Author Archives: Joe

Quote of the day—Steve Gilbert

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The schizophrenia of the gun controller is bizarre.

The writer makes an excellent point about if the gun control people were concerned about saving lives they would be for more aggressive police methods. Yet the same liberals that advocate for draconian gun control are often the same liberals at Black Lives Matter rallies chanting “F**k the police”.

Similarly, if they were truly concerned about saving lives they would be advocating for more people to have concealed carry permits, since statistically people legally carrying handguns are much safer than the unarmed victims. Yet the gun controllers fight concealed carry laws too.

So since it is obvious that they are not about saving lives, one has to ask
“What do they really want?”.

Steve Gilbert
November 7, 2017
Comment to Why Gun Control Loses
[I have frequently asked, “What is the real reason?” The reason I “ask” this rhetorical question because I think it is more effective for people to have their brain working on the question than to assert the answer. I suspect this is particularly true in the case of people who are undecided or not firmly committed to either side of the debate.

Here is a sample of my asking this question:

There is a Steven Gilbert who has commented on this blog before (and here). I wonder if it is the same person who commented on the National Review article above and was inspired by my continued harping on this rhetorical question.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Alcibiades Anon

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Sociopaths will inherit the earth.  We are built for the chaos to come.  We are built to benefit and thrive in this new land of opportunity.  We must begin to raise our brothers and sisters through the ranks and teach them to function.  The Trickster’s Path can help those that need to find their way.  There are other sources, other ways.  We must find the way forward.  We must be placed to take the power that is ours by right.  The flies have ruined our world, ruined our societies.  It is time a new people take dominance.

We must be the guiding light, and iron rod.  Many of us are in positions of power already, we must unite under our own flag.  Emotions and fear have ruled this world for too long already.  It is time for the hyper-rational to take their turn.  In the chaos that will come we must lead.  We must be the spiders placing ourselves in the darkness for our prey.  We must spin our webs, and make our plans.  If we wish to truly dance in the ashes of “civilization” we must be ready.

Alcibiades Anon
July 5, 2017
We Must Prepare for the Chaos and Violence to come
[Be careful what you wish for. This applies to empaths, sociopaths, conservatives, progressives, libertarians, everyone. There are many political factions and none appear to have a majority of power. If the rule of law breaks down too far then who and what emerges from the ashes may be something quite different than you imagined, or even could have, imagined.—Joe]

Early history of arms in America

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Via email from “kb”, David Kopel has some interesting history to share in The American Indian foundation of American gun culture:

To encourage settlement, the Carolina colony (today, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia) induced immigration by offering immigrants freehold land ownership, along with strong guarantees of religious liberty. To receive the land grant, an immigrant had to bring six months worth of provisions to take care of his family while his farm was being cleared and cultivated. Also required: ‘‘provided always, that every man be armed with a good musket full bore, 10 pounds powder and 20 pounds of bullet.’’ (See “A Brief Description of the Province of Carolina” (London 1666), a pamphlet by proprietors encouraging immigration, reprinted in “9 English Historical Documents: American Colonial Documents to 1776,” David C. Douglas gen. ed., Merrill Jensen ed., 1955).

The Massachusetts Bay Colony ordered parents to arrange for arms training for all their children aged 10 or above, both boys and girls. Conscientious objectors were exempt.

So one effect of the Anglo-Indian encounter was to foster a culture of widespread household gun ownership and widespread arms carrying. This was very different from conditions back in England, where the government was certainly not ordering people to always carry guns to the weekly (and mandatory) Church of England services.

Arms carrying was often mandatory for travel outside of towns and for attendance at large public events, particularly church services. Then, as now, unarmed church services were favorite targets for attack, because there would be lots of people gathered in a small space.

…

The colonists’ new arms culture was profoundly influenced by Indian arms culture, which the colonists imitated in many respects. Perhaps this weekend you may practice precise riflery on a 200-yard range. Or you may take a defensive handgun class that trains you to make quick individual decisions under pressure. Whether or not you like American arms culture, you shouldn’t think of it as something that was brought across the Atlantic Ocean by European immigrants. It’s true that those immigrants brought the firearms. Yet those firearms were quickly integrated into an arms culture that had already existed in America for centuries and that would eventually become the arms culture of American of all races. That was the arms culture founded by the first Americans, the American Indians.

