The View From North Central Idaho

Barb and I have made plans to attend the Gun Blogger Rendezvous in Reno this October. We won't be there the entire time. We are first going south to Tonopah where Barb's father lived for several years. We will be in Reno sometime on Friday afternoon or evening and will be there all day Saturday. Sunday we probably will do something that isn't particularly gun related such as hiking or museums but if others want to hang out with us that would be fine.

I probably will bring my .300 Win Mag for long range fun on Saturday, at least one handgun, and my shot timer.

If you listened to the Gun Nuts on August 19 you would have heard me wonder how Jarrett was going to handle the wide range of shooting ability in the participants when we showed up on August 22. I believe I had the most training going in. A partial list of my firearms training:

• General Defensive Handgun
• Intensive Handgun Skills
• Low Light Handgun Skills
• Handgun Retention & Disarming
• General Defensive Rifle

Most of the others had not had any formal training. Other students who have taken courses from multiple schools have wisely told me that when attending a new class you should approach the class with an open mind and if you can take just one good thing away then the class was worthwhile.

Jarrett did a great job of dealing with the disparity. He obviously had to get everyone up to speed with the fundamentals such as grip, trigger control, and sight alignment. He did this on the first day mostly in the classroom. On the second day he did something everyone was impressed with. He made marks on our hands that helped us get the grip right:

Robb Allen's hands with the Para USA LDA .45 in full recoil. Notice the smoke leaving the ejection port?

Notice the mark on Robb's right thumb just below the joint? There is a matching mark on his left hand. These two marks line up when he was holding the gun properly. It's difficult to see but there is also a mark on his right hand directly behind the beaver tail safety underneath the slide. This mark should be directly in line with the long axis of the gun and the axis of the shooters arm.

When I saw what Jarrett was doing with these marks little shivers went through me. This was a brilliant teaching aid. I was the next to the last person to get the marks and he told me I was the only person to already have the proper grip. John D. to my left and the last person also got it right. I had made a very slight modification to my normal grip when I showed it to him. I had to shift my right hand just a little to get the proper alignment. The single stack gun is much narrower than what I am used to and once I got the marks on my hands I began practicing my draw making sure that the lines matched up even when I was drawing at full speed.

The draw was one of the areas where Jarrett cut some corners on the training. He talked about it some but didn't have us do any drills specifically working on the draw. He focused on doing a safe draw but not much on speed. This probably was a wise thing considering the other things that were going to be a lot more fun and new to the more advance shooters but in terms of self-defense shooting this probably was more important.

We shot at 8" plate racks from about 15' as we were pushed to shoot faster and faster. This was very frustrating for me because my plates would go down hard enough they would bounce back up. Some plates I put down three times only to have them remain standing.

We did some 25 yard slow fire shooting to verify our trigger control and zeros. On an silhouette target my gun was giving me head shots when I aimed at the chest. Jarrett verified it did the same for him and adjusted the sights for me.

Our range had the capability to give us moving targets:

Looking carefully on the left you can see the remotely reset steel plates then the turning targets. The two rails on the right are for targets that, from the shooters perspective move horizontally left and right. All of these were utilized.

This was nearly all new to me. In competition I have shot at moving targets and moved while shooting but I have had near zero formal training on it.

We shot at the turners. We were given two seconds to empty our eight round magazines into silhouette targets.

We shot over, around and through barricades:

Me, shooting at a steel plates over a barricade. Photo by JR.
Yes, I was taking advantage of my height when everyone else had to use two different shooting positions to get access to the same targets.

Me, supervised by Todd Jarrett, shooting around a barricade. Photo by JR.

We shot on the move. We advanced on the targets while shooting (photo by JR):

We shot at horizontally moving plates while standing still. We shot at plate racks while we were moving horizontal.

We shot at horizontally moving plates while we were moving both left to right and right to left.

The things I took away from this was:

1. Follow through on your shots with the moving targets. Keep the gun pointed at the target even after you fire. The gun just happens to go bang every once in a while as you are pointing it. It got so I could hit the moving targets almost as fast as the stationary targets.
2. When you are moving you need to keep your knees bent to keep yourself level.
3. Walk like you are on a tight rope or balance beam. This keeps you from rocking from side to side as you walk.

Me, supervised by Todd Jarrett, shooting at a steel plate while advancing. Photo by JR.

See also this video from Sebastian:

We did some rapid fire from the hip shooting at a steel plate about 18"x24" in size from just a few feet away from us. The point was to be able to get the gun on target in a close quarters situation. Below you can see Tamara, having just completed the drill, getting a little further instruction from Jarrett on the topic:

We then did some plate shooting from 35 yards. Here is Kevin hammering the plates (and having them bounce back up) at distance. 

One thing that I found as a glaring omission was learning to reload quickly. It was appropriate given the time constraints and disparate training of the students but I was hoping for some "fine tuning" of my reloads.

My biggest surprise was how useful laser sights are for training. I'm not convinced they are particular useful for the shooter as he or she is actually shooting but as an instructor or by video taping as the student is shooting a lot can be learned and taught. I was previously of the opinion the most useful aspect of them was as a toy for dogs and cats. One small example is to have the student shoot rapidly and watch the path of the laser on the target. It should track nearly straight up and down without overshooting the point of aim. Similar lessons can be learned and taught in transitioning from one target to another.

The most fun was the shoot house. I already have a full post on that and won't go into that again except to say that I disagree with Kevin with what was happening while we were taking turns going through. Kevin is of the opinion ninjas from Gunsite Ranch were spying on us. I think this was actually a vulture from the Brady Campaign hoping for some blood to be spilled:

The lines are being more clearly drawn on the gun issue. One day after Senator Obama made it clear that he thinks assault weapons should be banned in a remarkable portion of his speech, here Senator McCain selects someone who is not only proud to be endorsed by [the NRA], an opponent of that ban, but apparently is pretty enthusiastic about the guns themselves.

Dennis Hennigan
Legal Director for the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence
Newsweek: On the Hunt--Sarah Palin, a moose-hunting, lifetime NRA member guns for D.C.
[You got that right Dennis. So what this means is this election is going to have a significant component that is about the right to keep and bear arms. The contest in November will be about those that recognize a specific enumerated right and those that want to infringe upon it. It will be between the Brady bunch, the Violence Policy Center, and a handful of lesser known (and knowledgeable) groups composed of a few 10s of thousands of members versus the NRA, GOA, CCRKBA, and dozens of other pro freedom organizations with several million members. Not everyone agrees with me but I think it's game over man, game over. There is still work to be done in the trenches until November but some of the generals are going to be planning for a Sarah Palin/Bobby Jindal ticket in 2012.--Joe]

Agree with me or not, the Second Amendment hinges on the necessity of a militia (National Guard or Reserve) for the protection of our country; not as an excuse for anybody with a few extra dollars, a chip on the shoulder, or a grudge, to become an armed vigilante.

Elliott Greenblott
August 30, 2008
Letter to the editor of Brattleboro Reformer
[Ironically he goes on to compare the Heller decision to the Dred Scott decision. In the Heller decision the right of the people to bear arms and throw off tyrants who would make us slaves was confirmed. But the Dred Scott decision said certain people were slaves and could not sue for their freedom. And his basic underlying assumption that the "armed vigilante" was the conclusion of the Heller decision is totally without foundation. I can only conclude he has mental problems.--Joe]

Take it from me, if it had ended differently, we would not be bogged down in Iraq, we would have pursued bin Laden until we captured him. We would not be facing a self-inflicted economic crisis; we would be fighting for middle-income families. We would not be showing contempt for the Constitution; we'd be protecting the rights of every American regardless of race, religion, disability, gender or sexual orientation. And we would not be denying the climate crisis; we'd be solving it.

Al Gore
August 28, 2008
[Notice he doesn't say anything about protecting the rights of gun owners so one has to wonder why he doesn't think his idea of registering all gun owners, support for the so called "assault weapon" ban, and restricting the right of free association at gun shows didn't show contempt for the Constitution. Would registering all homosexuals and outlawing gay bars not meet his threshold for "showing contempt for the Constitution"?--Joe]

He who will not reason is a bigot; he who cannot is a fool; and he who dares not is a slave.

William Drummond
1585-1649
[Also attributed by some to Lord Byron. Regardless, I would like to add that those that insist we should not reason wish to be our slave masters.--Joe]

At Blackwater last weekend we used ammo supplied by International Cartridge Corporation.

The ammo worked great. I have zero complaints about the performance of the ammo. Accuracy was excellent. We fired the ammo about five or ten feet from steel plates (that is what Tam was doing here) with only a hint of dust coming back when the wind was right. It is made of sintered copper and tin so it is non-toxic. Because there is no jacket the bullets can be made very accurate. The major factor in bullet accuracy is the jacket being of different thicknesses on one side than another. This puts the geometric center of the bullet at a different point from the center of gravity. As the bullet traverses the barrel the bullet rotates about its geometric center. As it exits it rotates about it's center of gravity. If the two centers are not the same it will "jump" a little to one side as it makes the transition. This will cause the bullet to go in a slightly different direction than that which the barrel was pointed. Hence the homogeneous, sintered, bullet can be made more accurate.

