Jonathan Hutson is “Chief Communications Officer at Brady Campaign & Center to Prevent Gun Violence”. Yet his Twitter account and LinkedIn profile claim an affinity for human rights and justice.
Hasn’t he gotten the message that gun ownership is a specific enumerated human right in this country? Or was he hungry enough that he took a job working for the devil?
3-D printers mean an end to any gun control. The government is not going to be able to ban magazines for guns, or ban guns themselves, and the notions of background checks would be even more impossible to do. Anyone with access to a 3-D printer can make guns functionally and indistinguishable from a gun that can be bought in a store. I don’t know how the government will stop people from obtaining a printer.
Just look at the illegal download of television shows and movies. Millions of copies have been downloaded and the government has been unable to stop it. Why would the government be successful in stopping other information like these files from being downloaded?
John Lott
May 7, 2015
Why Gun Control is Ultimately Doomed to Fail
[Well… the government can ban magazines and guns but they can’t effectively enforce the ban. It will be incredibly obvious it is like banning alcohol in the 1920s. Or even banning sex outside of marriage. It will be trivial to supply the black market and people will mock those who attempt to support it.—Joe]
The Boomershoot 2015 fireball was very well done and impressive. Here are some of the details of the construction.
There were 15 seven-inch square targets, each containing 800 grams (about 1.8 pounds) of Boomerite arranged as shown below around a 50 pound bag of powdered sugar:
The target in the lower right with the two red dots was facing the audience and shooter. This is the initiating target which propagated the detonation to the rest of the targets.
In the picture below you see 19 gallons of the gasoline/diesel mixture in place on top of the explosives.
The job of the explosives is to lift the gasoline and mix it in the air. Usually we have a ratio of explosives to gasoline of about 1 pounds to 2 gallons up to 1 pound to 1 gallon. This time it is about 1.4 to 1.
In the picture above we have the people that designed and constructed the fireball (left to right: Mike, Matthew, Barron, and Ry) along with the road flares attached with rubber bands to rebar and wooden sticks. One or more of these flares ignited the fuel air mixture.
In Phil’s slow motion video below you will see the ignition start on the side opposite the shooter and propagate to the remainder of the fuel-air mixture.
In this frame capture from Ry’s video you can see the dust propelled into the air some distance from the explosion. I suspect this is from the shock wave traveling through the ground.
In the still picture of mine below you can see pieces of shredded milk jugs which have been propelled beyond the expanding “ball” of fuel and that most of the fuel has been ignited. The flares mounted on the rebar and sticks are entirely engulfed in the fireball.
The following pictures is one of the most interesting fireball photos I have ever seen. Usually it is mushroom shaped or even flattens out more than the picture above. But this ball of fire barely touches the ground and is a decent approximation of a sphere. I’m not sure what the white streamers coming out of the fire are. Perhaps pieces of burning milk jug or lumps of powdered sugar.
Here, a fraction of a second later, we have the ball of fire suspended in air on what is a probably a column of water vapor from the explosives:
Here, another fraction of a second later, we have the fuel still burning high up in the air and forming a smoke ring:
Watch Ry’s video and see the fire roll around in the sky. It’s amazing:
In the picture below, less than a minute after the explosion, we have Barron standing in the middle of the crater he created. But notice there is no fire on the ground. In years past there were patches of burning fuel on the ground. There was none this year. It all went up into the air.
Another thing, as pointed out by Ry this year and last (edited to add: Ry says the first time was 2011 or earlier), is that nearly all of the flares have been extinguished. Ry is the first person I know who has successfully extinguished road flares with gasoline.
Don’t try this at home. Come to Boomershoot 2016 instead.
There has been adequate documentation that the religious doctrines of the terrorists are accurately reflective of accepted Muslim doctrine. The accurate term for the “moderate Muslims” everyone talks about is “apostates.” Or perhaps “heretics.”
Cloudbuster
May 4, 2015
Comment to Big Edit at the New York Times
[I have nothing to add.—Joe]
As I reported last month the barrel in my STI Eagle attempted to spontaneously disassemble. I couldn’t get the slide open and figured I would just put the gun on the shelf that way. But Jacob said he was interested in doing a professional metallurgical evaluation of it. So I put some effort into extracting the barrel from the gun.
First I used a punch and drove the slide stop out far enough to get a finishing nail partially under it so that it was exposed:
Then brother Doug used an air powered cutoff tool to cut the slide stop almost in two and then pried the slide stop out:
The slide then easily came off. I then used a hammer (and other tools) to tap on the barrel to remove it from the slide.