Bill Gates is donating money to pro gun charities

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Interesting times. Bill and Melinda Gates are donating (with our help) money to pro-gun charities. Via email from firearmspolicy.org:

Joe,

This
is crazy.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has agreed to
match all donations made through Facebook to 501c3 organizations up to
$50,000!

YES! That’s right! As a
registered 501c3 organization, FPF qualifies for that match!

That means with your donation, not only will you be
DOUBLING your impact on gun rights, you will also be using BILL GATES’ money to
do it!

2017-11-28_(1).png

Make Them Pay!

Unbelievable,
isn’t it?

The gun grabbing Bill Gates who
funds anti-gun groups will be donating to Firearms Policy
Foundation!

This
is huge news!

Every dollar that goes to FPF is a dollar
away from anti-Second Amendment organizations that hate your right to keep and
bear arms.

2017-11-28_(2).png

So don’t wait. Go to FPF’s
Facebook page and donate today!

This
is a once in a lifetime opportunity to use the resources of the anti-gunners
against them!

Bill Gates is ready to give his money away to
pro-Second Amendment groups like FPF!

We HAVE to take advantage of
this!

Donate to FPF on Facebook today
and with your tax deductible donation you will DOUBLE your impact AND at the
same time use Bill Gate’s money to do it.

Make Bill Gates Fund the Second
Amendment!


We can’t
stress how important (and fun) this
is.

Visit our Facebook page and donate to FPF right now!

Stay free,

The FPC Team

I donated $250 because the more I donated the harder I laughed.

I also donated $250 to the Second Amendment Foundation on Facebook for another good laugh.

Update: From the comments:

I read more about the donations.

They have to be spread out, so no one fundraiser or charity can scoop up all the donations. The matching stops at $1000 per fundraiser/donate button.

See also here. There is an alternate button for SAF here.

Quote of the day—Maj Toure

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I don’t think there’s a black gun culture or white gun culture, I think there’s an informed gun culture and an ignorant gun culture.

Maj Toure
Black Guns Matter
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Michael Z Williamson‏ @mzmadmike

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I still need to get a barrel blank and a custom set of dies so I can have a rifle in .499 Feinstein caliber.

I keep being tempted to name my guns after contemptible losers in the 2A debate. but my guns deserve better.

Michael Z Williamson @mzmadmike
November 26, 2017
Tweeted (and here)
[I don’t give pet names to my guns (or cars, or body parts, etc.) but I must say I briefly considered an exception to that policy when I read his tweet.

If you don’t get the joke with Williamson’s first sentence leave a comment and someone will explain it to you.—Joe]

Young shooter report

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From a reader who wishes to be anonymous:

I took the son to the range today. Not the first time, but we have not been there very many times yet. It was the first time he has fired a center-fire semi-auto handgun. A generic 1911, using standard white-box 230 gr hardball. He had a pretty shot-up target already from the .22 and the 38 special, and we couldn’t tell where he was hitting, so we put out a new target.

This is the result of his next ten shots at 7 yards, loading the magazine one to two rounds at a time, being very safety conscious and paying attention to stance and grip.

Not bad… for an 11 year old.

NikTarget1911sm

Very nice. Even if it had been a adult it would have been good for that level of experience.

I did a little coaching for a friend I bumped into at the range today. He was shooting a Smith & Wesson M&P 45 at about 7 yards at what looks to be the same size target and only about half of the bullets were within the rings. His grip and stance both needed some help. I then had him doing some dry fire to make sure his trigger control was good. I spent about 20 minutes with him and he was shooting much better when we left but it still wasn’t up to the level of our 11 year-old star above.

Quote of the day—David Frum

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It’s out of bounds to observe that “Chicago” is shorthand for “we only have gun crime because of black people” or how often “I want to protect my family” is code for “I need to prove to my girlfriend who’s really boss.”

David Frum
October 6, 2017
The Rules of the Gun Debate–The rules for discussing firearms in the United States obscure the obvious solutions.
[I wouldn’t say it’s “out of bounds”. I would say it’s stupid to say things that are obviously and easily provably to be false.

