Author Archives: Joe

Always Think Forfeiture resolution

Posted on by

I have been wondering about this for a while and even asked a few people what was, if anything, going on. It turns out the case has been resolved. Not to my satisfaction but good enough. I would have preferred the ATF be disbanded and the guilty be given life sentences and sent to the prison labor lead mines to help reduce the cost of ammunition–but then I’m a perfectionist in cases like this.

Here is the best story on it I have found so far:

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is dumping the “Always Think Forfeiture” motto it’s used for more than a decade to help combat crime.

U.S. Rep. Bill Sali, R-Idaho, and others complained that multipurpose tools engraved with the slogan could be seen as encouragement to seize property, including guns, of law-abiding citizens.

The pocket tools were to be given to federal, state and local law-enforcement agents participating in the agency’s asset forfeiture training programs, as a reminder of one way to disrupt or dismantle criminal organizations.

None of the engraved tools, stored in the agency’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., have so far been distributed. And now they won’t be, at least until the engravings have been removed.

The agency will no longer use the slogan on materials given out during its training programs, said Robert Browning, chief of ATF public affairs in Washington, D.C., adding it was never intended to undermine lawful gun rights.

Sali had said that the ATF “through its engraved motto, sends a message that these rights are secondary to the government’s apparent goal to ‘always’ seek forfeit of private property.”

The tools also included the words “ATF – Asset Forfeiture.”

Update: In the comments Jed points out the Idaho Stateman article. I have to agree it’s better because of this:

That changed March 19, when a blogger looking at ATF contracts on a government-purchasing database found an order for 2,000 Leatherman tool-kits engraved with the slogan.

The blogger wrote about it on www.freedomsight.net, and the issue took on a life of its own in the blogosphere. Gun owners and private property rights activists seized on the phrase as a sign that the agency was biased toward law-abiding gun owners.

As I said before, Jed did good. Real good.

Random Nuclear Strikes Boomershoot pictures

Posted on by

David has posted a bunch of pictures of and relating to Boomershoot:

Boomershoot Gun Blogger Day

Posted on by

At the NRA convention last week I told several bloggers I was contemplating having a special Boomershoot for gun bloggers*. I have had time to think about this quite a bit more.

The following is tentative so if you have suggestions let me know before I finalize it in the next week or so.

Boomershoot 2009 is currently scheduled for Sunday April 26th with Friday and Saturday the 24th and 25th being the Precision Rifle Clinic. Nearly all of the gun bloggers who have never attended Boomershoot I have talked to expressed concern their long range rifle skills were deficient so I think participating in at least one day of the clinic is a good idea for them. Partially for this reason I have decided combining the gun blogger event with Boomershoot 2009 is a good idea.

What I think is one of the more interesting part of the event is the making of the targets prior to the event. We have repeatedly invited the mainstream media to observe and/or participate and only once had them accept. I’m guessing gun bloggers will be more inclined to take me up on this invitation. Hence I have decided to make Thursday April 23rd 2009 Boomershoot Gun Blogger Day. On this day gun bloggers will be given media credentials and a special behind the scenes tour of and participation in Boomershoot 2009. If the individuals involved want to actually mix explosives and package the targets they will need to fill out some paperwork at least a couple months in advance. This paperwork will be submitted to the ATF and if the ATF approves it these individuals will be allowed to actually make explosives and reactive targets. If individuals do not wish to submit the paperwork then they will still be allowed to observe target manufacturing and participate in all the other activities.

Other activities planned for Gun Blogger Day will include discussions of explosive chemistry, alternate materials for explosives, target detonation theory, fireball target construction, the history and future of Boomershoot, Boomershoot safety, Why Boomershoot, “entertainingly close” detonation of targets by the participants and almost any other safe and legal activity related to guns and explosives the participants can think of.

Do you want to blow something up? Toilets, laptop computers, and hard disk drives are just some of the things we have subjected to “Idaho Hardware Testing” (also sometimes called an Idaho Stress Test). If you have something you want subjected to Boomerite let me know and we’ll figure out how to make it happen safely. The only catch is that you need to clean up (or pay for) the mess afterward.

Gun bloggers who are attending Boomershoot for the first time will also get free admission to the main event on Sunday April 26th.

