From The Salt Lake Tribune:

 A state legislator is setting up free concealed weapon classes for policy-makers and their families this summer, while at the same time formulating a proposal to make it easier for Utahns to secretly carry a firearm.
    Clearfield Republican Rep. Curtis Oda says the sessions are aimed at educating lawmakers and debunking gun-control advocates’ criticism of Utah’s gun laws.
    The first two students were Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and Lt. Gov. Gary Herbert. Since then, 12 legislators and eight other elected officials have taken the free gun-handling classes. And Oda has another 25 legislators interested, with the next class scheduled for July.

The reporter is biased (notice the use of the word “secretly“ instead of the more common “concealed“ and the picture of the legislator is terrible) against gun ownership but still our side is on the offensive and making progress.  And of course it’s always pleasant to hear the other side whine:

    Gun Violence Prevention Center of Utah board member Maura Carabello calls Oda’s classes “exposure lobbying” that gets around Utah’s lobbyist disclosure laws but still persuades lawmakers to be sympathetic to his cause.
    “I object to this being framed as merely educational, with no larger political intent,” Carabello said. “This is not government responding to the public. This is a special interest trying to affect lawmakers.”

…

     But Carabello says the free classes don’t pass the proverbial “smell test.” Oda’s classes, she says, are a subtle form of lobbying for looser laws – something Utah doesn’t need.

Since my posting nearly a week ago there has been speculation I was fired because of my blog or it’s content.  Technically I’m sure that is not true or at least it is a very small component of the official internal record.  The blog was used to find sufficient cause to investigate other things.  At least one item was ultimately found, which I knew was wrong when I did it and admitted to it when asked about it, which was sufficient cause according to company policy to terminate my employment .  That item was allowing my wife and daughter to browse the web using the company laptop.  I suspect there were other things which they believed to be wrong, but in fact were not, which were also used to justify their actions.  I probably will never know because they did not and probably will not ever allow those items to be examined and refuted.  But it doesn’t matter because it only takes one step “over the line“.

A full report from my viewpoint, about what happened, the lessons learned, and how you can protect yourself will probably be released sometime next week.  Please keep your speculation to a minimum until then.

I absolutely love Neanderpundit’s post on Great Americans (Thomas Edison and Henry Ford).  Dearborn Michigan is now on my list of places I must visit.

I just got a call from [deleted–for reasons of security].  They are going to do a phone interview with me at 13:00 today.

Update: It seemed to go well for the most part.  The worst of it was I had not used some of the programming language they were interested in such as SmallTalk and Visual Basic and of course they asked why I was leaving my previous job.  I was blunt–“I was fired“.  That was early in the interview and I did well on all the rest of it.

Barb’s brother has a son, Jason Scott who is in Iraq now.  He was trained as a tank commander but they are doing patrols in Humvee north of Bagdad.  I’d much rather he was in his tank than a Humvee but you do the job you have to do. 

It’s kind of a local-people/human-interest story.  It’s nice to hear about him and hear his voice.

They did an “investigation” starting with my web site Boomershoot.org, then this blog and other web sites of mine, asked me a few questions along the way, suspended me without pay effective May 30th, then announced the results of their “investigation” yesterday–”You are being terminated.”  When I asked for the details of what I did wrong or an opportunity to dispute the findings of their “investigation“ I was told, “That discussion wouldn’t be productive.“

I turned down a job in Moscow just two weeks ago and now they have hired someone else.

Most annoying.

I got email from Crystal, the ATF investigator, yesterday.  Even though the locks I used on the magazines were approved years ago without “hoods” by a different ATF person there is now some question about that approval.  I could apply for a variance or I just just put the hoods on.  I think I’ll go with the hoods.  I suggested that since the magazines are empty now I could just wait until later in the summer when the ground is dry enough to drive out there with a portable welder in the back of the van and Crystal agreed.  I’ll send her pictures when the work is done and if she needs to inspect things again she can probably visit without me being there.

My thought is that if there is ever a loss of material and the lock was breached I would be at greater risk if I went the paperwork route rather than the mechanical route.  And besides, it isn’t all that much work anyway.

