Author Archives: Joe

Quote of the day—Chris Hayes

Posted on by

Prediction: the president will approach gun safety legislation the same way he has approached DACA. He will lie about what his own position is and attempt to blame others for nothing getting done.

Chris Hayes
Tweeted on February 21, 2018
[H/T to streiff who wrote President Trump’s Gun Control Ideas are so Bad I Don’t Think He Even Believes Them.

I’ve been thinking something similar although I wouldn’t have put it in those words.

I assume President Trump knows we are in a (Fifth Generation) war. If you are in a state of war and you don’t use deception as one of your weapons you aren’t fighting to win. Telling the ATF to make up some regulation to ban bump stocks could get the anti-gun people to quiet down for a while or encourage them to overreach. See, for example, what Sebastian and his commenters are saying. The ATF may come back in a month or two with the same thing they did earlier, paraphrasing, “Banning bump stocks requires legislation, we cannot create such a rule within the confines of existing law.” With just a few weeks the anti-gun people will run out of steam and we can resume our drive for concealed carry across all state lines, taking suppressors off of the NFA list, and even other things like being able to purchase guns in other states and getting rid of the stupid “sporting purpose” requirements.

If things don’t cool off enough and we do get regulation and even legislation banning bump stocks it isn’t that big of sacrifice if we avoid legislation on “assault weapons” and “high capacity feeding devices”. And if it does go the route of a regulation change that should be a lot easier to defeat in the courts if someone has a real interest in taking it to court. I expect any ban on bump stocks will result in grandfathering existing stock. And since they don’t have serial numbers on them they can’t easily be registered. And 3-D printers mean that you as long as you keep your mouth shut you can make one at anytime in the future and it will be essentially impossible for anyone to prove you didn’t own it prior to the ban.—Joe]

Alison Airies, thanks for sharing

Featured

Posted on by

I have pinned this post to the top of my blog. It is to remind people of what many of our opponents want. Alison Aires wants a tyrannical government. They want summary execution for private possession of firearms.

This is why we have a Bill of Rights. This is why I created Boomershoot.

Continue reading →

Quote of the day—ExpatSoutherner‏ @Tedards

Posted on by

Upping the age to buy an AR-15 isn’t going to do it! Ban ’em. Confiscate ’em.

ExpatSoutherner‏ @Tedards
Tweeted on February 17, 2018
[ExpatSoutherner, are you going be taking point entering the houses after the doors are bashed in? Please say yes. I have a special surprise for you.

Don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Chad Prather‏ @WatchChad

Posted on by

Help me understand why you want a guy you’ve been calling Hitler for over a year to collect all your guns.

Chad Prather‏ @WatchChad
Tweeted on February 17, 2018
[That is a reasonable ask. But I’m pretty certain Prather knows the answer. The people calling Trump “Hitler” are projecting. They know they wouldn’t be at risk if gun were confiscated. But they know they are at risk when attempting to implement their political goals. They are planning for the future when they regain political power and implement their “(final) solution”.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Ronald Reagan

Posted on by

In this present crisis, government is not the solution to our problem; government is the problem.

Ronald Reagan
January 20, 1981
Inaugural Address
[It was true then and it is true now.

Government create the victim disarmament zones. The solution to the problem is to remove government from the problem.—Joe]

Stabby Tree

Posted on by

I visited daughter Xenia this last weekend. She recently moved to Kentucky. It’s a little damp and cloudy but it looks like it will be very beautiful when it warms up and the trees get their leaves.

We did a little bit of sightseeing and this was one of the more interesting historical items we saw:

20180219_145845

She and John have a few acres with their new house and we took the dogs on walks and looked at the trees and birds trying to identify them. There were several trees like the one below. I thought trees like this only existed in scary Disney cartoons. It’s the kind of tree I would expect around Sleeping Beauty’s castle:

20180218_182451

20180219_102809

20180219_102907

Xenia says it’s a Honey Locust and is also known as a Thorny Locust. I prefer the name Xenia gave it when she first saw it, “a Stabby Tree”.

Quote of the day—LucasJackson

Posted on by

We’re 17 children closer to the Australian solution. Unfortunately because of the pervasive gun cult of tiny-handed cowards, we’re not close.

