The View From North Central Idaho

Today is a good day. I got the last of the new ammonium nitrate stored away at the Taj Mahal. I even had room for one more bag:

I wasn't watching really close since I was on vacation and it will take me a little bit of effort to figure out exactly when Boomershoot 2008 filled up but it is completely full now. This is ten months before the actual event! There will be some cancellations so send me an email if you want to be put on the waiting list.

Just a few minutes ago I completed the last of the important electrical work and have verified it is all working correctly (this blog post is made from the Taj Mahal using the new power supply for the WiFi access point Boomershoot2).

There's nothing but red-necked, knuckle-dragging, Neanderthals living in Idaho. Those cretins marry their cousins, they let kids play with guns, the women are ugly, and they even play with explosives. People from places like California, Florida, and Chicago who visit should just spend their tourist dollars quickly and go home before they get shot or something. I just got back from vacation and have the photographic evidence:

Phones like this are still in active use (my parents ring is three shorts). I had to explain to the tourists how to use this one at the Powell Ranger Station.

The plants are damaged. It's probably from all the gunfire and exposives nearby.

Children with assault weapons!

More guns and kids!

Me, the Cease Fear Instructor--Gays and Queers take note.

I think this is supposed to be the state flower or something.


Just over the border into Montanna near Lolo Hot Springs

Caleb on the rocks above Lolo Hot Springs.

Caleb and Kim above Lolo Hot Springs.

Daughter Kimberly Joe at Johnsons Bar on the Selway river. This is what you get when cousins (Barb and I) have kids.

Johnsons Bar on the Selway River. White water is dangerous you know.

Caleb and Kim. Can you tell they are going to be married soon?

Nancy says the scar on her nose doesn't show nearly as much as it used to. She probably got it while in a fight with her sister Barbara over who was going to marry their cousin Joe.

Tourists from Chicago and Florida spending money.

The guide took their money and led them off into the woods. I haven't seen or heard from the tourists since.

Another example of when cousins have kids. Daughter Xenia whose expression says, "Don't bug me when I'm taking pictures."

Freedom is not worth having if it does not connote freedom to err. It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.

Mahatma Gandhi
[Closely related is Erich Fromm's "There can be no real freedom without the freedom to fail.” Those that advocate gun control or claim health care is a right need to study a bit more philosophy.--Joe]

Terrorists generally select targets where they can cause most damage, inflict mass casualties or attract widespread publicity. VBIEDs can be highly destructive.

National Counter Terrorism Security Office (U.K.)
Police explosives experts prevent carnage at the Tiger Tiger Club
[Just in case you have forgotten, I gave you the minimum evacuation distances for Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Devices (VBIEDs) here. It's only a matter of time before we see them in the U.S. You should be prepared.--Joe]

I got a call a few days ago while I was away on vacation from Omie who is a a reporter at the local newspaper. She wanted to talk about class 3 firearms--full automatics in particular. I arranged to take her and her photographer, Geoff, to the range as soon as I got back. This morning we went off to the range with the closest thing I have to what she wanted--"An Evil Black Rifle".

Omie had zero experience with firearms. I didn't ask but I suspect she is doing a summer internship at the paper. She did say she was assigned the topic and that it was partially motivated by the recent courthouse shooting. Geoff's background with firearms was essentially zero as well.

We talked a little bit about the history of NFA 34 and how infrequently legally owned full-autos are used in crimes. And what my opinion of full autos are. Basically I don't have use for them because I can get more shots on target per unit time with a semi-auto than I can with a full auto. And the full-autos are so much more expensive to feed. But they are fun to shoot and I don't think they should be so heavily restricted.

We talked about the 1994 "assault weapons" ban, it's history, and the statistics related to crimes committed with those type of firearms. I told them of the definition of an "assault weapon" and that I had an example for them to shoot today.

We also talked a little about my history as a gun owner (inspired to buy my first gun by the election of Bill Clinton), as a gun rights activist, and director of Boomershoot.

After that I gave them some safety lessons and did some dry fire exercises with my STI Eagle. I didn't want them to dry fire the rim-fire gun I was going to start them with. I then started them out with my Ruger Mark II (.22LR) from about 10 feet away. They did pretty good. I could tell Omie was a little scared. The first live round caused her to jump quite a bit. Her second shot wasn't even on the paper. She then settled down some and did okay. Geoff did well even with his first shots.

After this we talked a little bit. Omie confessed she was afraid that if she held a gun she might do something terrible with it, like shoot herself. I told her about my fear of heights. When confronted with a situation where it is possible to jump off of a high cliff/building/whatever I feel an urge to do so. For years I thought there was something wrong with me for feeling this. I then found out it is a common manifestation of a fear of heights. I suspect the same thing happens with a lot of people about guns. She told us she has a similar fear of heights and seemed to agree that her reaction to firearms was similar.

I moved them to about 20 yards away and did some more dry exercises with the AR-15 before going live. Geoff was really nailing the 10 ring and I was actually rather impressed. Omie didn't do quite as well and I could see her shaking some even when she wasn't holding the gun.

Geoff with an Olympic Arms AR-15 carbine.

Omie with the Olympic Arms AR-15 carbine.

I didn't notice until after looking at the picture above that Omie was looking over her glasses through the rear site. That could explain part of why she didn't do quite as well as Geoff.

They then wanted pictures of me shooting so I emptied several magazines from my STI into an IPSC target and explained a little bit about "Practical Shooting".

I think things went well. We'll see how the article turns out.

Update: I messed up the spelling of Geoff's name. I originally had it as Jeff. If I were to change the title now it would break the link in Sebastian's post.

Update2: Sebastian says he'll fix his link so I fixed the title.

Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable... the art of the next best...

Otto von Bismark
[This is probably more true than I like to acknowledge. It also applies to engineering, as in this quip, "There comes a time to shoot the engineers and ship the product." As freedom activists we want perfection but that is seldom possible. If we want any action in our favor we probably must accept far less than our ideal. When fighting a restriction on our freedom we are sometimes better off working to make the proposed legislation less onerous than we are to fight a losing battle against a greater infringement. That is achieving what is attainable rather than what should be.--Joe]

I've known of Hillsdale College for some time, but only recently did I learn from their publication, "Imprimis" that they long ago swore off federal funding, and the restrictions that naturally come with it.  Here's a sample, but you'll want to read it all:

The thousands of young men and young women who have studied here have been taught some fundamental truths; among these is that the freedom guaranteed them as citizens of this great country is the freedom to dream and aspire without limit and the freedom to fulfill their dreams and aspirations without interference; that our country’s greatness is the result not of government benevolence but rather of individual initiative and enterprise; and that responsibility is the counterpart of independence.

We hold these views to be as valid today as they were in 1844 despite the appearance and growth of a contrary philosophy based on government paternalism.

It is our conviction that this contrary philosophy is negatory to the traditional beliefs and teachings of Hillsdale College and is to be deplored as harmful to the continued development of our country, both morally and economically.

It is therefore the decision of the Board of Trustees of Hillsdale College to reaffirm its historic independence and to resist subsidization of its affairs by the federal government. Acknowledging that the possibility of failure is a concomitant of independence, the Trustees place their trust in God and in the dedication and generosity of students, alumni and friends who share their views.

They have courage and good principles.  You have to give them that.  The feds even tried to claim rule-making jurisdiction over the college based on the fact that some of the students were taking federally guaranteed student loans (surprize, surprize).  Well, Hillsdale was having none of that, so they started their own financial aid program and today they are flourishing.  Hillsdale is apparently one of the few institutions of higher learning that does NOT serve as a socialist indoctrination center.  Imagine that.