I corresponded some with Kim Griffis at KING5 Evening Magazine who did the Boomershoot story for them (complete video is here).  As of May 19th they had zero negative responses to the story.  And that was despite having numbers that were “very high“.  She speculates it was because people saw what a great shot she was and were too afraid to complain.  🙂

Here is a picture of the cameraman, Kim, her detonated target, me, and Ry:

Picture by Jason

Xenia’s comments on it are here.  Xenia got four hits, I was just hit once.  No, I didn’t “return fire”.  Colleen didn’t intend to hurt anyone and was just trying to do her job.

Xenia got MMR, Tetanus, HEP A, and HEP B shots.  I just got my Tetanus booster.  While nurse Colleen was out of the office I told Xenia that she was going to get it in both arms and both cheeks.  She wasn’t too keen on that idea and I wish I had brought my camera in to record her reactions to the various things–she can be so expressive without saying a single word.

Daughter Kim has been working nearly every day but less than full time hours at a local motel as a housekeeper.  Yesterday she interviewed for and accepted a job at a local business that does research via telephone polling. Earlier this week I had introduced her to the people at UltiMak who have problems manufacturing their product fast enough let alone things like answer the phone to take more orders and do what they really enjoy doing–product development.  They called while she was in the middle of the interview and asked her to come over as soon as she could.  It will just be part time at UltiMak for now as she works around her other jobs.  Kim is so mechanically adept and such a good organizer I expect she will be a asset to them in far more ways than they realize.

It won’t work, but they live in a fantasy world so what do they care about reality?  The California Senate narrowly passed this piece of nonsense:

A novel proposal to etch identifying serial numbers on handgun ammunition sold in California narrowly passed the Senate yesterday, although supporters conceded the legislation remains a work in progress.

…

A related measure, to require manufacturers to equip some semiautomatic handguns with components that would place an identifying code on spent cartridges, passed the Assembly 41-38 and was sent to the Senate.

The Senate measure is sponsored by Attorney General Bill Lockyer but so far has drawn tepid support from the balance of the state’s law enforcement community. It would link purchasers to handgun ammunition through an electronic swipe of a driver license at the point of sale.

Manufacturers say the proposal would force drastic changes to a high-volume, low-margin business. The required modifications to the manufacturing process, the companies warned, would either drive them out of business or send consumer prices skyward.

Sen. Joseph Dunn, a Garden Grove Democrat who introduced the bill for Lockyer, said he is working with law enforcement groups to resolve concerns about how to treat a massive existing inventory, possession of unmarked ammunition in homes and an exemption sought for shooting ranges.

Sen Bill Morrow, R-Oceanside, illustrated the magnitude of the potential ammunition stockpile in the state. He has used about half of a substantial supply his father left when he died in 1981, Morrow said.

“If I plan right, I figure it will get me through the rest of my life,” Morrow said.

Morrow and other opponents questioned whether the proposal, which has never been attempted anywhere else, was technologically feasible. Aides to Lockyer said manufacturers place individual serial numbers on many different consumer products.

The Assembly bill, AB 352 by Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, would apply only to future production of easily concealable semiautomatic handguns that have not passed a state safety test.

I haven’t done a whole lot of laughing recently but this la-la land statement remedies that condition:

Aides to Lockyer said manufacturers place individual serial numbers on many different consumer products.

How many manufacturers place individual serial numbers on something as small as the eraser on your pencil and have a current manufacturing cost of a penny?

I’ve commented on this hare-brained scheme before:

• Naive gun control
• More info on bullet serial number scheme
• Update on ammo marking

Lots of people have commented on the news from the UK about the proposed restrictions on pointy knives.  I thought they were already beyond that with the restrictions on clothes.  But I guess the knife job isn’t complete yet.  And of course, as pointed out by the Brady Bunch in that same article:

Peter Hamm, a spokesman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which supports gun control, joked, “Can sharp stick control be far behind?”

To answer Hamm’s question, which may not have been that much of a joke, “No.  It can’t be far behind.”  The mindset of these people has to be completely changed before things will get better.  As long as they are a nation of cowards and rely on increasing government power to provide decreasing security they will continue to suffer high crime rates and the humiliation of being the laughing stock of the world.

