Author Archives: Joe

Quote of the day–Alan Gottlieb

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The mayor is beating his chest trying to make a statement that he’s anti-gun. The mayor and violent criminals in this case have something in common this time — neither of them have any respect for the law.

Alan Gottlieb
November 21, 2008
Nickels expects December start to city gun ban
[Seattle Mayor Nickels says he is going to defy state law and prohibit guns by executive order on city property. The Washington State Attorney General says state law prohibits him from doing that. A public hearing is scheduled for 6:30 PM, December 15, at City Hall.

You can read the proposed rules and comment on them here. See also the Citizen’s Committee to Keep and Bear Arms news release. Be polite, run your comments through spelling and grammar checkers, and ask someone else to read them before submission. You might also consider get yourself into the proper State of Mind, and/or thinking about Just One Question before writing your comments.–Joe]

Services for Joe Metz

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Last January I reported a fellow shooter, Joe Metz, was terminally ill. He passed away April 26 but there is another service being performed this Sunday, November 23, at the Bernie Petersen Memorial Range at 9:30. There will be a small memorial and they will spread the remainder of his ashes.


I will be in the Seattle area and unable to attend but I wanted to make the announcement a little wider.

Quote of the day–Milton Friedman

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History suggests that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition.


Milton Friedman
[It’s really sad that people are:



  1. Unaware of this
  2. Unwilling to accept this
  3. Or, most likely and saddest of all, don’t want political freedom

For those interested in political freedom I would like to suggest the First, Second, Fourth, Fifth, and 13th Amendments to the U.S. Constitution would be good additions to capitalism toward achieving political freedom. Although if the Second is uninfringed then the 13th pretty much should be taken care. Isn’t it ironic that our first president with a skin color strongly correlated with slavery in our country wants to continue the infringements that kept those people in slavery? And furthermore the first infringements upon that right in this country were enacted to keep people of that skin color from obtaining and using firearms? Condi Rice gets it. Barack Obama doesn’t. What makes the difference?–Joe]

What people really care about

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The new machines being proposed for airplane security give results like this:



Never mind What TSA Really Stands For, that almost for certain it can never be effective security, and it costs billions each year that could be spent on something more effective, the response is:



After the machines were introduced at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport last year, officials there said they had few complaints from passengers, saying most approved because lines moved faster.


Sheep.

Quote of the day–Daniel G. Jarcho

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The handgun ban is a reasonable restriction, because handguns constitute a unique class of firearm that have an unmatched ability to cause violence and kill human beings.


Daniel G. Jarcho
Brief of Violence Policy Center and the police chiefs for the cities of Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and Seattle as amici curiae in support of petitioners in D.C. v. Heller.
[Handguns cause violence? Unmatched in their ability to kill human beings?


And all this time I would have thought it was atomic bombs (super novas probably outperform A-Bombs but they haven’t actually been demonstrated on human inhabited planets that I know of) that were unmatched in their ability to implement violence and kill human beings. And that is why I was accepting of “reasonable restrictions” on atomic weapons. But now that the Supreme Court says handguns are protected by the Second Amendment and, according to Mr. Jarcho, atomic bombs are less dangerous than handguns I guess that means atomic bombs should be protected as well.


I’m glad Mr. Jarcho was able to clear that little misunderstanding up for me. I’ll be consulting his work more frequently from now on to make sure I don’t make some future similar mistake in my classification of weapon systems. Now, where is a nearby public range where I can rent an atomic capability artillery piece and buy some ammo for it? I want to evaluate some possibilities for the next Boomershoot.–Joe]

How cool is that?

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Ry reports the KING 5 Evening Magazine video on Boomershoot 2005 was nominated for an Emmy in 2006.

Quote of the day–Cedric T

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Guns got to go! Too many redneck, bible toting racist with them. There honestly is no need for anyone to have a gun, for any reason. Hunting included. Obama said he would get rid of guns and he will. Last season for hunters. Enjoy while you can.