LucasJackson
February 14, 2017
Comment to The Latest: Student: Suspect in school shooting ‘weird kid’
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday.

This idiot thinks what they did to gun owners in Australia is plausible. It has neither legal or practical plausibility.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Bess Kalb @bessbell

Posted on by

If you feel like you need an AR-15 you are not mentally fit to own an AR-15.

Bess Kalb @bessbell
Tweeted on February 15, 2018
[Don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns.

Just as gun owners have predicted. Mental competency tests are a very dangerous path to go down.

A better way to think of this is that if someone thinks this makes sense or will ever be tolerated it proves they aren’t fit to participate in discussions of our specific enumerated rights.—Joe].

Quote of the day—Joe Nocera

Posted on by

The person who made me aware of the poll was Ralph Fascitelli, co-founder of LodeStar Firearms, a new smart-gun company. LodeStar has engaged the legendary German gun designer Ernst Mauch to develop a 9-millimeter smart pistol, which will use a radio frequency to connect gun to owner.

Joe Nocera
February 16, 2018
Gun Companies Need This Gun-Control Measure
[Ralph Fascitelli is a co-founder of a firearms company? Wow! He is also on the board of Washington Ceasefire.

Sorry, Ralph. I know you have been told this, I was there when John Urquhart, King County Washington Sheriff, told everyone in the room, “Smart guns aren’t ready for prime time.” The LodeStar approach doesn’t address the deficiencies pointed out by Urquhart. Your company is going to fail.

There are at least three other issues which will ensure the failure of Fascitell’s company.

The first is Fascitell has long been an advocate for limiting magazine capacity to no more than ten rounds. His company is targeting, in part, law enforcement. Even if they could get over the many reliability hurdles pointed out by Urquhart, law enforcement is not going have much interest in a low capacity handgun.

The second is gun sellers know that if they put one of these guns on the shelf for sale it will trigger New Jersey’s law that within three years any gun sold in the state will have to have “smart gun” technology before it can be sold. They claim this law will be repealed in early 2018. But that isn’t going to help. Everyone with two brain cells to rub together knows that there will be several other states, probably including New Jersey, which will pass similar laws if such a gun had even a fraction of a percent of the market share

The third is that many gun control people don’t want guns to be less likely to be used by your kids or unusable if taken from you during a self-defense situation. They want people to have that fear. They want people will be less likely to purchase a gun and, if purchased, less likely to take it out of the safe. It’s the same argument used by some people against sex education. That argument goes, “It good that young people are afraid they will have unplanned pregnancy and/or catch a life threatening disease. This will help prevent them from having sex, period.”

While there are some applications where “smart guns” won’t be serious impediment to their use, the number one reason people, and the only reason law enforcement purchase guns, is for self-protection. There hasn’t been a “smart gun” design concept yet that doesn’t make the gun far less desirable than a standard gun. Building a product that is less desirable and more expensive than established competitors is not a winning strategy.

I have to conclude Fascitelli is delusional and/or has an evil plan of some sort. Being on the Board of Washington Ceasefire causes me to be inclined toward both.—Joe]

Full dependence on the government enables evil

Posted on by

From the FBI today:

FBI Statement on the Shooting in Parkland, Florida

On January 5, 2018, a person close to Nikolas Cruz contacted the FBI’s Public Access Line (PAL) tipline to report concerns about him. The caller provided information about Cruz’s gun ownership, desire to kill people, erratic behavior, and disturbing social media posts, as well as the potential of him conducting a school shooting.

Under established protocols, the information provided by the caller should have been assessed as a potential threat to life. The information then should have been forwarded to the FBI Miami Field Office, where appropriate investigative steps would have been taken.

We have determined that these protocols were not followed for the information received by the PAL on January 5. The information was not provided to the Miami Field Office, and no further investigation was conducted at that time.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said:

“We are still investigating the facts. I am committed to getting to the bottom of what happened in this particular matter, as well as reviewing our processes for responding to information that we receive from the public. It’s up to all Americans to be vigilant, and when members of the public contact us with concerns, we must act properly and quickly.

