuming he accepts an offer from them we will be pleased he will be working close by.

Xenia is back together with her old boyfriend, John.  Much to my surprise one of my favorite jokes, calling him "Xenia's John", has gotten old for some people in our family.  I can't imagine why this is but I'm willing to abide by daughter's wishes.  He does seem to be a pretty nice kid and I don't have any objections to him dating my daughter.  Being that I'm not all that good with social skills I need some hints on dealing with new social situations.  I am therefore very pleased to see Xenia post in her Live Journal detailed information on how to make someone feel part of the family.  I would have never have guessed.  I can't wait to follow Zanita's lead in making John comfortable in our house.

You don't hurt 'em if you don't hit 'em.

Lieutenant General Lewis B. Puller
USMC
1962
From Marine Corps Quotes
[Making a case for accurate rifles and ammo?--Joe]

Arms in the hands of citizens may be used at individual discretion...in private self-defense.

James Madison

I make a fortune from criticizing the policy of the government, and then hand it over to the government in taxes to keep it going.

George Bernard Shaw
1992 Daily Curmudgeon Calendar
[Sometimes life is a bummer.--Joe]

That’s kind of like the ACLU giving people who believe in freedom of speech a D in the First Amendment.

Linn Armstrong
A National Rifle Association handgun instructor
Grand Valley Colorado
March 10, 2006
After the Brady Bunch gave Colorado a 'D' grade on "gun safety".

I got a call from a recruiter for one of the jobs I interviewed for this week.  She said both groups want me.  The company policy is that the two groups won't compete for me.  I have to choose which job I want and then that group will make me an offer.  "Most people would kill to be in your position" she said. 

One of my fellow contractor co-workers is all bubbly and just gushing over the situation vicariously.  She can't figure out why I'm not jumping up and down in excitement.  I'm not entirely sure why I'm not.  It's not really my personality type.  Although there have been events which got me pretty excited when my goals were realized (the audio of one is here the background is here).  And other thing is that I have to make a choice and disappoint someone.  Maybe it's not that big of a deal in the big scheme of things but it's important to me.  I told both groups I wanted the job, which is true, but I have to tell one of them that I want another group more than them.  I'm "rejecting someone".  That's not pleasant for me even though I know "the company" is not the same as a person and holds zero compassion toward individuals in the cases where the situation is reversed.  It's not really rational but it's the way it is.  Barb and I have talked about similar things before.  As we learned again with the bigots at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory we have too often given our employers more loyalty and more of ourselves than they deserve.  I expect this will happen, at least to a certain extent again here.  I'm hoping to stay here until I retire but I had similar plans at PNNL before I found out the depth of their bigotry extended to them being willing to commit felonies against me.  I have friends at this company and it will be easy to settle in and be at ease but I'll try not to give so much of myself that it will not be so incredibly painful if I have to move on for some reason.

Another issue is that I probably don't have the doubts some people do about whether they are "good enough".  I was pretty sure I had what it took.  I just needed a chance where people could overlook my age and my history with PNNL.  I'm climbing back up the ladder and getting in a position to deal with the bigots.  I have the drive, the smarts, and strength of will to deal with almost any obstacle put in my path.  Reaching this goal isn't a surprise to me.

So to sum up my late night ramblings I think the bottom line is that even though I'm not bubbling with happiness I'm content.  I wouldn't kill to be here because I knew wouldn't be necessary for me.

Be wary of strong drink.  It can make you shoot at tax collectors--and miss.

Lazarus Long
A character in Robert Henlien's book Time Enough for Love

Yesterday I arrived at 8:45 and left at 17:40.  Nearly nine hours interviewing for a new job.  I'm not sure how many people I talked to.  In my mind they merged into a blur of coding tests on the white-board.  "Write your own version of malloc() and free()."  "Implement a function that converts a ASCII string into a floating point number."  "Reverse the order of the words in a string.  Do it in place--without allocating more memory."  "Find the first unique character in a string."  "Write the test cases for your code."  "What is the big O of your solution?  Can you do it better?"  Those are just the ones I remember.  My right arm went weak from writing on the white-board for so many hours.  I remember the easiest question though.  "What gets you up in the morning?"  "My wife", I answered.

Update: I've been getting calls and email asking how it went.  It went well.  Only the smallest of glitches.  The 8.5 hours of interviews with eight different people today in a different group was generally easier except for one technical question that I severely crashed and burned on. 

And the toughest question yesterday?  "Show me a cure for spam email.  You have 45 minutes."

Reno tells us that the weapon is totally safe, the finger was off the trigger.

