Category Archives: Gun Rights

Dinner with bloggers and 5000 others

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I had dinner with 5000 people tonight. I only had a chance to talk to a few at my talk and the people in the next table over. But it included Bill and Denise. I have corresponded a bit and had some comments from them occasionally. It was nice to finally met them.

I met and talked with Caleb and his wife for a quite a while before dinner. Very nice but I think I have a preference for my daughter and her Caleb but then I suppose there is a possibility of bias.

Afterward we went to some bar that was running the music at about 20 decibels above what you need hearing protection for in an industrial environment for continuous exposure. We found an empty room in the back and asked that it be ours. The staff agreed and we went in and ordered drinks. I only ordered the one orange juice because they said it was free and I didn’t think that was quite right. Others ordered beers that cost $8.00 each and other stuff that they wanted to check your credit card limits before they would bring it. We asked they turn the sound off in our room and the sound level dropped to where we could talk if we only yelled a little bit. After about 15 minutes I realized we are humans and humans adapt the environment to themselves and don’t have to adapt to the environment. I shut the doors to the room and everyone cheered. I credited the two engineering degrees for enabling me to figure that one out.

Squeaky Wheel wasn’t quite as entertaining as she was last night but then she probably will be capable of remembering most of tonight. I promised not to blog about last night and she agreed not to post the video either. Kevin and Squeaky did a blog a little bit about last night (I didn’t realize I was scaring anyone, honest!) but the best parts will only be available on a need to know basis.

Speaking of Squeaky, she is famous now. She was misquoted by the LA Times.

Everyone was bummed that Tamara and Roberta only connected with a few bloggers today. Tamara should be back tomorrow and some people are hanging around a little longer just to make sure they get a chance to met her. I’m hoping Tamara can roll Roberta up in carpet and throw her in the trunk or something so we can met her too.

Another great day except everyone wimped out by 1:00 AM. It was 2:30 before we broke up the last two nights. You would think that with the practice we got with three and four hours of sleep the two previous nights they would be able to tolerate staying up until at least 3:00 this morning. But for some strange reason the non-engineers didn’t seem to think the practice helped them.

So, it’s now just about 3:00 local time. I’ll show them in the morning!

SAF is looking for people

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I stopped by at the Second Amendment Foundation booth today and talked to Alan Gottlieb and Joe Waldron. It was really nice to catch up on things. One of Alan’s daughters is essentially the same age as James (and they actually met once) and we talked kids, Microsoft matching donations for 501(C)(3)s, and other stuff for a while. Then he said they were looking for people for the Bellevue Washington office.

They need someone technical (in the web site programming sense) who knows the gun issue, is smart, and wouldn’t mind working for a non-profit organization (read that as lower than industry standard compensation). Other duties would involve organizing and putting on the annual Gun Rights Policy Conference (if you are a gun rights activist you should attend this if you can). I’d love to do this but I’m too much in love with the money at Microsoft to consider it. Alan suggested that it’s a job for someone that is retired. It used to be there were a lot of Microsoft people that retired in their mid and late 20’s but with the stock flat for the last 10 years that doesn’t happen anymore.

Quote of the day–Bumper Sticker

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No Osama
No Obama
No Chelsea’s Mamma

Bumper Sticker
[Seen on a bumper sticker outside my motel.–Joe]

Bloggers in Louisville

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Some of the gun bloggers I’ve talked to since I got here:


Rob Allen, Sebastian, Say Uncle


Sailor Curt, Thirdpower


Dave Hardy and on the right David E. Young


Bitter

A girls best friend

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Trying to get the woman in your life interested in guns? Maybe this will get her attention. It’s very pretty and shiny:

1193 Mounted stones, 90 Carats, Estimated Value: $360,950.

Wife Barbara doesn’t wear jewelry so I can’t imagine she would like all those stones but I think daughters Kim and Xenia would each like one (hint to their husband and boyfriend–you would get on my “good side” with a gift like this).

Quote of the day–Chris Cox

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They don’t fear me. They fear you.

Chris Cox
NRA-ILA Executive Director
9:32 AM May 16, 2008
[Regarding talking to politicians and what motivates them. It is the voters and the activists, not the lobbist themselves that have the power to influence politicians.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Aaron Zelman

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Our main goal is to destroy gun control. We are an organization that believes we have the moral authority to point out to the rest of the world the evils that have come from gun control and how humanity has suffered because of gun-control schemes.

…

We’re not interested in compromise. We are only interested in the destruction of something we consider to be a very evil and deadly policy known as gun control.

