Category Archives: Boomershoot

Boomershoot is a long range precision rifle event with high explosives as the targets. This is about Boomershoot in general and sometimes just explosives.

Boomershoot 2009 Precision Rifle Clinic Registration

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Registration for the 2009 Precision Rifle Clinic is now open. You don’t have to attend the Boomershoot on Sunday to participate in the clinic on Friday or Satuday. They are in close proximity in space and time but are, essentially, independent.


The prices for this type of training is amazingly good. And it includes shooting at a few boomers as well.

Quote of the day–Eugene Econ

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High winds with ice pellet storms. For me, that was uncommon for the Boomershoot but not the worse I have experienced at the Clinic so take it as it was. The winds we had offered an excellent opportunity to practice our wind doping and we learned our lessons and gained some confidence that we could stay on top of such winds well enough to hold IPSC size steel targets as long as we could see them. Such conditions were extreme but I doubt anyone will forget the experience or more importantly, how the Clinic shooters dominated these conditions. I am sure firing in 25 – 30 MPH winds and ice pellet storms will be something the shooters won’t soon forget.


Eugene Econ
Boomershoot 2008 Precision Rifle Clinic After Action Review
[I remember seeing a young woman at the clinic who had arrived from Austin just the day before. She was bundled up in winter clothes and the only skin exposed was part of her face which was getting pelted with ice pellets. I asked her, “Are you having fun yet?” She said she was. At the time I thought she was probably a very good liar but she signed up for Boomershoot 2009.–Joe]

Wheelbarrows full of cash

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The Apex of The Triangle of Death just sent me another wheelbarrow full of cash to tell everyone about their new website–Gun Ban Obama. This is your one stop site for information on how anti-gun Obama really is. Lots of quotes and other material that leave no doubt as to his true colors.


That wheelbarrow of cash sitting in my vault reminds me of something I forgot to report on. Last Wednesday I had breakfast with Pepper Petersen, “Advancement Officer”, from the NRA. He is one of the people that collects the truckloads of cash so others can distribute it in wheelbarrows. We had breakfast in the Microsoft cafeteria and after telling me, “I never ask for money on the first date”, we talked about Boomershoot quite a bit as well as various other Microsoft gun people we both knew. He may make an appearance at the Gun Blogger portion of Boomershoot 2009 and help make reactive targets as well as trying to connect with some long range targets on Sunday. He and his wife have a baby due about the same time so it’s a little bit iffy at this point.

Gun Nuts, Para weekend, the bet

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Rob and I had a nice chat with Caleb and Bonnie on Gun Nuts at Blog Talk Radio last night.


We mostly talked about the Para sponsored weekend at Blackwater. But we touched on Boomershoot just a little bit too.


We did talk about the bet between Caleb and I about who is the better shooter and how that bet came about. We didn’t get the stakes of the bet nailed down but that may have been settled today in the comments of his post about our discussion last night. Rob and Bonnie have their own posts about last nights show too.


To answer the question that keeps coming up–the bet came about in the following email thread:



From: Say Uncle
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 6:40 AM
To: Sebastian; Ahab; Bitter Bitch; Deleted @progunprogressive.com; Joe Huffman
Subject: My dad can beat up your dad


 


http://www.saysuncle.com/archives/2008/07/09/chicks-and-guns-17/#comment-203007


 


From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 9:27 AM
To: Say Uncle; Sebastain; Aha’; Bitter Bitch; Deleted @progunprogressive.com
Subject: RE: My dad can beat up your dad


 


Almost for certain he can.


 


My dad is almost 85 years old and not thinking too clearly anymore.


 


How about between the two of us we see who shoots the best at summer camp? Aren’t you the betting type?


 


J


 


-joe-



From: Say Uncle
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 9:36 AM
To: Joe Huffman
Cc: Sebastian; Ahab; Bitter Bitch; Deleted @progunprogressive.com
Subject: Re: My dad can beat up your dad


 


I am but I only bet on things in which I have a positive expectation. In this case, I’m guessing I don’t have such an expectation 😉

In fact, due to my recent lack of time at the range, I’ll put me at dead last!