The end result is that I was able to discover the barrel split about three fourths of its length:
As I looked at this barrel I remembered something. That flat spot on the bottom of the barrel was not there when it came from the factory. That was machined by an STI gunsmith so that a Recoil Master would fit. This would have weakened the barrel.
Your pants were dirtier than any of my kids clothes ever were.
Barb L.
May 4, 2015
[Boomershoot is dirty. If it rains then it is muddy. If it is dry then it is dusty. This year it was dusty.
She put my jeans through the washer twice.
She described her shower Saturday evening as “epic” with a river of muddy water flowing down the drain.
Here is her rental car the morning after Boomershoot:
But some people think the joy things like this brings makes it all worthwhile:
Barron (standing in the crater from the fireball crater he created) seemed to think so:
But that is just part of the reason of Why Boomershoot.—Joe]
They are getting too fast and I couldn’t count.
Kim Huffman-Scott
Boomershoot Target Production Manager
May 2, 2015
[I put Kim in charge of target production this year. This is one of the best decisions I have ever made. It dramatically reduced my work load and stress level. But most of all she did an awesome job.
The production line is usually running for about 13 or 14 hours to produce the targets for Boomershoot. This time it was less than eight hours. Part of this was the enthusiastic “army of people” (as Barb describes it) there to help. But Kim figured out how to put them all to work and they listened to her.
Kim quickly identified bottlenecks and fixed them. This is a dynamic problem because it depends on which size targets are being produced and who is doing which job at the time. She also would anticipate when to change the line to a new target type. This is tough because the production line may have 10 to 20 targets in various stages of completion but you only have a good count of the number of actually completed crates. The following video gives you a clue of what it was like. It doesn’t show the people outside folding the boxes.
As the production crew cranked up the production rate it became more and more difficult to get a snapshot of completed crates and targets in production. This resulted in today’s QOTD. She told me this a few minutes after I took the video above.—Joe]
Penises in hand “@minasmith64: Not sure what Shannon’s idea of motherhood might be but our family is raising men… pic.twitter.com/d0VZM562y4”
Jintana Nanana@jintana
Tweeted on December 27, 2014
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!
Via a tweet from Linoge @wallsofthecity.—Joe]
Police and prosecutors driven by politics or policy to seize and keep non-contraband property can always postulate about a theoretical risk that a prohibited individual might exert future control over transferred firearms. But absent evidence, theoretical speculation shouldn’t justify the forfeiture of someone’s valuable property, no matter what kind of property it is. At least when it comes to firearms, however, it seems like some lawyers or judges who perhaps don’t like guns generally feel that forfeiting them to the government is a desirable political end, justifying the use of unfounded theoretical future risk constructs as the means to expand the doctrine of constructive possession and thereby effectuate the politics of gun control.
Chuck Michel
March 12, 2015
Gun Seizure and Government Corruption
[There are many cases where the government has taken peoples guns and then refused to give them back or even let the owner sell them to someone else. This is now being challenged with moderate success in the courts but don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns.—Joe]
I will also work to reinstate the assault weapons ban. We had it during the 1990s.
Hillary Clinton
April 16, 2008
Democratic Debate in Philadelphia
[See also some of the other stuff she has said about your rights.
Don’t ever let anyone get away with telling you that no one wants to take your guns away.—Joe]
The first day of Boomershoot 2015 is over.
From the participants viewpoint things are going quite well. The weather is good with moderately warm temperatures, no precipitation, and no to light winds. The Boomers seem to be detonating well if there are solid hits.
From the staff viewpoint things things are pretty good. The biggest hiccup was when the first thing this morning Barb’s rented car locked the doors automatically with the keys inside along with the cash box, wristbands, and the check-in list for the Precision Rifle clinic. This was 15 minutes before people were scheduled to check in. Barb was quite upset and I was almost unable to convince her it was going to be okay. She called the rental agency who had roadside assistance out in a little over an hour and unlocked her car. I set her up with my laptop and the electronic version of the check-in list. No wrist bands and the laptop was a little more awkward than crossing people off the list with a pen, but she got through it just fine.
Another minor issue was the private fireball didn’t work the first or second time. There was a combination of problems. Some of it was improper construction and some shooter problems as well. The third attempt at a fireball was acceptable:
There were some injuries. I twisted my ankle, Barb scraped her back a little bit, and we saw some moderately bad sunburns.