Now I have to find out if they support concealed carry on campus.  According to packing.org, Michigan and Washington State have a reciprocity agreement.  That's a good start.

Now I have another reply for those people who have "Support our Troops, Opposed the War" bumper stickers:
"Support Education, Pull the U.S. Out NOW!"  I could go on about mistakes, quagmire, and how the Department of Education is nothing but a political tool for the empowerment of a few politicians and enrichment of the largest labor union in the world, but I won't.

Peace: In international affairs, a period of cheating between two periods of fighting.

Ambrose Bierce
The Devil's Dictionary
[I don't know if it's wisdom or just cynicism, but as I get older I'm more and more inclined to believe that fighting is the normal state of affairs in the interaction between large groups of people.--Joe]

Now that most of the months-long hype (or was it years? It seems like years) over the Durham / Nifong scandal has died down, we can discuss it here ('cause now we actually know what happened and we can't indulge it guesswork and flapjaw).

All I can say is, well, both Ann Coulter and Thomas Sowell say it far better, so I'll add just one point:

Nifong needs to hang.  Literally.  Its not because I hate him-- I've never met him.  Its because he committed the worst possible form of betrayal: Someone in the Public Trust turning Public Predator.  Someone who's sole job it was to protect Liberty & Justice turned enemy of Liberty & Justice.

I pity the fool, yet at the same time realize that if he doesn't receive the maximum possible sentence, others will more likely follow in his footsteps.  If he gets away with disbarment and saying he's sorry, we will have demonstrated that the cost of such a despicable and far-reaching crime is quite low.  We will have invited more of the same and we will get more of the same.

As much as I love Liberty, as much as I love my children and want them and every other American to live in Liberty, free to pursue their dreams of excellence, I want this pile of crap, and a few others who went along with him, to swing.  In Public.  Justice demands it, as an example to anyone who might get similar ideas, and as an example to all of us that someone believes our Liberty to be worth defending.  This society (our country of millions!) is not a toy for the cheap amusement of a few thousand public "servants".

I want to shoot the black rifle!

Jonathan Ryan
Age 9
June 26, 2007

Me giving instructions to my nephew Jonathan. Photo by my daughter Kim.

[And so he did. It was interesting to me that he came up with the name of "The Black Rifle" on his own. We were shooting lots of other firearms but the kids all seemed to like the AR-15 the best. Scott, age 18 and with lots of shooting experience, said it was the most fun to shoot gun he had ever shot. Yeah, they are pretty fun to shoot.--Joe]

It bugs me every time I hear it or see it in print, but I haven't been able to articulate it.  I will try anyway:

I do not want (nor could I ever believe it would be possible) for someone in government to "keep me  safe".  I feel all icky whenever a politician, or anyone else, but especially a politician, tries  to assure us that they're working hard to "keep us safe".  I liked Joe's title to a post on June 24th ("Help Kill Terrorists") because it more clearly and directly addresses the job at hand.

When our president, blowhard senator du jour, or DC culture kool-aid drinker talks about "public  safety" I feel a lot like I did after a middle-aged man approached me at a Spokane, WA city park  when I was around 7 years old.  He asked me if I wanted to earn five dollars.  "OK" I said,  whereupon he led me to the restrooms and asked to see my underwear.  I dashed right out of there of  course, and never forgot the lesson: Someone you should be able to trust can turn out to be a predatory scumbag who sees you as nothing more than a means to his self gratification.

So here's the deal.  I DO NOT want to be kept "safe" by my government.  Letting them try is far too dangerous.  I want my kids to feel reasonably safe, sure, and aware of their surroundings at the same time, but that is my responsibility and mine alone.  It is not the government's job to make us "safe".  It is the government's job to be there to retaliate when someone violates our rights, and to make it known that the retaliation will be sure and swift.  To value human rights is to demonstrate intolerance for human rights violations.

In the best of circumstances you are going to be exposed to many risks (some of the richest lives are full of risks) and guess what; you are still going to die.  Its what we DO WITH OUR LIVES that matters, and for that we need maximum Liberty.  Living in a padded room in solitary confinement might be considered "safe" but somehow I doubt that is what the Founders of this Republic had in mind when they wrote the Bill of Rights.

When it comes to terrorism I want one thing and one thing only--  I want the Jihadi sons of bitches to die.  That is all.  I want them, and anyone who supports them, hunted down, shot (or bombed, etc.) and left to die in the dirt.  Let their countrymen clean up the mess, too-- that's not our job.  That killing the jihadis might make a few of us more "safe" is a side benefit.  Liberty and Justice are the aim here, and they're not the same thing as safety.  They are very different, though slightly overlapping, concepts that should never be confused.

Meanwhile, I will not be trying to delude myself into believing that I am ever safe, either from the jihadi idiots, or from politicians trying to chip away at my rights for their self gratification.

I want to live in a civilized, polite society.  I do NOT want to live in a society with barriers, checkpoints, restrictions, surveillance, or some dipshit walking up to me and demanding, "papers please" no matter how "safe" a few deluded individuals might feel, and no matter how important it makes a politician or a woman in uniform feel.

So, Mister politician, lay off the talk about "safety" and start talking Liberty.  You couldn't take the danger out of life even if you genuinely tried.  I want to you to protect our Liberty, and though there may be some overlap with safety, Liberty is a very different and far more precious thing.  It is the American way, and as much as you might like to forget it, you are sworn to it.

I think the slogan for the web site, American Snipers, then, should read: "Help real snipers get the real gear they need to kill more terrorists more efficiently."  I like that.

I think people have the right to bear arms at a hunting reserve. But you're not hunting deer with semi-automatic weapons. We're going to keep protesting until America becomes more conscious of the domestic terrorism allowed by guns.

Rev. Jesse Jackson
Arrest motivates Jackson to fight for gun control
[Interesting. I've read the 2^nd Amendment many times, as well as several state constitutions. It's only been in recent years, and in just a few states, that I've seen any mention of a right to hunt. Jackson must be living in some other reality. But I suppose it could depend on his definition of "hunting reserve". If you define "hunting reserve" as all 50 states with no bag limits on government employees then he is in line with the true meaning of the 2^nd Amendment.--Joe]

I think they should be charged with 18 USC 241 as well, but at least it is a start:

The Rev. Jesse Jackson was arrested over the weekend at a demonstration at a Chicago area gun shop, while calling for stricter gun laws. Jackson was charged with criminal trespass to property.

Ry has been telling me about the equipment deficiencies of our snipers in the sandbox and I had been meaning to blog about this for while. Kevin's post reminded me. American Snipers appears to be a very efficient way of getting needed equipment and supplies directly to the people that will, as their home page says, "Help real snipers get the real gear they need to help keep us safe."

If you want to help deliver a 168 grain message to terrrorists this (or this) seems to be one of the easiest and most efficient ways to do it.

What the left does not get about the 2nd Amendment is that it is not about the National Guard, or sporting firearms or gun collections. It does not guarantee the government an army, nor does it guarantee civilians the right to hunt and shoot skeet. It's about the right of the people to maintain some portion of the ultimate power of government -- violence -- to themselves.

Mac Johnson
Court Rediscovers 2nd Amendment, Liberals Fear Other 'Rights' May Soon be Found
March 15, 2007

Caren sent me a link to this article about a summer camp where teenagers learn to use explosives. At first I was so disappointed that I didn't have something like that available to me when I was a teenager. Then I realized that I was working with explosives before I was a teenager and I was making my own explosives when I was 16. Okay, so maybe I wasn't so deprived after all. But I would have liked the opportunity anyway.