Aaron Zelman
May 15, 2008
No Compromise Against Gun Control
[The goal must be to drive anti-gun bigots into complete and total political destruction. Too many people have died to let these people have their way any longer.–Joe]

Louisville Kentucky and random stuff

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My bags are almost all packed and I’m scheduled to arrive in Louisville tomorrow night. The Second Amendment Blog Bash and the NRA Annual Meeting are the attraction. Blogging may be lighter than usual. I tend to stay up way late into the night/morning talking to people.

Other bloggers that I have meet who will be attending include Kevin, Say Uncle, Sebastian, and USCitizen. That would almost make it worth the trip. The other 40 or so bloggers I haven’t met will make it more than worthwhile. Then there are the 65,000 other people that are expected to show up. It should be quite a party.

What interests me is not just the pleasure of meeting thousands of other like minded people but knowing that the Brady Bunch, the VPC, and all the other bigot organizations would have trouble getting as many people together on an annual basis as I do for Boomershoot. Isn’t that odd?

The NRA can get tens of thousands of people annually and how many does the “Million Mom March” muster every year? Why isn’t the voting on legislation and legislators just as lopsided? We have some tremendous advantages because we have something besides hate binding us together. We have our love of freedom, our interests in firearms, and all the activities that go into that. Their goals are the destruction of a culture that enables them to exist in freedom, peace, and security. It’s as if they are, in essence, suicidal. With such mental problems I guess it isn’t a surprise their numbers are small and that unless they are collecting a paycheck from their efforts they usually soon lose focus and drift away. That’s good for our side but it seems odd they wield as much power as they do. It must be the appeal of simple solutions to complex and/or unsolvable problems.

What Gun Laws Would You Accept?

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This is a post I made on thehighroad.org in response to the same question:

No victim, no crime.

The tool does not matter. For those who think the tool does matter, please read on:

My sister and her three year old daughter were stabbed and strangled to death back in 1977 in their own home.

The weapons were a kitchen knife and a shoestring.

Are you seriously going to argue that since no gun was used, this was somehow less of a crime than it would have been if a gun had been used?

Upon reading of this crime, how many of you thought, “Oh, thank goodness he didn’t use a gun. That would have been really bad.”?

I’m guessing no one would think that. Ever.

And how many of you thought, “What if she’d been able to defend herself?”

I’ve asked myself that a thousand times.

I submit that the only reason we’re even talking about this is because of the nuttiness we’ve been subjected to all our lives. For some reason it is hard to resist when we’ve grown up with it and so many people around us, people we respect even, have embraced the the false premise that says gun control equals crime control.

It’s time to say, “Enough already. We do not accept the premises of gun laws. We can see for ourselves that, no matter how ‘reasonable’ they may sound when promoted by politicians, their effects have run counter to their stated purposes.”

As for making it illegal for criminals to have guns; How’s it been working? Uh, criminals don’t obey the laws, remember? Gun laws do not apply to them.

“Gun control” is about one thing– controlling the law abiding. The Framers knew it. Why aren’t we teaching it?

And so it comes down to education.

As for the “under aged”: Parenting, anyone? And the same thing applies here as to criminals– the good kids will obey their parents and the laws. The bad ones will have guns, just as easily as they have drugs and alcohol.

A gun law is nothing more than a government enforced monopoly, reserving guns for criminal use only.

When are we actually going to enforce the Constitution, and protect it against all enemies, foreign and domestic? That’s my question.

As Oleg put it, regarding politicians: What do they have in mind, that they would prefer us unable to resist aggression?

What, indeed.

Letter to Dave Barry

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With these links the following should be self-explanatory:

May 12, 2008

Dave Barry
1 Herald Plaza
Miami, FL 33132

Dear Mr. Barry,

Please find enclosed some of the pieces from the toilet we blew up April 27th at Boomershoot 2008. We used four pounds of high explosives, five gallons of gasoline and six road flares in the process. As you can see the disassembly and disinfecting process was quite effective. Pieces were found over 100 yards away and most were seared with high temperature flames.

The next Boomershoot will be April 26th, 2009. We would be honored if you were to attend and were to fire the first shot at a low-flow toilet suitably equipped with appropriate aggressive chemical “cleaners”.

Regards,

Joe Huffman
Boomershoot Event Director
joeh@boomershoot.org
208-301-4254
http://www.boomershoot.org/

What happened to “never again”?

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This is from Chicago so it’s not a big surprise they could find someone who thinks like this:

Rabbi Harold Kudan of nearby Temple Am Shalom went on record as challenging aggressive leaflets the gun lobby circulated a month after the shootings that claimed, “If Jews had been armed they could have fought the Nazis.”

“If Jews had guns in Nazi Germany, no one would have survived. It would have been an excuse for Nazis to kill with even greater abandon,” he told the assemblage, according to the Chicago Tribune.