The bullets are also made with a lubricant for release from the mold during the manufacturing process. This lubricant is part of the structure of the bullet and is still present when the bullet is fired. Along with the tighter diameter tolerances (about 0.0005") the guns shooting these bullets run much cooler. Todd Jarrett told us of full auto guns having barrels cool enough to hold the gun by after emptying a complete magazine loaded with this type of ammo.

The ammo rep on-site with us said the price was about the same as hollow point ammo. He also said the bullets were not available for reloading. Something about them being too fragile and cracking in reloading presses. This seems a little odd. They didn't crack when we dropped them on the gravel in the shooting bays. They didn't crack when we dropped them on the concrete. The didn't crack when they were fired.

I also found where they are sold for reloading. From their dealer page click on http://www.frangiblebullets.com/. There you can find prices, loading data, and lots of other interesting information.

One thing you will notice about the bullets is they are much lighter than the same caliber lead bullets. This is because the materials used, copper and tin, have a lower density than lead. They can, and are, loaded to higher velocities and can reach IPSC major power factor in .45 ACP, 10mm, and probably .38 Super. Minor PF can apparently be reached with 9mm. .40 S&W appears to be unable to reach major PF.

If my blood levels of lead were on the high end of normal I would probably buy the bullets and reload them in my pistols for practice and competition. As it is my lead levels are on the low end of normal and lead bullets are cheaper (in .40 S&W about $0.18 versus $0.11). And in any case I don't think I would use the bullets for self-defense. I'm inclined to believe that heavy, deep penetrating bullets are better fight stoppers than light bullets that leave a lot of fragments behind upon entry.

Another reason I would be disinclined to use the light bullets is the recoil. For the same bullet momentum (Power Factor in USPSA terminology) you get more recoil. This is because more powder is used with the light bullets and the high velocity powder exiting the barrel adds to the total recoil. The recoil is also spread over a longer period of time with the slower moving bullet. Hence a light fast bullet causes a very "snappy" recoil which tends to be uncomfortable. I noticed this with the .45 gun I was shooting over the weekend. The recoil was much different than what I expected from a .45. I asked what the bullet velocity was on the 155 grain bullets we were shooting. About 1150 fps I was told. Normal .45 ACP velocities are in the range of about 750 to 925 fps and you feel more of a "push" than the "slap" I was feeling.

Still the lead free frangible bullets have their place. I could see indoor ranges requiring lead free bullets or steel plate competitions requiring frangible bullets. I remember taking a pistol class once and the instructor telling us that for every class they usually have, on the average, one injury from the back splatter from the steel targets. They had about 10 students per class and were firing about 1000 rounds each on steel so there were a lot of bullets going down range and eventually the odds would catch up with someone. The injuries were always minor and required nothing more serious than a Band-Aid but still the injuries did occur. Wrap around eye protection and either directly facing the targets or facing away was required. Those concerns would be eliminated with ICC's frangible ammo.

Kim recently brought up the idea of modern-day privateering and I think it's a good one.  It's high time.

Col. Cooper recommended a 30 caliber machinegun for the purpose.  I tend to think he was right, but a machinegun is a necessarily heavy piece and not easily moved.  Two of those mounted, say, one bow and one stern, or one starboard and one port amidships, would be a good deterrent.  I'd think you'd also want some hand-held rifles (M4s or Kalashnikovs, etc) for portability.

For clearing a whole deck of pirates in a hurry, nothing would beat a modern Gatling gun.  My son and I came up with the idea of a 10 gauge or 8 gauge smooth bore Minigun, firing heavy loads of 000 buckshot at 6K RPM.  Yeah, that should about do it.  If there is armor involved, Ma Duce would be a good choice, and she's excellent at punching holes in engines and transmissions.

Now where do we get our licenses and tags?

If you ask any good sniper, he will tell you that making the kill is better than sex. If you offer this sniper an opportunity to shoot 12 enemy soldiers or hop in bed with a Playboy Playmate the sniper will choose to make the kills first--then he will want the girl too.

Hans Halberstadt
From Trigger Men: Shadow Team, Spider-Man, the Magnificent Bastards, and the American Combat Sniper, page 53.
[This is a very interesting book. Taken out of context this quote is a little on the scary side. It sounds like the mind of a sociopath but it is more about stopping the enemy before he or she kills a teammate or an innocent. Still it is soboring. I'm really enjoying this book because it explains the role of the sniper in our current war and how important their precision fire has become even, or perhaps especially, in an urban environment.--Joe]

Because my officemate, I, (and a few others) won an award for working some long hours last year and delivering on time we spent the money by taking a few others and going kayaking on Lake Union this afternoon. I updated my Twitter account several times and was wardriving with my cell phone while kayaking. Here are the twitter updates:

• http://twitter.com/JoeHuffman/statuses/899833135
• http://twitter.com/JoeHuffman/statuses/899858649
• http://twitter.com/JoeHuffman/statuses/899876994
• http://twitter.com/JoeHuffman/statuses/899900654
• http://twitter.com/JoeHuffman/statuses/899931397

My boss took some pictures and updated his Facebook account with them while still on the water. Ry (who wasn't even there) tagged some of the pictures with names before we made it back to work and dropped people off.

Both Kim and Xenia went back to school today. Xenia has the pictures and the story.

I wish I could have been there to give them hugs and say the usual stuff about being good and doing what the teacher tells them to do. But they are grown women now and it's a little late for that.

Tonight the Gun Nuts will have another show on the events from this weekend. I don't know for certain who will be on. I was invited again but thought I would just listen and let other people talk this time. The live show starts at 2300 Eastern, 2000 Pacific time.

Para USA, Blackwater USA, Blackhawk, International Cartridge Company, and Crimson Trace will probably all be topics of discussion and will all get well deserved praise.

Woke up this morning in Arlington VA (I fly back to AZ this afternoon), opened the motel room door, and this was the view.

The firemen say a room on the next floor burned up. After two trips thru the shoot house, this really isn't that exciting. Hmmm, a motel fire. Be careful not to trip over the hoses while getting some coffee to wake up.

David Hardy
August 26, 2008 4:46 AM PST

This struggle may be a moral one, or it may be a physical one, and it may be both moral and physical, but it must be a struggle. Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them, and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.

Frederick Douglass
1857
[Very appropriate for gun rights activists. But what is even more interesting to me is where I found it. I found it in an anti-freedom blog post. I read it and it just didn't seem right. So I looked it up and found what you see above. The anti-freedom person used this one:

Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found the exact measure of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them.

What a difference the context makes! As always, they have to lie and obfuscate in their attempts to win. To be fair he did supply a more complete one in the comments when called on it. But initially he stripped out the lines that make our point better than his.--Joe]

I've done a lot of USPSA shooting but never anything in a 360 degree shoot house with a dozen rooms, real doors, and real hallways in it. As various people said in various ways during our visit to Blackwater "This place is made of awesome."

The walls were made of plywood covered 2x4s with steel plating on the outside walls to contain the bullets. The USPSA targets we used were mounted on bullet traps. We used frangible ammo from International Cartridge Corporation which worked extremely well (Sebastian has more on the ammo).

There were buildings in various configurations including one with the building named "R U Ready High School". We used range T7 that could have been an office building or a home.

In front of our building were walls and a gate that could be used for breaching exercises.

They have the repair materials for the breaching practice walls nearby.

The shoot house is a metal roof with partial walls coming down from the eaves to about 10 feet above the ground. The interior with the walls, doors, hallways, targets, etc. has a smaller footprint and has about eight foot walls. Some shoot houses had catwalks overhead. T7 did not have the catwalk and the video guy had to use a ladder to peak over the walls and get his footage.

Just 100 feet or so from our shoot house was this hulk. Apparently used a different type of exercise.

This sticker was on the inside of the plane wreckage.

The white board on the front of the building shows this is really a classroom not just a place for fun. Rob Allen is supposed to report on what we saw on the white board. You won't want to miss that post.

More pictures, and drooling, about the shoot house is available here.

Because we could only run one person at a time through the shoot house we spent a lot of time standing around talking. Here Caleb* explains how things should be done to the rest of us.

This was also the place where Caleb and I settled our bet. Originally I had suggested an El Presidenta and Caleb agreed. But it was clear it was going to be a hassle to find and set up a range for that so we agreed to use the shoot house course since that was to be timed and a winner determined anyway. I was concerned about the 9mm versus .45 aspect which the USPSA rules for the El Presidenta would have taken into account. But we were using USPSA targets here and I figured we could use the time and the hits and again use USPSA scoring and have the 9mm versus .45 disadvantage compensated for. But then the scoring was announced by Todd to be merely time with a miss counting as a three second penalty and a hit on a hostage to be a five second penalty. This put me at a disadvantage. I was shooting a high recoil gun with a Light Double Action trigger with a bug that had been haunting me anytime I tried to shoot fast versus Caleb shooting a light recoil gun with a single action trigger which was working well for him.