* For the purposes of this special offer a gun blogger is defined as someone who has an active blog with frequent posts about gun use or politics. “Active blog” means someone who has made 100 or more posts in the previous year as of April 1, 2009. This definition potentially and intentionally includes the anti gun blogs such as the Gun Guys and the Brady Blog. “Frequent posts about gun use or politics” will be defined at my whim on a case by case basis. Submit your blog to me for inclusion prior to April 1 and I’ll get back to you with my decision within a day or so.

Gun trace data for 2007 is available

Posted on by

I haven’t looked at it much but the ATF trace data for 2007 is available here for those that have the time and the interest.

Bloomberg is an ignorant bigot

Posted on by

An article by Joseph P. Tartaro (who I saw at the NRA Convention but didn’t talk to) spells out what many of us have suspected. Bloomberg is an ignorant anti-gun bigot and beyond that is willfully ignorant:

NSSF noted that perhaps the mayor’s insults stems from his self-professed ignorance of our nation’s firearms laws and regulations, business practices of firearms retailers and the duties of the ATF. “I don’t know what the law is and what procedures are,” responded the mayor to a deposition question on illegally purchased firearms, NSSF quoted him. “I have no knowledge of what appropriate safeguards are for a dealer to comply with the law or what standard practices are in the arms business,” they quoted him.

In the same deposition Mr. Bloomberg admitted he did not know that ATF conducted inspections of firearms retailers. “I didn’t even know they had inspections,” the bewildered mayor offered and Bloomberg also noted that he did not know what a Federal Firearms Transaction Record, commonly known as a Form 4473 was or a NICS background check.

A settlement between Red’s and ATF

Posted on by

I would prefer the Feds ended up in jail and reimbursing Red’s for all expenses but I can’t complain a whole lot if this goes down as described:

An Idaho gun shop that went to federal court to keep the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives from stripping it of its gun license has reached a tentative settlement with the government.

Attorneys on both sides told U.S. District Court Judge Mikel H. Williams on Wednesday that they had likely agreed on how to end the case.

Mark Geston, an attorney representing Terry and Ryan Horsley of Red’s Trading Post, said he could not yet release details, but said the proposal would allow the Twin Falls gun shop to continue operating.

“I think everybody’s reached a cooperative and constructive agreement,” Geston said Thursday. “The judge said to have it finalized in 10 days and we’ll just do our best to do that. The agreement allows Red’s Trading Post to continue as a gun shop in Twin Falls.”

I tried to check out Ryan’s blog but Blogger reports:

Sorry, the blog at redstradingpost.blogspot.com has been removed. This address is not available for new blogs.

This is entirely speculation on my part but my guess is pulling the blog down is part of the settlement. Stepping even further into baseless speculation one could say it’s a sad day when you have to give up your 1st Amendment rights to exercise your 2nd Amendment rights.

Quote of the day–Thomas Jefferson

Posted on by

I sincerely believe . . . that banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies, and that the principle of spending money to paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale.

Thomas Jefferson
Letter May 28, 1816 to senator John Taylor
[I haven’t investigated enough to say for certain but I suspect the “spending money to paid by posterity” is a significant part of why the politicians don’t do anything about illegal immigration. A rapidly expanding tax base (via both individual and corporate taxes enabled by cheap labor) is one way they can avoid a financial collapse. Hence Jefferson’s observation may be true in the general case but avoidable in some cases if the government is “creative” in the financing. But it may be that the dangers of massive illegal immigration are just as harmful as a standing army or a large debt.–Joe]

Death wish or just incredibly stupid?

Posted on by

My web site about my “adventure” with Battelle’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory recently yielded contact with another victim of theirs.

I often thought it odd they would treat me so poorly with my expertise with explosives and firearms. Why not ease me out rather than treat me crap and not even allow me to defend myself against the allegations? Internal email and testimony during my lawsuit after I was fired revealed there were people on the inside that were quite concerned about that too. They had one or more meetings on how they might deal with “getting sniped at from 800 yards away”.

My latest contact who joined the club of being fired unjustly with any opportunity to defend themselves against allegations of wrongdoing by Battelle has expertise with botulinum toxin, ricin, Yersinia pestis, as well as all of the major chemical warfare agents, such as mustard gas, Sarin and VX.

She is thinking about it

Posted on by

I’ve been quietly telling people that I wouldn’t be surprised if Hillary arranges for Obama to be “physically unable to accept the nomination”. Everything I have read about her indicates she is that evil.

