Guns destroy and kill and they are a threat to our democracy.

Judy Bassingthwaighte
Director of Gun Free South Africa
January 24, 2006
http://www.thestar.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=129&fArticleId=3079045
[I always find projection interesting. Guns are what protect the people from a government turning tyrannical and she gets it precisely backward. I remember having a conversation with one woman who totally agreed the press was extremely biased. But she believed it was biased against liberals. Projection is just one of many tools utilized by anti-gun bigots with mental problems.--Joe]

Kevin Baker at The Smallest Minority and a couple of other guys put in a lot of time trying to talk sense into some bigots over the last couple of days. I just lurked until today. I finally posted my Just One Question--which of course went unanswered.

Then the bigots attacked a gun owner that reported an instance where he felt he was about to be attacked by a couple of young men. He put his hand on his gun and without drawing it faced the young men down. They went away without incident. Then the bigots claimed the incident never occurred or that if it did the young men were just probably "asking if you want to buy a ticket to a school's charity event." That pissed me off. My response:

I find it quite interesting that someone that was not a witness to the alleged event concludes the event did not occur without producing any facts of their own or pointing out any inconsistency in the reporting of the event. Apparently they believe they have some sort of ESP that allows them to remotely view the event in the past without knowing the exact location or time of the event. Very impressive...

Or perhaps it's just another bigoted statement against a gun owner. Dismissing their statements out of hand simply because they reported facts that are uncomfortable to the bigot.

Gun owners are the niggers/gays/Jews/pick-your-minority of the 21st century. What would your reaction be if the some politician demanded you be registered because of the color of your skin, your choice of sexual partners, or your religion? What if you were not allowed to freely associate with others of your kind without reporting it to the government (gun show laws present in some states)? What if you were subject to special investigation and discrimination in your employment if you spoke up about these infringements of your rights outside of work and on your own time? What if there were organizations that were openly advocating your extinction from society despite clear constitutional and statutory protection? What if the courts ignored the constitution and the laws supposedly protecting these minority? What if the bigoted politicians that, by law (check out 18 USC 242), should go to jail are instead regarded as “progressive” and “innovative” and are reelected again and again? What if people said you "are all empty scrotum shriveled dick creeps who need guns to bolster some sad sense of masculinity"?

That's what it's like to be a gun owner today. That is why we are so sensitive and why we are so dedicated. It's because our culture is being threatened with permanent extinction by bigots who don't care what the facts are. Bigots who can't answer Just One Question.

It's a waste of my time. It's jousting with windmills, so to speak, but it made me feel better.

Weekend before last I had the joy of spending a little more time with my wife and remaining child at home when they came over to the Seattle area on Thursday night and stayed until Monday. Xenia tells the story with pictures.

Demonstrating that gun owners and gun owner rights activists are always helpful and informative Jeff Knox at the Firearms Coalition sent out this email requesting that we participate in a survey to help educate Sarah Brady and friends. It sounds entirely reasonable to me. I enjoy teaching others about firearms and the law. Here is the invite from Jeff:

-----Original Message-----
From: Firearms Coalition
Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2007 11:30 AM
Subject: [Fcalerts-list] Brady Survey

Please reply to feedback at FirearmsCoalition.org (using appropriate email format). 

Sarah Brady is sending supporters a link to an on-line survey asking
them (as a faithful friends) to answer the questions and help guide the
Brady Campaign in their dealings with Congress and state legislatures.

Being a democratic guy, I feel compelled to share this with others
concerned about the gun control issue so the Brady's get a very clear
picture of just what the public really thinks about their issues.

Just like the surveys often sent out by pro-gun groups this survey is
more about fundraising than actually seeking anyones opinion.  Please
answer the survey and consider following through on their fundraising
appeal by writing a check to your favorite gun rights group.  We at the
Firearms Coalition would be very proud to receive donations in honor of
Sarah Brady.

Follow this link and answer Sarah Brady's survey:

http://www.bradynetwork.org/site/PageServer?pagename=SRV_2007GeneralLegislativePrioritiesSurvey

The "Name", "Address", and "Email" request at the top can be left blank.

If you enter an e-mail address, they might put you on their mailing list
so you can keep tabs on their activities.

Please pass this on and post it wherever you can.  I'm not sure Sarah's
servers can handle the traffic we can generate!