Most people can't do simple math. If they could they would have immediately seen something wrong with these results:

A new federal survey about sex and drug use in the United States reveals that an average American man has sex with seven women during his lifetime, compared with four male sexual partners for the average woman.

The latest survey, which claims to have used the high-tech methods to solicit candid answers on sexual activity and illegal drug use, found that approximately 29 percent of men reported having 15 or more female sexual partners in a lifetime, while just over 9 percent of women reported having sex with 15 or more men.

Every time a man has sex with a new partner that woman has sex with a new partner. The writer of this story should have clarified they are not using the usual definition of "average" (the "mean"). If they were then the average for both men and women must be the same. This article clarifies they are using a measure less frequently used by (excuse the pun) lay people, called the "median".

I don't have the time to go looking for it in my sex archives but this anomaly in survey results has been known for a long time and it was about five or six years ago they figured it out what was going on.

It turns out prostitutes are under represented in nearly all surveys. Most surveys were done with phone calls during the evening hours. The evening is during the working hours of the "ladies of the night" and hence they are under represented. A simple example will demonstrate why the numbers above, interpreted as a mean, must be bogus and the prostitute answer explains how it could happen.

Suppose there are 100 men and 100 women in a given closed population. Each of the men pair up with one women. But one woman, wanting a little something extra, has sex with not only her partner but the other 99 men as well. The true mean number of partners for the men is (99x2 + 1x1)/100 => 1.99. The true mean number of partners for the women is (99x1 + 1x100)/100 => 1.99. Yet if you did a sample of 20 men and women with a bias against surveying women who were likely to have large numbers of partners then you would probably end up with numbers of 2.0 and 1.0. In any example of heterosexual sex pairings you can come up with in this population the mean number of different partners for men must equal the mean number of partners for the women.

If you read far enough into Schneier's essay I quoted yesterday you would have found this:

Subjects were divided into two groups. One group was given the choice of these two alternatives:

• Alternative A: A sure gain of $500.
• Alternative B: A 50% chance of gaining $1,000.

The other group was given the choice of:

• Alternative C: A sure loss of $500.
• Alternative D: A 50% chance of losing $1,000.

These two trade-offs aren't the same, but they're very similar. And traditional economics predicts that the difference doesn't make a difference.

...

But experimental results contradict this. When faced with a gain, most people (84%) chose Alternative A (the sure gain) of $500 over Alternative B (the risky gain). But when faced with a loss, most people (70%) chose Alternative D (the risky loss) over Alternative C (the sure loss).

Interesting. But even before I read the results I felt myself drawn to alternatives A and D even though I knew it was illogical. And today I got real world confirmation of this phenomena in a very similar "test" of the felons at Battelle/PNNL when I got a look at their response to our second interrogatory. They had a choice. They could answer our questions which almost for certain would result in their losing the case and perhaps ultimately leading to felony convictions or they could refuse to answer the question and risk discovery abuse as well as losing the case and risking the felony convictions. But by refusing answer the questions they have a chance of escaping entirely. I don't think they will escape and actually I'm pleased they made the choice they did. It increases the total penalties that I may be able to inflict upon them and removes all guilt I might have for making things difficult on the innocents at the lab. But I have to hand it to them, they have a lot of chutzpah.

One of the requests we made was for an email the proves one of the projects I briefly mentioned on my blog only had a very small portion (which I did not mention) of data that was restricted. The rest of the project was completely open and this email said it was acceptable that I publish papers on it as well as file for a patent and license the technology to a university. This blog posting of mine was used as evidence against me when they were discussing my possible termination. The email would have proved there was nothing wrong with me posting that information on my blog. In response to our request for that email they responded with:

Object: This request is beyond the scope of permissible discovery and not calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence.

Another request of ours was "Please produce a copy of the email containing a link to the web page http://www.joehuffman.org/Freedom/ScreeningFails.htm which was clicked on by Una Carriera on Friday May 6, 2005 at 18:34:07 GMT." We believe this email (and others we requested) would show they were interested in my gun rights activism.

Their response:

Object: This request is beyond the scope of permissible discovery and not calculated to lead to the discovery of admissible evidence. Furthermore, this request requests information that is unduly burdensome to produce.

This type of answer was a favorite of theirs and they used it for almost every response. They refused to give us "comparators" for how they did or did not discipline others that had "adult content" on their computers or people who let non employees use a company laptop (the one thing I did do wrong) for a few hours.

Basically I only obtained two new pieces of evidence out of 16 new interrogatory questions and 12 new requests for production. Those bits of information were SPEEDY was Marty Peterson and PUCK (the main investigator of the websites) was Cullen Tollbom.

I felt no qualms whatsoever when I clicked the button that yielded this:

And I didn't feel any qualms when I did that repeatedly. I was hoping to avoid causing certain innocent people to do extra work. But they have had over two years to find new jobs or push out the felons from the inside. I now regard them as part of the problem. This quote comes to mind:

The only thing needed for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.

Edmond Burke

I'm doing something. The people inside the lab could be doing something too but to the best of my knowledge they have not and are not. You can do something as well. Make a donation to my legal fund by clicking on the button near the top of this page.

Then why are we going?

Xenia Huffman-Scott
June 23, 2007
When informed that our vacation location did not have cell phone service or an Internet connection.

The reality of security is mathematical, based on the probability of different risks and the effectiveness of different countermeasures. We can calculate how secure your home is from burglary, based on such factors as the crime rate in the neighborhood you live in and your door-locking habits. We can calculate how likely it is for you to be murdered, either on the streets by a stranger or in your home by a family member. Or how likely you are to be the victim of identity theft. Given a large enough set of statistics on criminal acts, it's not even hard; insurance companies do it all the time.

We can also calculate how much more secure a burglar alarm will make your home, or how well a credit freeze will protect you from identity theft. Again, given enough data, it's easy.

But security is also a feeling, based not on probabilities and mathematical calculations, but on your psychological reactions to both risks and countermeasures. You might feel terribly afraid of terrorism, or you might feel like it's not something worth worrying about. You might feel safer when you see people taking their shoes off at airport metal detectors, or you might not. You might feel that you're at high risk of burglary, medium risk of murder, and low risk of identity theft. And your neighbor, in the exact same situation, might feel that he's at high risk of identity theft, medium risk of burglary, and low risk of murder.

Or, more generally, you can be secure even though you don't feel secure. And you can feel secure even though you're not. The feeling and reality of security are certainly related to each other, but they're just as certainly not the same as each other. We'd probably be better off if we had two different words for them.

Bruce Schneier
February 28, 2007
The Psychology of Security
[In a large part this is the battle gun rights activists are fighting. The probabilities are on our side and to a large extent the anti-gun bigots have a lock on the feelings. As you read the essay you realize why it's so important to make guns familar and common. Part of Boomershoot is making the public comfortable with guns and thus help people reduce their negative feelings towards firearms. Do your part and come out of the closet as a gun owner.--Joe]

There are people that want to ban sex toys in India:

Saying that the sale of sex toys in India would have "severe consequences in society", a Madhya Pradesh minister has urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the issue.

Even as a condom with a vibrating ring continues to stir controversy in the state, Public Works Department (PWD) Minister Kailash Vijayvargiya urged in a letter to Manmohan Singh that the import and sale of products like sex toys be banned.

