Author Archives: Joe

Interest in gun control

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From Google Trends:

GunControlTrends

 

Other than the obvious peak we see stemming from the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting tragedy we can make some more inferences.

I find it odd there are so many Texas cities (follow the link and scroll down for Austin and Houston) in the top ten for interest in gun control. I have no speculation for that result. Anyone?

We are winning. Look at the level of interest in 2004 to early 2005 range. The lowest level then was greater than anything we have had in the last few months. And the interest from 2004 until December 2012 was steadily declining. We appear to be getting back on track to that decline.

You can see why the anti-gun people dance in the blood of the victims. Their message becomes far more important when there is a mass shooting.

Do you see the decline starting in April 2014 (point A)?

That coincides with Bloomberg’s $50 million push for gun control. Bloomberg may be our enemy. But as enemies go he is one of the easiest to demonize.

Idaho Enhanced Concealed Carry license

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I recently got my Idaho Enhanced Concealed Carry license. Due to an error by the person taking my picture I ended up getting both the standard license and the enhanced license. Here is what they look like:

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As you can see the only difference is the title of the card.

I like the Idaho cards much better than the Washington State cards which are nothing but a piece of thick paper which is easily damaged. Also, the paper is slightly larger than a credit card or drivers license and when you laminate it it doesn’t fit into your wallet very well.

Even so, I still think of the license as the near equivalent of the Yellow Badge or the Pink Triangle. Being required to get a license to exercise a specific enumerated right is just wrong.

Defense Distributed October surprise

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I received an email from Defense Distributed (they made the first 3D printed gun) last night. It’s contents were:

Respectfully requesting your attendance for an October Surprise.
September 30, 2014.

Anything more would be total speculation on my part.

Quote of the day—Full Fathom Five (@FullFathomFive1)

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[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday! Via One Of Them (‏@tazcat2011).

No data, no logical argument, just insults. It’s the best they have to offer.—Joe]

Dorks

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ChiefJayBob sent Barb and I matching shirts.

Barb’s came with instructions. There was something in the instructions about wearing or not wearing them at the same time and being dorks. I don’t read so good and couldn’t really understand it that well.

Anyway, we appreciate receiving them and put them on this morning.

Here are the pictures:

WP_20140921_001WP_20140921_003WP_20140921_009

Update: In the comments ChiefJayBob said something about not in public and the rules that came with the shirt. Barb and I studied the comment for a bit and if we understood things correctly we needed a picture in public. So we went to the local grocery store and took another picture:

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Barb also studied one of his other comments about the shirts. He said something about wearing it when going to bars. I don’t really drink so going to bars isn’t something I have an interest in doing. But Barb said having a “Fire and Rescue” shirt is awesome for picking up chicks in a bar and says she will totally wear it when she goes to the bars. I don’t really understand this. Maybe people help you catch them if they think you are going to rescue them.

And I’m not sure I understand why there would be chicks at a bar. Sure, some bars serve chicken-wings but I’ve never heard of chicks in a bar. Are they attracted to leftover malted barley or something? I don’t really think there is a place to raise them at her house anyway. And chickens are very messy animals to have around. I wouldn’t really want them if I had to take care of them. She just going to have to demonstrate what she wants to do with these chicks she is going to pick up.

Quote of the day—Gary Kleck

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By definition, it is logically impossible to commit a firearm homicide or firearm suicide without using a firearm. Even if the availability of guns had no bearing on whether they were used in homicides, you’d expect a significant positive association between guns per capita and rates of gun-related deaths.

Gary Kleck
University of Florida Criminologist
September 18, 2014
Do guns make us safer?
[This is why gun owner rights advocates talk about violent crime instead of “gun deaths”. We are concerned with violent crime and how to make people safer.

And this is why the anti-rights people insist on talking about only about deaths that involve guns. And that is why they include suicide and justifiable homicide. It is only by coming up with misleading statistics that they can arrive at numbers that seem to justify their anti-rights agenda.—Joe]

Elderberry fiend

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When I was in Idaho last weekend my SIL Julie was making elderberry juice with the juice extractor I bought her last Christmas. I wanted some and brother Doug picked some more berries (as did I since I didn’t know he was doing it) and I ended with a full gallon of juice to bring back home.