Caleb was the second person through the shoot house and what sounded to me like an okay time. Not great but not bad. 24 rounds in most types of environment should be completed in about that many seconds for an average IPSC shooter. But with the eight round magazines, numerous doors to open, and it being a surprise stage it should have taken me about 30 to 35 seconds. Caleb did it in about 46.3 (I forget the exact number on the tenths) but he hit a hostage which, according to the rules, gave him a 51.3. All I had to do, in my mind, was not make any mistakes. I went through immediately after Caleb and had at least three malfunctions of various types with the gun. I also ran down a hallway that was a dead end and had to back up to go the proper way. I made a bunch of mistakes but still turned in a time of 49.89. Good enough to win but not anything to be proud of. Caleb now owes me free ammo for life**.

As reported earlier Caleb only cried for a little while***. The brown paster on his chest is his "badge" for shooting a hostage.

* I'm kidding. Caleb was not the least bit arrogant or a braggart. I think we both knew shortly after the shooting started on Friday that it was going to be a close match.

**  Just kidding, it's two hundred rounds of 180 grain FMJ .40 S&W.

*** Again, I'm kidding. The "crying" incident was two days earlier. I don't know how I managed to get the above picture. I just took so many pictures that one of them "fell into my lap" for exploitation.

I won the bet with Caleb today. Caleb reported it live from the range. I won only because I made fewer mistakes than he did. In a second run through the house with a different configuration I again beat him by a slim margin because I made slightly fewer errors than he did. In both runs through others beat us. My second run was good enough for second place and I won a set of Crimson Trace laser sights.

You have the potential to be a world class shooter.

Todd Jarrett
August 22, 2008
To me while on the Blackwater range. He was making a joke for the video being made for Michael Bane's television show.

Due to requests from the Tamara Fan Club Unwashed Masses (see the comments) the pictures are heavy on Tamara.

I also took the first picture on JR's post.

Caleb has pictures up too.

The view from in front of the hotel a little after 7:00 AM this morning.

Soybeans in the background.

Almost ready for the trip to breakfast.

Our guns have lasers in the grips by Crimson Trace and they have people here shooting with us.

Rob showing off our transportation while on site.

Kevin Baker.

Say Uncle.

Dave Hardy.

John D.


JR.

Tamara.

Kerby Smith is the guy behind this from Para USA side.

Todd was able to make an improvement in Robb's shooting. Say Uncle in the background.

Tamara.

Rob Allen.

Caleb is going to be a formable opponent for our modified bet.

No. Tam is not pissed and about to try shooting Todd with an empty gun.

Don Gwinn and Michael Bane.

Crimson Trace rep, Sebastian, and Say Uncle.

Say Uncle getting a lesson on cleaning a 1911 gun from Todd Jarrett.

Kevin hitting 8" plates at 35 yards.

This is the gun (with part of the serial number obscured) I have been shooting:

Custom guns just for us knuckle dragging gun bloggers! How cool is that?

I had some problems yesterday and finally figured out what was going on (with a simpler repro of the problem by JR). If the gun cycles, you let up on the trigger to the first click, squeeze (it will hit a hard stop without firing), then let up until the next click, then pull the gun will lock up. You have to manually cycle the slide (roughly the equivalent to a computer reboot) to recover. I mentioned this to Kerby, the Para USA guy, and he said, "Yes. It will do that. Don't do that. After the gun cycles move you finger until the nail touches the front of the trigger guard then do your pull." He went on to explain that this is because I've been shooting single action guns for a long time. Others that shoot double action or Glock type actions before using a Light Double Action (which this is) don't have this problem.

At Microsoft we call a bug that is easily reached and causes the program to crash a Priority 0 bug. Priority 0 bugs must be fixed before the product is shipped. Telling the customer, "Don't do that" isn't really an option for a released product.

Yesterday I had many failures to feed as well. After oiling the gun this morning those problems went away until very late in the day when the gun got dirty again. And after adapting my shooting technique to avoid the system lock up (and the required reboot) I did pretty well. On the last big "stage" at the end of the day with shooting on the move, shooting movers, and plates racks I had the best run of anyone (possibly even Todd who fumbled some reloads and had other problems) until Caleb shot the stage with a borrowed gun that had 18 round magazines. The rest of us used eight round magazines and I required five magazines to complete the stage.

At the end of the day several of us, including me, were able to hit the eight (?) inch plates at 35 yards half the time or better.

I have to conclude the gun works well as long as you don't run into that one bug.

Draw your own conclusions as to whether the gun (your version would look like this) is for you.

I learned more in the last three hours than I have since I've been shooting.

Say Uncle
August 22, 2008
Referring to instruction from Todd Jarrett while being taped for Michael Bane's television show.
[I had told him, several times, that professional instruction would make a big difference. Not that he ever disagreed with me. But it's nice to hear him confirm what I had been saying. This is not to say that his shooting was particularly bad. Just that you learn a lot from someone who knows what they are doing and how to teach.--Joe]

One of the things we talked about last night was how much harder it is for an anti-gun mole to penetrate the gun rights movement than the other way around. One of the reasons is it is much easier for us to speak their language than it is for them to speak ours. I've mentioned this general topic before but it's worth reposting the gun portion:

...I worked on a political campaign to oppose a anti-gun initiative (I-676) a few years ago.  The people on the phone lines would tell stories about the anti-gun people that would call and try to get information about our plans.  You only had to ask one or two questions and the anti-gun people would, figuratively, fall in heap on the floor.  If the lines weren't very busy then they would play with them for a few minutes and have more material for the story telling later that evening.  They would just ask something like, “What type of gun do you have?“  “What caliber is it?“  They would get answers like “Glock“ and “.357 Magnum“ (only revolvers shoot .357 Magnum and Glock doesn't make any revolvers).  Or “Shotgun, I'm not sure who makes it, but it's a 9mm.”  With a little bit of suggestive questioning you could get them to agree to the most incredibly outrageous things.  It was great sport making fun of the people that were trying to do us harm and now I realize that it can be more than just sport.

You can get a better hour by hour update on my Twitter account but here are some pictures:

Leaving the Norfolk hotel to get on the Blackhawk bus.

This is the Blackhawk bus. It's very nice inside.

Gun bloggers picking up their holsters, shirts, belts, and other super tactical stuff at Blackhawk headquarters. They have some very cool stuff.

Todd Jarrett doing some classroom stuff.

This is not something you want to see. The muzzle of Todd Jarrett's gun.

Say Uncle gets his two minutes of fame with Todd Jarrett, Michael Bane, and video crew. Sebastian and I also got a couple minutes with them.

End of the shooting for the day and we walked from the cafeteria to the Blackwater hotel.

Despite us bloggers being no smarter than chimps everyone has been treating us like royalty. This has been an awesome day!

Currently the vote is 81% to 19% for me to win the bet between Caleb and I. That must because they expect the "old age and treachery" cliché to have a grain of truth. I must set the record straight on a few items.

There is no truth to the suspicion I arranged a false positive on the explosive sniffer as he went through TSA security yesterday.

There is no truth to the suspicion I poisoned him this morning so he couldn't eat.

It is true that I shot him while on the range at Blackwater (splatter from the steel).

Update: Bitter created a logo for the poll on who is going to win the bet:

This is like Disneyland for guns.

Tamera K.
August 22, 2008
While touring Blackwater.
[A few hours later Caleb said, "This is like Disneyland for gun nuts." I asked if he had heard Tamara say something similar earlier. He had not. I think Sebastian also said something similar while on camera with Michael Bane. It's really can't be adequately described in less that 1000 words and/or several dozen pictures. Being less articulate I just say, "Awesome".--Joe]

Uncle and I talked and he sent the shuttle out to pick me up before I even picked up my luggage in Norfolk. I ran into Kevin Baker before I even checked in. I met up with Sebastian, Rob Allen, Caleb, JR, Uncle, and Kevin in the bar across the parking lot. We talked for an hour or so and Tam showed up. About 11:00 or so Rob was crashing and that broke up the bar party.

Read (almost) everyone's blog posting of people here on one web page.

Sebastian invited us back to his suite where Uncle, a local guy (a reader of Say Uncle) and I all talked until after 2:00 AM.

The bus leaves for Blackwater at 9:00 AM.

Xenia has a couple pictures and more to the story.

One of the more interesting things about working at Microsoft is the people I meet from all over the world. My officemate is from India, our PM is from Pakistan, my boss is from Sri Lanka, the new guy is from Australia, and a couple others are from Canada. We work with people in the bay area, China, India, and Dublin.

The guy from Pakistan is forbidden by his Entry Visa from touching weapons or explosives while in the U.S. and has to get "his fix" when he goes back to Pakistan once a year or so. A new member of the team in Dublin is here this week and I took him to the range last night. He had a little bit of experience with shotguns and clay pigeons but had never touched a handgun.