The Nazis didn’t stop killing because they finished the job they set out to do. They were stopped because men with guns, tanks, ships, and planes forcibly stopped them. Had the Jews been able and willing to put up some resistance, particularly in Eastern Europe in response to the police battalions, it would have significantly delayed the implementation of the Final Solution.

With a stated goal of ridding Europe of Jews entirely it seems unlikely the Nazis could have been motivated further. What would have the goal been had they had “even greater abandon”? Kill them twice?

Quote of the day–Thomas F. Dailey

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…the recent signs of violent times occasion an opportunity for broadening our collective sense of what ”rights” should be in terms of our social consciousness. Our political and judicial discourse would benefit from moving beyond a purely libertarian view of rights, which emphasizes freedom from governmental coercion or constraint, to incorporate also a dignitarian view of rights, which promotes freedom for the good of each other and for society as a whole.

Thomas F. Dailey
May 11, 2008
Let’s think carefully about gun ‘rights,’ society
[“Freedom for the good of each other and for society as a whole?” Hasn’t this already been tried a few times by others? And the body count from these efforts just keeps growing. There are only individual rights. Collective “rights” are more properly called powers.–Joe]

The irony boggles my mind

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From the Brady Bunch we discover the Brady Campaign Director To Be Honored By Rev. Jesse Jackson And RainbowPUSH Coalition:

Jennifer Bishop, Program Director for Victims and Survivors at the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, will be honored by Reverend Jesse Jackson’s RainbowPUSH Coalition this Mother’s Day weekend. 

The organization is recognizing several women whose work has furthered peace, justice, and civil rights around the world with the “Odds Breakers and Dream Makers” award. 

“We’re very proud that Jennifer’s work on behalf of the victims of gun violence is being recognized by Rev. Jackson and the RainbowPUSH Coalition,” said Paul Helmke, President of the Brady Campaign.  “This award appropriately recognizes Jennifer, but also serves to inspire the countless volunteers around our country who are fighting for sensible gun laws to keep all Americans and their families safe.”

“Eighteen years ago my sister, her husband, and their unborn child were murdered.  Every day, this nation loses 80 people to gun violence, eight of them children,” Bishop said. “I am so grateful to our great allies at RainbowPUSH who work every day at the community level to try to prevent such tragedies.”

summary of the Brady Campaign’s recent activities in Illinois is available at
http://www.bradycampaign.org/illinois/.

# # #

As the nation’s largest, non-partisan, grassroots organization leading the fight to prevent gun violence, the Brady Campaign, with its dedicated network of Million Mom March Chapters, works to enact and enforce sensible gun laws, regulations and public policies. The Brady Campaign is devoted to creating an America free from gun violence, where all Americans are safe at home, at school, at work, and in our communities.

Recognizing women whose work has furthered civil rights? Wow! How can they say that and not be ashamed to the point of suicide? What if the last sentence describing the Brady Bunch mission statement said:

The Brady Campaign is devoted to creating an America free from black violence, where all Americans are safe at home, at school, at work, and in our communities.

As I have said before, “Never forget that the anti-gun bigots are the KKK of the 21st Century. Look for opportunities to make that point. Make belonging to the Brady Campaign the equivalent of a membership in the KKK because it’s true.”

Pool on how long before these are banned?

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Someone should start a pool on how long before these guns (and a kit for making your own, paper, AK-47) are banned. After all, it is the U.K.

H/T to John, via Xenia, for the links.

Doing no harm

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Both the ATF and FBI are banned by the 10th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution so it’s rare that I can be happy about their actions. But at least some of their time is spent doing things that don’t cause innocent people harm. From the WaPo we discover the FBI, ATF Battle for Control Of Cases Cooperation Lags Despite Merger:

In the five years since the FBI and ATF were merged under the Justice Department to coordinate the fight against terrorism, the rival law enforcement agencies have fought each other for control, wasting time and money and causing duplication of effort, according to law enforcement sources and internal documents.

…

At crime scenes, FBI and ATF agents have threatened to arrest one another and battled over jurisdiction and key evidence. The ATF inadvertently bought counterfeit cigarettes from the FBI — the government selling to the government — because the agencies are running parallel investigations of tobacco smuggling between Virginia and other states.

There is lots of other good stuff to be found in the article, for example:

Some question whether the ATF can survive. “It just doesn’t make sense to have two agencies . . . responding anytime a bomb goes off,” one Justice Department official said.

One could claim that if we can get rid of one then we are half-way there. But that isn’t the way it really works but I will agree it’s a good start.

Quote of the day–Alan Gottlieb

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This trial is supposed to be held in a federal court, not a kangaroo court. What’s next, a request that Judge Weinstein not allow defense witnesses or rebuttal? Why not just dispense with the trial altogether and lynch Mr. Wallace from the limb of a tree out in Central Park?