"The Madhya Pradesh government stresses yoga shiksha (yoga education) instead of the centre's yon shiksha (sex education). There is an urgent need to rise above party lines in this matter," Vijayvargiya said.

About six months ago, HLL started to sell Crezendo - a three-condom pack with a vibrating ring - at a price of Rs.125. The Madhya Pradesh government is contemplating a ban on its sale in the state if Crezendo is proved to be a sex toy.

...

"The sale of such toys will lead to severe consequences in society. And they should be banned. But the union government is turning a Nelson's eye despite such sale taking place openly in the national capital," according to Vijayvargiya.

And it was from India we have one of the oldest books written on sex--the Kama Sutra.

I got some email from the "Gun Guy" today. I guess this bigot has never heard of the concept of prior restraint. But of course that isn't surprising since he apparently hasn't gotten the word the Second Amendment as well as most state constitutions guarantee the people the right to keep and bear arms.

Here is the scary stuff:

Many of our current gun laws have loopholes and vary from state to state. So, even if we locked up all the criminals, all we'd end up with is... more criminals. Most criminals don't commit crimes based on some inner, unavoidable evil inside of them. They commit crimes when given the opportunity to do so. Get rid of that opportunity, and you get rid of the crime completely.

So enforcement alone won't do it. But prevention will. Prevention in the form of comprehensive and effective gun laws -- laws that keep guns from ever reaching the hands of criminals in the first place -- will make a difference. Laws that keep weapons that do not belong in civilian hands, such as high powered rifles, will make a difference. And, laws that keep firearms out of the places they shouldn't be, and that stop crime even before it starts, will also make a difference.

That's how you stop crime. What the NRA misses when it asks for enforcement only is that enforcing the law doesn't actually prevent it. You can't arrest someone until after they've committed a crime, so if all you do is arrest criminals, you're still seeing the crimes happen.

We need to remove opportunities for crime? Yeah, right. Does that mean to prevent rape we should castrate all the men? How about sewing all vagina shut so women can't engage in prostitution? Or removing eyes so people can't engage in voyeurism? And to prove I'm not stuck on sex crimes, we can prevent fights by shackling the hands and feet of everyone. We can prevent drunk driving and public drunkenness by banning alcohol. Slander can be prevented by removing people's vocal cords. Libel can be prevented by banning publication of, well, everything. And while we are at it we can prevent theft by abolishing private property.

This isn't the first time this anti-freedom bigot has pushed this particular hot-button of mine.

The bottom line is you cannot prevent crime without going down a very dangerous path.

Still more bigots that fire people with guns. Via Uncle.

After getting the suggestion from Ry I have been exploring the possibility of doing a 1000 yard Boomershoot.

I did a few calculations with Modern Ballistics last night to see what would happen if people just overshot the target area. My cousin's house is a mile away and pretty close to directly behind the proposed target area. The house is out of sight and I suspected the shots would over shoot the house and land in the fields behind his house. It turns out the answer depends on the caliber being shot:

• A 7.62 x 39 (yeah right!) bullet would land in the field several hundred yards in front of the house.
• A .50 BMG bullet would overshoot the house by a few feet.
• A .300 Win Mag shooting Blackhills Match ammo with a 15 MPH wind from the West would put a bullet through his living room window.

I haven't checked with my cousin yet but I suspect the safety margins are not acceptable.

It is very unlikely there be 1000 yard shooting at Boomershoot 2008. I need to find a different location before that becomes a reality.

I've always liked the kind of guys who'll get me shot.

Marilyn the Patriot Matchmaker
Originally from http://www.westword.com/1996/112896/news1.html as of January 22, 1999
Currently this link is valid: http://www.hcn.org/servlets/hcn.PrintableArticle?article_id=2988

Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient. The objections which have been brought against a standing army, and they are many and weighty, and deserve to prevail, may also at last be brought against a standing government.

Henry David Thoreau
(1817-62), U.S. philosopher, author, naturalist.
Letter, 31 July 1849, to Ellen Emerson (then 10 years old), eldest child of Ralph Waldo Emerson (published in The Correspondence of Henry David Thoreau, 1958).

This is one of the best short essays I've seen.  Apparently its been reposted under other names, but Marko is the author.  Here's a sample:

A mugger, even an armed one, can only make a successful living in a society where the state has granted him a force monopoly.

Hat tip to Say Uncle for bringing to my attention.

Democracy is a form of government that substitutes election by the incompetent many for appointment by the corrupt few.

G. B. Shaw

Unfortunately, an almost perfect inverse correlation exists between those who are affected by gun laws, particularly bans, and those whom enforcement should affect. Those easiest to disarm are the responsible and law abiding citizens whose guns represent no meaningful social problem. Irresponsible and criminal owners, whose gun possession creates or exacerbates so many social ills, are the ones most difficult to disarm.

Don Kates
GUNS AND PUBLIC HEALTH: EPIDEMIC OF VIOLENCE OR PANDEMIC OF PROPAGANDA?

This weekend was pretty much consumed with prep for Boomershoot 2008 (and beyond). As an aside, it's nearly 90% full now. Those last eight empty positions could disappear in a single day so sign up soon or wait until 2009.

Friday morning I received two and a half tons of ammonium nitrate (BTW, Sebastian says Xenia is "smoking hot" in that picture). Saturday I took the first two loads out to the Taj Mahal. Here is the start of what it looked like as I packed the shed higher and tighter than it has ever been with chemicals:

Xenia came along on with me with the second load and repackaged some of the old stuff so I could store it more compactly. I needed every cubic foot of space I could get. My calculations indicated it should fit if I played this game of Tetris just right.

Saturday I also tried "drilling" (auguring actually) a well near the Taj. I want a plentiful water supply for cleaning up the mixing equipment, first-aid, and the first line of defense against a small fire. The second line of defense against a small fire and the first line of defense against a medium or larger fire is RUN!!!

The ground is already so dry that even in going down three feet in the bottom of the creek bed near the Taj yielded a dry hole. Here you see me working on what ended up being a five foot deep dry hole before I ran into a hard-pan that essentially halted my progress. I'm not sure what my next effort along these lines will be. I know there will be water there at Boomershoot time but if I could get water this time of year by going down 15 feet with a backhoe I would do that. I'll have to think about it some more.

Today I went back with load three of the ammonium nitrate and confirmed that I have just enough room for all of it.

I also worked on the Internet connection at the Taj and reworked some electrical stuff. The Boomershoot2 WiFi site would take many minutes to connect with Boomershoot1 and then would drop off frequently. I raised the antenna about four or five feet and now it connects in less than a minute and appears to stay connected. I connected the grounding wire to the metal shed and improved the ground connection to the 120 VAC system and the WiFi antenna.

I started work on getting a proper power supply to the WiFi "Range Extender" but discovered the gadget I bought at Fry's in Renton, 350 miles away, was broken. It only worked if I pushed on a slide switch really hard. It took a while to discover what was wrong and still more effort to figure out how to jury-rig it to work temporarily (a tie-wrap cinched down really tight did the job). I ran out of time so I'll have to finish that last little wiring job the next time I go out there.

Sandy Froman delivers part 2 of the history of gun control.

Our nation and much of the developed world, thanks to digital technologies, is moving quickly toward a universal background database. Eventually, experts say, you'll need your thumbprint (or similar) to ride an elevator, board transit, buy groceries (or anything), open accounts, get fuel or use your computer online. The most free places on earth will be the most primitive, like Africa, where human activity will remain largely untrackable.