I started him out dry firing my STI then he shot a semi-auto .22LR pistol and then a .22 revolver. After he had gone through a couple hundred rounds I asked if he wanted to try the STI (chambered in .40 S&W). He did. I put just one round in it and he carefully aimed and fired. I could tell by the sounds he made and the expression on his face that it was a bit more than what he expected. I asked if he wanted to try another. There was some hesitation but he agreed. The second round didn't improve his attitude. He wanted to see me shoot it. I emptied a 16-round magazine in about half that many seconds with a group of about four inches at 15 feet. I did another five rounds at a much slower rate into a group about half that size.

If offered him the chance to shoot again and he chose the .22 semi-auto. We took turns shooting in the lane. I with the .40 and he with the .22. I finished up one box of .40 ammo and purchased another (I had accidentally left my handloads back at my bunker). The second box was a different brand and bullet weight and had a little less recoil. I offered him the .40 again and he fired about three or four rounds before saying he had enough. This is more tolerance for recoil than the previous guy from the U.K. I took to the range about 10 years ago.

I kept thinking there might be an application for the "9mm Europellet".

I'm waiting to board at SEATAC. You can follow my flight progress for the first leg to St. Louis here. The second leg to Norfolk is here.

Tomorrow I'll be at Blackwater enjoying the company of several other gun bloggers and the hospatilty of Para USA.

I'm really looking forward to settling the bet with Caleb.

Update: I forgot to mention I plan to update Twitter frequently during this trip.

Law enforcement?

TSA employee at SEATAC
August 21, 2008
After seeing my STI Eagle 5.1 with Kramer IWB holster, five full capacity magazines with leather mag pouches, electronic ear muffs, 200 rounds of handloads, and eye protection in a customized travel case.
[He must not know much about guns or he would have known that no police department would spend $2000+ on issue handguns for their officers. It irks me some that his inclination would be to believe that high end guns would most likely belong to "the special ones." Perhaps my telling him "No" will help correct that belief.--Joe]

The History Channel recently started running a program entitled, "The Works".  The host, Daniel Wilson, has a PHD in "Robotics".  I didn't know you could get a PHD in robotics, thus becoming what, a "roboticist" or a "robotologist"?  I'd have thought you'd need three degrees for that-- mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, and computer science, but I'm just a layman.  For all I know, there are degree programs for "Vending Machine Technology" too, you know, for those who don't quite feel up to the work load associated with a major in "Roboticism".

He did an episode on guns, which was pretty good.  It did however show an image of Superman flying "faster than a speeding bullet", and as per the cliché, Superman was shown flying right next to a fully assembled, metallic pistol cartridge.  I'm not sure how one is meant to propel an entire cartridge through the air at the velocity of a speeding pistol bullet (which the host correctly described as about a thousand feet per second) but I'm sure that where there's a will, there's a way, especially if you have a PHD in robotics.

Anyway, the program was interesting.  Though the host talked down to us a little more than required, IMO, I can forgive him-- he's young.  He obviously had a lot of fun with the various guns too, and wasn't afraid to show it.

Check out "The Works" on THC if you have the time.  I think you'll like it.  Oh and;

Congratulations, Dr. Wilson.  Keep up the good works.

This normally wouldn't be a story-- police departments need guns.  Can you say, "Duuuhhh"?  But it is a story over on WCBSTV (brought to our attention by Uncle).

Apparently, our police departments haven't gotten the loon's memo; "Violence never solves anything."
Or the other loon memo; "Having a gun is more likely to endanger you than to stop an attacker."
Or; "Arming yourselves will do nothing but 'provoke' the bad guys (sorry-- victims of American imperialism) and escalate the violence."

Then there's;
"It increases our range and our accuracy," Sgt. Brian Lyman said.

Uh...9 mm parabellum in a submachinegun = "range" and "accuracy"?  OK I'll play; compared to what?  I hope he's referring to an M-4 rather than the UMP mentioned in the article as an "assault rifle" (for those of you in Rio Linda; a submachinegun [or machine pistol] is not an assault rifle [the former was created decades before the latter] but given their level of education on controversial, hot-button political issues, we don't expect a single journalist in the U.S. to know the difference [UMP stands for Universal Machine Pistol, IIRC]).

"I think if they think they need [submachineguns], then it is good that they have them," one woman said.

OK, granted, so we can throw out all the silly arguments that say you must have criminal intent, or be paranoid and/or racist and/or a redneck drunken testosterone-poisoned yahoo, before you'd ever want a gun.  Glad we got that cleared up.

"When you have to wait, five, 10, 15 minutes... during that interim people could be dying..."

That one is the best.  I guess when a cop says it it's clear and sensible, but when we're talking about an armed citizen in the absence of any police, it's a totally different paradigm.  Five, 10, 15 minutes, or any amount of time for that matter, to wait for police to arrive after calling 911, is a perfectly acceptable amount of time for people to be dying.  Just ask any anti gun-rights organization.

"Many departments in Bergen County are using Homeland Security grants to purchase these weapons."

You mean more submachineguns are needed in the civilian population to secure the Homeland (police are in fact civilians, no)?  That makes no sense in light of the fact that, as we've been told, 9/11 was an inside job and there is no terrorist threat (I heard Mike Moore say the latter himself, so we know it has to be true-- he got an Academy Award didn't he) guns are more dangerous to their owners, violence never solves anything, and having weapons provokes your enemies.  Obviously then, the Homeland Security assertion is just cover for the "real reason" police are acquiring automatic weapons.

But I'm forgetting something-- the Left hate police almost as much as they hate liberty (remember; in the 1960s police were referred to collectively as "pigs") so I expect they'd go along with the above criminal-intent/paranoid/racist/yahoo theory to explain why police want guns, and let it go at that.

Rob and I had a nice chat with Caleb and Bonnie on Gun Nuts at Blog Talk Radio last night.

We mostly talked about the Para sponsored weekend at Blackwater. But we touched on Boomershoot just a little bit too.

We did talk about the bet between Caleb and I about who is the better shooter and how that bet came about. We didn't get the stakes of the bet nailed down but that may have been settled today in the comments of his post about our discussion last night. Rob and Bonnie have their own posts about last nights show too.

To answer the question that keeps coming up--the bet came about in the following email thread:

From: Say Uncle
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 6:40 AM
To: Sebastian; Ahab; Bitter Bitch; Deleted @progunprogressive.com; Joe Huffman
Subject: My dad can beat up your dad

 

http://www.saysuncle.com/archives/2008/07/09/chicks-and-guns-17/#comment-203007

 

From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 9:27 AM
To: Say Uncle; Sebastain; Aha'; Bitter Bitch; Deleted @progunprogressive.com
Subject: RE: My dad can beat up your dad

 

Almost for certain he can.

 

My dad is almost 85 years old and not thinking too clearly anymore.

 

How about between the two of us we see who shoots the best at summer camp? Aren’t you the betting type?

 

J

 

-joe-

From: Say Uncle
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 9:36 AM
To: Joe Huffman
Cc: Sebastian; Ahab; Bitter Bitch; Deleted @progunprogressive.com
Subject: Re: My dad can beat up your dad

 

I am but I only bet on things in which I have a positive expectation. In this case, I'm guessing I don't have such an expectation ;)

In fact, due to my recent lack of time at the range, I'll put me at dead last!

From: Ahab
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 9:54 AM
To: Say Uncle; Joe Huffman; Sebastian; Bitter Bitch; Deleted @progunprogressive.com
Subject: Re: My dad can beat up your dad

 

I'll take that bet, joe

 

From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 10:02 AM
To: 'Ahab'; 'Say Uncle'; Sebastian; 'Bitter Bitch'; Deleted @progunprogressive.com'
Subject: RE: My dad can beat up your dad

 

Name your terms and I'll think about it.

 

 

-joe-

 

From: Ahab
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 10:13 AM
To: Joe Huffman
Cc: Say Uncle; Sebastian; Bitter Bitch; Deleted @progunprogressive.com
Subject: Re: My dad can beat up your dad

 

Six pack of the winner's favorite beer?  Bottle of the winner's favorite booze, not to exceed, oh, I don't know...$30 bucks?

From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 10:51 AM
To: 'Ahab'
Cc: 'Say Uncle'; Sebastian; 'Bitter Bitch'; Deleted @progunprogressive.com'
Subject: RE: My dad can beat up your dad

 

The number of beers I have had in my lifetime can be counted on my fingers (base ten, not base two). Beyond that the last drink of alcohol I had was the glass of wine at the NRA convention dinner. That said, because of my sweet tooth there is no such thing as something “too sweet” and I like ice wine.

 

But more important to me is how are we going to determine the winner? And what sort of handicap are you giving me? I’m probably at least 20 years older than you. I’ve had a couple surgeries on my left knee and my right leg and foot is still swollen from the ATV that landed on it at Boomershoot 2008. I’m overweight and my eyes take minutes to change focus from front sight distance to target distance.

 

And what caliber gun did you select? I’m going to shooting a .45. If we do the contest at the end of the weekend after shooting 1500 rounds in the heat and humidity my old muscles, ligaments, and bones will have taken a lot more damage than someone much younger shooting a 9mm.