From: Ahab
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 9:54 AM
To: Say Uncle; Joe Huffman; Sebastian; Bitter Bitch; Deleted @progunprogressive.com
Subject: Re: My dad can beat up your dad


 


I’ll take that bet, joe


 


From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 10:02 AM
To: ‘Ahab’; ‘Say Uncle’; Sebastian; ‘Bitter Bitch’; Deleted @progunprogressive.com’
Subject: RE: My dad can beat up your dad


 


Name your terms and I’ll think about it.


 


 


-joe-


 


From: Ahab
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 10:13 AM
To: Joe Huffman
Cc: Say Uncle; Sebastian; Bitter Bitch; Deleted @progunprogressive.com
Subject: Re: My dad can beat up your dad


 


Six pack of the winner’s favorite beer?  Bottle of the winner’s favorite booze, not to exceed, oh, I don’t know…$30 bucks?


From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 10:51 AM
To: ‘Ahab’
Cc: ‘Say Uncle’; Sebastian; ‘Bitter Bitch’; Deleted @progunprogressive.com’
Subject: RE: My dad can beat up your dad


 


The number of beers I have had in my lifetime can be counted on my fingers (base ten, not base two). Beyond that the last drink of alcohol I had was the glass of wine at the NRA convention dinner. That said, because of my sweet tooth there is no such thing as something “too sweet” and I like ice wine.


 


But more important to me is how are we going to determine the winner? And what sort of handicap are you giving me? I’m probably at least 20 years older than you. I’ve had a couple surgeries on my left knee and my right leg and foot is still swollen from the ATV that landed on it at Boomershoot 2008. I’m overweight and my eyes take minutes to change focus from front sight distance to target distance.


 


And what caliber gun did you select? I’m going to shooting a .45. If we do the contest at the end of the weekend after shooting 1500 rounds in the heat and humidity my old muscles, ligaments, and bones will have taken a lot more damage than someone much younger shooting a 9mm.


 


-joe-


 


From: Ahab
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 10:54 AM
To: Joe Huffman
Cc: Say Uncle; Sebastian; Bitter Bitch; Deleted @progunprogressive.com
Subject: Re: My dad can beat up your dad


 


I reckon determining the winner would be kind of challenging, and we would have to handicap because I picked the 9mm.

I don’t know, let’s turn it over to the posse to see if they have any ideas.  Well, everyone except for Robb, because his idea will involve jokes about sausage.


 


From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 11:04 AM
To: ‘Ahab’
Cc: ‘Say Uncle’; Sebastian; ‘Bitter Bitch’; Deleted @progunprogressive.com’
Subject: RE: My dad can beat up your dad


 


How about an El Presidente? Score it according to USPSA rules and that would take into account the 9mm versus .45. It would also test a number of different skills including the draw, the reload, accuracy and speed.


 


And you are forgetting the handicap I should get for my age and infirmities. J


 


-joe-


 


From: Ahab
Sent: Friday, July 11, 2008 11:07 AM
To: Joe Huffman; Say Uncle; Sebastian; Bitter Bitch; Deleted@progunprogressive.com
Subject: Re: My dad can beat up your dad


 


Yeah, but you’ve been shooting for a lot longer than me.


 


🙂


 


From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 12:08 PM
To: ‘Ahab’
Cc: ‘Say Uncle’; Sebastian; ‘Bitter Bitch’; Deleted@progunprogressive.com’
Subject: RE: My dad can beat up your dad


 


Ignoring a 100 rounds or so that I shot when I was living at home on the farm I have been shooting for about 15 years. Is that more than you?


 


Regardless, I might be willing to give up on getting that handicap if you agree to a shooting test that isn’t too taxing on my aging body.


 


So, what are your thoughts on the El Presidente? Or do you just want to wimp out entirely on a contest?


 


 


-joe-


 


From: Ahab
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 12:10 PM
To: Joe Huffman
Cc: Say Uncle; Sebastian; Bitter Bitch; Deleted@progunprogressive.com
Subject: Re: My dad can beat up your dad


 


I would shoot an El Presidente, that sounds good.  I’ve been shooting seriously since I was about 19, so that would give me 7 years, giving you a bit more experience.  Plus it’s been my personal observation that experience and treachery defeat youthful enthusiasm most of the time. 