Yours for the Second Amendment

Jeff Knox
Director of Operations
The Firearms Coalition

On-line contributions to the Firearms Coalition can be made at
www.FirearmsCoalition.org or mailed to:

The Firearms Coalition
Box 3313
Manassas, VA  20108

Ms. Dewey has been reported on before but I decided to test out how she handled the topic of guns. I did repeated searches for "gun" and I was rather pleased in how she handled it. Plenty of snark without being anti-rights.

Similar satisfactory results came with searches for:

• keep and bear arms
• 2nd Amendment
• gun control
• Violence Policy Center
• Million Mom March
• Brady Campaign the Prevent Gun Violence
• explosives

Of course I expect lonely geeks will spend lots of time asking her sexual questions. I'm happy to report I spent less than an hour doing that.

After much discussion and thinking about it I have decided we can’t allow tracers. At previous events, even though the ground was very wet, there have been several occurrences where tracers started fires in the grass. If those tracers had landed in the woods just a couple hundred yards to the east and started a fire it would be the end of Boomershoot. Sorry about that.

Saturday I got wireless internet service (Wifi) implemented at the Boomershoot site. The signal isn’t all that strong but it is useable except for positions about 65 through 70. The parking area except for part of the .50 caliber area is fine too. I might be able to improve things some but I won’t know for a month or so. Because it is via satellite the ping times are rather long. The typical ping time from there to Boomershoot.org was about 1400 milliseconds. The specs on the service are:

Up to 512Kbps downstream
128Kbps upstream

Fair Access Policy threshold limits (monthly):
7,500MB Download
2,300MB Upload

What this means is that with a few dozen people using it things are going to be rather slow. Checking email and light blogging is going to be fine but uploading or downloading videos is out. We also need to be a little bit careful that we don’t exceed the monthly limits. The access point is unencrypted and has the SSID of “Boomershoot”.

I’ve been investigating the possibility of doing a night time Boomershoot on Friday night (something like 21:00 to midnight) the 27th. The answer is still up in the air. The blocking issue is the late night noise. I’ve been talking to some of the neighbors and I’m hoping to come up with a conclusion in a couple weeks.

Poor Lefties; they've been playing on astroturf so long that they don't know grassroots even when fed a mouthful of divot.

Tamara K.
February 27, 2007
Boomsticks: I hadn't seen this yet...
[Yup. Just like it is a "special interest group" when the NRA, with four million members, gets it's way on some legislative issue. But it's "the people" that are represented by the Brady Bunch, with only a couple hundred thousand member, gets their way.--Joe]

Battelle (PNNL) has 40 days from the day we served them to respond to our interrogatories. If I did my day counting correctly that means we are due the materials this Saturday. I'm quite anxious to see what they are going to deliver.

Kevin Baker.......Is the name of your blog "How to win friends(Converts) and influence people.com?" Nice attitude Dude! I got your ignorance hanging right here.

R.L.
February 26, 2007 2:32 pm
A comment in response to this comment by Kevin:

Well, it's nice to finally find out where all of you "moderate" gun owners congregate. Those of you who seem to believe that there are "good" guns and "bad" guns, and that somehow you can compromise with the side that thinks that the U.S. needs to be like Japan.

I invite each and every one of you to come to my blog. I'd love to discuss the topic with you, since you don't apparently grasp the intent of the Constitution in general, and the Bill of Rights in specific.

Let me see if I can make you understand with the short version: The other side wants them all, and will do it in a death-by-a-thousand-cuts process if that's what it takes. The Second Amendment isn't about hunting or "sporting use" and it never was. And if the gun ban groups are successful here, America will make Britain's experience look like a day in Disney World.

If you don't believe this, if you aren't informed as to what's going on, if you think you can "compromise" and that it's OK to throw one group of legal gun owners under the bus so that you can keep your "bambi-zapper," or "daffy-blaster" you're wrong.

The sheer ignorance exhibited by most of you in this comment thread is staggering.

[Kevin is probably the least ignorant blogger I know. The irony that R.L. can claim to deduce Kevin is ignorant without having ever visited Kevin's blog leaves me once again unable to explain it any other way that blatant bigotry. And of course this crowd of bigots don't realize they are being bigots even as they say gun owners "are all empty scrotum shriveled dick creeps who need guns to bolster some sad sense of masculinity".--Joe]

I did a little bit of roping with the cattle we had when I was growing up on the farm. And I've seen a lot of deer, some of which I have been close enough to rope, but it has never occurred to me to consider it. Perhaps I unconsciously knew that wasn't a good idea. Or perhaps it was my parents, aunts, uncles, and grandparents that always gave a very simple, and what I always thought was cryptic rather than profound, answer to any suggestions of attempts to interact with non-domestic animals, "They're wild animals."