I have to wonder if Frum’s straw man arguments are the result of raw talent or if it took years of training.—Joe]

Lunacy

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The political left tends to call anyone who disagrees with them lunatics. As Lyle points out, in some cases it’s about perception. When I’m in a mellow mood I give them a pass on being stupid, ignorant and/or evil. Maybe they just can’t see things from my point of view.

Then there cases like this (via a Tweet from Michael Z Williamson) regarding protestors who are blocking railroad tracks in Olympia Washington:

“There is reason to suspect that the blockade protesters are neither interested in negotiating nor in an amicable resolution that would result in removing the blockade without force.”

A protester who signed in with the name Franz spoke during the meeting’s public comment period, and read the protesters’ list of demands.

The demands, also sent to The Olympian in a press release, are for:

▪ The Port of Olympia to cease all fossil fuel and military infrastructure shipments.

▪ Democratic control of the Port of Olympia by the community as a whole.

▪ A just transition for port and rail workers to good, green jobs, and for the economy of Thurston County as a whole to transition to a cooperative, fair and sustainable economy.

Franz asked the City Council not to order another violent attack on protesters, referencing police involvement in removing last year’s blockade.

Reed Wing also spoke during public comment. He pulled a fluorescent green hat over his face and identified himself as a Martian sent to Earth to speak out in favor of the blockade.

“I come from the representative of the United Federation of Mars, an ecological and utopian society where we have abolished fossil fuels, police, and the exploitation of one Martian by another,” Wing said.

I think “Reed Wing” is deliberately misdirecting people from his actual origin. The available evidence indicates he is actually from Luna.

When the political left calls their opponents lunatics it’s a textbook case of projection.

Quote of the day—Patrick Radden Keefe

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Following the Newtown shooting, Larry Pratt, the Executive Director of Gun Owners for America, suggested that these massacres might be avoided in the future, if only more teachers were armed.

As Pratt’s sentiment should make clear, the United States has slipped its moorings and drifted into a realm of profound national lunacy.

Patrick Radden Keefe
December 15, 2012
Making Gun Control Happen
[The fact that the prohibition against teachers being armed is an infringement upon their specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms and is a felony punishable by death doesn’t even enter into Keefe reality bubble.

Also, I find it very telling that anti-gun people derisively dismiss statements out of hand which could be either verified or refuted with a little research. Facts are irrelevant in their alternate reality and tell us who the lunatics really are.—Joe]

Quote of the day—David Ropeik

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Fighting for the right to own a gun is a way of asserting control against a society that many feel is encroaching on their values and freedoms. Millions of people with such feelings want guns less to protect themselves against physical danger and more to protect themselves from the threat of a society they feel is taking away their ability to control their own lives. That deeper loss of control fuels the disproportionately intense passion of gun rights advocates and explains what The New Yorker calls the ”conspicuous asymmetry of fervor” that energizes 4 million members of the National Rifle Association to effectively determine gun control policy for a country of 310 million.

People with these concerns have been identified by research into the Theory of Cultural Cognition as Individualists, people who prefer a society that grants the individual more freedom and independence and leaves them more personally in control of their individual choices and values. Contrast that with the sort of society preferred by Communitarians, who feel most comfortable, and safest, in a “We’re all in it together” world of shared control and communal power, a society that sacrifices some individual freedoms in the name of the greater common good. These deeply conflicting worldviews drive the central conflict in the fight over gun control.

David Ropeik
2016
The Gun Control Battle Isn’t About Guns As Weapons. It’s About Guns as Symbols.
[Via an email from Paul Koning.

Ropeik, while obviously anti-gun, does give almost fair respect for our philosophical viewpoint. It’s nice to see the debate framed with something approaching reality as opposed to straw men.—Joe]

Quote of the day—SteveM081411

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I want your guns melting in pile in the town square, deal with me.

SteveM081411
November 11, 2017
Comment to Hand over your weapons
[Don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns.

People should be careful what they ask for.—Joe]

Thanksgiving discount for Boomershoot

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I’m offering a discount on most Boomershoot events for Black Friday and Cyber Monday and decided to just make it the entire Thanksgiving weekend. Starting at Thanksgiving morning, November 23rd, at 12:00 AM Pacific Standard time until midnight Monday November 27th, there is a 20% discount on the High Intensity, Personal Fireball, and Long Range events.