Alan Korwin
New Gun Control Law to Monitor Entire Population in Central Database
[It's very interesting to me that the people that scream the loudest, "Bush is Hitler", overlook the dark side of the gun control laws they endorse. Korwin has great insight down this dim corridor.--Joe]

It's kind of bizarre to think that we have a "choice between coercion and choice" which is an oxymoron, but technically we do have it:

In a just world, we would never need to waste a minute discussing this, except with our young children, or in elementary school history classes, but see if you can guess which will outperform; a Soviet-style, government-run monopoly or a free market (our current public school system or school choice)?

Walter E. Williams of course nails it as usual.  The video, done by Stossel and 20/20, is excellent also.  I especially liked the "rubber room" concept they have in New York, as it upholds everything I've ever said about our socialist education system (I do have to hand it to them as I’ve often said we’d be better off paying certain public workers to stay away from the job, and here we find that they’re doing exactly that).

Our current system really is anti-American, anti-choice, and anti-success, and it needs to be scrapped as soon as possible.  The best teachers and administrators will form their own, better schools virtually overnight.  The worst ones?  They can always pick fruit for a living.

I don't blame the Sheriff's office or FBI for this--some criminal is responsible. But I don't want to hear anyone whining about only the government should be allowed to possess certain things when the government can be stolen from as well as private citizens or businesses. The following news release is dated June 13^th:

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the FBI and the St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department announced today a joint reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the theft of explosives from an explosives storage bunker at the St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department training center.

An FBI agent discovered the theft at the center, located at 1835 Highway 94, yesterday. The magazine was utilized by the St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI’s St. Louis office.

Investigators from ATF, St. Charles County Sheriff’s Department and the FBI responded to the scene immediately, and determined that commercially manufactured high and low explosives were stolen. The types include C-4, dynamite, cast boosters, safety fuse and detonating cord. Not all items in the magazine were taken. The follow-up investigation has determined the theft occurred within the last 10 days. Leads are being followed up as the investigation continues.

Also, someone should get their wrist slapped because the theft should have been discovered in seven days or less:

§ 55.204 Inspection of magazines.
Any person storing explosive materials shall inspect his magazines at least every seven days. This inspection need not be an inventory, but must be sufficient to determine whether there has been unauthorized entry or attempted entry into the magazines, or unauthorized removal of the contents of the magazines.
[T.D. ATF-87, 46 FR 40384, Aug. 7, 1981]

ATF's longstanding policy has been to provide total access to trace results to the law enforcement agency that has jurisdiction with respect to the trace request, but to safeguard those results from third parties. Congress' appropriates restriction simply codifies ATF's longstanding policy of sharing trace data with other law enforcement agencies for the purpose of conducting a criminal investigation.

Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
ATF Disclosure of Firearms Trace Data (176.87 KB .PDF on my server)
[I put this on my server for safe keeping and so you can avoid generating web log entries on the ATF website with your IP address. The above quote is for all those anti-gun bigots that claim the ATF policy is hampering "illegal gun" efforts. Mayor Bloomberg, are you listening?--Joe]

Ammonium nitrate is the primary ingredient in Boomerite. Two years ago I bought the last of the fertilizer grade ammonium nitrate in the county. I had enough for about four years at the previous rate of consumption. With the increased number of participants, increased number of targets, and increased size of the targets it was looking like I had enough for 2008 and maybe 2009 if I stretched the ammonium nitrate a little bit. That wasn't really acceptable.

For the last year and a half I have been trying on and off to find another supplier. I could get it in Missouri or Vermont but transportation was "an issue". Earlier this week I found a supplier that would deliver it to my doorstep for $0.50/pound. My last batch cost $0.14/pound. Heavy sigh. But in the big scheme of things just a couple extra shooting positions covers the difference in cost of the AN.

So... I ordered 5000 pounds which was delivered this morning:

This means I don't have to be at all stingy with the targets for the immediate future. Boomershoot 2008 and 2009 will be bigger blasts than any previous event.

Tomorrow I start trying to pack into in the Taj Mahal. I think I have just enough room...

Robyn Ringler is almost friendly to gun owners in her latest post:

The bill also includes an appeals process if you get listed in the database and feel it is unfair. This was insisted upon by the NRA. Fair enough and a good idea.

This distinguishes her from a lot of the anti-gun bigots who insist that if you are on "terror suspect" list you should be banned from owning a gun even if there is no way to challenge the validity of your name being on the list. Another intolerable situation is when someone shares a name with someone who is on the list and both have their rights restricted without due process.

However, Ms. Ringler still has more education in her future:

I cannot support the stand that there should be NO restrictions at all on gun ownership. We restrict free speech, we restrict behavior, we restrict what movies children can get into, we restrict certain foods, medications, products. And all for good reason.

It makes sense to restrict gun ownership to you, the sensible people who are out there being responsible.

I'm glad she compares gun ownership to free speech. It's a good comparison. Both are constitutionally guaranteed rights. Kids going to movies and medications are not guaranteed rights. But she misses a critical point. The restrictions on free speech do not involve prior restraint. You are not muzzled prior to gaining access to a crowded theater so that you can't do the classic "shout fire in a crowded theater". You don't have to get a license from the government before you can post your opinions on your blog. You don't have to pass a background check before you can buy a printer for your computer. There are laws against slander and libel just as there are there are laws against murder and assault. It should make no difference whether someone murders someone with a baseball bat (video of an actual baseball bat crime--thanks Rob) or a gun. We don't license or restrict baseball bats, possession of which is not a constitutionally guaranteed right, and we shouldn't license or restrict firearms which are a constitutionally guaranteed right. We restrict the actions which actually cause harm. And we do that by punishing those people who engage in those prohibited actions. There is no victim when someone purchases a .50 caliber precision rifle so they can punch holes in paper or connect with boomers 700 or 1000 yards away. Driving drunk or at high speed in a residential neighborhood is sort of an edge case. By itself there isn't a victim but the risk is so high with no reasonable justification for the action that restricting that behavior is acceptable. Plus it's not a guaranteed right.

Banning some .50 caliber rifles when the number of shooting victims where the criminal used such a rifle in the last 20 years can be counted on one hand (even if you are missing a finger or two) is not "sensible". It's prior restraint and it's bigoted.

Update: Jason pointed out to me in email that a baseball bat (clubs) could be considered arms and hence are protected by the Second Amendment. I tend to agree with him but worry that the anti-gun bigots might start claiming as long as we are allowed at least one type of club our RKBA is not being infringed.

Though I have no doubt exceptions can be brought forward, I think the following rule would be found to be generally true: That in ages in which the dominant weapon is cheap and simple, the common people will have a chance...

George Orwell
Essays, Volume IV 
[Just a reminder--Orwell wrote Animal Farm and 1984. Both should be required reading in High School.--Joe]

Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) are a huge issue for our forces in the sandbox. Because I have some experience in making improvised explosives this was one of the areas where I was trying to contribute when I worked at PNNL. Unfortunately that didn't work out and I was involuntarily sidelined in that effort. Here is some tantalizing information on how the battle against IEDs is going:

There may be an unlimited supply of explosives in Iraq, but there is not an unlimited supply of people who know how to wire the detonators. In 2004, CIA operatives in Iraq believed they had identified the signatures of 11 different bomb-makers. They proposed a diabolical - but potentially effective - sabotage program that would have flooded Iraq with booby-trapped detonators designed to explode in the bomb-makers' hands. But the CIA's general counsel's office said no. The lawyers claimed the agency lacked authority for such an operation, one source recalled.