 


From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 12:20 PM
To: ‘Ahab’
Cc: ‘Say Uncle’; Sebastian; ‘Bitter Bitch’; Deleted@progunprogressive.com’
Subject: RE: My dad can beat up your dad


 


Have you ever shot an El Presidente before? There’s not much treachery possible there.


 


-joe-


 


From: Ahab 
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 12:26 PM
To: Joe Huffman
Cc: Say Uncle; Sebastian; Bitter Bitch; Deleted@progunprogressive.com
Subject: Re: My dad can beat up your dad


 


Fair enough, I’ve only shot one el presidente in my time, so if you’ve shot 10 or 12 that would count under the “treachery” category.  🙂

But no, I am totally game for an El Pres as the deciding factor.


 


From: Sebastian
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 12:29 PM
To: Ahab
Cc: Joe Huffman; Say Uncle; Bitter Bitch; Deleted@progunprogressive.com
Subject: Re: My dad can beat up your dad


 


Sorry Caleb, but I’d put my money on Joe 😉


 


From: Joe Huffman
Sent: Monday, July 14, 2008 12:49 PM
To: ‘Ahab’
Cc: ‘Say Uncle’; Sebastian; ‘Bitter Bitch’; Deleted@progunprogressive.com’
Subject: RE: My dad can beat up your dad


 


Ø  I am totally game for an El Pres as the deciding factor.


 


With all applicable USPSA rules applying (http://www.uspsa.org/rules/2008HandgunRulesindexed.pdf)?


 


-joe-


I can’t find any further email on it but I think it was in comments on some blog post we did agreed to the contest as being the USPSA El Presidente classifier with all USPSA rules applying. The stakes will probably end up being 250 rounds of 180 grain FMJ .40 S&W ammo. That’s higher stakes that I would really think are appropriate but we arrived at that after I suggested a case (typically 1000 rounds) was too much. [shrug] I can handle the pain of losing my first bet in 30 years and if Caleb is okay with taking that risk then I guess that settles it.


Just a couple more items of potential interest:




  1. You will notice Caleb (Ahab) said ” experience and treachery defeat youthful enthusiasm”. Which was a nice way of saying old age and treachery.


  2. Last night on the show I said I accepted the bet mostly because of his attitude. I have never seen him shoot (I have seen Say Uncle shoot and I’m pretty sure I can “take” him). I met Caleb last May and he had a slight attitude that was completely lacking in every shooter that I personal know and I know can beat me. Just a little too cocksure of himself. I explained this last night and in an email after the show he said, “that was the nicest way in which I’ve ever been called an arrogant bastard”. That’s me. Always the diplomat*.



* Diplomat: One skilled in the art of saying “Nice doggy” until he can find the right sized stick.

Quote of the day–Squeaky Wheel

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Blowing shit up with rifles?  Come ON!  A MESS OF AWESOME AT YOUR FINGERTIPS.  LITERALLY.


Squeaky Wheel
August 17, 2008
I’m certified to build things that can blow other things up.
[It makes me happy to make others happy. Derek seems pretty happy for the same reason. There will be another batch of happy people later, it was just that I sent Squeaky and Derek’s forms in at the same time as my Type 20 (license to manufacture high explosives) renewal. Forms from other people came in later.


I think Boomershoot 2009 is going to make me more happy than usual.–Joe]

Bonnie is licensed

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Bonnie just got word the ATF trusts her to make explosives for me. Next April I will teach her–free of charge.


Doesn’t that just give you the warm fuzzies? If we could only let them know I’ll bet the Brady Bunch, the VPC, and numerous Cease Fire organizations would find their nightmares worsened.

Brainstorming Boomershoot 2010

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Ry reports on some of our thoughts about Boomershoot 2010.

Quote of the day–Kris

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Nothing says “Awesome!” like a woman that knows how to make explosives.


Kris (a co-worker of mine at Microsoft)
August 11, 2008
After seeing this blog post about Kim.
[This is a co-worker of mine. We’ve been sharing tips on how to make things that go boom.–Joe]

A day with The Boomershoot Babe

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Daughter Kim and I took off shortly after 8:00 this morning to do some work at the Boomershoot site. It’s about 45 miles from home but because of the narrow twisting roads down a steep valley and back up the other side it takes a full hour to get there unless you are willing to make the tires squeal on the turns. It’s not hard to do but there is not much point in pushing in to save 10 or 15 minutes while risking rear ending a slow-moving piece of farm equipment as you come out of the turn. The drive gave Kim and I a chance to talk a bunch.