Barb had said she would help me preserve any fruits I brought back but she was thinking apples, pears, and prunes. She didn’t know anything about elderberries. I happily informed her that you make jelly out of them. For some reason her enthusiasm did not match mine. Obviously she had been culturally deprived for all these years and once I informed her of this she would have the enthusiasm to match mine. For some reason that didn’t work out quite like I planned. She remained skeptical but looked up a recipe and yesterday she purchased the supplies.

Today we made elderberry jelly, cranberry jelly (from 100%, no water or sugar added, cranberry juice I bought in an Idaho store after daughter Kim told me about it), and 50/50 elderberry/cranberry jelly.

Here is the result:

WP_20140920_006Adjusted

Barb, after I insisted that it was really good, tasted some of the cooled foam that we scooped off prior to putting the jelly it in the jars.

She became an elderberry fiend. As soon as we finished with the jelly she made elderberry syrup, elderberry liquor, and some sort of mix of vodka and elderberries. If there are still elderberries on the trees when we next go to Idaho she wants more.

I think I have been forgiven for bringing home the elderberry juice.

Quote of the day—Alan Gura

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In America, the police don’t determine what rights we have good reason to enjoy. You don’t need a good reason to speak, to worship, to vote or to carry a gun for self-defense.

Alan Gura
September 17, 2014
Lawmakers grudgingly draft bill to authorize concealed carry of guns in D.C.
[But guns are different than speech or religion! No one is harmed by speech!

Wrong.

Ideas are more powerful than weapons. How many innocent people have been murdered on the basis of books like Mein Kampf, The Communist Manifesto, The Bible, and The Qur’an? Compare those numbers to the number of individual criminal uses of firearms and then get back to me.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Ronald Reagan

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It’s a nasty truth, but those who seek to inflict harm are not fazed by gun-control laws. I happen to know this from personal experience.

Ronald Reagan
May 6, 1983
Speech at the Annual Members Banquet of the National Rifle Association. Phoenix, AZ.
[From Proclaiming Liberty: What Patriots and Heroes Really Said About the Right to Keep and Bear Arms by Philip Mulivor.

Reagan was shot March 30, 1981. James Brady, the other victim on that day, just recently died. Their shooter still lives and although he spent a lot of time in a psych ward he never went to prison.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Vincent Gray

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Guns are not the answer, ladies and gentlemen. Guns would not have saved the victims of the Navy Yard.

Vincent Gray
Mayor of Washington D.C.
September 17, 2014
Gray Calls For ‘Real Gun Control’ At Navy Yard Ceremony, Says D.C.’s Laws May Be ‘Relaxed’
[Then what was the purpose of the guns in the hands of the responding police officers? And why do many of the politicians in his jurisdiction have armed guards?

This guy has crap for brains. Or else he thinks you do.—Joe]

Boomershoot 2015 registration

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Registration opens for Boomershoot 2014 participants this Saturday, September 20th at 10:00:00 AM Pacific Time.

Registration opens for everyone next Wednesday September 23rd at 7:00:00 PM Pacific Time.

Sign up here.

Quote of the day—Aaron Peori

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No handguns.

No automatics of any kind.

Single action long arms will fulfill all the needs of home defense, hunting and sport.

Aaron Peori
September 11, 2014
Forum post in Your Ideal Gun Control Method
[It’s a Bill of Rights, not a Bill of Needs. And the Supreme Court of the United States says the Bill of Rights protects the type of guns this idiot would have other people take away from you.

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

This is not a challenge

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From Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, Forget Fingerprints, Officials Can Track You All Kinds of Ways:

Another important step in the future of biometric identification is storing information in one portal wherein multiple government agencies will trust the credentials, said John Boyd, director, defense biometrics and forensics, U.S. Defense Department. The challenge remains to carry out the many efforts to identify people effectively but still protect privacy.

That’s quite a challenge. In my book as soon as the government has that type of information the worst of all possible offenders has the information you least want them to have.

It’s a lot like the “challenge” of finding a way such that the person that wants you and your family dead and as well as you and your family both get what you want.