Aside from the aneurysm inducing restriction imposed by the lawyers this is very interesting information. There are a very limited number of people in the Islamic extremist community with the technical skills to connect a remote garage door opener, walkie-talkie, or cell phone ringer, to the two wires of a blasting cap. This is an incredibly foreign concept to me. On the farm I was working with explosives when I was 10 years old and making electronic projects (and yes, some of them used vacuum tubes which means my son will claim it was in prehistoric times) by the time I was 12 or so. I don't remember how much before that I was doing simple things with electric circuits -- which is all the expertise you need to connect detonators.

I expect this is some sort of cultural difference. They think entirely different than we do, some say it may be more different that we can think. And apparently the reverse is true as well. Something that I could do as a child before my voice changed is a rare skill in their culture. So if we can't remove those rare individuals from their society with sabotaged detonators how else can we take advantage of their lack of people with technical skills above that of a 12 year-old?

There has never been a serious study to determine what - if any - impact the multi-Billion dollar NICS program has had on violent crime and criminal misuse of firearms. Instead, every evaluation of NICS has been based on the number of transactions and denials the system processes and how quickly they do their job. Stopping sales does not necessarily equate to reducing crime and it is well past time for the Government Accounting Office and the Justice Department to examine the true value of this expensive intrusion on civil rights.

Jeff Knox
Director of Operations
The Firearms Coalition
fcalerts-list -- News from The Firearms Coalition
June 13, 2007

One of the most frequent questions I get about Boomershoot is, paraphrased, "Do I have enough gun for the job?" In almost all cases the answer is yes. If you have a centerfire rifle, shooting a rifle cartridge (.357 or .44 magnum rifles don't have a chance), with a scope then there are very few modern rifles that don't have a reasonable chance of claiming a few boomers. In fact there are some pistols that have been successfully used on the closer targets. Here is a picture of three pistols successfully used at Boomershoot 2007.

And while I'm on the topic of Boomershoot--this weekend I should have some news to release about Boomershoot 2008. I shared it with a couple people yesterday and they expressed "great joy". There are only 14 long range positions left for the April of 2008 event. Sign up soon if you want to participate.

We now have a memorial to the millions of victims of communism:

President Bush, attending Tuesday's dedication of a memorial to an estimated 100 million victims of communist regimes, compared the fight against radical Islam to the Cold War battle against totalitarian communism.

...

The ceremony was held on the 20th anniversary of President Reagan's speech at the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, in which he implored Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall." Two years later, the wall fell.

The Victims of Communism Memorial is a bronze Goddess of Democracy statue. It is a replica of a replica - a reproduction of the papier-mache statue that Chinese students modeled on the Statue of Liberty and carried into Tiananmen Square during pro-democracy protests in 1989.

What amazes me is that there are still people in this country who are advocates for such a murderous and failed economic/political system. A survivor of Russian communism when asked what he thought of "trying to do it right this time" said something to the effect of, "There are 100 million corpses from the previous efforts. Do you want to donate your body to the next attempt?" That was a pretty good verbal response. Numerous non-verbal responses come to mind as well but such hand signals can cause you to be talked about.

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

John F. Kennedy
In a speech at the White House, 1962
[For some reason when I think of the McCain-Feingold Act this quote comes to mind.--Joe]

I took the video with one eye incapacitated. That it's usable is a testimony to Xenia's editing ability.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) is managed by Battelle. It was these people that wrongfully, and feloniously, terminated my employment there just over two years ago. Apparently they had an issue with me exercising my First Amendment rights in advocating for the right to keep and bear arms. I am now in the middle of a lawsuit against these bigots. Increasing their vulnerability is Battelle's contract to manage the lab is about to expire:

The future for about one-tenth of the Department of Energy lab is in limbo as the federal government looks for a way to call for bids on operating the lab.

At issue are $65 million to $80 million in private contract work out of PNNL's overall annual $750 million budget. $52 million to $60 million of that private work would be lost if the Department of Energy decides not to allow private work under a new lab operations contract. The rest could be converted to government research projects.

Battelle spokesman Greg Koller said "significant job losses at PNNL, probably in the 300 to 400 range" are possible if the private work is not somehow preserved in DOE's call for competitive bids.

Battelle has operated the lab under contract with DOE for 42 years. But DOE officials announced in January 2006 that there would be a competitive bid for running the lab after Battelle's current contract expires at the end of September.

That they have a problem with people exercising their constitutionally guaranteed rights and see fit to keep felons on their payroll might be a point of interest for certain people as a new contract is being considered.

If banning guns in the inner cities is not keeping guns out of the hands of 12, 13, and 14 year old children, then we need to think of another way.

Robyn Ringler
June 11, 2007
Enough Dead Kids Today, Yesterday, the Day Before—It’s Time For a Change
[Agreed. Can we now get rid of these silly bans? If you read her entire post you will discover she only wants to prevent young teenagers and children from having unsupervised access to guns not prohibit their exposure under all circumstances. I don't really have a problem with that. But what Ms. Ringler hasn't yet realized is that she needs to answer Just One Question before she proceeds to the conclusion that there exists any restrictions on firearms that might reduce crime.

You are making progress Robyn. Keep thinking and questioning the conventional wisdom and we might yet have you attending one of my NRA Basic Personal Protection classes.--Joe]

There are only two .50 caliber positions and 13 regular positions still available. Overall the long range shooting event is 80% full. General entry has been open for only nine days and it's still 321 days until Boomershoot 2008.

If I wasn't doing this to further gun rights instead making money I would have raised the price. I still might have to do that when I get in my next shipment of ammonium nitrate. I still have enough for 2008 and 2009 but I can no longer just visit the local farm supply warehouse and have them fill up the back of the truck with fertilizer at $0.15 per pound. It appears I'm going to have to pay the premium for the explosive grade material. I'm working on avoiding that but I'll have to just wait and see.

For an anti-gun person she is remarkably fair, and even friendly, to hunters in this post.

Thank you Robyn.

The only nit I have to pick is that she apparently didn't notice that a .50 caliber firearm was used in a legitimate activity and it didn't result in an instantaneous kill.

Xenia's graduation and party were on Friday night. Friday morning a little before 8:00 I took her to the ceremony practice and then I went straight on to the "Doc in a box" to have my eye looked at. It was red and painful. I got a prescription for some antibiotics but things kept getting worse and worse. I called the doc back about 15:30 and he referred me to a ophthalmologist. He gave me a prescription for a wider spectrum antibiotic and by the time Xenia's graduation was over my eye was feeling much better. Here is a picture after it was feeling better:

The more pleasant pictures from her graduation are here.

Update: Thanks for all the email suggestions that it might have been something other than a bacteria infection. The new antibiotics worked great. As of this evening nearly all the red is gone and my vision is very near normal again.

I've been saying "Real ID" is a bad idea for a long time. It's good to see some state legislatures are coming on board with that conclusion as well:

Defying Uncle Sam, four states have passed laws refusing to comply with federal rules to make state-issued driver's licenses more secure, casting further doubt on the future of the 2005 Real ID Act.

Although it is rare for states to reject an act of Congress, New Hampshire and Oklahoma in May joined Montana and Washington state in passing statutes this year refusing to go along with Real ID. The refusals mean those states' driver's licenses eventually won't be accepted as official identification when boarding airplanes or entering federal buildings.

In addition, the Idaho Legislature purposely left out any money to comply with the act. The Georgia Legislature passed a law giving Gov. Sonny Perdue authority to ignore the measure, but he is hoping the federal government will make the act more affordable, said his spokesman, Bert Brantley.