After reading this story and taking into accounts such as Deerslayer by Ray Stevens I'm thinking my most recent effort to reach out and touch a deer, with my .300 Winchester Magnum, is the most appropriate.

The Dunblane massacre was the spark that ignited the inferno that resulted in the banning of all handguns in the U.K. Thousands of people told them it wouldn't do any good. Now some of the most vigorous proponents of the ban are saying, "You were right." From the Sunday Herald in Scotland:

I allowed myself two simple, possibly simplistic, strategies. First, I was not ever going to attempt to "explain" Hamilton: the bereaved deserved better. Secondly, in my small way, I was going to take on anyone who failed to support the banning of handguns.

There was a lot of American comment, predictably, and much of it abusive. The clichés appeared as if by return of post. "Guns don't kill people," they wrote. "People kill people." So why - this struck me almost as the definition of self-evident - did Thomas Hamilton feel a need for four of the damnable things?

Then the Duke of Edinburgh, and the field sports people, and the target shooters entered the fray. The royal consort, with his usual sensitivity, expressed the view that things were getting out of hand, and that a more considered response was required. I can clobber royals in my sleep.

The most troubling questions came, instead, from those who answered my simplicities with one of their own. They didn't oppose a ban, as such. They merely wanted to know why I was so sure that legislation would work.

That seemed obvious. It even seemed faintly stupid to think otherwise. No guns, no gun-killings. Remove the threat: wasn't that one of the jobs of government?

Sceptics were more subtle than I allowed. What they meant was that it is easy to impose laws on the law-abiding. Criminals, by definition, don't take much interest in well-meaning legislation. If they chose to arm themselves while the rest of society was, in effect, disarming, outraged newspaper commentators and their quick fixes might merely make matters worse.

...

Let's concede that all the bans have failed. That doesn't mean we should also fail to ask a practical question. Britain has become a security state in recent years. Nobody strolls unmolested through customs these days. There are terrorist suspects, so they say, at every turn. So why, precisely, are handguns still getting into this country?

The answer to the practical question is that, in the technical terms of security experts, the attack surface is too large. There are just too many different ways to get past the barriers. It only takes one hole in "the wall". And if there is sufficient demand for a product the market will find a way to meet that demand.

The Second Amendment is not about duck hunting.

And I know I'm not going to make very many friend saying this. But it's about all rights. All of our rights to be able to protect ourselves from all of you guys up there.

Suzanne Hupp
Testifying before congress regarding the assault weapons ban.

[No wonder Schumer, briefly seen in the video, pushed for the ban. Ms. Hupp confirmed his worst fears.--Joe]

Two years ago I didn’t even know what a charging handle was. Today I am a NRA and JPFO member and train on a regular basis. I got the message loud and clear that I am responsible for my own safety. The Katrina webcams and blogs that skipped CNN beat me over the head with it.

Thus, my AWB glass right now is half-full. Let’s just do a Zumbo Roasting on Congress and call it a day.

Tony Pacheco
Friday, February 23, 2007 12:48 PM
In email sent to insightstraining AT yahoogroups.com
[We, as gun owners, can help with these conversions. Enable others to talk about guns by you talking about guns or displaying a target from your latest trip to the range. Enable others to make the change of state by offering to take them to the range and let them use your firearms.--Joe]

Earlier I wrote about the entertainment industry giving magical powers to firearms.  More recently, the Discovery channel, on their new program, Future Weapons, did a bit about an "actual" 1.5 mile, one shot hit from a cold bore using the new .416 Barrett.  The shooter was depicted as firing his first shot ever from that rifle and hitting his target (a circle of about 5 feet diameter) at 1.5 miles.  My skepticism lead me back to Joe's exterior ballistics program.  Since Barrett had just sent us a write-up and the specs on his new cartridge, all I had to do was plug in his numbers.  I allowed, again, for the most amazing velocity standard deviation of 5 feet per second, with a 1/2 MOA accurate rifle/cartridge combination.  I reduced the effects of the atmosphere by raising the elevation to 3000 feet.  I enlarged the target to a 12 x 20 inch ellipse (roughly the one-shot kill area of the human body) and still I came up with a probability of a one shot hit (any hit) of about 8 percent at 1.5 miles.  The hit probability at that range on a 5-foot circle is about 58%.  Time if flight: 4.05 sec.  Extremely good, but you have to push the accuracy of the system to the edge of believability to get it, and with a perfect marksman.  It's certainly not what we're being led to believe by the TV producers.