…

Apparently, in Mikey’s world, a fair trial is one in which a defense attorney is muzzled, and the defendant is already guilty until proven innocent. Bloomberg missed his calling. Instead of being mayor of an American city, he should have been the administrator of a gulag.

Alan Gottlieb
Founder of the Second Amendment Foundation
May 9, 2008
Bloomberg outrage: Asks judge to ban 2nd Amendment references!
New York Sun article on the topic.

Quote of the day–Dennis A. Henigan et al

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Once the right to keep and bear arms is separated from its long-established tether to a militia purpose, it is unclear what legal standard gun laws would need to survive constitutional challenge. There is little doubt, however, that recognition of a broad private right to be armed will create a new presumption against the constitutionality of gun laws, whereas currently there is a virtually absolute presumption in favor of their constitutionality. Guns would achieve a specially protected constitutional status imposing unique limits on the legislative authority of the elected representatives of the people that would apply to no other dangerous products. Ironically, regulation of guns, the only publicly-available consumer product designed to inflict lethal injury, would be required to meet a higher constitutional standard than regulation of cars, lawnmowers and other dangerous products capable of inflicting lethal injury, but not designed to do so.

Dennis A. Henigan et al
Director of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence Legal Action Project
Some time after March of 2007
Second Amendment Fantasy–The Brady Center’s Critique of the Parker v. District of Columbia Decision
Emphasis in the original.
[Henigan et al overlook two important points:

  1. Federal regulation of cars, lawnmowers, etc. is prohibited by the 10th Amendment.
  2. Regulation of a products unintended consequences is much different than that for which it is designed.

Ignoring the first point for today and concentrating on the second point a little thought will reveal the regulation Henigan supports is much different than that of cars and lawnmowers.

A regulation requiring a self-propelled lawnmower to turn itself off when the operator releases their hands from the controls would be analogous to something like requiring a gun to tolerate being dropped without discharging. Which, if it were done by a state legislature, I wouldn’t pick a constitutional fight over. A regulation which restricted self-propelled lawnmowers to government employees is analogous to the type of restrictions Henigan advocates.

Beyond the above points the 2nd Amendment specifically protects the right of the people to keep and bear arms. So yes, assuming the Heller (formerly Parker) decision goes our way, guns would achieve a specially protected constitutional status imposing unique limits on our government. This was the original intent of the 2nd Amendment.

Therefore a more succinct response to Henigan et al would be, “And your point is?”–Joe]

I almost used this exact paragraph from here as my QOTD but decided to look around some more and save that for some other time. I then saw this exact paragraph while visiting here and again was sorely tempted. As I continued to wander my RSS feeds revealed Sebastian and Kevin eliminated my backups. Either it is a conspiracy against me or great minds think alike. I’m inclined to think the later because Say Uncle has the same complaint as I do.

Quote of the day–Barack Obama

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We’ve got to tighten up our gun laws. I’ve said before we should have a much tougher background check system, one that’s much more effective and make sure there aren’t loopholes out there like the gun show loophole.

Barack Obama
April 25, 2008
Laws alone can’t stop violence: Obama
Chicago Sun-Times
[I’m probably just bitterly clinging to my guns, but it sure doesn’t sound to me like Mr. Obama thinks of the 2nd Amendment as right. After all, I don’t hear him talking about background checks for books and the “book show loophole”. There is other stuff in the same article that makes it very, very clear where he stands on the gun issue. I’m going to remain very bitter about him being a public servant instead of behind bars as a felon.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Chris Rock

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Never go to clubs with metal detectors. Sure it feels safe inside. But what about all those niggas waiting outside with guns? They know you ain’t got one.

Chris Rock
[The same thing applies with schools and other “gun free zones”.–Joe]

Quote of the day–Alan Gottlieb

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Legal theatrics that deflect attention from the failure of Bloomberg’s administration to prevent crime while pursuing an agenda of victim disarmament are all flash and no substance and the people know it. Judging from today’s appeals court ruling, so do the courts.

Alan Gottlieb
April 30, 2008
SAF CHEERS FEDERAL COURT REJECTION OF BLOOMBERG LAWSUIT
[I’m frequently told it is because of a personality “defect” that I expect people to obey the law instead of openly disobey. Even though the 2nd and 10th Amendment are so blatantly violated that you would think I would get a clue and not have those expectations of our public servants. Still occasionally those servants who believe themselves to be masters get their wrists slapped and that is a good thing. Not as good as being sent to prison for violation of 18 USC 242 as they should be but it is better than letting them get away with it entirely as is usually the case.–Joe]