 

-joe-

 

From: Ahab
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 10:54 AM
To: Joe Huffman
Cc: Say Uncle; Sebastian; Bitter Bitch; Deleted @progunprogressive.com
Subject: Re: My dad can beat up your dad

 

I reckon determining the winner would be kind of challenging, and we would have to handicap because I picked the 9mm.

I don't know, let's turn it over to the posse to see if they have any ideas.  Well, everyone except for Robb, because his idea will involve jokes about sausage.

 

From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 11:04 AM
To: 'Ahab'
Cc: 'Say Uncle'; Sebastian; 'Bitter Bitch'; Deleted @progunprogressive.com'
Subject: RE: My dad can beat up your dad

 

How about an El Presidente? Score it according to USPSA rules and that would take into account the 9mm versus .45. It would also test a number of different skills including the draw, the reload, accuracy and speed.

 

And you are forgetting the handicap I should get for my age and infirmities. J

 

-joe-

 

From: Ahab
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 11:07 AM
To: Joe Huffman; Say Uncle; Sebastian; Bitter Bitch; Deleted@progunprogressive.com
Subject: Re: My dad can beat up your dad

 

Yeah, but you've been shooting for a lot longer than me.

 

:)

 

From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 12:08 PM
To: 'Ahab'
Cc: 'Say Uncle'; Sebastian; 'Bitter Bitch'; Deleted@progunprogressive.com'
Subject: RE: My dad can beat up your dad

 

Ignoring a 100 rounds or so that I shot when I was living at home on the farm I have been shooting for about 15 years. Is that more than you?

 

Regardless, I might be willing to give up on getting that handicap if you agree to a shooting test that isn't too taxing on my aging body.

 

So, what are your thoughts on the El Presidente? Or do you just want to wimp out entirely on a contest?

 

 

-joe-

 

From: Ahab
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 12:10 PM
To: Joe Huffman
Cc: Say Uncle; Sebastian; Bitter Bitch; Deleted@progunprogressive.com
Subject: Re: My dad can beat up your dad

 

I would shoot an El Presidente, that sounds good.  I've been shooting seriously since I was about 19, so that would give me 7 years, giving you a bit more experience.  Plus it's been my personal observation that experience and treachery defeat youthful enthusiasm most of the time. 

 

From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 12:20 PM
To: 'Ahab'
Cc: 'Say Uncle'; Sebastian; 'Bitter Bitch'; Deleted@progunprogressive.com'
Subject: RE: My dad can beat up your dad

 

Have you ever shot an El Presidente before? There’s not much treachery possible there.

 

-joe-

 

From: Ahab 
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 12:26 PM
To: Joe Huffman
Cc: Say Uncle; Sebastian; Bitter Bitch; Deleted@progunprogressive.com
Subject: Re: My dad can beat up your dad

 

Fair enough, I've only shot one el presidente in my time, so if you've shot 10 or 12 that would count under the "treachery" category.  :)

But no, I am totally game for an El Pres as the deciding factor.

 

From: Sebastian
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 12:29 PM
To: Ahab
Cc: Joe Huffman; Say Uncle; Bitter Bitch; Deleted@progunprogressive.com
Subject: Re: My dad can beat up your dad

 

Sorry Caleb, but I'd put my money on Joe ;)

 

From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 12:49 PM
To: 'Ahab'
Cc: 'Say Uncle'; Sebastian; 'Bitter Bitch'; Deleted@progunprogressive.com'
Subject: RE: My dad can beat up your dad

 

Ø  I am totally game for an El Pres as the deciding factor.

 

With all applicable USPSA rules applying (http://www.uspsa.org/rules/2008HandgunRulesindexed.pdf)?

 

-joe-

I can't find any further email on it but I think it was in comments on some blog post we did agreed to the contest as being the USPSA El Presidente classifier with all USPSA rules applying. The stakes will probably end up being 250 rounds of 180 grain FMJ .40 S&W ammo. That's higher stakes that I would really think are appropriate but we arrived at that after I suggested a case (typically 1000 rounds) was too much. [shrug] I can handle the pain of losing my first bet in 30 years and if Caleb is okay with taking that risk then I guess that settles it.

Just a couple more items of potential interest:

1. You will notice Caleb (Ahab) said " experience and treachery defeat youthful enthusiasm". Which was a nice way of saying old age and treachery.
2. Last night on the show I said I accepted the bet mostly because of his attitude. I have never seen him shoot (I have seen Say Uncle shoot and I'm pretty sure I can "take" him). I met Caleb last May and he had a slight attitude that was completely lacking in every shooter that I personal know and I know can beat me. Just a little too cocksure of himself. I explained this last night and in an email after the show he said, "that was the nicest way in which I've ever been called an arrogant bastard". That's me. Always the diplomat*.

* Diplomat: One skilled in the art of saying "Nice doggy" until he can find the right sized stick.

Women are at a severe disadvantage when confronting a likely stronger male assailant. In general, women simply do not have the upper body strength and testosterone-driven speed to effectively defend themselves without help. A firearm, particularly an easily manipulable handgun, equalizes this strength differential and thereby provides women the best chance they have of thwarting an attacker. Even more statistically likely, a firearm in the hands of a threatened woman offers the deterrence empty hands and an often unavailing 911 call do not.

M. Carol Bambery
Brief of amicae curiae 126 women state legislators and academics in support of respondent.
[They are at a particular disadvantage if they are 85 years old and the assailant is 17 years old. But if the woman has even a .22 caliber single action revolver then she can make the assailant dial 911.--Joe]

Whether we make it, or not, the human race has got to keep up its well-earned reputation for ferocity. If the slugs taught us anything, it was that the price of freedom is the willingness to do sudden battle, anywhere, any time, and with utter recklessness. If we did not learn that, well--"Dinosaurs, mover over! We are ready to become extinct."

"Sam"
Page 338 "The Puppet Masters" by Robert A. Heinlein
[Excellent book. And I think the above quote applies to more than just invading aliens who wish to have us as slaves. There are lots of terrestrial predators than periodically need to be put in their place if we are to keep our freedom.--Joe]

I attend an invitation-only forum of a few dozen people, many of whom it turns out are educators.  Someone started a thread on how to improve education (Joe, you know where this is going).  The discussion was proceeding as you might expect-- this person with experience was discussing details of education with another experienced person.  Someone suggested that compulsory attendance was a bad idea-- that if a kid doesn't want to be there, he can be a disruption, etc.. So I took the bait and posted a response.  Here it is, with some minor edits;

You're on the right track. Make attendance optional. The next step would be to make funding optional too, as in; if I choose not to send my kid to a "public" school, I don't have to pay a cent for it-- I can instead pay some other school. If I choose the grocery store on the West side of town, I don't have to still give 120 dollars a week to the grocery store on the East side. If the East side store wants my 120 dollars per week, they'll have to do a better job of serving my wants and needs, so as to entice me back. Hence the store which better serves the wants and needs of the community gets the "funding".  Further, we don't have to fight with one another over how to best run "our grocery store".

I point out to all here that we are not discussing the details of how Microsoft, Linksys, Apple, or Maxtor should be forced by the legislature to operate, yet we are using computers that only a few years ago would have been the subject of science fiction. We're not debating the policies of Wal Mart to figure out how the state can get them to sell at low prices and still make enough money to be self-sustaining, or Addidas shoes, or Coca-Cola Bottling Company, etc.. It's not as if we need to have legislators deciding how these companies should be run at all-- if one of them starts to do a poor job, there will be ten others to take its place. Besides, how many legislators have successfully run a school, or a software company, or a microchip manufacturing plant, or a bottling plant?

Poorly-run government programs go on and on and on for generations, sucking up more and more resources. In the case of schools, whole generations are getting ill-educated and it just keeps perpetuating itself.  Poorly-run businesses, on the other hand, fail, and pretty quickly, and then they are gone. Then someone else buys their assets and starts something better, all with zero participation from idiots in Congress, zero participation from the county commissioners, zero involvement from the loons in city council, and at zero cost to the taxpayer and zero coercion.

This is what was once known as a "Free Market", which is a system that has proven itself superior in every measureable way for many generations, though in this enlightened age, no one believes a bit of it.

Today, we all know perfectly well that if the government didn't provide shoes for our children, no child would have shoes unless they were lucky enough to be born into a rich family. So anyone who opposes full, compulsory, free shoes, is anti-shoe, or a shoephobe, and obviously hates both kids and shoemakers! These people are known as "conservatives" or "neo-cons" etc., and are absolutely terrible, evil people, who want all poor kids to go barefoot so their rich buddies can make even more money and won't have to pay their fair share in taxes.

Therefore, we should be discussing what our state and federal legislators are going to do to provide shoes (and computers and software) to all kids. We all know that that is why this country was founded and our constitution written-- so everyone would have everything they need, provided by the state, so they can all be healthy and happy, and think the right thoughts, and feel warm and fuzzy, and never have to be upset or uncomfortable or have to work too hard.