The weather was clouding and cool. Amazingly cool–I don’t think it got above 65 all day long. And with the breeze it was actually a little uncomfortable at times.

Driving the little Aveo all the way to the Taj Mahal required going through some rather tall Reeds Canary grass:


Photo by Kim

We arrived on site and did some electrical measurements on the batteries and solar cell charging system. Everything appears to be working correctly but the batteries still aren’t fully charged. We fired up the generator to charge the batteries faster. It started charging at 6 amps at about 9:30 and when turned off about 13:00 it was down to just over 4 amps. So I think we are getting closer to a full charge. Maybe the next time we go out the solar cells will have the batteries topped off.

The water system appears to not be leaking or if it is it must be a very slow leak. I put about seven gallons of water in it a couple of weeks ago and verified everything was working correctly. I was able to get a couple of gallons out on this visit without it going dry so I’m not sure why it went dry in June unless the drain tile didn’t fill it up this spring like I thought it would have.

I fixed up the steps from the pump to the target building area some. They should be fine for this summer but I suspect they will get loose again when the ground gets wet again this fall.

The big tarp in back of the shed we use to cover up the extra surveyors stacks and empty containers has a large rip in it. It was getting old and I’m not too surprised. I’ll have to replace it before winter. Another thing we really need to do is put in some more decorative blocks to the south side of the target building area. This is where we stacked the empty crates while building targets this year. It got a lot of foot traffic and there needs to be something there to keep us out of the mud when it rains and snows.

We went to my parents house and gave Dad his birthday present. He will be 85 in a few days. He had a knee surgery last week and is doing well.

After visiting for a while with Mom, Dad, their friends Walt and Jan, and my sister-in-law Julie. Kim and I then went for a walk. We inspected the Austrian Winter peas in the back of the truck. This was the first time they have raised them in many years.

Kim had never seen them before. I told her we could eat them raw but to be careful. It would be like putting rocks in your mouth until they soaked up enough water to soften up a bit. She agreed with me. It is a lot like pebbles in your mouth. She didn’t like the taste of the skins but the insides are good.

Below are a couple pictures of the peas in the field. A month ago, before they fell down (a natural and expected occurrence), the pea vines stood almost as tall as Kim and when stretched to their full height were over six feet long in places.

In the foreground of the picture above is the field after it has been harvested. In the background are unharvested peas and my parents house almost hidden in the trees.

I told Kim the story of how when I was about 10 years old I accidentally started a fire that sweep through that exact spot where she is standing and I was certain it was going to catch the woods on fire. But Dad was within shouting distance, working on the house, and was able to get the bulldozer started and dig a fire break in the wheat stubble before it made it to the trees. My Great Uncle Walt and I put out the little fires that made it across the torn up dirt and the woods were saved.

This is “The Old Well House”. It’s not used any more. But there were lots of stories to tell here. “The Little Pond” was just 50 yards from here and Dad was concerned us kids would drown in it and dug a hole in one of the banks to lower the water level so the pond was shallow enough we could have touched bottom with our heads above the water had we been foolish enough to get in with the frogs, dragon flies, and thick pond scum. I did fall into the little creek that runs right past here when I was probably only seven or eight years old. It was the middle of the winter with probably a foot of snow on the ground the creek literally ice cold with a partial covering of ice. It wasn’t deep and I was able to wade out. But I was completely soaked in the ice water and more than a little scared. Just a few feet away from where I took this picture is an apple tree that used to have the largest apples I have ever seen. The apples would get so large they would break the stems and fall off before they would get ripe. The were still sour and weren’t really edible when raw. But just one apple sliced up, fried, with lots of sugar on it, would be enough for our “vegetable” at dinner for our entire family of five.