I therefore am not at all surprised she said this:

“My husband did not wrap up the nomination in 1992 until he won the California primary somewhere in the middle of June, right? We all remember Bobby Kennedy was assassinated in June in California. I don’t understand it,” she said.

Update: I was listening to some talk radio station and a caller suggested instead of the Bobby Kennedy assassination example she should have used the example of Vince Foster being found dead in a park. For some of you that might not “get it” the predominate conspiracy theory surrounding Foster’s death is that Hillary arranged his “suicide”.

It has also been suggested that Hillary said what she said as a message to her more fanatical supporters of something they could do to ensure she gets the nomination.

Links for the bloggers I met

Posted on by

While at the NRA Convention there were numerous times when someone say, “I once made about post about that.” Most of the time others would say, “Yeah! I remember that.” Occasionally someone would say, “I must have missed that. Could you bring me up to speed?”

This is for those times when people missed one of my posts.

For Kevin, Sebastian, and Bitter on Sunday night when we were talking about powdered sugar and coffee creamer in regards to A Security Theater. Check out the video link.

Photo below by Rob Allen (see this post of his for more pictures from Friday evening) which was taken within a few minutes of the discussion:


Left front and going clockwise: Jeff, Kevin, Joe, Say Uncle.

We were talking about endangered species and I mentioned the post I made about Habitat destruction leads to extinction. That got a laugh. But then we nearly fell out of our booth laughing as Kevin described it as deforestation.

Update: Late last Friday, the night we are not to blog about, someone who shall remain nameless mentioned a problem with insomnia. This same someone at a different time acknowledged reading about Dr. Joe’s cure for everything. But they apparently didn’t make the connection that their insomnia was a prime candidate for a treatment with Dr. Joe’s cure. I was tempted to make the connection for them but thought it would be inappropriate “to go there” in the given circumstances.

Quote of the day–Ian Hamet

Posted on by

I could vote for Hillary, despite her awfulness, for the simple reason that while she’s vile, she’s perfectly willing to throw aside any and all principles. That is usually a bad thing, but if America were attacked while she was President, she’d be so personally offended that whoever it was had the gall to attack while she was President that she’d toss aside all the touchy-feely “it takes a village” crap and nuke them back to the stone age.

Ian Hamet
May 14, 2008
Cynicism (not especially upbeat)
[H/T to Kevin for the pointer.

I can see his point and agree for about 30 seconds before the emotional glow fades and rational thought returns. The first Clinton regime was bad enough with Hillary being buffered by Bill. To have Hillary yanking directly on the reins of power would be just too painful.–Joe]

They should put Brady and company on the byline

Posted on by

This article, from the headline:

Relaxation on gun control, unlicensed sales contribute to gun violence in Oakland

to the last section:

‘Every day I hear gun shots’

Fourteen-year-old C.J. described that paranoia, and sometimes the lack of it, in an interview. The West Oakland youth has come to live with the sound of gunshots.

“Every day, I hear gun shots — well, not every day, but most days of the week,” C.J. said. “When we play, we hear gunshots. If they get closer and closer, then we run inside.”

One night when he and his brother were walking home from a party at a cousin’s house on Eighth Street, “the guns started going off and we ran,” he said. “Everybody was screaming and running. I was just running different ways trying not to get hurt. I jumped into someone’s back yard and waited.”

When the gunfire stopped, he went looking for his brother and found him waiting inside someone’s house.

Still, C.J. said he does not expect to get shot. He said it is usually people arguing who shoot at each other, and he avoids arguments.

C.J. said this with conviction, having accepted that gunfire is a part of daily life and figured out a way to avoid it. He lost his father to gunfire in Oakland a decade ago and seems to have thought carefully about how to avoid that fate.

“They keep going back and forth killing each other,” he said. “It’s not scary to me because I’m not in those arguments.”

It is nothing but falsehoods, speculation, misleading information, and anecdotes designed to alarm and frighten.

This wasn’t written by journalists. This was written by people that should be on the Brady Campaign payroll.

Paul Helinkski of Guns America

Posted on by

On Saturday night (Sunday morning), at the NRA Convention, I stayed up until 3:00 AM socializing and blogging. I arrived at the Press Room a few minutes before 9:00 the next morning and found I was the first one there for the meeting with Paul Helinkski of Guns America. Wimps. Even the NRA staff hadn’t arrived to unlock the door early after being late the day before. If it hadn’t been for the wheelbarrow full of cash I received on arrival I would have been a little bit annoyed with the NRA for dropping the ball in this regard two days in a row.