Cedric T
THE AGENDA: GUN CONTROL
November 19, 2008 10:05 AM
Chicago, IL
[Μολὼν λάβε Cedric. Μολὼν λάβε!–Joe]

Quote of the day–Herbert Marcuse

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Self-determination, the autonomy of the individual, asserts itself in the right to race his automobile, to handle his power tools, to buy a gun, to communicate to mass audiences his opinion, no matter how ignorant, how aggressive, it may be.


Herbert Marcuse
An Essay on Liberation, ch. 1 (1969)
[Some people don’t want to be liberated. And a great many more don’t want others to be liberated either.–Joe]

Quote of the day–John Ross

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President-elect Obama, I wish you all good fortune as you embark on your Presidential career. I suspect that you will come to realize (if you haven’t already) that Socialism and Communism don’t work, that we can’t tax our way into prosperity, and that punishing motivated people who succeed on their own by forcing them to support those with little or no ambition is a recipe for disaster. If you don’t figure those things out, that’s okay too. We might have to wait for the midterm elections of 2010, but one way or another, because of you, the nightmare of Socialism will finally be over for America.



John Ross
November 8, 2008
Hallelujah! The Nightmare Is Over!, or Thank You, Mr. Obama, for Putting So Many Bad Things Behind Us
[If it were only so easy. Maybe he’s right. But Barb tells me I always optimistic and I’m not optimistic in our present situation. Is this the way it has ever been? People elect a socialist to the top spot, he or she takes the country down the toilet and everyone realizes it was a terrible mistake and becomes capitalistic overnight (two years)? Show me an example where that has been the case and maybe I can be optimistic again.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Edward Abbey

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A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.


Edward Abbey
(1927 – 1989)
[Among other accomplishments, such as his books, Abbey inspired the formation and associated with the members of Earth First! I find it very interesting how the words of one set of extremists can match the words of their opposites.–Joe]

Vandals go to the range

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If you are in the Moscow area you might be interesting in going to the range with some (University of Idaho) Vandals:



This Sunday, the 16th is a range day sponsored by the Vandals for Firearms Education and Training (VFET). We are meeting in the Safeway parking lot here in Moscow at 1pm and caravaning out to the range out on Lenville Road.


Look for the silver Subaru Forester with the fishing bobber antenna topper and the yellow flag on the antenna on top.


So come on out and have some fun at the range.


Daughter Kim and I plan on attending.


Update: Kim can’t make it due to a study session with a fellow classmate. I’m going to work on Caleb and Xenia and try and get them out there.

Quote of the day–Sick in the U. P.

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I won’t apologize for concluding that anyone who supports the free and unfettered possession of deadly weapons is sick in their head. Why in God’s name should the Democratic party, or any organization dedicated to improving the lives and future of Americans, give up on the idea of gun control? Has mental illness spread so far in our country that the concept of curbing violent death by gun is no longer viable?


Here’s my take: all gun owners should immediately submit themselves for psychiatric examination, to determine the extent of their illness and begin treatment before they do harm to someone.


Rifled, single-shot hunting weapons aside, this country should immediately consider laws making the possession of any handgun or assault weapon evidence of serious and dangerous mental illness, and anyone having such a weapon on their possession should be subject to immediate immobilization, hospitalization and confinement for treatment. The sale of — or display with intent to sell — any handgun or assault weapon to a private citizen should result in that person’s inventory being seized and immediately destroyed, and the seller hospitalized immediately for treatment. Any factory producing handguns or assault weapons caught selling their product to private citizens should be closed, their corporate officers hospitalized, and the inventory destroyed.


Sick in the U. P.
Oct 27, 2008 06:07 PM
In a comment to this article: Why we all need the Democrats to abandon gun control
[Sounds like some people are in full support of sending us for an extended stay in the reeducation camps. I wonder if he realizes what it would entail to get 80 million (or even a significant fraction) armed people to the camps. I would like to suggest it is they that need to seek psychiatric help.–Joe]

Can you say “black market”?

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From admittedly “not the wisest person in the world“:



One way to probably lower gun use would be to make the price of the bullet higher. I think one bullet should cost almost as much as a gun and I think bullets should be sold individually.


I feel that if people had to pay a lot more for bullets, they wouldn’t buy them as freely.


I’m not the wisest person in the world, but I know if people had to pay $100 just for one bullet, people would think twice about how important it really is to kill themselves or other people with that bullet.