Barrett's specs for the .416:

      Muzzle velocity: 3250 fps

Ballistic Coefficient: 0.943

           Bullet Mass: 400 grains – solid copper

I want one!  I wonder if they're going to come out with some light varmint bullets for it, or some frangible defense loads.  Heh.

Gun control means being able to hit your target. If I have a 'hot button' issue, this is definitely it. Don't even think about taking my guns. My rights are not negotiable, and I am totally unwilling to compromise when it comes to the Second Amendment.

Michael Badnarik
Michael Badnarik on Gun Control
[If current trends continue in the race for nomination for 2008 presidential candidates I probably will vote Libertarian.--Joe]

Gay marriage may take some time to make it to all 50 states but just like the concealed carry of firearm reforms that swept the nation in the past decade we are now seeing gay marriage start a relentless march. New Jersey has now decided that the gay cooties (thanks to Say Uncle for turning me on to that phrase) aren't all that big of a concern. See also my other posts on this topic:

• I've been wondering when someone would make this point
• The consequences of gay marriage
• This is going to make their heads spin
• Gay marriage in Washington State
• Gay marriage lawsuit in Iowa
• Gay marriage in California
• California Court Rules Same-Sex Marriage Ban Unconstitutional
• Gay marriage is spreading
• Looking back at my predictions
• Gay marriages in MA
• Bush calls for Constitutional amendment prohibiting gay marriage
• Gay marriage and the disintegration of the Democrat party
• Gay marriage in MA is inevitable

I'm reminded of a quote pointed out to me by Kevin Baker:

Basically, I figure guns are like gays: They seem a lot more sinister and threatening until you get to know a few; and once you have one in the house, you can get downright defensive about them.

Teresa Neilson Hayden

Ry pointed this out to me. Absolutely applicable to my situation with PNNL. A ruling that appears to be exactly what we want. It covers what we regarded as the weakest point of our case:

A federal district court has just applied this principle to hold that Ohioans — even ones employed by private employers — are presumptively protected from being fired for off-employer-property (and presumably off-duty and lawful) possession of guns. The case is Plona v. UPS, 2007 WL 509747 (N.D. Ohio Feb. 13)

Update: I posted a comment on the blog the above was posting on. I received this very interesting comment:

A. Zarkov (mail):

Joe Huffman:

Very interesting but not at all surprising. The national labs, including Los Alamos, Livermore, Oak Ridge, Berkeley, Brookhaven etc have been notorious for trampling on their employees. Don’t trust them on discovery. One of those labs got caught red-handed destroying documents they were supposed to turn over as part of discovery. While it hurt their court case, they got away with it.

When, in the mid 1990s, PNNL (operated by Battelle Memorial Institute) defrauded the government, fired the whistle blower, and then got caught they had to pay triple damages. Not just the original amount of fraud:

The Department of Justice announced today that Battelle Memorial Institute has agreed to pay the United States $330,000 to settle allegations it used government-owned equipment to service commercial customers in violation of a federal contract.

...

After the DOE Office of the Inspector General began an investigation in 1992, Battelle reimbursed the government $110,000 for unauthorized use of certain spectrometry equipment from 1988 through 1992.

...

The False Claims Act provides for the recovery of treble damages suffered by the government and penalties for each false claim submitted.

I had original believed they just paid back the amount of the false claims.

I'm hoping they soon become very tired of hearing the phrase "treble damages".

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H. L. Mencken
[I've been reading about the proposed law regarding an "assault weapon" ban. I note with a certain amount of amusement Congress-critter McCarthy specifically calls out the Olympic Arms PCR as an "assault weapon" in the proposed legislation. I wonder if she knows "PCR" stands for Politically Correct Rifle.--Joe]

Ice that burns:

Very cool.

Video here.

If we mine the ice off the polar caps, then burn it to power our cars, run our factories, and to heat our homes does that count as an "alternate energy source" to the tree huggers? What does it all mean for "global warming"? Shouldn't it be considered an "all natural" energy source?