We had lunch with my parents, brother Gary, Walt, and Jan. Then we said good-bye and went back to the Taj Mahal to turn off the generator and lock things up. As we left I took some pictures of Kim on a hay bale in the field where we hold the Boomershoot:

As I was taking these pictures I figured she should be called “The Boomershoot Babe”. She has made most of the explosives for the targets for the last three years. She had help from her husband Caleb and others but she has done the majority of the actual weighing and mixing of the chemicals. She has probably made, in five pound batches, in a Kitchen Aid mixer about 3000 pounds of explosives in the last three years.

Kim, my Boomershoot Babe. Who would have guessed from seeing our little Bridezilla when she was four years old? Okay, so maybe you wouldn’t have been surprised.

Quote of the day–Jon LeVee

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In my mind there is no one who is as dangerous as one who truly believes that they know what’s best for other people.

Jon LeVee
May 14, 1998
[I was reminded of this by reading this link found at Say Uncle. Jon LeVee was one of seven shooters at the very first Boomershoot.–Joe]

Interview about the gun culture

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I knew the call was coming, he called right on time and we talked for nearly 50 minutes.

Brian Doherty is writing a book that is primarily on the Heller case. It’s title is Gun Control on Trial: Inside the Supreme Court Battle Over the Second Amendment. I’m not sure how it came about but Stephanie, who has done a lot of PR work for Boomershoot, referred him to me. Mostly as a side note Doherty wanted information on the gun culture and how this great clash of ideas culminated in the Heller case.

After Doherty and I exchanged email and agreed on a time for the interview Stephanie called me and said I should send him a link to a blog post of mine from several years ago. She doesn’t like to talk about certain things on the phone and did a lot of hinting without coming out and saying things. It went something like, “That blog post about Boomershoot, the one that might get you fired, the one that is sort of extreme, but is what guns are all about.” I knew which one she meant–Why Boomershoot. I sent it and, as Stephanie suggested, it was a good conversation starter.

The interview went well. Where did I grow up and did I grow up with weapons as part of my daily life? Was the political viewpoint espoused in the post part of my growing up? Have things changed in the last decade or so? The sub-title to your blog is “Ramblings of a red-necked, knuckle-dragging, Neanderthal.” Do you think people, including those around where you live, actually think of you as that? How did you arrive at your political viewpoint on guns? How many people attend Boomershoot? Did you have a lot of regulatory hurdles to overcome for Boomershoot? Do the people that attend share your political views as expressed in the blog post? Do you talk about that sort of stuff a lot at Boomershoot? When the media shows up do you give them that side of event? “No”, I told him, “That would scare the white people.”

Once I answered all his questions I had a few questions for him.

Had he read Unintended Consequences by John Ross? Nope he hadn’t. I gave him my two minute overview of it with a slant toward what I figured Doherty’s interest would be in it–the gun culture and the revolution. I told him that I had talked to Ross, he was approachable, and that he probably would be a good person to interview as well.

What did he think of Boomershoot? He said he was planning to attend this year and something came up. He really wants to attend next year. I offered to put on a private party for him if he wanted to show up sometime before next April.

During the conversation I sent him several links that gave more thoughtful answers and background to our conversation:

Published by Cato Institute he expects the book to be released in late October but Amazon says, “November 25, 2008”.

I’ll be buying a copy.

Boomershoot in the newspaper

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As I mentioned the other day I expected something in todays Idaho Statesman about anvil launching (like we do at Boomershoot). The story is here.

I get interesting phone calls

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Yesterday I received a call from Tim Woodward at the Idaho Statesman in Boise.


He said his column in the paper is about answering questions from the readers and he received a question about anvil launching. Was it an “Idaho thing?” A web search yielded Boomershoot and our anvil launches. He wanted to know more of the history. I told him what I knew and forwarded his email address on to the guy that does our anvil.


His column with the results of his research will appear on Sunday.

Boomershoot 2009 is now full

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At 21:14 PDT the last open position for Boomershoot 2009 filled up. From the moment registration was wide open (2008 participants got a 24 hour head start) until it was full took eight days, four hours, and thirty seven minutes.


There will be people that can’t make it for health, work, family, and financial reasons so don’t give up. Read what is says here about the “waiting list”. There are also two positions that have been donated to the King County Friends of the NRA which will be auctioned off early next year sometime.


I also know some bloggers who have a “big tent” and might accept a few more people to share their shooting positions.