The black market starts appearing when the tax on something goes above 15%. $100 for a single round is on the order of 20,000%. Her suggestion would work about as well as the prohibition against recreational drugs and probably would use much of the same supply chain.


Jeff has other comments.

Quote of the day–Alan Korwin

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He says “these” firearms (Clinton included normal magazines like police use for protection), belong on “foreign battlefields.” God help us if they’re needed on domestic battlefields against a government confiscating rights. Mr. Obama — I know these people. Disarm criminals, mobilize robust support, disarm the public, mobilize robust resistance. Please choose wisely.


Alan Korwin
November 13, 2008
Hope for Obama’s Gun Bill
[“Battlefields” appear to be a theme recently. I wonder why.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Dr. Lyle Rossiter

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The roots of liberalism – and its associated madness – can be clearly identified by understanding how children develop from infancy to adulthood and how distorted development produces the irrational beliefs of the liberal mind. When the modern liberal mind whines about imaginary victims, rages against imaginary villains and seeks above all else to run the lives of persons competent to run their own lives, the neurosis of the liberal mind becomes painfully obvious.


Dr. Lyle Rossiter
The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness. 2006
[H/T to Jeff.


While looking around for an Zune compatible format for my consumption I ran across this:



Rossiter’s dream is to construct a grand, idealized libertarian, nightmarish, dystopia that creates hardships and inflicts wounds. This is dangerous, tragic, and sick.


So both sides accuse the other of being mentally ill.


Interesting.


So one then has to ask, “Which world view has resulted in the worst outcome for the affected populations?” I would presume the United States has best approximated (and poorly at that) the Libertarian viewpoint. But I’m not sure which of the following best represents the centrally planning government of the Liberal viewpoint: Communist China, USSR, Nazi Germany, or the Pol Pot regime in Cambodia. But then I decided that it really didn’t matter.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Fred LeBrun

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I have absolutely no use for protecting those trafficking in illegal guns. Even those who would do so on principle. Street guns, slithering from state to state, do too much harm.

 

Fred Lebrun
November 12, 2008
Lock, load and try taking aim at the illegal handguns
[This is from a guy that claims to support gun ownership. This was the first instance I had heard of guns slithering. I would have thought they sort of hopped when the slide release was disengaged. But maybe this “street gun” he talks about is some new type that I’m not familiar with.

 

Regardless of their mode of locomotion Lebrun has a very naive viewpoint of the world. He thinks the following would somehow be a good idea and wouldn’t be a problem for gun owners:

 

…a national identification system for handguns. A computerized system that would be accessible to all law enforcement agencies, and that would standardize the requirements for handgun ownership coast to coast.

 

What he apparently doesn’t understand is there is already a Federal standard requirement for handgun ownership coast to coast. It’s called the Second Amendment. And even with that there are people who been chipping away at that with waiting periods (the original Brady Act), restrictions on who can purchase (age, prior felony convictions, prior domestic violence convictions and accusations), storage requirements, and types of handguns (“junk guns”, “Saturday Night Specials”, “armor piercing”, too powerful, too concealable, too many rounds). This incremental approach is what the people of the UK bought into which ultimately resulted in their complete loss of handguns.

 

It appears he is suggesting universal registration of handguns. He is hopelessly naive if he believes this will fly. He need look no further than Canada to see their gun registration failure. Then he should try to answer Just One Question.–Joe]

 

Update: Jeff and Sebastian both have posts up about the same article.

For This Veteran’s Day

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I have some quotes from a fellow, Joe Argenzio, interviewed by the History Channel.  He fought in Europe with the 1st Infantry Division (“The Big Red One”) 16th Infantry Regiment.  His unit was clearing socialists (SS in this case) out of the Falkenau death camp;



“I know some of them that I encountered committed suicide– they jumped in front of my M1.”


Suicide.  OK.  That’s what the man said.



“As far as I know we got ’em all.. and they deserved what they got.”