"Legal" doesn't necessarily mean "good" -- or "right" -- or "reasonable". Do you really just base your actions on what is and isn't _legal_? Do you really just hand over all your decision-making power to the government?"

Diane Holt

In Gaza, Islamic Jihad is planning to send waves of female suicide bombers into action against the Zionist Entity. Asked by an Israeli reporter whether self-detonating ladies enjoy the same 72-virgin deal as the lads, an Arab scholar said no, but that the gals will be served in Paradise by "dwarfs." Snow White got seven dwarfs, but it's unclear whether Blow White will get the full 72: Sleepy, Grumpy, Bashful, etc., all the way down to Incendiary, Non-Alcoholic and Anti-Zionist.

Mark Steyn
May 27, 2007
So much news, so little sense
[I've always wondered about the rewards for the Islamic female. So now we know.--Joe]

Democrats, NRA make deal on new gun rules:

WASHINGTON — Senior Democrats have reached agreement with the National Rifle Association on what could be the first federal gun-control legislation since 1994, a measure to significantly strengthen the national system that checks the backgrounds of gun buyers.

The sensitive talks began in April, days after a mentally ill student killed 32 people at Virginia Tech University. The shooter, Seung-Hui Cho, had been judicially ordered to submit to a psychiatric evaluation, which should have disqualified him from buying handguns. But the state of Virginia never forwarded that information to the federal National Instant Check System, and the massacre exposed a loophole in the 13-year-old background-check program.

Under the agreement, participating states would be given monetary enticements for the first time to keep the federal background database up to date, as well as penalties for failing to comply.

To sign on to the deal, the powerful gun lobby won significant concessions from Democratic negotiators. Individuals with minor infractions in their pasts could petition their states to have their names removed from the federal database, and about 83,000 military veterans, put into the system by the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2000 for alleged mental health reasons, would have a chance to clean their records.

The federal government would be permanently barred from charging gun buyers or sellers a fee for their background checks. In addition, faulty records such as duplicative names or expunged convictions would have to be scrubbed from the database.

"The NRA worked diligently with the concerns of gun owners and law enforcement in mind to make a ... system that's better for gun owners and better for law enforcement," said House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., who led the talks.

First: If someone is so dangerous they can't be trusted with a gun then I don't think they can be trusted with a can of gasoline and a book of matches either. Either they can be trusted in public or they should be locked up.

Second: Making the least agreeable portions of the infringement on our rights more palatable just means it will be more difficult to justify getting rid of it entirely later on.

Third: The longer this infringement stays in place the more accepting of it people are. The ban on new machine gun sales is so well accepted that most people believe they are banned entirely. Today it would be really tough to repeal the ban on machine guns and day by day it's getting more difficult for people to even consider repealing the Brady Act.

Fourth: The Brady/FBI database and reporting system is so close to a database of all gun owners and their guns that it is a hazard to the health of our freedom. Which has one foot in the grave and the other on a banana peal anyway.

All that said, borrowing from a great book I just listened to recently, Survival of the Sickest, "Why would you take a pill that will kill you 40 years from now?" The answer is, "Because it will keep me from dying tomorrow." And so it is with this agreement.

They keep the truth from being taught in public schools, and they even write books laden with falsehoods in a dishonest attempt to rewrite history.

Seven years ago, Emory University historian Michael Bellesiles published a book purportedly proving there were few guns and gun owners in early America. The book garnered Columbia University's coveted Bancroft Prize. Two years later, primarily due to the efforts of a brilliant young research historian, Clayton Cramer, who had studied that period in history extensively, the book was revealed to be a total fraud, full of lies and fabrications. Bellesiles was forced to resign from Emory University and, for the first time in history, Columbia University rescinded the Bancroft Prize.

Every American who values his or her constitutional rights should know something about these frauds that gun control advocates perpetrate so we can be watchful and teach the truth to our young ones.

Sandy Froman

June 7, 2007
The history of gun control, part 1
Sandy Froman is immediate past president of the National Rifle Association of America and a longtime member of the NRA board of directors.
A practicing attorney in Tucson, Ariz., Froman is an international speaker on the right to keep and bear arms and an advocate for federal judges who will interpret the Constitution according to its original meaning.

The roots of education are bitter, but the fruit is sweet.

Aristotle
[We just returned with our daughter Xenia from her High School graduation ceremony.--Joe]

Damned good thing none of the victims had firearms, 'cause, you know, violence is never the answer and it only begets more violence:

The man then barged into a neighbor's house, where he stabbed and hacked to death a 37-year-old pregnant woman and her three daughters and two sons, aged 1 to 9.

All I want to know is; who sold him the machete, how much money did he make on the sale, and is he proud of it?  How is it that a madman can so easily get hold of such a deadly instrument?  Why are iron and carbon made so widely available when we know things like this are going to happen as a result?  What are the Filipino legislators going to do about this?  What do the Filipino cutlery manufacturers have to say for themselves and their irresponsible production of such deadly products?

There is one word missing in all the descriptions of the victims, which bears notice:  "Unarmed".  Add the correction and it makes more sense: 

"The man then barged into a neighbor's gun free house, where he stabbed and hacked to death the unarmed 37-year-old..."

Here's a news headline you'll never see:  "Machete-wielding madman kills eight concealed pistol carriers."

But some of our Great and Compassionate Leaders would prefer several dead innocent women and children to one dead criminal, shot by his intended victim.

Some "progressive" activist is complaining that the CDC has becoming politicized:

In 1995 there was a vibrant public health effort in the area of gun injuries. Then the newly elected Republican Congress applied the pressure of the gun lobby. Suddenly the half dozen or so states funded by CDC to do fire arm injury surveillance were defunded. Zeroed out. Shortly thereafter all CDC funded prevention and injury programs had to agree that there would be no activities, direct or indirect, related to gun control. Health department people we have spoken to reported that a profound chill settled over injury programs regarding gun injuries, like homicides from guns. Intense pressure was applied to the head of the CDC injury control program and he and some of his experts on the public health aspects of firearm injury were threatened with investigations over possible entanglement with gun control advocates. Now extreme care is taken in how data is reported or recommendations made in the area of gun injuries.

Never mind that those "studies" were some of the most egregious examples of sloppy science I have ever seen. The "studies" were implemented to generate political justification for infringing our constitutionally guaranteed rights. Those studies were just as repugnant as a "public health effort" in the area of gays/blacks/Jews with entanglements with the KKK. Taxpayer (my) money was being spent to justify taking my guns away from me. And this bigot gets bent out of shape because they have to be more careful in their science?

The CDC was engaged in highly political activities, they are told to stop, and this person whines, "...politics has become an increasingly important part of CDC world."

Where, in the Constitution, is the Federal Government granted the power to create the CDC to begin with? The CDC in it's entirety, is a political creation of the socialist scum of this country. For this "progressive" to be whining about the defunding of a small portion of the CDC engaged in an illegal conspiracy (see 18 USC 241 and 242) is beyond ironic. It's effrontery.

We must remember the First Amendment which protects any shrill jackass no matter how self-seeking.

F. G. Withington
[Applications of this admonition abound.--Joe]

An off-duty policeman observes a young woman with a gun shooting at people out the passenger window as her accomplice drives along M62. The officer reports it and soon the pair is pulled over with the help of other officers with four jeeps, two vans full of dogs, and helicopters. Being hopelessly outnumbered and out gunned the pair surrender without a fight. They spent several hours in a jail cell before the police let them go because they determined the pair only had the one gun which was a toy. Read the rest of the story here. A picture of the young women, and their guns, who had just been to a "Cowboys and Indians" party is below:

I wonder what the response would have been had they been in possession of a bow and arrow and dressed as North American Indians.