The post, by design, is rather incongruous with the rest of the thread, yet, I thought, to the very heart of the matter (two toddlers are concentrating on their game of catch at the edge of a cliff and you want to change the whole subject by striking up a discussion on subjects as ethereal and unrelated as situational awareness and the law of gravity?  Dude!  We're playing catch here?).

It's all been said before of course, by others more eloquent than I, but they are elephants in other people's living rooms.  This is your living room.

I expected at least someone to respond, but nothing.  They went right on, discussing the details of how this or that tweak would make things better in education.  Hello; this is the elephant in your living room speaking.  Socialism doesn't work.  It leads to stagnation and decay every time its tried.  It may look great on paper but it starts with the ignorance of how people actually interact in real life, and everything it tries to accomplish is founded on that ignorance.

And then there is the pesky little issue of rights (the right to choose where your education dollars go, for instance) but how dare I bring that up.  We're discussing public education here, after all.

Co-worker Kris recently arrived here from Australia. Saturday he rode his bicycle from the Mount Rainer park entrance to the Paradise visitor center and then back down the mountain. The elevation of Paradise is 5400 feet and the temperature was 95 F. He estimates he burned 4288 calories and consumed 5.8 liters (1.5 gallons) of fluids. He also got hit by a car on the way up.

And he says eating Vegemite demonstrates Aussies are tough.

It is just me, or does MS spell checker not recognize typos that come purely from proximity on the keyboard ("fat-fingering")?  Example; the word "and" typed as "ans"-- I don't get "and" offered as a correction option.  I find this sort of thing often.

OK, so I'm a whiner.

Well, not really "on the air" in the traditional sense.

Tomorrow night Rob Allen and I will be guests on http://blogtalkradio.com/gunnuts hosted by Caleb and Squeaky. The topic will be the Para sponsored training with Todd Jarrett at Blackwater this weekend. Caleb, Robb, and I (along with a bunch of others) will be participating. Caleb also wants to talk about our bet.

Listeners are welcome to call in so in addition to listening you should consider calling to tell me how silly it was of me to accept a shooting bet with someone I have never seen shoot.

Gun control extremists despise this kind of common-sense approach to the potential of school violence. But the time has come to challenge their head-in-the-sand philosophy. How many lives have been lost on public school and college campuses because of these insane victim disarmament measures? How many students and teachers might be alive today if only lawmakers and school officials had acted as responsibly as the Harrold administration?

Allowing armed staff and teachers will provide a last line of defense if other security measures at the school fail. No doubt the school board and Mr. Thweatt will suffer some slings and arrows, but if this decision one day saves the life of even one child, it will have been worthwhile.

Alan Gottlieb
Chairmain, Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms
August 15, 2008
HARROLD, TX SCHOOL OFFICIALS RIGHT ON CHANGE IN CAMPUS GUN POLICY, SAYS CCRKBA
["If it only saves one life" and "for the children". Nice, very nice.--Joe]

Last night we took Xenia to the Seattle airport to greet her fiancée John when he got off the plane. He just recently got back in the states from Iraq and was going home to central Washington state for a couple weeks.

Our first indication of something unusual was another passenger exiting the secure area asking, "Are you waiting for the soldier?" He informed us John was in first class and would be there very soon. John barely cleared security and was giving Xenia a hug and a kiss when strangers came up to him and wanted to shake his hand and say thanks. We got constant interruptions from others as we tried to exit the airport and find his parents who were in orbit in the pickup area.

This is in sharp contrast to those that were spat upon and unjustly called killers as they returned from Vietnam.

Nice. Very nice.

Welcome home John. We are glad you made it back safely and thank you for your service.

The pictures I took are on Xenia's camera and probably will be available in a few days.

I know I'm late to the party. I've been very busy with preparing for Blackwater/Para/Todd and Caleb and then I had problems with my blog that took way too long to fix (and I'm still not totally where I want to be yet).

Here is some of what others have been saying about the Mary McFate (or Mary Lou Sapone) story as broken by Mother Jones. I haven't begun to read all 100+ blog posts--maybe only a tenth of that. But there are some things I'm not seeing that I think should be addressed.

First, the legality issue. I'm not a lawyer but my expectation is that unless she signed some sort of non-disclosure contract it's going to be hard to make anything stick on the legal front. Expect non-disclosures to be SOP for high level positions in the anti-gun groups in the near future.

Second, the ethical issue. I'm all for playing by the rules. Anyone who knows me well will know this in the extreme. When other people are walking across the street without a light they will find me standing on the corner. When everyone else is going 10 or 15 MPH over the speed limit I'll be going the speed limit or maybe up to 5 MPH over. That doesn't mean I won't push the envelope. I have a very strong tendency to follow the rules to the letter. But when that "letter" has a loophole there is also a very good chance I will try to exploit it. But I nearly always follow the rules and get very annoyed, even angry, when others don't. Barb says it's because I have a mild case of Asperbergers. I say it's because I'm rational, honest, and despise cheats.

In a battle such as the one over the specific, enumerated, right to keep and bear arms the anti-gun groups have a very long history of underhanded activities. I remember before I purchased my first gun (1994) I did a bunch of research on gun control, the Second Amendment, and related stuff. I got on the mailing list for Handgun Control Inc. (now The Brady Campaign). One of their propaganda flyers said that in United States v. Cruikshank, 92 U.S. 542, 553 (1875) it was spelled out explicitly, "This is not a right granted by the Constitution." I was shocked and had to look it up to make sure. Yup. It did say that. But there was a gotcha HCI didn't put in their propaganda. The very next sentence in that opinion said, "Neither is it in any manner dependent upon that instrument for its existence." Hence it was not a simple oversight on the part of some incompetent HCI flunky. They could not have missed the very next sentence or the previous paragraphs where similar things are said about the First Amendment. This opinion is very clear that these are not rights granted by the Bill of Rights. They are preexisting rights that even the repeal of the 2^nd (or 1^st) Amendment could not nullify. The anti-gun people do this sort of thing constantly and sometimes every single point they make is a lie even when the facts are easily available. They do not fear being caught in a lie. It costs us far more in time, money, and precious words to fight their lies than it does for them to make the lie.

This isn't just some sort of nitpicky Asperbergers thing about something that happened nearly 15 years ago. It was just that is when I realized with absolute certainty which was the side of evil, who must be defeated, and the rules by which the game was played.

This is not to say that I think our side should be sloppy with the truth. We don't need to. They do. What it does mean is that I have zero, perhaps even negative, qualms about doing "underhanded" or sneaky things to defeat them. They chose the playing field when they set out to destroy a specifically guaranteed civil right. They not only chose to do evil they additionally chose to use underhanded tactics in their propaganda and on the battlefield. By their actions they have declared the rules they play this game by. If we play entirely by our set of rules we may still win but how many millions of people will be denied their civil rights and how many tens of thousands will killed and injured because they were unable to exercise that right or believed a gun would more likely harm an innocent than a predator? What price are you willing to pay for "playing fair"? In some exceedingly dark projections of the future we may actually be fighting for the fate of humanity with the George Orwell's vision given to us in 1984 as the downside of losing this fight. When the boots of a tyrannical government are smashing the face of humanity forever what satisfaction will you have for having played by your ethics rather than those that were very clear in their agenda and the rules they played by? That may not be the result of losing but that is what you are risking. Hence I agree with Sebastian when he said, "Given that, is there really any tactic that’s too sleazy and too underhanded to use in order to defeat them?"

The worst thing Mary did was getting caught. For that she, or whoever was responsible for outing her, should be quietly and behind the scenes, scolded.

Third, the benefits of having a spy. A lot of people have claimed there wasn't all that much we could have gotten from a spy so the benefits weren't worth risks of bad PR from possibly getting caught. Others have said advance knowledge of legislation agendas and allocation of resources for fighting initiatives could be very useful. I fully agree with this latter line of thinking but I don't think it goes far enough in explaining what the potential benefits are. I fully agree that getting caught is bad but the benefits might well have been fantasic.

Aside from getting a magazine once a month (which I seldom read) and a few carefully worded emails with the occasional wheelbarrows full of cash (thanks Ashley!) I don't have any deep source of from information inside the NRA. But from being "part of the U.S. intelligence community" for a while I do know a little about intelligence gathering and how it can be of benefit. The following is entirely speculation and is not in any way based on information the NRA actually received.

Example 1: Suppose the bad guys plan an initiative to ban "assault weapons". Going in cold with the dry words of the initiative they find they can only get about half of the signatures they need to get on the ballot. Their resources are limited and they want to conserve their money for the fight once they are actually on the ballot. They can't spend a lot of money for the signature gathers for months then fight in the media for the actual votes.

But they have done polls and found videos of unshaved men firing full auto while dressed in camouflage followed by scenes of Columbine and other school shootings yields 80% support for their initiative. They can get the required signatures in a remarkable short time if the propaganda is done correctly. They decide to coordinate the release of their video with their friends in the media with the announcement of the initiative in the two months before the deadline to turn in the signatures. The paid signatures gathers are contracted for and everything is in place for a political Blitzkrieg. If they keep things quiet the good guys won't have time to form a coherent defense before the signatures have been gathered. Hence the bad guys can save their resources for the battle of votes on Election Day.