About 9:00 other bloggers and press people showed up to wait. Bitter had no explanation:

More people showed up–and waited:

Then Helinkski showed up and waited with the rest of us:

Finally, about 15 or 20 minutes late, the NRA staff (names withheld to protect the guilty) showed up, let us in, and we all sat down to listen to Helinkski:

He gave us his background and while interesting from a technical aspect most of my readers aren’t going to care about that. What probably is interesting is what he had to say about the future of gun sales on the Internet.

Helinkski is of the opinion that gun are a very unique product that cannot be sold like other products. The required FFL for shipment and NICS checks for most sales is the reason. That “speed bump” could be smoothed out by “dealers” that do not stock firearms but simply do the transfers and charge $20 or $30. But, according to Helinkski, this would be the very bad for gun owners. Sure we could get guns a few dollars cheaper if we did our purchases that way but having the gun store down the street on the corner is more important that those few dollars. The public visibility is important and having the customer service locally available is important.

So what is the future of Internet gun sales? Helinkski has an innovative web product that addresses that. Check out GunsAmerica.com. His website allows dealers to post their inventory on the web and the customers to comparison shop. You can search for guns within X miles of your zip code and then if the dealer makes a sale because you found what you liked on the website Helinkski makes a flat fee on the deal. You still have to visit the dealer and purchase the gun face-to-face but what Guns America has done is make the comparison shopping much easier.

CCRKBA News Release

Posted on by

I can’t find an online version to link to so I’m just posting the email version I received from the Citizens Committe for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. The short version is what Uncle said, “Ald. Richard Mell…like you and me only better.”

CCRKBA SAYS CHICAGO ALDERMAN SHOULD SUFFER LIKE OTHER GUN OWNERS

BELLEVUE, WA – Chicago Alderman Richard Mell ought to be prosecuted like any other negligent gun owner for failing to re-register his firearms under an ordinance he helped pass, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

“I don’t care if anti-gun Mayor Richard Daley supports giving Mell a break, and it doesn’t matter that Mell is the father-in-law of Gov. Rod Blagojevich,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “For years, the draconian ordinance supported by Mell and enforced by Daley has terrorized Chicago gun owners. It’s time for Mell to face his own music, and it’s time for Daley to just shut up.”

Mell has proposed an amendment to the existing law that would allow gun registration to re-open for a month, giving him amnesty. Mell and Daley are claiming that this is for other gun owners in the city as well who may have let their registrations lapse.

“For years, the Daley Administration has engaged in goon squad demagoguery against gun owners,” Gottlieb observed, “but now all of a sudden, just because Alderman Mell finds himself on the wrong side of a law he supported, he and Daley want to do Chicago gun owners a favor. This magnanimity is a flimsy sham, and law-abiding firearm owners all over Illinois should be outraged.

“It is equally outrageous that Mell is blaming this lapse on an aide,” he added. “How stupid is that? Mell knows that gun owners are personally responsible for re-registering their firearms, and over the years, the city has shown no mercy for others who have failed to comply with the law. This guy shouldn’t be on the city council, he ought to be in an unemployment line, and even more than that, he ought to be facing charges in court for possession of unregistered guns inside the city.

“The sad fact is,” Gottlieb concluded, “that this proposed amnesty amendment would never be on the table if it weren’t designed specifically to help Alderman Mell. That anyone else might benefit is an accident, and both Mell and Daley know it. Other gun owners should be allowed to re-register, but Mell should lose on this sweetheart deal. Perhaps then he will fully understand just how insidious Chicago’s gun laws really are, and he will lead the fight to abolish them.”

To: John Bachman of WSBTV

Posted on by

I just sent the following email to the guy on the video about online explosives. 

 

From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Thursday, May 22, 2008 9:47 PM
To: John Bachman (john.bachman@wsbtv.com); ‘talk2us@wsbtv.com’
Subject: Please discontinue using my video.

 

Today I was informed of your video about the availability of online explosives (http://www.wsbtv.com/video/16266872/index.html). The last video clip you used from web sources was taken by me of my daughter Kim. You did not obtain permission to use that and I am requesting that you immediately stop using it.