“We have spoken with victims and families, and deeply regret the additional pain this causes all those affected by this horrific tragedy. All of the men and women of the FBI are dedicated to keeping the American people safe, and are relentlessly committed to improving all that we do and how we do it.”

Good security depends on multiple independent layers. Law enforcement is one layer. Threat intelligence is another. In this instance law enforcement failed. This is how it should have gone down.

Denying access to the protected assets is another. This requires more than signs and stern words. It frequently requires people with guns. This is something the political left is fine with if the protected asset is a bank, government building, celebrity or politician, but it the protected asset is a common person and especially the children of a commoner then they go hysterical and demand even less physical security. This is clearly some sort of insanity and/or evil and should be treated as such.

Quote of the day—Maj Toure‏ @MAJTOURE

Posted on by

Because for govt to do so, it acknowledges firearms as a legit tool for defense from tyranny. In doing so on practical levels it empowers the populace. If I want dominance, I can’t have young minds that aware. Gun control, is about PEOPLE CONTROL. #StayWoke #BlackGunsMatter

Maj Toure‏ @MAJTOURE
Tweeted on February 15, 2017
In response to Valerie @swannoir27 who said, “It’s always seemed obvious to me, we could protect our schools. Why aren’t we?”
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Viscount Halifax

Posted on by

He mobilized the English language and sent it into battle.

Viscount Halifax
1940
Referring Winston Churchill’s speech in the movie The Darkest Hour.
[For Valentine’s Day Barb and went to this movie (she chose it). It is a very good movie.

Mobilize the English language and send it into battle. This what gun owners need to do. It is either that or face our own darkest hour and/or a bloody war.

I have often thought something like that is what I was doing. I try look at things, change the point of view, and articulate a vision which makes obvious we have the high moral high ground, we should always attack, and we must always make our enemies defend.

But I had never articulated it even one tenth as clearly and succinctly as Halifax did in the movie. The movie inspired me. Henceforth, I will make better use of words. If these words are properly crafted into powerful weapons of war we can win the battles needed to defeat the forces of evil in this country and avoid a war of bullets and blood.—Joe]

Overheard at work

Posted on by

Boss Lady: I used to run explosives through the TSA.

My ears went up and I listened in as she was telling a co-worker about going through the TSA a few days ago. It turns out that she used to work for Homeland Security and one of her jobs was to test the TSA. This time she wasn’t working for Homeland Security and her pre-check card had just expired (it was her birthday). The people at SeaTac TSA remembered her.

She got “special treatment” even without the pre-check card. It just wasn’t the kind of “special” she was expecting.

We were just talking about this at work

Posted on by

There are a three new people on my team at work. Two of them have a decade or more of experience in the field and one is in sort of an expanded intern program and is “drinking from a firehose” as she is coming up to speed. A week or two ago the newbie expressed some insecurities about her being able to contribute and one of the experienced guys reassured her and told her about “Imposter Syndrome” and said that he feels that and probably everyone does. Nearly everyone on the team jumped in to reassure the newbie that she is doing extremely well (she is) and had their own little stories about how they feel insecure about various aspects of their ability to do their job.

XKCD gives us another example:

Impostor Syndrome

XKCD for the win

Posted on by

I love the insight XKCD displays at times. This is a great example and so timely:

Robots

Whenever you visit XKCD be sure to use your mouse to hover over their image. In this case you will see:

Don’t be nervous about the robots, be nervous about the people with the resources to build them.

Of course, we aren’t too far away from the day when there will be robots to do all the mining, transportation, and processing to build themselves.

Quote of the day—Phil Murphy

Posted on by

Good news, we have among the smartest, most progressive gun laws in the nation. That’s a fact. It’s also a fact that they can be stronger. There’s no reason why we can’t strengthen them.

…

There’s a myth out there that if you strengthen gun safety laws you somehow chip away the Second Amendment. I don’t believe that … This is not a zero sum game.

Phil Murphy
Governor of New Jersey
February 13, 2018
Gov. Phil Murphy talks gun safety at South Jersey roundtable
[From the perspective of wondering what color the sky is in his universe I would like to hear him answer the question, “What sort of law do you believe would ‘chip away the Second Amendment?’”

