Author Archives: Joe

Biden’s brain cell still lonely

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Vice President Biden keeps demonstrating his profound ignorance and stupidity:

Biden also suggested that [Newtown school shooter] might have been killed sooner had he had to spend more time reloading.

“Think about Newtown,” Biden said. “Think about how many of these children or teachers may be alive today had he had to reload three times as many times as he did.”

The transcript of that speech doesn’t report anything about Biden saying the shooter was killed by police so Washington Post blogger Aaron Blake may be solely responsible for that sentence. In the transcript Biden does claim the police responded in two and a half minutes. That is probably false unless you want to claim one or more cars having started to move in the direction of the school qualifies as “responded.”

The shooter started his attack at about 9:35 AM and stopped about 9:46 AM to 9:49 AM after firing 152 rounds. See also this report.

The shooter killed himself at least 10 minutes after beginning his attack. Some reports have it as police arriving 20 minutes after the attack started. I have also used this number but recent reports indicate it was significantly less that that. Biden is either purposely ignorant and/or stupid if he thinks what he said is true. And even if it was true two and a half minutes is enough time to fire a lot more than 152 rounds even with 10 round magazines.

Reloading an AR-15 takes a bit longer than it does for my STI Eagle but I got 40 rounds on target in 16.8 seconds which included three reloads and clearing a malfunction:

Extrapolating to 152 rounds and you get 63.8 seconds for trigger time and magazine changes. When shooting dozens of passive “targets” the thing that takes the most time is the target transition and acquisition. This includes moving to a new position to view the next target and getting an appropriate sight picture. It’s not the trigger or reload time which can frequently be done in parallel with the target transition and acquisition.

Even if the police did arrive two and half minutes after receiving the first call the number of magazines required simply doesn’t matter. Many of the magazines he used were dropped after firing only 15 of the 30 rounds they contained. If he had been required to use 15 magazines instead of the approximately 10 that would have only added another, at most, 15 seconds. And that assumes he wasn’t doing something else at the time he made the magazine changes such as moving to a new shooting location. If he was doing the magazine changes in parallel with moving it could be that it would have made zero difference in time.

I can only conclude Biden’s brain cell is still lonely and/or he is deliberately attempting to deceive the public.

At first I cringed

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When I saw the title “The five minute NRA speech that would change the gun control debate forever” I cringed. I expected the article to be something along the lines of advocating the NRA saying, “We were wrong. Assault weapons are evil.” I was wrong:

The time for partisanship is over; now is the time for action. And that’s why the NRA is requesting the assistance of the ACLU.

The Sandy Hook tragedy, the Virginia Tech shooting, the Aurora “Batman” shooting, the Tucson shooting – all of the killers had something in common: They were all mentally unstable young men who were prescribed mind-altering psychiatric drugs.

The only thing I disagree with is that speech would change the gun control debate. For most politicians and many activists their gun control agenda isn’t about saving lives. That isn’t even debatable anymore. It’s about control, money, and security theater.

Addressing the extremely difficult problem of how to appropriately deal with mental illness isn’t something that lends itself to simple, even if false, answers and sound bites. Politicians don’t get elected by getting people to think about complex issues. They get elected by offering simplistic “solutions” to distressing emotional events and/or situations.

Don’t expect pigs to fly and don’t expect politicians to advocate people thinking.

It’s not over

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Via email from the CSGV:

Where We Stand on the Assault Weapons Ban

By now, many of you have heard about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s announcement yesterday regarding the Assault Weapons Ban of 2013. Speaking at a press conference on Capitol Hill, Senator Reid announced that the Assault Weapons Ban will not be part of the base gun violence prevention bill he brings to the Senate floor next month.

The reaction from gun violence prevention advocates was fierce and immediate; many felt betrayed. The press quickly reported that “the Assault Weapons Ban is dead in the Senate.”

The press is wrong.

There’s no doubt that Senator Reid’s statement could have been more sensitive and thoughtful. But it’s important to understand the procedural hurdles he is contemplating. If there is a filibuster by Republicans, Senator Reid will need 60 votes to bring a gun violence prevention bill to the Senate floor for a vote. He is weighing whether he can get those 60 votes in a package bill if the Assault Weapons Ban (AWB) is included. His estimation is that it is better to leave the AWB out of the bill he brings to the floor, so that he can break a filibuster and get it there in the first place. Once it’s on the floor, Senator Reid has been clear that he will allow Senator Feinstein to introduce the AWB as an amendment to the bill. This strategy would ensure that all the important pieces of the Senate Judiciary Committe’s package (universal background checks, anti-gun trafficking penalties, and the Assault Weapons Ban) actually get votes, as opposed to none of them.