This is not a challenge. This is a time to tell them to leave you alone and then back it up with force if needed.

Google Wallet

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Does anyone use Google Wallet to pay for things?

The reason I ask is because I am setting up the Boomershoot entry website to use Google Wallet for credit card payments. I get a better rate than with PayPal or Amazon and, at one point, their terms of service were more gun friendly. But now their current terms of service in regards to weapons aren’t much different from PayPal’s terms of service.

What I didn’t realize until I was doing some testing was that you have to create a Google Wallet account with name, address, as well as credit card information. You can’t just give your credit card information and pay. This takes more time and one more business has your credit card info and has the potential to lose your credit card info to thieves.

I expect far more people have Amazon and PayPal accounts than they do Google Wallet accounts.

If you were purchasing an entry to Boomershoot and paying with a credit card would the additional Google Wallet account creation be an issue for you? If it makes a difference you can still pay with a check money order via snail mail.

Mostly off-topic but I found this clause in Google’s buyer terms of service interesting:

2.2 USA PATRIOT ACT NOTICE

To help the government fight the funding of terrorism and money laundering activities, federal law requires all financial institutions to obtain, verify, and record information that identifies each individual or business that opens an account or requests credit.

Quote of the day—RocketMedic

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I am no great orator, thinker or politician… I do not know or care for the ins and outs of public policy, suicide risks, criminal motives and I care not for morality. I treat my firearms as tools for self-defense. Nothing more or less. They are expendable, but they are not to be traded away for empty promises of cowards and nebulous promises of “safety”. Provide me everlasting invincibility, immortality, and impunity from danger and I will happily melt my guns into ornaments. Until that day, though, I will place more trust in cold steel and hot lead than the empty promises of cowards.

RocketMedic
September 12, 2014
Forum post in Your Ideal Gun Control Method
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Peggy Jones Coquet

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Open carry activists: jerk-offs with teeny weenies.

Peggy Jones Coquet
July 4, 2014
Facebook comment to PQED: How should people respond to open-carry gun-rights activists?
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday! Via a comment by Barron.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Bill Whittle

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And of all the promises broken by this man, surely none is more heartbreaking than the one promise that got him elected in the first place: the promise of a post-racial future. He and his progressive cohorts can never surrender the weapon that has gotten them everything, not the least of which is personal political power and trillions of dollars of redistributed wealth. And this latest outrage in Ferguson is yet another example – as if another was needed among the economic wreckage, creeping totalitarianism, and foreign-policy disasters — that he and his leftist cohorts would rather rule over ruins than disappear into the dustbin of history of a healthy and racially healed nation.

Bill Whittle
August 20, 2014
[H/T to Kevin.

I have nothing to add.—Joe]

For chiefjaybob

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WP_20140913_001

Because he sent this shirt to me, I took a long time to thank him for it, and he said, “THAT’S NOT THE SHIRT I SENT YOU!!!!!!1!!1!!!!”.

Quote of the day—NRA-ILA

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Gun control supporters would like nothing more than for gun owners to think that resistance to the anti-gunners bottomless pocketbooks is futile. But, we know that no matter how much money the anti-gunners spend, they can’t buy our freedom, because it’s not for sale. Let the anti-gun billionaires know that by Voting Freedom First on November 4.

NRA-ILA
September 12, 2014
Harvard: Millions of Dollars More For Gun Control
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—orpheus762x51

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A Form 1 came back approved for a new Machine Gun. Jaqufrost was quickly contacted by the ATF saying he has to send back the stamp.

This thing is growing legs and will probably go to court. Stand by, because we will surely need contributions to a legal fund if it goes to court.

All things considered, this looks like a realistic opportunity at taking back out rights to Machine Guns. If this fight starts moving forward, it’s going to tale a monumental amount of commitment to see it through. Hold fast, everyone. We’re going to need all hands on deck for this one.

orpheus762x51
September 10, 2014
ATF ruling may have opened door to new machine guns–Pg9 Form 1 APPROVED Pg18 ATF call audio
[Background material is here.

Audio of the ATF phone call:

Interesting. Very interesting!—Joe]