Barb and I both got our bachelor’s degrees from the University of Idaho.  My dad and her mom went to the UI.  Barb’s sister and my brother got degrees there and our son is attending now.  We currently live walking distance from the campus.  I got this in my weekly news letter from the University of Idaho:

“I’m the Guy They Called Deep Throat” is the title of an article in the current issue of Vanity Fair magazine. UI alumnus W. Mark Felt ’35 reveals he was the informant to Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein during the Watergate Scandal in the early 1970’s. Felt served as a top-ranking F.B.I. official at the time. Felt earned a bachelor’s degree in letters and science from UI, where he served as president of Beta Theta Pi fraternity and was a member of the debate team, and the Bench and Bar Association. He was inducted into the UI Alumni Hall of Fame in 1972. Felt joined the F.B.I. in 1942 after earning a law degree from George Washington University. The 91-year-old now lives in Santa Rosa, Calif.

Should I be proud or ashamed Felt once attended school here?  I’m not sure I know what to think about Felt’s role in Watergate.  Schneier, of course, thinks the security aspects are interesting.  Some think Felt was a ‘rat’.  Others think he was a hero.  Sometimes breaking the law (my guess is that Felt broke the law by revealing details of a FBI investigation in progress) is the right thing to do.  It’s something I have spent some time thinking about but I’m not sure Felt reached my threshold.

[shrug]

I think it’s interesting to know after all these years but overall I’m more inclined to go with Kim du Toit’s view.  I have that movie in my collection someplace.  Maybe Barb and I should watch it this weekend to celebrate the revealing of Deep Throat.

I’ve barely posted anything in the last week or two.  Lots of things I wanted to comment on but just didn’t have the motivation.  Things have been a bit rough lately and I just didn’t feel like touching the computer.  Externally things aren’t any different but I’ve got a lot of my energy back.  I’ll be playing catch up this morning.

I have virtually no interest in anything computer related right now.  Thing are unpleasant at work and I just want to escape having anything to do with computers. I actually started cleaning out the garage today.  I found my solar powered ear protection I had left in the rental car in New Mexico last month.  I called them and asked they send to me and they said they would.  But despite me asking everyone here at home no one said anything about them arriving.  I found them in a UPS plastic envelope in the recycling.  I looked up the tracking number and found they had been delivered on April 20th.

Barb and I have been spending a lot of time watching movies. Two yesterday and two today.  Nothing really good, nothing really bad.

Ry had lots of excitement last night.  Burning rubber, 60 MPH on residential streets, lots of police, and there was the car crash (hit and run) and the smoke and fire.

I just finished up a presentation I am to give next week in Houston.  I looked through my collection of quotes and things and found this to conclude my talk with when I turn it over to questions and comments:

If your mind goes blank, don’t forget to turn off the sound.

The attribution is hazy.  It probably was from an email received at Microsoft but I don’t know who wrote it or when.

Almost all politicians and about 75% of meeting participants could benefit from this advice.

The Brits did a trial run on a biometric ID card with 10,000 people.  The results are in:

THE technology behind the government’s controversial ID card scheme fails to recognise one in every 25 people, it emerged yesterday.

A Home Office trial that collected the biometric details of 10,000 volunteers showed at best the technology was 96 per cent foolproof if iris scans were used.

It was even less accurate for black people and the over-59s, and worse for those with disabilities, as the scans had more difficulty recognising them.

…

It was also revealed that the estimated cost per card had risen to £93, up from £85 in November – an amount that did not include the start-up technology costs. Running costs over ten years are estimated to be £5.8 billion.

A report on the trial said the reasons for the lower success rates among certain groups remained unclear and that more work was needed to identify the reasons.

Meanwhile, facial biometric technology was only 69 per cent accurate, while using fingerprints was 81 per cent failsafe.

…

David Winnick, Labour MP for Walsall North, insisted he would continue to oppose the bill and pointed to the government’s shifting the justification for identity cards, from thwarting terrorism to identity fraud.