And let’s remember what the sponsor of the Assault Weapons Ban of 2013, Senator Dianne Feinstein, said on January 27th of this year:
“There will be a package put together. If assault weapons is left out of the package…I’ve been assured by the majority leader I will be able to do it as an amendment on the floor, which is the way I did it in 1993. So, that doesn’t particularly bother me.”

And it shouldn’t bother us either.

Let’s all stay focused and get the up or down votes on the Senate floor that gun violence victims and survivors so richly deserve. Please continue to call your Senators at (202) 224-3121 and tell them to vote YES on universal background checks, the assault weapons ban, and tougher criminal penalties for straw buyers and gun traffickers.

Thank you as always for your support!

Sincerely,

Josh Horwitz
Executive Director

Barb S. and I used to say, “I’ll believe it when the check clears the bank.”

In regards to anti-gun legislation being dead: I’ll believe it when the perpetrators are convicted. Until then we need to be on guard because it isn’t and won’t be over for a long time.

Quote of the day—Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership

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The State of New York has resorted to a “turn in your neighbor” program, for enforcement. Knowing that people will not willingly comply, the state has resorted to a tried and true tactic of turning the citizens upon each other to aggrandize the power of the state.

Does this strike a responsive historical cord, in anyone???

Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership
March 20, 2013
And so it begins
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Magpul Industries Corp.

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We have said all along that based on the legal problems and uncertainties in the bill, as well as general principle, we will have no choice but to leave if the Governor signs this into law. We will start our transition out of the state almost immediately, and we will prioritize moving magazine manufacturing operations first. We expect the first PMAGs to be made outside CO within 30 days of the signing, with the rest to follow in phases.

Magpul Industries Corp.
Facebook statement, March 18, 2013.
[H/T David Hardy.

What gun owners did to politicians in 1994 over the AWS should happen to the legislators and governors of states that even attempted to implement these repressive laws. Then they should be considered politically untouchable and used as examples to others for the rest of their lives as if they were Grand Wizards of the KKK.—Joe]

Wow!

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Via Sebastian.

Lupica: Morbid find suggests murder-obsessed gunman plotted Newtown, Conn.’s Sandy Hook massacre for years:

What investigators found was a chilling spreadsheet 7 feet long and 4 feet wide that required a special printer, a document that contained [his] obsessive, extensive research — in nine-point font — about mass murders of the past, and even attempted murders.

But it wasn’t just a spreadsheet. It was a score sheet.

Someone that dedicated and reasonably intelligent cannot be stopped short of an extremely repressive police state. Attempting to legislate preventive measures for someone like that is insane in any society and should be criminal in a free society.

What can, and should, be legislatively done is to enable and strengthen the defense of the potential victims.

Quote of the day—Senator Orrin Hatch

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If gun laws in fact worked, the sponsors of this type of legislation should have no difficulty drawing upon long lists of examples of criminal acts reduced by such legislation. That they cannot do so after a century and a half of trying … that they must sweep under the rug the southern attempts at gun control in the 1870-1910 period, the northeastern attempts in the 1920-1939 period, the attempts at both Federal and State levels in 1965-1976 … establishes the repeated, complete and inevitable failure of gun laws to control serious crime.

Senator Orrin Hatch
In a 1982 Senate Report
[Senator Hatch said this over 20 years before I tried to say essentially the same thing with Just One Question.—Joe]

New Idaho Concealed Weapons License

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From Mike Brown, Executive Director/General Counsel of Idaho Sport Shooters Alliance:

Fellow shooters:
 
For the past several years we at the Idaho Sport Shooters Alliance have been working to get more reciprocity for Idaho concealed weapons licenses. This year we were able to get a bill printed- House Bill 192 which establishes a new tier of concealed  weapons licensing- the Enhanced Concealed Weapons License (ECWL). This bill has been tailored to meet the requirements of those states which recognize at least some other states licenses, but which currently do not recognize the current Idaho CWL such as Washington and Nevada. The new ECWL is completely optional and requires training equivalent to NRA Personal Protection, including live fire and qualified legal instruction on firearms law and the use of deadly force by private citizens, thereby allowing much improved recognition by other states.

Although the new ECWL will have no affect on the current license, thus leaving it available, the ECWL will have the same in-state benefits as the current license and will not require the current license as a prerequisite. This is an exciting development for those of us who want to carry in other states and have had to get out-of-state licenses to get the coverage we need. We are already working with officials in other states to recognize the new Idaho enhanced license when it goes into effect on July 1. We hope to have enough states recognize the new license so that an Idaho resident will be able to carry in up to 40 states.
 
We have heard nothing but positive comments on House Bill 192. The most common response has been, “Why didn’t Idaho do this years ago?” Believe me we have been trying.
 
Despite passing unanimously in the House, H192 is in trouble in the Senate. Senator Lee Heider of Twin Falls attempted to send the bill to the amending order on Friday. With two weeks left in the session this would have killed the bill!
 