The discount is only valid for entries which are placed during that time. Go to the Boomershoot Entry web site and use the code “BLACK FRIDAY” during the sign up process.

Here are some videos to give you a clue as to what you are getting a chance to participate in:

Sign up as soon as you can to get the best choice of the remaining shooting positions.

Quote of the day—Clint Smith

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I was just in California, WHAT A SHIT HOLE. It’s a 110.

…

I still had two guns. And both of them were big. And I wasn’t comfortable at all. But I still had two guns.

And a rifle.

It’s California.

Clint Smith
Founder of Thunder Ranch
August 7, 2017
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Boomershoot driveway status

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As I mentioned a few days ago I’m having work done on the Boomershoot driveway. I visited the site this last weekend and am pleased with the progress being made.

The first picture is the view from the road.

IMG_9540Adjusted

This second image is a close up of the location where the potholes and big rocks were at in the bottom of the small draw:

IMG_9541Cropped

There is still some more work to be done but the main concerns have been corrected. The Boomershoot experience just got a little better.

Update: Here are some “before pictures”:

P17042112301010Cropped
April 21, 2017

WP_20160424_12_16_56_Pro__highresCroppedToRoad
April 24, 2016

AmmoMan.com

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On the right sidebar of this blog is this image:

A little over a week ago AmmoMan.com contacted me about placing an ad to get the word out about their new “two day shipping”. 97% of people are expected to get their ammo within two days but some may take three days. They gave me a code to order some ammo with and I made two different orders. I had one shipped to Idaho and the other shipped to my Bellevue Washington address. From looking at their map it appeared to me that the Idaho shipment could take three days.

It turned out that, according to FedEx, the Idaho shipment arrived 50 minutes before the Bellevue order and both were on day two after the order. Nice!

An occasional problem I have had with mail ordered ammo is that it is packed poorly and the ammo box breaks and there is loose ammo rolling around in the box. That was not the case this time. This is the box in which I received three bricks of .22 ammo after I had removed the three bricks. It was packed tight with stiff paper:

WP_20171119_17_33_01_Pro

The other shipment was the original 500 round case, with shipping labels attached, which Federal Ammo packages their American Eagle .223 Ammo in. There were no issues with either packaging.

Boomershoot gender reveal test

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A Boomershoot couple requested a gender reveal event with a explosion.
The first idea was a colored fireball but I pushed in the direction of a
bag of colored powder. They agreed this would be acceptable and shipped me
five pounds of pink and five pounds of blue cornstarch powder to test. With both bags
in the box I put it on top of two exploding targets. This is the result.

The test was considered a success.

Quote of the day—Hope Jahren @HopeJahren

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Every species on earth- past or present, from the single celled microbe to the biggest dinosaur, daisies, trees, people- must accomplish the same five things in order to persist: grow, reproduce, rebuild, store resources, and defend itself.

Hope Jahren @HopeJahren
April 2016
Lab Girl
[Via email from Stephan P. who wondered if Ms. Jaren is a firearms owner. I did a little research but I didn’t find any good hints.

See also Paul Koning’s repeated reminders that even mushroom “understand” self-defense:

This quote, which I presume is absolutely true, should be used to confront those who insist we should “just give them what they want” when someone demands our dignity and money or our life. We have a natural right to defend ourselves. To not use tools to do what is a natural right is to abandon our true nature—a tool using species doing what all species must do to persist, defend ourselves.—Joe]

Quote of the day—David Kopel

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Germany in 1900 was one of the most tolerant places in the world for Jews; in any country, things can change a lot in a few decades.

…

Not every nation that adopts the latter policy ends up with genocide. Yet the historical record is clear that mass disarmament of citizens can be the gateway to millions of deaths by mass shooting.

David Kopel
November 9, 2017
Mass shootings in gun-free nations
[See also, Hitler’s Willing Executioners and Death by “Gun Control”: The Human Cost of Victim Disarmament.—Joe]

Quote of the day—John Fogh

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Well the initiation process does require one to eat the still-beating heart of a hippie…

John Fogh
Professional Firearms Instructor
November 9, 2017
In response to the question, “Can a vegan join the NRA and how will they be viewed by other gun owners?”
[Ask a silly question, get a silly answer.

John has also been quoted here before:

He also taught Barb how to fight with a knife.—Joe]