Had it been in Idaho had they been stopped they would have been asked to put the toy away. It's spring time and we don't want to scare away the dimwitted California tourists. In the fall you can bring out the real guns for hunting season and scare them all you want just by putting it in the rifle rack on the back window of your pickup.

I'm sure the UK residents feel safer now. It's good to know all that tax money is being put to good use.

Via Say Uncle who viewed it at The Bitch Girls.

Question: Handgun ownership; A right or a privilege? Answer: Privilege.

But he considers a college education, access to the internet, and health care as rights. How did he manage to get through law school?

I just got a call from the Bristol Herald Courier in Virginia. They wanted to verify that I had sent a letter to the editor. Apparently they are going to publish it. Watch for it here in the next day or two.

I haven't received word back from the bigoted opinion writer I briefly corresponded with. I wanted to post our email correspondence but bigots aren't too keen on being exposed like that so I doubt I will ever hear from him again.

Robert F. Williams, Jr., . . . . had become head of the NAACP chapter in Monroe, North Carolina, in 1957. When threatened by the local Ku Klux Klan he organized a rifle club of sixty members and got it chartered by the National Rifle Association. This was partly to get the free ammunition provided NRA members by a grateful government, partly also, no doubt, a tribute to both groups' joint faith in self-defense. When the Klan organized a motorcade against one NAACP member's house, the club drove them off with gunfire. . . He had deeply embarrassed the NAACP. It was bad enough that he rejected the nonviolent ethic, worse still that he did so with such success. His was the only armed NAACP chapter and, for its size, the most effective.

William L. O'Neill
Coming Apart: An Informal History of America in the 1960's
160-61 (1971)

I haven't seen the article yet but it's supposedly out:

Idaho Magazine--Outdoor Sports: It’s a Blast, by Barbara A. Scott.

In the spirit of full disclosure--the potential exists for some bias in the article. I've been sleeping with the author for over 30 years now. It was a long term investment and I'm hoping it paid off.

If you get killed in a fight either: your training sucked, you suck, or you got fucked. If you go to jail, either: your training sucked, you suck, or you got fucked.

IMO most of the time it's because you suck.

Greg Hamilton
19:57 PM, March 22, 2007
From the Yahoo group InSights Training Center List

Tamara K. posted:

Heisenberg used to house sit for Schroedinger, and would get annoyed when his buddy would call home from out of town and ask "Where is my cat? And how fast is it going?"

I thought this was quite funny. My son James responded with "*groan*" but my friend Sean wanted to know what the punch line was.

You must not assume Sean didn't "get it". That thought crossed my mind for only a few milliseconds before I dismissed it. So I told him that was it and explained that I thought it was funny just the way it is even if it is a bit obsure. Two minutes later he delivered his punch line for the story:

So Heisenberg put the cat the box with a gadget that released poison gas based on radioactive decay. Schroedinger called again, asking, "Where is my cat? And how fast is it going?"

Heisenberg replied, "Let me check. Oh! It's dead. You killed it." And hung up.

Yesterday I quoted Mr. Fox. Since Kevin is busy I also sent Mr. Fox an email. He responded and invited me to send a letter to the editor where he works and where his opinion piece appeared.

I believe we need to go on the offensive in our battle for public opinion. Constant defense can only slow, or at best stop, the advancement of the gun control. I advocate a particular state of mind when participating in gun control debates and I'm seeing a number of other people pick up on that theme. I continue in that vein here:

I’m writing in regard to the editorial by Mike Fox on gun control that appeared on your pages today.

Mr. Fox should look at the data rather than relying on his emotions when advocating public policy. Despite decades of law and crime data and research examining that data from countries all over the world no one has been able to answer just one question of mine, "Can you demonstrate one time or place, throughout all history, where the average person was made safer by restricting access to handheld weapons?"

One should look at the benefits of private firearm ownership and use as well as the hazards. Firearms are used far more often in the defense of innocent life than they are used to kill or injure innocent life. Mr. Fox does not appear to have taken that into account.

Crime rates do not decrease when the victims of crimes are prohibited access to the tools of their own defense. That should be "common-sense". Apparently Mr. Fox wasn't able to see things from that viewpoint.

I believe had he been advocating banning people of color from the restaurants he frequents, from using the same drinking fountains, or interracial marriage then his advocacy of public policy without exceedingly solid factual data he would not have been allowed to present his opinion on your pages. The same criteria should be used before you allow someone to advocate restricting the rights of millions of gun owners in this country. To do otherwise is for you to participate in their bigotry.

See also my blog posting: http://blog.joehuffman.org/2004/12/15/Just+One+Question.aspx

I have asked for, but not yet received, his permission to post the email exchange I had with Mr. Fox. If I receive that permission I'll post it as well.

Insanity in individuals is something rare - but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule.

Friedrich Nietzsche
[This may explain why I despise most politicians and parties so much.--Joe]

Some conservatives mulled that if concealed weapons had been permitted on Tech’s campus, the gunman might’ve been stopped. Yet, that doesn’t mean anyone in Norris Hall would’ve had a concealed weapon or that they would’ve been able to use it to stop the gunman; after all, more than 50 people were killed or wounded in that building.

Mike Fox
After Tech, common-sense gun control laws cannot be ignored
June 4, 2007
[As near as I can tell, "common-sense gun control" is a code phrase that means, "we must ignore facts and rational thought and do what make me feel good". But beyond that it seems this guy isn't capable of rational thought. Read that last sentence and see if it makes any sense to you. Mr. Fox, I have Just One Question for you.--Joe]

The next Boomershoot will be April 27, 2008. This is the earliest I have ever opened it up for entry. I opened it up a few days ago for people that had participated in Boomershoot 2007. Despite having increased the number of positions available the event is already nearly 60% full.

If you want to participate I suggest you sign up within the next week or maybe two at the latest.

The Boomershoot 2008 on-line entry form is here.

Update: The event is now (June 2^nd 23:45) 61% full. Also, I just got word that "The Anvil Guy" will be back. He also had a request for comments on the anvil launches:

My name is Steve and I have had the enjoyment of firing my anvils at Boomershoot for 4 years.This year my brother Michael did the firing as I couldn't make it...I enjoy doing it and am always trying for more altitude. I would appreciate any and all comments, serious or smart ass from those who have witnessed the firing...

If you have a comment either send it directly to him, if you have his email address, or send it to joeh@boomershoot.org and I'll forward it on.

Henderson's second insight was that despite the right belonging to "the people" in the amendment, it actually belonged only to the militia as an organized military force. To believe this, you have to believe that the United States is the only nation on Earth that felt a need to guarantee its government, in writing, the right to have an army -- which is possible, I suppose, if Jefferson foresaw the attitude of the modern Democrat party towards the military.

Mac Johnson
March 15, 2007
Court Rediscovers 2nd Amendment, Liberals Fear Other 'Rights' May Soon be Found

Many other universities have been swayed by an anti-gun, anti-self defense ideology. I respect their right to hold those views, but I challenge their decision to deny Americans the right to protect themselves on their campuses — and then proudly advertise that fact to any and all.

Whenever I've seen one of those "Gun-free Zone" signs, especially outside of a school filled with our youngest and most vulnerable citizens, I've always wondered exactly who these signs are directed at. Obviously, they don't mean much to the sort of man who murdered 32 people just a few days ago.

Fred Thompson
April 20, 2007
Signs of Intelligence?
[Spread Fred!--Joe]