H192 needs your help: please contact your Senator and ask them to vote for H192 when it comes to the floor this week.  If you live in Twin Falls (District 24) please contact Senator Lee Heider and ask him why he wants to kill the enhanced bill. Do not believe anyone who tells you that they just want to “amend” the bill– anything other than a “Yes” vote is a vote to kill enhanced licensing.
See you on the range,
 
 
Mike Brown
Executive Director/General Counsel
Idaho Sport Shooters Alliance
 
P.S. To learn more about IDSSA or to make a donation to help us continue our work for you in Idaho, please visit www.IdahoSSA.org

Quote of the day—Nina Knorr

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Quote of the day–William R Tonso & David B. Kopel

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According to Mr. Schindler’s wife Maria, when Schindler decided to liberate his Jewish workers, he handed them all semiautomatic weapons so they could fight the Nazis.

In today’s politically correct Hollywood, Steven Spielberg probably would have ruined his chances for an Oscar by telling the whole story about Oskar Schindler’s devotion to freedom.

William R Tonso & David B. Kopel
August 24, 1994
Gun Bans and “Schindler’s List”

The vortex of coincidence

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March 16th is the six month anniversary of the first date between Barb L. and I. It is also the birthday of my soon to be ex-wife. Our first date was on September 16th. This is the birthdate of Barb L’s soon to be ex-husband.

This is but a small part of what Barb L. calls, “The vortex of Joe Huffman coincidence”. That should be “JoeH/BarbL” instead of “Joe Huffman” but she named it months ago and we are kind of stuck with the name at this point.

As RobertaX and many others have pointed out our brains are pattern matching engines and find “interesting things” where there really isn’t anything of particular significance. But still it’s fun to look at the patterns sometimes.

Within a minute or two of our first date Barb L. and I started noticing a plethora of coincidences between us:

  • Her first and middle names are identical to that of my (soon to be ex-)wife.
  • Her (I can’t wait until he is my ex-)husband is not named “Joseph”. That is the name of his identical twin.
  • Her mother’s name was Josephine.
  • Her son’s middle name is Joseph.
  • She has a hand gesture that is identical to one used by daughter Xenia for the same circumstances.
  • She spent time on a farm when growing up and even milked cows by hand like I did.
  • She lives on the eastside of Lake Washington, as do I, and works in downtown Seattle about six blocks from where I work.
  • Her mother’s birthday is the same as my wife.
  • Her son’s birthday is the same as my wife’s sister.
  • Her birthday is one day after my brother’s birthday.
  • Her birthday is one day before my wife’s sister’s birthday.
  • Both her mother and my wife’s mother were teachers.
  • We both went to the University of Washington at the same time (but to be best of our knowledge we never saw each other).

Yes. I’m aware of the birthday paradox.

Anyway… we aren’t superstitious but every once in a while, we look around to see if there is someone filming us because it sure seems as if there is a script writer in the background someplace. And that guy that walked by as we were kissing around the corner at REI at one day at lunch time and said, “Don’t worry, no pictures were taken!” didn’t exactly reassure us that we aren’t acting out someone else’s script and we are being recorded on video for a reality show on Lifetime or something.

Quote of the day—Kevin Baker

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She should get a fucking Ferrari and a mansion to park it in.

Kevin Baker
March 15, 2013
Motherf*%&ers!
[I respectfully disagree. I think justice would be better served with a different settlement.

My suggestion is a truck from each of the police officers involved. The police officers involved would then drive her trucks at no charge, including fuel and maintenance, for the rest of their lives. They would be required to deliver whatever legal cargo she asked them to. It would be free income for life because of their massive screw up.

I would then offer her suggestions on particularly noxious farm waste that needed to be delivered to the cops homes once a month or so.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Todd Vandermyde

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We think it’s a civil right that deserves a single uniform standard across the state. No matter whether you’re from Decatur, or from Chicago or from Moline to Lansing, it’s a fundamental right.

Todd Vandermyde
February 22, 2013
Heated testimony at hearing on state’s concealed carry law
See this and much, much more at Video Weekend, Part II: Todd Vandermyde.
[I found it enlightening that no matter how many times and how many ways Vandermyde explained this the legislators, most, if not all of them lawyers, questioning him couldn’t seem to get it. They would even say, “We respect the Second Amendment” then in the next breath say they had an obligation to deny that right to the people they were representing in the interests of protecting them.

Vandermyde would ask questions like, “Well then do you think you should let the police search people without a warrant? Or should the police be able to ignore their Fifth Amendment rights?” Apparently these people could not understand the point he was making.