Microsoft is donating $1.00 to Seattle's Children's Hospital (worthy cause, one of our kids spent several days there and we were very happy with the care provided) every time you use their search engine at this link.

I probably get more pleasure out of this than I should but having "The Gun Guy" stop by to read about his mental problems is pretty amusing to me. Also worthy of a chuckle is that for his search word "gunguys" my blog posting about him comes in at #10 on Ask.com and Lycos.com and #8 at Yahoo.com.

Domain Name		verizon.net ? (Network)
IP Address		71.113.146.# (Verizon Internet Services)
ISP		Verizon Internet Services
Location		Continent  :  North America Country  :  United States  (Facts) State  :  Illinois City  :  Bloomington Lat/Long  :  40.4698, -88.9474 (Map) Distance  :  1,459 miles
Language		English (United States) en-us
Operating System		Linux UNIX
Browser		Firefox Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.0.9) Gecko/20070209 Fedora/1.5.0.9-3.fc6 Firefox/1.5.0.9 pango-text
Javascript		version 1.5
Monitor		Resolution  :  1024 x 768 Color Depth  :  24 bits
Time of Visit		Feb 21 2007 8:37:23 am
Last Page View		Feb 21 2007 8:38:46 am
Visit Length		1 minute 23 seconds
Page Views		2
Referring URL		http://www.ask.com/web?q=gunguys&qsrc=0&o=0&l=dir
Search Engine		ask.com
Search Words		gunguys
Visit Entry Page		http://blog.joehuffman.org/PermaLink,guid,ab13b335-b9c8-47a1-8475-98c728115a46.aspx
Visit Exit Page		http://blog.joehuffman.org/2005/06/15/Mental+Problems+Of+Antigun+People.aspx
Out Click
Time Zone		UTC-6:00
Visitor's Time		Feb 21 2007 10:37:23 am
Visit Number		135,485

Politics is my hobby. Smut is my vocation.

Larry Flynt
[In some ways I'm envious.--Joe]

It appeals to my inner electrical engineer.

Decades ago my brother and I made some pretty "healthy" sparks for tormenting various farm animals. We probably got zapped ourselves more than any of the animals but it was a lot of fun. This is way beyond "healthy". This is like "holy mother of immortal gods" quality of sparks.

Thanks to Brutal Hugger at Say Uncle.

I just receive an email from my hillbilly friend in Missouri. In addition to the exploding clays, the anvil launch, and the microwave demolition he plans to have machine guns for rent. Details will be available at a later time.

The next event will be May 19 and 20th. If you attend let me know what you thought.

It's just putting more nails in a coffin that was glued, screwed shut, and then had rocks piled on it years ago but here is more evidence gun control has failed in the U.K.:

Although the Metropolitan Police seized 909 firearms and more than 16,000 rounds of ammunition last year, no one knows with certainty how many guns are on Britain's streets. Only last Friday a wealthy businessman who controlled an international gun-smuggling operation from eastern Europe to London was jailed for 10 and a half years. Officers caught Gerald Smith, 47, handing over 18 converted Baikal pistols, 18 silencers and 748 rounds in north London last May. But such successes are relatively few.

Cressida Dick, the commander of Scotland Yard's specialist crime directorate, pointed to the ease with which guns can be rented overnight as an issue. She warned that guns are being moved routinely around Britain: 'We are seeing firearms being used in several different crimes and there are examples of different offenders using the same firearm across the UK.'

Yet they still think there is some debate to be made:

The spate of killings that began in broad daylight when 21-year-old Javorie Chrighton was stabbed to death at a bus stop a few minutes walk from where the meeting was held would, within days, lead to the current debate over whether Britain has lost its fight against gun control.

Inside the meeting hall at Peckham's Learning and Business Centre last week, speaker after speaker painted a picture of a community's misery since the murder of 10-year-old Damilola Taylor six years ago. There are new buildings, but little else seems to have changed.

Give it up guys. You lost. I know it's tough to admit you were wrong, especially when we have been saying since day one that it wouldn't work. But dealing with the embarrassment is not nearly as bad as dealing with all the innocent victims.

Barb had an epiphany this weekend. She announced it was because of me that our kids always question authority. They don't automatically believe anything their teachers, parents, or other authority figures say. She says it's because I lie to them all the time.