The end of Miller

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U.S. versus Miller is essentially gone as guidance for interpreting the 2nd Amendment. To replace it we have the much superior D.C. v. Heller.


To celebrate Kimberly Joe and Joseph Kim went out to the Boomershoot site. This is their story told with pictures.



This is Kimberly Joe making explosives and putting it in zip lock bags and cardboard boxes.



This is the Alcohol, Tobacco, and Explosives required for appropriate celebration.



Here is the Firearm portion of the celebration.



This is end of the AT&E.



Remnants of Miller.



Remnants of the explosives.



Remnants of the tobacco.



Shooters and firearms post Miller and Heller.

Post Heller

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In a few hours my world will change. I’ve been actively involved in gun rights since Bill Clinton (spit, spit) was elected. He was the reason I bought my first gun. My second gun was because of Diana Feinstein, Chuck Schumer, and of course Clinton again. A significant part of Boomershoot and the website for Boomershoot was because of a law pushed through by Diane Feinstein.

Ruby Ridge was a motivator for my first gun too. I lived just a few miles from where that went down and know things that were never in the news reports. By the time the Butcher of Waco did her thing I was fully immersed and, as Barb will tell you, very difficult to live with.

Those were very dark days. Many leaders in the gun rights movement believed we had lost and were only fighting a holding action that merely slowed down the inevitable. I remember one prediction in the news group talk.politics.guns that captured the sentiments of many at the time. I didn’t save a copy because I didn’t want that sort of thing on my computer. I just went looking for it in the news groups archive–it took me 45 minutes to find it:

Robert Lewis Glendenning
Sep 4 1994, 10:39 am

Newsgroups: alt.politics.org.batf, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.guns, alt.conspiracy
From: rlgle…@netcom.com (Robert Lewis Glendenning)
Date: Sun, 4 Sep 1994 16:21:41 GMT
Local: Sun, Sep 4 1994 9:21 am
Subject: Re: The Revolution

During the next 3 to 5 years, the Supreme Court will rule on a gun
case. This case will have national media attention, and every gun owner,
libertarian and proto-revolutionary will be watching closely.

If they rule by the plain meaning of the Constitution, it will be a
signal that we are moving back to Constitutional rule.

If they rule for the federal government, it will be a signal that
the gov has permanently escaped the Constitution. In this case,
I expect:

1) That every major federal building in the US outside of WDC and
army bases will be burned in the next 48 hours.

2) That the Federal gov’s ability to enforce laws will be restricted
by the lack of anybody willing to identify themselves as a federal
employee.

3) That many states will pass resolutions demanding return to
Constitutional gov, and opting out of federal control via the 10th.

4) That the US Congress capitulates by passing a revolution
pledging return to the Constitution, and listing a preliminary set
of laws which they intend to repeal. This list will include all
Federal gun laws.

Note that this is as close to a bloodless revolution as one can
imagine.

In preparation for these events, may I suggest that you learn all
about your local federal buildings?

Lew
—
Lew Glendenning rlgle…@netcom.com
The CONSTITUTION, the WHOLE CONSTITUTION, and NOTHING BUT the CONSTITUTION.

We are now hours from that moment Glendenning predicted. What will be the result? The only thing I am certain of is that neither of predicted potential outcomes will come to pass. Even if the Heller decision goes against us all the Federal buildings will be standing 48 hours and even 48 weeks later–barring an severe earthquake someplace. Overturning the D.C. gun ban and declaring the 2nd Amendment is an individual right won’t put the government “back on the path to righteousness” or any such thing.

Some people have been predicting (here and here for example) a favorable ruling on Heller will mean the anti-gun forces will find it difficult to raise money and get people excited if they know they can’t actually ban guns. Sort of like if they can’t win the fight with a knock-out they won’t even bother to stay in the ring and knock all the teeth out of their opponent. I’m not convinced of this.

When the south lost the war of northern aggression and all their slaves were freed did they suddenly start treating blacks as equals? No. They paid little regard to the Federal laws protecting blacks as they discriminated against, scorned, beat, and lynched blacks for 100 years after that decision was made. I believe we could still have a 100 years of political fighting ahead of us still. It could, for all practical purposes, be an eternal fight.