Over 21 thousand members of the U.S. First Infantry Division were killed or wounded fighting the socialists and the Imperial Japs in W.W. II.  Our only job is to remember them all.  We have it easy.  The socialists have it easy now too– all they have to do is stay out from in front of our M1s, so to speak.  Today, there thousands more American and coalition GIs in the middle east and elsewhere fighting the latest socialist/statist menace– the Jihaddists.  As in previous wars, their job is often thankless, but they know what they’re doing.  Thanks, people.

How Terrorist Groups End

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I haven’t finished it yet but I found this fascinating. It is a study on terrorist groups from 1968 until now. It gives data on how often terrorist groups were successfully (not very often) and why they were successful (goals were somewhat narrow). What brought about their downfall (police, and negoitations with the government) and what indicators there are for a groups longevity (religion is strongly associated with longevity) and chances of success (religion is negatively associated with success).


Al-Qaeda doesn’t have a good future if history is any indicator.

Ominous

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Remember that when Obama announced his Vice-President candidate Joe Biden he bragged that Biden was instrumental in getting the “assault weapon” ban of ’94:



Fifteen years ago, too many American communities were plagued by violence and insecurity. So Joe Biden brought Democrats and Republicans together to pass the 1994 Crime Bill, putting 100,000 cops on the streets, and starting an eight year drop in crime across the country.


CCRKBA reports:



CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb said gun owners are legitimately alarmed that president-elect Barack Obama has selected virulent anti-gun-rights Democrat Rahm Emanuel as his White House chief of staff. Emanuel was “point man” on gun ban efforts for the Clinton Administration.

“Scores of Democrats, including Senator Obama and his running mate, Joe Biden, assured voters over the past several months that they ‘support’ the Second Amendment,” Gottlieb stated. “Well, America’s gun owners do not merely ‘support’ the Second Amendment, we live by it every day. We value the right to keep and bear arms, and will zealously protect and defend that right, as much as we value the rest of our fundamental individual civil rights, and that is something Democrats need to understand. To think otherwise is a monumental mistake.

“Mr. Obama, whose history on gun rights is abysmal, appears to be considering his party’s most extremist gun control advocates for key positions in his administration,” Gottlieb continued. “That is not a sign of goodwill toward gun owners or their rights. It’s a red flare warning of high winds and rough weather looming on the political horizon.


David Hardy reports:



Supporting it is an insider DC tip that his people are seriously considering a federal ban or restriction on “right to carry” laws.


Countertop reports (see also this post):



Looks like the fix is in and Henry Waxman and Nancy Pelosi are going to toss John Dingell aside…


This was an easy decision for Pelosi who has long clashed with Dingell and ran Lynn Rivers against him in a primary attempt to defeat him.


The Lynne Rivers campaign was all about gun control.


President-Elect Barrack Obama is exceedingly anti-gun. His VP is exceedingly anti-gun. His Chief of Staff is exceedingly anti-gun. The pro-gun John Dingell, Chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, who blocked anti-gun legislation from reaching the floor of the House is being booted and replaced with the anti-gun Henry Waxman.


It seems to me that things are shaping up to be “a Perfect Storm”.


I’ll announce my latest software project by sometime next weekend. It may come in useful if things get really ugly.

Quote of the day–Hal Herring

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For two decades, many liberals have thrived on despising the NRA and its members. Those who believe in gun control often hold enormous prejudice against those who don’t. But there are already reams of laws pertaining to the use, abuse, purchase and sale of firearms. What new regulations would the gun-controllers create, and how would they work to address the problem of gun violence? Do they want to prohibit private ownership of firearms altogether? Many would like to ban handguns, without considering just what this would entail, what inequities of power would result, and what new, potentially dangerous, powers would have to be awarded to government to accomplish it. Like activists who want to ban pit bulls, the gun-control advocates remain relentlessly unspecific about what they hope to achieve. It has become clear, too, that these advocates hold a double standard regarding the U.S. Constitution: The First Amendment is vital to the health of a free nation, as is the Fourth, but the Second is respected only by the un-evolved and the violent. Only the parts of the Constitution that their side respects are valid, in this view.


Hal Herring
October 27, 2008
Why we all need the Democrats to abandon gun control
[H/T to Jeff who has a still better quote from the comments to this same article.–Joe]