I thought this was a little harsh. Sure, I tell them lots of things that aren't true. But when I do it's so outrageous they should know it's not true. If asked, "Where is Leo (the dog)?" I'm just as likely to tell them, "I think there is still some left in the refrigerator." as I am to say Barb took him on a walk. Or, real example, when picking up Xenia after school three teenage girls got in the van rather than just one. They shut the door and as I pulled away Xenia said girl number two is coming home to work on a project for a while and asks if girl number three can get a ride to her home because it's raining, she didn't bring a coat to school today, and her dad doesn't have a car. I tell the girls, "No. I think she should walk home in the rain. If she gets pneumonia and dies it will just be Darwinism in action." As I head toward girl number three's home I look in the mirror to see the open mouth and shocked look on her face. Xenia gave me "the look" and translated for the others, "That means yes." It wasn't too much later that they developed a code word for Xenia to use to signal "Dad isn't serious."

This epiphany of Barb's came about after Barb and I took Xenia to the Seattle wharf with a first destination of the Ye Old Curiosity Shop on Saturday. On our way there Xenia asked what was there. "Shrunken heads", I told her. Xenia gave me "the look" and said, "No, really." I told her, "Mummies and shrunken heads." She wasn't satisfied with my clarification and announced, "You're smiling. I don't believe you." Barb backed me up but Xenia just wouldn't buy it.

As soon as we arrived at the shop I led Xenia to the back of the store and introduced her to Sylvester and Sylvia. After she adjusted to them I showed her the shrunken heads. "Now do you believe me?" I demanded. She finally, grudgingly, gave me her agreement that I was telling her the truth. Of course this made my day and I lorded it over her several times later during the day. She defended herself saying she it's hard to know for certain when I'm serious and when I'm just making stuff up. It was during one of these times that Barb had her epiphany. "That's why our kids question authority! It's because you lie to them all the time!"

Sunday night when we had dinner at Outback with James we told the story to James and he said he too would have "called bullshit" if I had told him we were going to see shrunken heads and mummies. He Xenia elaborated, "Dad, you say things exactly the same whether they are true or not."

Okay. So maybe it's true. I'll have take credit for raising such great kids. And all this time I thought it was because they just had great genetic material.

Nothing is as debilitating and disorienting as blowing chunks of heart, spine, and brain out of your opponent. Any goal other than a pure physical stop is crap IMO. I don't rely on my opponent being a pussy.

Greg Hamilton
Chief self defense instructor at Insights Training Center
Wednesday, February 14, 2007 2:22 PM
From the email list "insightstraining" @ yahoogroups.com
[Regarding points of aim in a gun fight.--Joe]

Jim Zumbo got roasted via multiple flame throwers then his bones were picked clean in a matter of hours. He said some incredibly naive (he's probably not stupid) things but the gun rights community could have handled it a little better. With his writings about hunting Zumbo contributed a lot to gun rights and, in the big picture, to destroy him was not productive.

Do you ever see such a feeding frenzy occur on the other side? They say some incredibly stupid/naive things too but the don't eat their own like just what happened to Zumbo. And because of that productive people continue to contribute to their cause.

I've seen some people make some public statements that I disagreed with. I've seen people make some public statement that I did agree with but thought were counter productive unless they were made to very small groups of people you completely trusted. I've made public statements that were counterproductive.

The way I handled them (and others handled them with me) was to approach the person in private and explain your position. In every case I have done this, even when the person didn't see things my way initially, they didn't engage in that particular counterproductive action again.

That is not to say that I haven't gone public with some pretty harsh words about people that were supposedly on our side but making a mess of things. But I don't think I have done anything that would take them out of the fight--our fight.

Destroying someone that is productive and, in the big picture, is contributing toward your goal is a luxury we don't have. We can use all the help we can get.

Jeff point this out earlier today but it really can't be given too much coverage. Kennesaw sticks to its guns: Law requires firearms

Next month, Kennesaw marks the 25th anniversary of what a local historian called the ordinance "that rocked the world."

Every head of household, the 1982 law states, must own a firearm and appropriate ammunition. It was passed, at least in part, in response to the actions of Morton Grove, Ill., which had just adopted an anti-gun ordinance.

...

Police agree. "We look at it as part of our crime prevention program," Graydon said.

Police cite Kennesaw's crime statistics, which show a community largely untouched by the worst offenses like murder, rape, robbery and assault.

On a per capita basis, the city's serious crime rate has plunged since the law was passed. The actual number of the most serious crimes has barely increased, even as the city's population has exploded from about 5,000 in 1980 to more than 30,000 in 2005.