I don’t really think freedom is a natural state of mankind. Some semblance of freedom has only really existed for about 200 hundred years in a relatively small portion of the human population out of the roughly two thousand years that we have any sort of written history. I think the concept of “the tribe” is more important than the individual was a powerful meme that enabled our distant ancestors to be more successful than their individualist neighbors. That concept selected for anti-freedom mindset at a fundamental level in the personality of the human race. It was only in a small subset of the world population that the individual, the smallest minority, was regarded as important as “the tribe”. That resulted in a remarkable burst of economic and personal freedom that, in the big picture, was extremely shocking.

Western culture developed the concept of individual freedom and, in essence, conquered the world. It went against the inherent personality of all the civilizations and tribes before it. We did not breed that out of the human mind as that concept took root and flourished. At best it was suppressed in a sufficient number for a short (on the civilization scale) time. The group that values the individual is less inclined to kill or put the anti-individual person at a serious disadvantage of passing on their genes than the other way around. Hence you can think of the meme of individual freedom as sort of a recessive gene. The “tribe is more important” meme is more like a dominate gene. Hence freedom is likely to always be unfinished business.

So how will a positive Heller ruling affect us? As I said in my first line my world will change. I will be in a better position to claim the anti-gun people are bigots just like those that promoted the Jim Crow laws against blacks. If we are to come close to anything resembling a complete victory I believe that meme will be the key. We have to drive those bigots into political extinction. We can, and probably must, leverage concepts that already resonate with the majority of people. The comparison to minority (non-whites, Jews, gays, women, etc.) rights of all types is the most winning strategy I can think of. Sure the courts and legislatures will need to overthrow the existing repressive laws against us but that only comes after the public opinion has changed. They aren’t leaders. They are servants of the people and only enforce the will of the people. To win we must make the will of the people match our mindset. That is the job ahead of us.

If Heller goes against us my world will change in a different way. I don’t want to contemplate that scenario. That is the stuff of nightmares and dark ages.

I expect we will have some semblance of a win but still I’m sad. It could just be the late hour as I write this but a significant component is the freedom fighters that carried the fight for decades before I ever said a word or donated a single penny to the cause who didn’t make it to see this day. Neal Knox (and here) especially comes to mind. I met and talked to him at two different Gun Rights Policy Conferences. I was very, very impressed by him and I wish he could have seen this day. The best tribute we can pay to him is to win the fight.

Let’s celebrate and analyze the ruling for a few days then–Let’s roll.

Blog problems

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I changed a setting on my blog a few days ago and apparently there are some bugs associated with that feature.

It turns out that some of my blog posted only showed up for me. I wondered why some of my posts didn’t get the attention I though they should. Now I realized that  their invisibility contributed to that.

The rest of the world was being deprived. Once I realized this could mean the end of the world as we know it I changed the setting back to the original. Still the postings did not show up. I finally hand edited the .xml and the missing posts appeared. The RSS feed still didn’t work but it was 1:30 AM and I went to bed anyway. This morning I found another field in the .xml that needed to be fixed so I went all geeky on that the RSS feed was populated and probably everyone is wondering, “Where did that come from?”

So now you know. I’m using a “daily build” of software under development and, surprise, surprise, it has bugs. But you probably already knew that from all the time my blog waits several minutes to respond or just plain says, “Service unavailable.” Now that Boomershoot 2009 registration is almost complete maybe I can spend some time on upgrading my blog software.

Busy busy

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I have a huge backlog of things I want to blog about but I have been rather distracted by other things.

Barb and I had barely seen each other for several weeks. The week after I went to Louisville for the 2nd Amendment Blog Bash (and NRA Convention) Barb went to Sacramento to visit her sister. Then I had a very busy time at work and was unable to go on vacation with Xenia, Barb, and her family to Montana.

Finally, on Wednesday, Barb arrived at my bunker in the Seattle area and we tried to make up for lost time. I did make it out of bed long enough to go to work for a few hours and we go to dinner and see a movie (Get Smart — It had it moments, but there were some parts that were too silly for me) with son James and daughter Xenia. But for the most part we were pretty much inseparable.