I’m actually surprised the results are this bad.  I know biometrics isn’t really up to the task it is being asked to do, but this was much worse than I thought it would be.  This is great news for freedom lovers everywhere and in the U.S. in particular.  Our government is running a little behind the U.K. in police state race.  To see the U.K. fail so badly in this important (to would-be tyrants) tool may mean we will be spared the expense.  Yeah, I know, Real ID passed but all it requires in terms of a biometric identifier is a digital photo of your face and your signature–two of the least accurate biometric measures.  Real ID will accomplish only one thing well–making a few people feel good and the U.K. experience will be further evidence of that.

Ry says he is not sure he will have much to say.  Wow!  He’s spent many 100’s of hours involved with Boomershoot.  He could talk about firearm selection.  He fired nearly 1000 rounds through an AK-47 clone to connect with his first boomer but a few years later could connect almost at will with an AR-15 with a “deep space telescope“ mounted on it.  Or if he wanted to talk about stuff “behind the scenes“ he could talk about the dozens and dozens of experiments we have done (and all the windshields we have replaced).  All the fireballs that weren’t.  All the boomers that went pop.  All efforts that went into the various target bodies.  All the tests we should have done but didn’t.  Or how about the games we (mostly Ry) came up with using boomers.  Why there probably won’t ever be any legal gambling on a boomershoot type game.  Or the hours and hours of video we (mostly Ry again) have collected but neither couldn’t make into anything sustaining our interest for more than a few seconds yet the professionals at KING 5 were able to turn similar video into four and a half minutes of excitement.  He could talk about chemistry of the boomers.  He could talk about dealing with the ATF.  He could talk about the design and building of the Taj Mahal (Ry did most of that).  He could talk about the all the unintentional fires we have create and put out–sometimes just seconds from diasater. 

Well, they are gun grabbers so I suppose the title question is rhetorical.  But they call themselves Freedom States Alliance but they are actively working to limit freedom.  I got an email from them that, in part, says:

As we continue to fight to end the terrorist threat posed by .50 caliber sniper rifles, we work hard to ensure that you’re kept abreast of all the latest developments in our struggle.  We are drawing a line in the sand and telling powerful special interest groups that there is no place for battlefield weapons in civilian hands.  There’s plenty that you can do to help!

…

This campaign has only just begun, and we’re picking up momentum.  The NRA and its friends in the gun industry declined comment because they know this is a battle that they will lose.  These guns are not your grandfather’s hunting rifles.

With so much success after such a short time, we just wanted to take a moment to thank each and every one of you for your help.  And if you’re a supporter of the campaign, won’t you consider helping to spread the word to your friends and family?  Or make a donation at our website to help us get the message out.

We must stop .50 Caliber Terror.  It’s just common sense.

What does “Freedom States Alliance“ mean?  Could it be they deliberately left it ambiguous so both those for and against freedom would feel comfortable contributing to their cause? 

How many crimes have been committed in the U.S. in the past 30 years using a firearm that shoots the .50 BMG cartridge?  One?  Maybe two?  How many terrorist acts have been committed in the U.S. using a firearm that shoots the .50 BMG cartridge?  Zero–right?  They say, “We must stop .50 Caliber Terror.“ but what is there to stop? 

They have no common sense.  They only have their blind hatred and an alliance against freedom.

Some wacko (redundancy alert) gun control activist “chopped off the tip of his trigger finger to protest efforts by the gun lobby to scuttle tougher firearms laws.”  It happened in 1994 and he is now auctioning off the homemade guillotine and small hammer he used to do it on eBay; Which is why it is in the news now.  Read about it here.

It certainly takes a fair amount of dedications to do that but it doesn’t compare to burning yourself to death in public like some Buddhist monks (and I believe some Quakers) did to protest the Vietnam war.  And I have to give him credit for symbology too, assuming he is not left handed, or chops off the other “trigger finger“ this week.  But of course gun control is all about symbolism rather than substance so one can’t really expect much real dedication from him.  But I have been thinking what he, and his fellow activists, might do if they had the dedication of the aforementioned Buddhist monks.  I’ll leave the details to your grisly imaginations, I would rather not give them a road-map for even temporary political success, but it involves changing the national statistics on murder and suicides committed with firearms.