These people are bigots and should be treated as such. They, as Federal judges have said, are thumbing their noses at the U.S. Constitution, the Federal judges, and the rights of the people they supposedly represent. This is no different that the people in the deep south that abused the rights of people of color 50 years ago and I would not feel the slightest bit of sympathy for them if the Feds used similar methods to enforce their rulings upon them. Send in the National Guard to protect a parade of individuals openly carrying guns down the main streets of Chicago and Federal Marshalls arresting any city or state government employee that attempted to interfere with people peaceably exercising their right to bear arms in public.—Joe]

Five year plan?

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From Tyler Durden:

Yesterday Senator Tom Harkin introduced S. 544, “a bill to require the President to develop a comprehensive national manufacturing strategy.”

In effect, Senator Harkin wants the President to centrally plan the economy. Never mind that the President has zero experience in business or manufacturing. But hey, this worked out so well for Stalinist Russia, it’s no wonder Mr. Harkin wants to copy that model.

If I were emperor of the U.S. I could come up with a plan that outperform anything the President could accomplish in five years and have it implemented in five days. It’s really simple:

Government shall make no law restricting the free association of people other than a tax on retail sales not to exceed 5% and to enforce contracts freely entered into by people and companies.

All waste products shall be safely contained or returned to the natural environment in such a manner that those people responsible for producer of said waste are willing to build their own homes on, eat, breath, or drink said waste products.

In five years there would so much wealth generated there would be private companies with terraforming Mars, robots bringing mining products back from the asteroid belt, and sex tourists going on vacations to the resorts in low earth orbit.

Quote of the day—Geoffrey Canada

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The Wild West was never as wild as many communities in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Boston, (and on and on) are.

Geoffrey Canada
Fist Stick Knife Gun: A Personal History of Violence
[I haven’t looked up the actual numbers but I suspect his statement is true as long as you don’t regard the Hollywood Western as the definition of “Wild West”. In which case we have a good comeback for those anti-gun people who claim we don’t need guns anymore because “the Wild West doesn’t exist anymore.”

I finished this book recently and need to review/fisk it. I believe Canada has some excellent insights, is a good person, is making a positive difference in the lives of countless people, and came to his anti-gun views honestly. But I think his conclusions about guns are incorrect and misguided.—Joe]

Doesn’t fit the narrative

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Via Stanley on the gun email list from work:

It’s unlikely you will be hearing this viewpoint from the mainstream media.

How to make a mortar

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I played with some metal working equipment last weekend after not touching anything for several decades. While mostly successful I “learned a lot” without any permanent damage to the item I was working on and without leaving any of my blood or body parts behind.

Then yesterday I was looking for something else and saw this video of how professionals do things these days:

Quote of the day—Robert Slaughter

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Robert Slaughter (@bobslaughter)
Tweeted on March 12, 2013 in response to More stalker activity.
[If he only knew the total sum of crazy people in my life he would think I have a herd of recruiters out looking for crazy people and sending them my way.

I actually asked my counselor why there were so many crazy people attracted to me and why I was, in many cases, attracted to crazy women. With her help I think I have solved the later problem. I suspect there is no practical, moral, and legal solution to the first problem.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Clayton E. Cramer

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Trying to argue abstract concepts like right and wrong or constitutionality with most Americans is a waste of time. Few believe in right or wrong, and fewer still have any conception of the Constitution as a contract between the generations.

Clayton E. Cramer
January 18, 2013
Comment to Does ‘Gun Show Loophole’ Actually Result in Gun Crime?–Statistics do not point to criminals using this tactic.
[I can’t say that I disagree. But to agree with him sucks me into depression and despair. If right and wrong are beyond most Americans then are not also facts and fallacies, truth and falsity beyond them as well? Unfortunately I have substantial data to back up that claim.

See also Philosophy: Who Needs It (The Ayn Rand Library Vol. 1). A case can be made, as Rand does, that what Cramer states as fact can be explained by the lack of sound philosophy being taught to our children for the last 50 or more years.—Joe]

More stalker activity

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If you have been following along I have a “stalker” of sorts.

Background:

At 3:31 this afternoon I got a call from 630-489-9064. I didn’t recognized the number and didn’t catch the name they gave me. He ignored my attempts to repeat himself.

The bottom line was they claimed to be representing someone who was going to sue me for “information on your blog” and that I would be required to show up in California for the lawsuit.

I question the validity of this. I find it difficult to imagine a lawyer would take the case since no false statement of fact was made. Further confirmation of this hypothesis is that the number is not that of a law office. It is the same number that was used to deliver the threat on February 26th.

At 3:50 I received two more text messages from 619-646-7526 (this is the same phone number he used to call and sent me the text messages on February 18th):

I am suing you for internet defamation for eleven million dollars. Your site unlawfully placed information about myself that led to me being fired

And:

See you in court really soon buddy

I suppose it is possible the blog post contributed to him losing a job but I am of the opinion, if in fact he did lose a job, that the main factor is that he has way too many screws loose.