Then Saturday I started opening up Boomershoot 2009 registration for staff, on Sunday for 2008 participants, then yesterday for the general public. Even though that is mostly automated it has resulted over 170 emails being received or sent plus countless hand edits of data files and fixing of obscure bugs in my code.

One bug was particularly “interesting”. If two shooting positions used the same phone number for registration and I then tried to swap the shooting positions of those two entries then both entires would be deleted (I had a back up and it wasn’t that tough to recover from the bug). That bug had existed since day one over a year ago and I just now tripped it.

In any case that spike of Boomershoot activity will soon settled down because the event is almost full (91%) with only seven positions still open as of 11:00 PM. I was surprised at the number of bloggers that took me up on the offer. Those free spots are costing me a LOT of money in the short term. David and Phil have a big tent and are filling it with bloggers. Other bloggers signed up include BillH of Free in Idaho!, Matthew from Trigger Finger, Kevin of Smallest Minority, Barron Barnett, and of course Ry, Xenia (not really “signed up”, it’s more like “drafted”), and I. I expect Lyle at UltiMAK (who blogs here with me) will sign up too.

Speaking of Matthew in the context of Boomershoot, he just put some new posts with pictures and text up from Boomershoot 2008:

Boomershoot 2009 registration is open

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Update June 24, 10:00 AM: The event is now 88% full. There are only nine positions still available.

The day before yesterday (Saturday) I opened up registration for staff to select their positions in Boomershoot 2009. This is the last weekend of April which is over 11 months from now.

Yesterday (Sunday) at 2:02 PM I opened up registration and sent an email to participants of Boomershoot 2008.

Later in the day I sent out email to gun bloggers that had expressed an interest.

By noon today the event was over 75% full.

Today at 4:37 PM I sent an email to the Boomershoot announcement list telling them registration was open.

Currently the event is 84% full with just 12 positions still available.

Sign up soon if you want to attend.

Here is the email I sent to the announcement list:

Sent: Monday, June 23, 2008 4:37 PM
To: BoomerShoot@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [BoomerShoot] Boomershoot 2009 registration is open.

 

Sign up here: http://entry.boomershoot.org/

 

Yesterday I sent out email to 2008 participants and the event is now over three-fourths full. Sign up soon if you want to participate.

 

The position numbers are unchanged since last year.

 

Prices went up this year. The cost of the ammonium nitrate, the primary ingredient in the explosives, went up by a factor of over 3.5. The prices of the other components also went up. I don’t need to tell you about the price of gasoline which makes trips to the site for preparations and site improvements much more expensive.

 

I thought the price for the 2008 dinner was high at $26/plate. When we were confirming the prices for 2009 we were told $30/plate. This caused a several week delay in opening up registration for 2009 as we looked at numerous cheaper alternatives. We didn’t have any good options. We haven’t completely given up and Barb and I will be talking to people over the 4th of July weekend when we are in Orofino. We might still find something else but we don’t know for certain. We have locked in the $30/plate price and if we can find something better this summer we will give you a refund.

 

Boomershoot improvements planned for this year are:

 

1) Extending the target area at the 375 yard line so more targets can be placed at one time.

2) Enlarging the shooting berm so it is more comfortable for shooters.

3) Increasing the number of targets.

 

One of the constraining factors on the number of targets for Sunday was storage space. Because we held back a large number of targets for “cleanup” that took additional storage space on Saturday night. We have moved cleanup to Friday night. Hence the storage space that was used for cleanup will now be available for additional targets for the main event on Sunday.

 

Keep this in mind when/if you sign up for cleanup. It will not be on Sunday afternoon as it was in the past. It will be sometime Friday evening with the possibility of extending until after dusk when we may do some after dark fireballs.

 

There will probably be a few targets left over on Sunday which will be exclusively for staff use. Some of my staff do not do any shooting during the main event so this is their only chance to shoot boomers.

 

See you next April. It will be a blast!

 

 

Joe Huffman

Boomershoot Event Director

Any more Boomershoot gun bloggers?

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Gun bloggers planning to attend Boomershoot 2009 should send me an email at JoeH@boomershoot.org. I posted about this last month and several people expressed considerable interest but didn’t actually say yes.

General announcement of Boomershoot 2009 registration will be made soon. The event fills up very quickly and I want bloggers planning to attend to get a fair shot at getting a position.