I am of the firm belief that the only thing which will stop the New Jersey slide down the gun control slippery slope is hitting bottom with a complete ban on all firearms and/or the arrest and prosecution of their politicians.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Comfortably Smug‏ @ComfortablySmug

Posted on by

Listen to the sound of their gears and them walking. Remember that sound. You’ll hear it again soon enough as you hide in a closet, holding your child close, fighting the urge to scream. Watching the sliver of light under the door until they arrive.

Comfortably Smug‏ @ComfortablySmug
Tweeted on February 12, 2018
[Skynet smiles.—Joe]

It’s nice when they self identify

Posted on by

I’ve used this car wash many times. And I walked right by it today.

From the Bellevue Washington police blog:

What started as a routine trip to the car wash ended in a melee and an arrest this past Sunday in Bellevue. Yesterday afternoon shortly before 3 p.m., Bellevue police responded to a road rage incident in the parking lot of the Brown Bear car wash in the Factoria neighborhood of Bellevue. While responding, police learned that there was a minor rear-end crash involving two vehicles that were waiting in line for the car wash. One of the drivers got out of his car to take photos of the damage to the vehicles. The other driver then reportedly got out of his car, pointed a handgun at the victim, and made threats.

When police arrived, the suspect, a 40 year-old Bellevue resident, refused to exit his vehicle or follow the Officers’ instructions. Officers attempted to remove the suspect from the vehicle, and the suspect fought, punching one of the Officers in the face. The suspect allegedly threatened to kill the police and made disparaging comments about the victim’s perceived ethnicity. Police used a taser to subdue the suspect, who was arrested. The Officer that was punched had a minor injury and was transported to the hospital as a precaution. The suspect’s vehicle, a red Chevrolet Camaro with a custom license plate “DIRTBAG”, was impounded to the Bellevue Police Department for a search warrant.The license plate of the suspect's vehicle.

The suspect is expected to be charged today in King County Superior Court with first degree assault with a firearm, assault on a police officer, malicious harassment, obstructing police, and resisting arrest.

If all the dirt bags would identify themselves in such a manner it make so many things much easier.

Reining in the Washington Governor’s Emergency Powers

Posted on by

Washington State emergency powers need to be respectful of the right of the people to keep and bear arms. Firearms Policy Coalition has a form letter to sign and send to your state Senator:

Proposed floor amendment 545 to SSB 6006 repealing the unconstitutional power to arbitrarily ban firearms possession during a declared state of emergency would bring state law into compliance with current case law on the matter. Laws and declarations similar to Washington State law concerning citizen possession of firearms during a declared state of emergency have been found to be unconstitutional.

The fact our state has never acted on this emergency “power” to restrict the lawful possession of legally owned firearms has left it on the books, unchallenged, as a litigant would lack standing on this unused law.

A relic of the 1960’s, laws of this nature were enacted to empower the government against those that may choose to exercise their freedoms clearly outlined in the Bill of Rights and the Washington State Constitution.

In addition, in upwards of 600,000 Washingtonians are extensively background checked and legally certified to carry firearms by the State of Washington. Is it to be assumed that this imagined “emergency power” also extends to these individuals? If so, it would be a stunning reversal for the state to summarily revoke these licenses in such an action. There would surely be both legal and political consequences for elected officials and the state if such an action were to ever occur.

During a declared emergency when 911 response resources would surely be stretched thin, citizens would likely be on their own to defend themselves and others. As recent geological research has outlined, Western Washington is one of the world’s most dangerous earthquake zones. A large earthquake could separate citizens for days or even weeks from vital emergency services.

Tell your representative support SSB 6006 if it is amended by calling at 1-800-562-6000 and then send them an email today!

Click on the link above, fill in a few items, then click the submit button to send a very quick email.

Quote of the day—Jayjaybe

Posted on by

It’s an individual hazard derived from an obsolete premise.

Jayjaybe
February 11, 2018
Referring to the 2nd Amendment in a comment to The showdown over the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act
[I’m pretty sure they lack any SCOTUS rulings to back up that assertion.

This is what they think of the specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms.—Joe]