If the good guys have advance knowledge they will be able do their own polls (which could take weeks) with lots of different sound bites and find a couple one liners that cut that 80% support down to 40%. They prepare their own set of videos that can be hit the mass media as paid ads in only a few days after the bad guys go public. They bad guys aren't prepared for a fight at this stage and don't get the signatures needed. The good guys had to pay some money up front but they stopped the bad guy at the signature stage rather than to fight it out at the ballot box and can spend their resources on the defeat of the politicians who showed their colors and came out in support of the ballot initiative.

Or the good guys could come out with their own offensive that upsets the plans of the bad guys. They may know they cannot win but if they start pushing for a youth shooting program in the schools subsidized by the state you can be sure the bad guys will devote resources to that and maybe put the "assault weapon" ban on the back burner.

Example 2: Suppose the initiative did make it on the ballot and the good guys have to win. They can draw upon reserves allocated for national issues if needed but that would weaken plans for actual gains at the higher level. It's getting down to election day and the good guys are currently ahead in the polls (private and/or public). Barring some last minute surprise from the bad guys they don't need to use those reserves. If they know a surprise is coming and what that surprise is they can not only have done the polls they can have the countering ads ready for release on the same day the "surprise" hits the street. If they know the bad guys don't have any money left and are running on empty they can send the reserves home and concentrate on making gains at the national level rather than winning a fight that was already won.

Example 3: Suppose the bad guys are having some internal problems. Maybe one of their key leaders has health problems and doesn't really want to step aside for someone else. Maybe their finances are in poor shape (only the 501(c)(3)/charities orgs and publically traded corps have to make public disclosure of their finances, not the private political organizations). Or maybe they lost their building lease and have to move. Not only are time and money spent in the finding a new building and the actually moving but their phone numbers will have to change in the process. Or maybe some key personal are moving on to higher paying jobs in a different field and replacements need to be hired and trained.

Having knowledge of these troubles may mean the good guys can time a critical amendment to some legislation when the opposition is least able to put up resistance.

The bottom line is that yes we know, in general terms, what the bad guys are going to do and we can figure things out very quickly once they do go public. We may have larger war chests and more committed voters but that may not amount to anything if those resources can't be deployed in the most effective manner. Having weeks or months advance knowledge can give us the opportunity to deploy after giving careful thought and parsimoniously allocating them thus yielding fantastic benefits. The benefit of having a spy is all in the timing. Time is a dimension that many people don't take into account when going into a fight. They look at numbers like dollars, votes, tanks, ships, bomb yields, weapon accuracy, magazine capacity, penetration depth in gelatin and the caliber of their carry gun. But it doesn't matter in the slightest that you carry a .45 with three spare magazines and can put ten rounds under a quarter at 25 yards if you opponent puts a .22LR bullet from his zip gun into your eyeball from three feet away before you get a chance to draw.

Knowledge gives us time and this can be more important than almost anything else.

Thank you Mary and whoever else might be out there, unknown and under appreciated; yielding results that surpass the benefits we get from highly compensated executives enjoying fame and wealth. I consider you a fallen hero.

Blowing shit up with rifles?  Come ON!  A MESS OF AWESOME AT YOUR FINGERTIPS.  LITERALLY.

Squeaky Wheel
August 17, 2008
I’m certified to build things that can blow other things up.
[It makes me happy to make others happy. Derek seems pretty happy for the same reason. There will be another batch of happy people later, it was just that I sent Squeaky and Derek's forms in at the same time as my Type 20 (license to manufacture high explosives) renewal. Forms from other people came in later.

I think Boomershoot 2009 is going to make me more happy than usual.--Joe]

The Pill makes women pick bad mates Ability to sniff out a compatible partner affected by taking contraceptives: 

While several factors can send a woman swooning, including big brains and brawn, body odor can be critical in the final decision, the researchers say. That's because beneath a woman's flowery fragrance or a guy's musk the body sends out aromatic molecules that indicate genetic compatibility.

...

Major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes are involved in immune response and other functions, and the best mates are those that have different MHC smells than you. The new study reveals, however, that when women are on the pill they prefer guys with matching MHC odors.

MHC genes churn out substances that tell the body whether a cell is a native or an invader. When individuals with different MHC genes mate, their offspring's immune systems can recognize a broader range of foreign cells, making them more fit.

Past studies have suggested couples with dissimilar MHC genes are more satisfied and more likely to be faithful to a mate. And the opposite is also true with matchng-MHC couples showing less satisfaction and more wandering eyes.

"Not only could MHC-similarity in couples lead to fertility problems," said lead researcher Stewart Craig Roberts, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Newcastle in England, "but it could ultimately lead to the breakdown of relationships when women stop using the contraceptive pill, as odor perception plays a significant role in maintaining attraction to partners."

So a woman is on the pill and is dating. She selects a mate, they marry, and then she goes off the pill so they can have kids. She then finds out her husband stinks and she is not only more interested in making babies with someone other than her husband but they would be better babies too.

Interesting...

Prostitution involves sex and free enterprise. Which of these are you opposed to?

Joseph A. Hauptman
Found at the beginning of Chapter 10 of Freehold.
[I'm not sure if this is a real person or a fictional character but it's a great question.--Joe]

Bonnie just got word the ATF trusts her to make explosives for me. Next April I will teach her--free of charge.

Doesn't that just give you the warm fuzzies? If we could only let them know I'll bet the Brady Bunch, the VPC, and numerous Cease Fire organizations would find their nightmares worsened.

Kris tells a little about working with me.

Thankfully, the Supreme Court has reminded city officials that the Constitution is more than a guidebook to be cast aside whenever it is inconvenient. If the city attempts to circumvent the Court’s opinion, then Congress, under Article I, section 8, of the Constitution can and should exercise its plenary power over all legislative matters in the nation’s capital. Home rule, arising out of authority delegated by Congress to the D.C. government, is not a license to violate the Constitution.

Robert Levy
July 14, 2008
District of Columbia v. Heller: What’s Next?
[And Congress is doing just that. I would rather the city officials responsible were to spend in some time in prison for violating 18 USC 242 as part of the "change" needed in Washington but we can't always get everything we want.--Joe]

Daughter Xenia has posted some of her pictures--Mostly Awesome Clouds.

Awesome indeed. I am using two of these on my computers at work for "desktops".

It reminds me what I am missing in Idaho while I am in an office with hundreds of other people and worrying about cross site scripting, power consumption on mobile devices, and how many round trips to a remote server are required for a particular web page download.

Handheld weapons have never been restricted. Thus, your initial premise fails.

JadeGold
Aug 14, 2008 at 2:46 pm
[In response to Just One Question. I'm thinking mental problems beyond the normal or as Mike W. suggests--a parallel reality.--Joe]

Watch the media - both the gun media and the LameStream media - and pound them every time they use the word "allow" or other language that turns your rights into privileges.  The word "allow" is the most obvious offence, but any language which requests permission rather than demanding that infringements be stopped, is part of the problem.

Jeff Knox
08-12-2008 12:41
"Allow" Me Not!
[If you have even the slightest doubt as to what Jeff is talking about then read the whole thing. See also State of mind for defending the RKBA and Just One Question. It boils down to when they say "allow" we need to turn it around and demand to know why we should allow them to infringe our rights. And this applies to all freedoms not just rights associated with firearms. We need a mindset of a personal sovereignty (H/T to Kevin for that link).--Joe]

Ry reports on some of our thoughts about Boomershoot 2010.

First he tells us:

How To Make Women Happy...

[530 words]

Then he tells us:

How to make men happy...

[3 words]

I think he should move to a different part of the world and get a new life.

Oh, that's right--He did.

Good luck Kris.

Nothing says "Awesome!" like a woman that knows how to make explosives.

Kris (a co-worker of mine at Microsoft)
August 11, 2008
After seeing this blog post about Kim.
[This is a co-worker of mine. We've been sharing tips on how to make things that go boom.--Joe]

Robb does good work.

I'd like to think I contributed to the mindset that led to this.

POLITICIAN: From the Greek `poly' ("many") and the French `tete' ("head" or "face," as in `tete-a-tete': head to head or face to face). Hence `polytetien', a person of two or more faces.

Martin Pitt
[Does this remind you of anyone? Yeah, me too. It reminds me of all successful politicians.--Joe]

Daughter Kim and I took off shortly after 8:00 this morning to do some work at the Boomershoot site. It's about 45 miles from home but because of the narrow twisting roads down a steep valley and back up the other side it takes a full hour to get there unless you are willing to make the tires squeal on the turns. It's not hard to do but there is not much point in pushing in to save 10 or 15 minutes while risking rear ending a slow moving piece of farm equipment as you come out of the turn. The drive gave Kim and I a chance to talk a bunch.

The weather was clouding and cool. Amazingly cool--I don't think it got about 65 all day long. And with the breeze it was actually a little uncomfortable at times.