If we can't control guns we should ban it.

Judy Bassingthwaighte
Director of Gun Free South Africa
February 19, 2007
If we can’t control guns we should ban it

[English is her second language so give her a break on the grammer. But still the concept is totally wacked. If you can't "control" them then you sure aren't going to be able to successfully ban them. She gets raked over the coals pretty good in the comments to her blog posting. It probably won't do any good in educating her, but at least it can enlighten others.--Joe]

Via Phil at Random Nuclear Strikes comes this story from the U.K. about another small step toward a police state:

Thousands of council staff are being trained to police the smoking ban in bars, restaurants and shops in England.

Ministers have given councils £29.5m to pay for staff, who will be able to give on-the-spot £50 fines to individuals and take court action against premises.

They will have the power to enter premises undercover, allowing them to sit among drinkers, and will even be able to photograph and film people.

...

But the council is also exploring the possibility of getting street wardens, who currently aid the local police force, to help ensure the ban is effectively enforced.

Steve Dowling, director of environment and public protection at Nottingham City Council, said: "We have about 100 wardens and they could keep an eye on whether people are smoking in pubs as they go about their other duties."

"But it is not just about pubs and restaurants. We will also be looking at the likes of car garages and shops are complying as well."

Does anyone remember what happened with all the "Revenue Agents" after the end of prohibition? Faced with unemployment congress passed a jobs creation bill to keep them employed. That piece of legislation is now known as the National Firearms Act of 1934 (NFA34, or just NFA). Something that most people don't think about is that people believed that in order for the Federal government to have the authority to ban the recreational use of alcohol they needed to amend the constitution. And the thinking after the repeal of the 18th Amendment with the 21st Amendment was that without a repeal of the 2nd Amendment congress couldn't prohibit gun ownership either. But what they could do was put a huge tax on certain guns. $200, the standard transfer tax specified in NFA was about six months salary in 1934. All those "Revenue Agents" now had a job to do. They had to collect those $200 transfer taxes on guns that sold for, maybe, $10.00.

Even if these street wardens and council staff, trained to "keep an eye on people", don't have their job functions removed by legislation more enlightened about the rights of property owners there is still a serious danger lurking. Since they are already watching, taking pictures, and reporting on "anti-social" behavior they will be utilized for other things. What will it be next? Will people that complain about the smoking ban get called in to answer some questions about their loyalty to The Crown? Or perhaps ten years from now it will gay lovers who hold hands or steal a kiss in the dark corner of bar that will be charged with a "crime against nature". East Germany had approximately one out of every 50 people as informers in the late 1980's just before their collapse. The U.K. has better technology and is now recognized as having the most surveillance of western democracies. 

Adding informers to assist their technological surveillance will come in quite useful when the next tyrant comes to power. You don't think they will get a tyrant in the U.K.? Maybe not anytime soon. But one never knows for certain what can happen in just a few years time. But what you can be certain is that the more power given to the state the more people that love power will be attracted to that centralized power. People that love power (why do I have these images of a certain Senator from New York flashing in my mind now?) use it to gain more power. They then exercise it to the detriment of a free society. Currently the U.K. is further down The Road to Serfdom than we are and just took another step ahead with the training of these informers.

It's not just Israel, Europe (H/T to Kim), or the United States that Muslim have problems with. Here is the latest from Thailand:

BANGKOK, Thailand — At least 23 bombs exploded Sunday in apparently coordinated attacks in parts of southern Thailand plagued by a Muslim insurgency, killing three people and wounding more than 50, the military said.

The bombings targeted electricity transmitters, hotels, karaoke bars and markets in the country's southernmost provinces, the only parts of predominantly Buddhist Thailand with Muslim majorities. Two schools were torched.

Violence in the south has been escalating in recent months despite a major policy shift by the military-imposed government, which is trying to replace an earlier, iron-fisted approach in dealing with the rebels with a "hearts and minds" campaign.

More than 2,000 people have died in the provinces bordering Malaysia since the insurgency erupted in 2004, fueled by accusations of decades of misrule by the central government. The insurgents have not announced their goals, but they are believed to be fighting for a separate state imbued with radical Islamic ideology.

Add things like the above to my listening material (audio books) in recent weeks:

• The God Delusion
• The Truth About Muhammad: Founder of the World's Most Int