I now know I'll never need a trigger lock if I just keep my finger off the trigger.

"Lee Enfield"
Regarding the raid the took Elian from his relatives and back in the hands of his Cuban father.

The Liberals are the flying saucers of politics. No one can make head nor tail of them and they never are seen twice in the same place.

John G. Diefenbaker

They are pulling the plug on the gun and gun owner registry in Canada and the nationwide long gun registry (handguns have all been confiscated--except those owned by the criminals) in the UK can't get off the ground after ten years.  Details are here:

Dunblane gun crackdown 'a failure'

ALMOST a decade after the Dunblane massacre, ministers have been accused of an "abject failure" to crack down on the number of firearms in circulation. Tories have joined Labour MPs, gun-control campaigners and peers in condemning the government over the National Firearms Register, which was promised after Dunblane but will not be delivered for at least another year.

The need to establish a searchable, nationwide computer system to track those who hold firearms licences was established after Thomas Hamilton's murderous attack on Dunblane Primary School on March 13, 1996.

Several investigations, including the inquiry led by Lord Cullen, found disparities in the records of legally held firearms maintained by police forces across the country. Hamilton had legal certificates allowing him to own the guns.

Legislation paving the way for the register of certificates was rushed through Parliament during Tony Blair's first days in office in 1997, but the project has since become bogged down by a succession of technical problems.

The Home Office and police chiefs have since reversed the plan for a standalone firearms register, opting instead to link it to the Police National Computer. That will not happen until March 2007 at the earliest.

More details are here:

Pilots highlighted "data quality issues" which have yet to be ironed out, much to the anger of campaigners such as Dr Mick North, father of five-year-old victim Sophie.

Chief Constable Bernard Hogan-Howe told the Jonathan Dimbleby programme that there had been "great progress" in gun control but admitted that 10 years was "too long" for the register.

He said: "I understand that they've had two pilots and we're told that there are IT problems to actually resolving it, but I'm with Dr North in the sense that 10 years on, this is too long.

"We want it, there's certainly no resistance from the police service to have it and clearly what we do need is a register of all the people with a licence and we certainly need a register of those people who have applied for a licence and had it refused because the danger is they apply to one force, fail, and then re-apply to another."

The establishment of a searchable database of everyone who holds a firearms certificate, or who has ever applied for one, was one of the central demands of the campaign for greater gun control that followed the Dunblane massacre in 1996.

It was promised by Prime Minister Tony Blair to members of the Snowdrop Campaign, set up by victims' families to call for tighter gun controls.

About £5.5 million has so far been spent on setting up the register, which will be piloted once again in May.

"Great progress" in gun control?  They make that claim when the number of crimes committed with guns has skyrocketed?  Oh yeah, I forgot that's not how they measure progress.  They measure progress by how few people can legally own firearms, not how often guns are used criminally.  These people have mental problems.

This delay is yet another example of Home Office inability to operate computer systems, and if they cannot get a relatively simple system for a firearms register like this to work so many years after such an awful disaster, what hope is there for the vast system needed to make identity cards work?

Alistair Carmichael
Orkney and Shetland MP
March 5, 2006
Dunblane gun crackdown 'a failure'
News.Scotsman.com
[There is no hope of a system of national identity cards working.  If you have doubts read this.--Joe]

I should sooner live in a society governed by the first two thousand names in the Boston telephone directory than in a society governed by the two thousand faculty members of Harvard University.

William F. Buckley, Jr.
Literature
Rumbles

We were recently treated to a bizarre exchange between a hapless Englishman and some BATchick in some front office in Washington. Our English friend was inquiring about bringing his arms into the United States, and was told that he could not import a Peacemaker (Colt Single-action Army) because it had no "legitimate sporting purpose!" Now, apart from the fact that "legitimate sporting purpose" is a blatantly unconstitutional interpretation of the Second Amendment, it is apparent that these poor souls who are confined to the District of Columbia cannot keep up with the times. Clearly the girl involved had not heard of the proliferation of "Cowboy Action Shooting." I stuck my oar in to tell her that this sort of bureaucratic behavior gives ignorance a bad name. I guess I can expect the black helicopters any night now.

Jeff Cooper
From Jeff Cooper's Commentaries
Vol. 5, No. 5
April 1997

I'm all for religious tolerance as long as they are also tolerant of others.  I'm intolerant of intolerance.  The Supreme Court of Canada just made an important ruling with an 8-0 victory for freedom and tolerance.  I think it's time for some Canadian gun owners to start a new religion to "push the envelope" just a little bit more for the cause of freedom.  Here are the details on the ruling:

For nearly five years, Gurbaj Singh has argued that he has a legal right under religious freedom to wear a ceremonial dagger to school.