 

In addition to the unauthorized use of my material you strongly imply we are using Tannerite or some other explosive available via online sources. This is false. The material used is of my own manufacture. I have a license issued by the ATF to manufacture high explosives and my daughter Kim is authorized by the ATF to handle explosives. To use her likeness and my product in your biased and even bigoted attack on a legal product used in a legal manner is exceedingly offensive to me and thousands of other people.

 

I can’t imagine what you were thinking. Would you show video of people using guns to legally hunt, shoot tin cans, or put holes in paper targets and then contact your congress because you were worried someone might use their guns to commit a terrorist act? Or how about showing someone having a glass of wine with dinner or drinking a beer in their backyard? Would you demand the government do something about this because of your concerns about drunk driving?

 

When I was growing up my family was able to, and did, buy dynamite, blasting caps, at the local hardware store with no special license or transportation requirements. We paid for it, picked it up out back, put in it in the trunk of the car and drove home with it.  That the average person can still acquire explosives easily, legally, and safely is a testament to what a great country we have. It shows that not only the government is subservient to its citizens but that its citizens are responsible and can be trusted.

 

If you had demonstrated these explosives were used in thousands of crimes each year I might think you had reason to be concerned. But you did not do this. You could have used that same product and those same video to show what a great country we have. You could have shown what unique freedoms we have and how those freedoms are not being abused and I would have gladly given you permission to use my video. Seattle King 5 Evening Magazine did that with this video: http://www.boomershoot.org/2005/KING5.wmv. But you didn’t do that. You merely demonstrated you are a Puritan–afraid that someone, someplace, is having fun.

 

 

Joe Huffman
Boomershoot Event Director

GRPC registration is open

Posted on by

Today I received notice from the Second Amendment Foundation that registration is now open for the Gun Rights Policy Conference September 26, 27, and 28th.

I have attended GRPC twice before and was very impressed. If you are into the political/academic side of the 2nd Amendment then you will benefit a great deal from attending.

Quote of the day–Ry Jones

Posted on by

Some anti-fun maroon stuck together a video to demonize recreational explosives. Joe’s daughter, Kim, appears in the last quarter of the segment. Too bad the anti-fun maroon is a TV station in Atlanta.

Ry Jones
May 22, 2008
Kim is Famous
[It looks like I have some work to do after I get off work tonight.–Joe]

Todd Jarrett, guns and explosives

Posted on by

Last Friday night Michael Baine hosted a social event for us bloggers. Todd Jarrett reported that 10 bloggers would get training from him at Blackwater and then take home a Paraordinance gun at the end of the training. Bitter has some details.

I spent probably 15 minutes talking with Jarrett and he got really interested in Boomershoot and told me he wanted to blow up a car. He wants to be able to shoot bullets into it and have it lift about four feet off the ground. I gave him my card and told him I thought I could do that. He seemed interested in exploring that further. Cool!

Quote of the day–Glenn Beck

Posted on by

Before I pay over $10 for a gallon of gas I will drill through a polar bears head. — I would feel bad. But I would do it.

Glenn Beck
NRA Annual Convention
Keynote speech
May 17, 2008
[He also pointed out that polar bears have been dramatically increasing in numbers recently. I think he should have said “hugger” instead of “head”, but that’s just me.–Joe]

Pictures for Tamara’s groupies

Posted on by

Several of the bloggers, myself included, in attendance at the NRA Convention were looking forward to meeting the Empress of Snarktm. She and Roberta flew in on their broomstick Saturday and left again before most of us got a chance to meet them. Tamera was persuaded to visit again on Sunday and some waited in the pressroom for quite some time. When she finally arrived we went in search of food:


Left to right are Bill, Mike W., Denise, Tamara, and Rick.


Tamara checking out her taco cone.

I’m almost always surprised when I meet someone in person who I had some non face-to-face contact. I expected Tamara to have a big smile on her face almost all the time as she laughed at the world around her and she would let rip with one snarky comment after another. Instead she was reserved and seemed to be pushing herself to overcome shyness. But maybe that was just her restraining herself from decking one or more of her groupies.

Regardless she was very tolerant of all the attention people gave her and to the best of my knowledge she didn’t have to even brandish her knife.

Update: In response to a comment from Chuck–She has eyebrows. It’s just that her light red hair is difficult to distingush from her pink skin.

See?