Driving the little Aveo all the way to the Taj Mahal required going through some rather tall Reeds Canary grass:

Photo by Kim

We arrived on site and did some electrical measurements on the batteries and solar cell charging system. Everything appears to be working correctly but the batteries still aren't fully charged. We fired up the generator to charge the batteries faster. It started charging at 6 amps at about 9:30 and when turned off about 13:00 it was down to just over 4 amps. So I think we are getting closer to a full charge. Maybe the next time we go out the solar cells will have the batteries topped off.

The water system appears to not be leaking or if it is it must be a very slow leak. I put about seven gallons of water in it a couple of weeks ago and verified everything was working correctly. I was able to get a couple of gallons out on this visit without it going dry so I'm not sure why it went dry in June unless the drain tile didn't fill it up this spring like I thought it would have.

I fixed up the steps from the pump to the target building area some. They should be fine for this summer but I suspect they will get loose again when the ground gets wet again this fall.

The big tarp in back of the shed we use to cover up the extra surveyors stacks and empty containers has a large rip in it. It was getting old and I'm not too surprised. I'll have to replace it before winter. Another thing we really need to do is put in some more decorative blocks to the south side of the target building area. This is where we stacked the empty crates while building targets this year. It got a lot of foot traffic and there needs to be something there to keep us out of the mud when it rains and snows.

We went to my parents house and gave Dad his birthday present. He will be 85 in a few days. He had a knee surgery last week and is doing well.

After visiting for a while with Mom, Dad, their friends Walt and Jan, and my sister-in-law Julie. Kim and I then went for a walk. We inspected the Austrian Winter peas in the back of the truck. This was the first time they have raised them in many years.

Kim had never seen them before. I told her we could eat them raw but to be careful. It would be like putting rocks in your mouth until they soaked up enough water to soften up a bit. She agreed with me. It is a lot like pebbles in your mouth. She didn't like the taste of the skins but the insides are good.

Below are a couple pictures of the peas in the field. A month ago, before they fell down (a natural and expected occurrence), the pea vines stood almost as tall as Kim and when stretched to their full height were over six feet long in places.

In the foreground of the picture above is the field after it has been harvested. In the background are unharvested peas and my parents house almost hidden in the trees.

I told Kim the story of how when I was about 10 years old I accidentally started a fire that sweep through that exact spot where she is standing and I was certain it was going to catch the woods on fire. But Dad was within shouting distance, working on the house, and was able to get the bulldozer started and dig a fire break in the wheat stubble before it made it to the trees. My Great Uncle Walt and I put out the little fires that made it across the torn up dirt and the woods were saved.

This is "The Old Well House". It's not used any more. But there were lots of stories to tell here. "The Little Pond" was just 50 yards from here and Dad was concerned us kids would drown in it and dug a hole in one of the banks to lowered the water level so the pond was shallow enough we could have touched bottom with our heads above the water had we been foolish enough to get in with the frogs, dragon flies, and thick pond scum. I did fall into the little creek that runs right past here when I was probably only seven or eight years old. It was the middle of the winter with probably a foot of snow on the ground the creek literally ice cold with a partial covering of ice. It wasn't deep and I was able to wade out. But I was completely soaked in the ice water and more than a little scared. Just a few feet away from where I took this picture is a apple tree that used to have the largest apples I have ever seen. The apples would get so large they would break the stems and fall off before they would get ripe. The were still sour and weren't really edible when raw. But just one apple sliced up, fried, with lots of sugar on it, would be enough for our "vegetable" at dinner for our entire family of five.

We had lunch with my parents, brother Gary, Walt, and Jan. Then we said good-bye and went back to the Taj Mahal to turn off the generator and lock things up. As we left I took some pictures of Kim on a hay bale in the field where we hold the Boomershoot

As I was taking these pictures I figured she should be called "The Boomershoot Babe". She has made most of the explosives for the targets for the last three years. She had help from her husband Caleb and others but she has done the majority of the actual weighing and mixing of the chemicals. She has probably made, in five pound batches, in a Kitchen Aid mixer about 3000 pounds of explosives in the last three years.

Kim, my Boomershoot Babe. Who would have guessed from seeing our little Bridezilla when she was four years old? Okay, so maybe you wouldn't have been surprised.

Most women are damn fools and children. But they've got more range than we've got. The brave ones are braver, the good ones are better--and the vile ones are viler, for that matter.

"The Old Man"
Page 117 The Puppet Masters by Robert A. Heinlein
[In this context he was talking about the opposite end of the scale, but my mind went immediately to Hillary Clinton.--Joe]

This is not how war works. This is an aberration, a relatively recent Anglo-American twist on warfare brought to its current fine pitch only by the might of American technology and taxes that allow us to blow up a crude hand-built donkey cart carrying a couple of AK-47's with a $250,000 computerized satellite-guided bomb. And then worry about the wrath of the ASPCA for hurting the donkey.

...

Think about that the next time you rail at America's "brutal, fascist war machine".

Tamara K.
August 8, 2008
Further ruminating on South Ossetia...
[I'm not at all happy with a lot of the things that came out of the Bush administration but what bugs me is that the Democrat opposition to Bush is about all the wrong things. The war is one of he few things Bush as done reasonably close to right. Why don't they complain about the TSA or the expanding power of the ATF? Oh, that's right, implementing a police state in the US will be useful once they get back in power.--Joe]

Although the NRA and I have certainly had our disagreements over the years, I hope that we can agree that the gun violence prevention debate should be based upon an open and honest exchange of ideas, not on underhanded tactics.

Sen. Frank Lautenberg
August 7, 2008
In a letter to John Sigler, the president of the NRA in regards to an alleged informant, allegedly paid by the NRA, who allegedly infiltrated various gun control groups.
[Isn't that a hoot! Notice that Lautenberg does not say he would ever be "open and honest" or avoid "underhanded tactics". Just that "we can agree" it should be based upon that. Does anyone remember how the infamous Lautenberg Amendment got passed? That's just one very small example of their tactics. Lautenberg's statement reminds me of the old white man, crying like a baby, in this post of mine.

H/T to Uncle for the link.--Joe]

My current web hosting provider situation appears to have stabilized enough that I'm not too worried about things at the moment and my new provider has problems with my blog software. Therefore I'm going to make the porting to the new provider a background task rather than a Priority 0 (a Microsoft thing that means you don't work on anything else until this is taken care of) issue as I was doing.

I can get my blog to sort of work on my own server running IIS 7 in full integrated pipeline mode but I have permission issues when I try to run it on the new hosting provider's server. I have a couple solution options for it and will work on those in my spare time. In the mean time I'm going to try and catch up on a few blog topics--after I catch up on my sleep.

This blog crashing thing must be "going around" in the gun blogger community. Rob Allen (his blog is Sharp as a Marble) had his blog crash yesterday.

Normal blogging from me should continue tomorrow.

[My] fighting mindset...which I generally describe as a very irritable wolverine with PMS after a bad day at the office.

Victoria Deaton
May 17, 1998
[On the proper frame of mind when you must defend yourself from an attacker.--Joe]

Her baseball bat of truth, that is.  This is simply rich.  And timeless.

Liberals believe in burning the American flag, urinating on crucifixes, and passing out birth control pills to 11-year-olds without telling their parents — but Heaven forbid an infidel touch a Quran at Guantanamo.

But there's so much more.  RTWT and enjoy.

My hosting provider (ServerGrid.com) hasn't answered my email and I have given up on them. I'm still working on finding a new web hosting company. I've looked at bunch and even paid some money for one that I tried out. I'm not entirely satisfied with what I see and hence all available time is spent trying to find a solution. I didn't have all that much time available this weekend because Barb and all three kids were in the Seattle area and we were doing the vacation thing a lot of time time. See, for example, Xenia's pictures from the Seattle Aquarium and the zoo.

I have a bunch of domains that need to be hosted with lots of requirements so it is taking a lot longer than what I had hoped it would.

In the meantime my websites and email are flaky (more so than usual) and I'm not putting any effort into blogging although there are some things I really would like to comment on. Sorry about that. Maybe in a couple more days...

Update: I believe all my email and websites are now working correctly. Part of the problem was a messed up namesever that I now have corrected. I'm still moving to a different hosting provider (probably GoDaddy). I'm doing some testing and still have some minor problems to solve with my blog in that environment but I'm getting very, very close.

Yes. I'm having (more) problems with my hosting provider. Content is missing. Access is problematic. This applies to not just to this blog but Boomershoot, my email, and other sites as well.

I'm working on it. It might be this weekend sometime before things are straightened out.

Thanks for your patience.

If I could have gotten 51 votes in the Senate of the United States for an outright ban, picking up every one of them, Mr. and Mrs. America, turn them all in, I would have done it.

              
Diane Feinstein
February 5, 1995
CBS-TV's 60 Minutes
[Don't forget this. She and many other Democrats have been very consistent on this. This is one of their core principles. All they lack is the votes to do it.--Joe]