The Supreme Court of Canada now agrees with him.

In a unanimous 8-0 decision yesterday, the top court sided with Singh, now 17, that a Montreal school board went too far in banning his wearing of a Sikh kirpan, stating that it is an infringement on religious freedom that "cannot be justified" under the Charter of Rights.

The Illinois State Rifle Association walloped the Brady Bunch, etc. yesterday in a news release:

The very foundations of the gun control movement were rocked today by the results of a survey taken by the National Association of Chiefs of Police (NACOP). In a nutshell, the survey shows that the nation's top law enforcement officers believe that average citizens can be trusted to responsibly own firearms; that criminals ignore gun control laws; and that concealed carry laws reduce crime.

These revelations come as a stark contrast to gun control movement propaganda that asserts that police officials feel that our streets would be safer if law-abiding citizens were disarmed.

Specifically, the survey revealed that 93 percent of chiefs and sheriffs felt that citizens should be able to purchase firearms for sport and self defense; 73 percent opposed so-called "one gun a month" laws; 96 percent believed that criminals ignore gun control laws and; 63 percent supported laws that allow citizens to carry defensive firearms as a means to control crime.

The complete survey can be found here.

Keep the pressure up.  We need to politically exterminate these bigots.

For them, a gun is a symbol of power and potency... The gun has replaced the spear as a phallic symbol.

Peter Mwaura
Nairobi
The Nation
Owning a Gun Sign of Power And Success
February 25, 2006
[I get rather annoyed at people that believe they can read the minds of others and invariably fail.  This guy is no exception.  In all likelihood it is Mwaura that has the mental problems.  Thanks to Jeff for the pointer.--Joe]

By the time of the nation's tricentennial, there will be more government workers in the United States than there are workers.

Norman R. Augustine
From: "Defense Systems Management Review"

I have tears coming down my cheeks from laughing.  This is so funny to me.  A bunch of kids doing something dangerous--following the law.

People with Asperger get annoyed, angry even, with people who don't follow the rules.  To have other people get angry because someone else is following the law and inconveniencing the law breakers is just so sweet.

Thanks to Sean who sent it to me with the subject line "More hope for today's youth."

Long story made short: There is a new version of Modern Ballistics available here.

Long story made long:  As many of you know I wrote the exterior ballistics program Modern Ballistics.  I had the free demo require a license to be updated once a month by contacting server which kept track of how many computers were using the demo.  The user interface to the server had a limit of 100 computers using any copy of the software at a time.  It turned out that more than 100 people were using the demo in a month and new users couldn't test out the software.  This happened just as I moved everything to a new computer and was in the middle of converting my code to use a new compiler.  I had deleted the old compiler off the old computer and I had no way to fix the problem people were having.  Last night (early this morning actually) I got the new build of the program tested.  To get things out quicker I just made the demo not require connecting to the server at all.  Then I had to update the installation process and test it.  Then I had to update the website.  I finished up about 0200 this morning.  Download the latest version here.

Let me know if you run into any bugs. The testing was rather "thin".  In particular I am concerned about it working on various operating systems.  I only tested it on Windows XP and XP-x64.  I have a Win98 and Win95 available at home but I'm not home now.  Send an email to bugs@modernballistics.com if you notice something broken.  Thanks.

I'm not praticularily surprised to see the average barking moonbat saying guns used in a murder are going to hell.  But when the leader of a nation says "they're evil" you have to wonder what kind of insanity has taken hold of an entire nation.  The story is here:

PRIME Minister John Howard tightened gun laws after the Port Arthur massacre because he did not want Australia going down the same path as the US, he said today.

Mr Howard, on the eve of his 10th anniversary in office, said today the nation's grief over the 1996 Port Arthur massacre had been a great opportunity to tighten Australia's gun laws.

"I would call that very definitely an extraordinary outpouring of amazement and grief in this country and I knew out of that there was an opportunity to grab the moment and think about a fundamental change to gun laws in this country," he told the Nine Network.

Mr Howard said he did not want Australia to adopt the American stance on guns.

"I did not want Australia to go down the American path," he said.

"There are some things about America I admire and there are some things I don't.

"And one of the things I don't admire about America is their ... slavish love of guns. They're evil."

And you, mister Prime Minister, are irrational.  Answer Just One Question.

And one of the things I don't admire about America is their ... slavish love of guns. They're evil.

John Howard
Prime Minister of Australia
March 01, 2006
The Australian