For me it is difficult to see anything but the flaws but I had several people tell me how much fun they were having and how great an event it is, and what I overhear and see on their faces confirm this. This is what makes Boomershoot worthwhile to me.
Sarah Hoyt — born in Portugal, naturalized to the U.S. — has seen this kind of thing before. It’s the old Stalinist-Marxist mentality which Sarah got to see up close and personal. It’s the mentality my former boss (who was a refugee from Soviet-era Poland) knew all too well, too. Frankly, any time I talk about the 21st century American fascination with political correctness, refugees from the Marxist countries recognize it instantly: the collective effort to control and dictate what is and is not permissible to say, or to think, or to feel, including who you can and cannot associate with; lest you be hauled before the commissars to be tried for guilt-by-association.
Fear is their weapon.
Brad R. Torgersen
April 12, 2015
Flaming rage nozzles of tolerance
[Solzhenitsyn has written about this too.
This mindset must not be allowed to dominate politics. The body count racked up by this mindset during the 20th century was in the hundreds of millions. We must prevent a repeat performance in the 21st century.
This is why I do Boomershoot.—Joe]
How can you tell which minorities it is proper to satirize? By whether they are likely to shoot you, apparently. Trudeau spent his career unfairly attacking Republicans, so he never had to worry.
John Hinderaker
April 12, 2015
Punching Down and Shooting Back
[As Glenn Reynolds said, “I keep warning people about this incentive system, and they keep not listening.”—Joe]
I arrived on site about 2130 on Sunday night. I unloaded the stuff out of my vehicle into Boomershoot Mecca and reloaded it with my tent, sleeping bags, blankets, pads, pillows, and other stuff. I set up the tent using the headlights to see and I was finally in bed by 2340. The next morning I assembled some shelves and tidied up a bit until it was time to start work. I considered working from “home” at Mecca but reconsidered when my fingers went numb. It was 34F in there so I went to brother Doug’s house and spent the morning working from there.
The afternoon and evening at Mecca was nice. I rearranged a few things for a better work flow (the computers are for work and personal use):
I then made the test targets for the experiment I completed last night.
Yesterday morning while it was still to cold to work I went for a walk and take rubber bands and empty milk jugs to the Taj. I discovered a squatter in the explosives magazine:
It was ejected from the premises and the carpet cleaned up as best I could with a hand broom:
I left some treats in case they or some relatives decided to visit again:
I then proceeded on to the tree line where most of the Boomershoot targets are placed and put up some steel targets:
We will paint them before the event.
Today I discovered one of the scales we use for measuring the chemicals for Boomerite was having problems. Putting in new batteries and banging it around didn’t help any. I probably paid $20 for it something like five years ago and it has had problems before. I set it aside and ordered a $300 scale just like the other scale I have from Amazon for next day delivery.
Today I’ll tidy up the work benches in Mecca more and move the ATV and trailer here. I might also turn some of the clumpy (basically fist sized rocks) Potassium Chlorate into powder too. I have a new shipment coming in on Friday but if I can use the old stuff that would be better. The stuff I used for my experiment this week was made from the old stuff so I know it is chemically active if I just reduce it in size appropriately.
Boomershoot is looking good for this year. Even the weather is looking great. No chance of rain and highs in the upper 60s. There will be some winds to make things a little bit challenging but probably nothing that will be insurmountable. The winds start out low and build to a peak about 4:00 PM every day. Plan accordingly.
Via email from InSights. Highly recommended. I’ve spent thousands on their training over the years. Both for me and my family.
Limited Time 20% Off Flash Sale — Train and Save!
Call the office and talk to Jenna to register: 888-958-0884.
See you in class!
If a ban on semi‐automatic guns and large‐capacity magazines reduces the perceived risk from a mass shooting, and makes the public feel safer as a result, that’s a substantial benefit.
Frank Easterbrook
Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals Judge
April 27, 2015
BREAKING: Bans on “Assault Weapons,” Firearm Magazines Can Be Based on Feelings, Rules Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals
[So does that mean if people feel safer if all blacks are kept as slaves would it make slavery constitutional?
Of course not. But by Easterbrook’s “logic” it would seem so.
I would feel safer if Easterbrook were to lose his job as a judge and spend the rest of his life scrubbing toilets.—Joe]
Last night I mixed up some Boomerite for more tests. I wanted to answer the question as to why it goes dead after some time has passed. I did some tests in January without getting a conclusive clue. Tonight I performed the experiment I suggested in the previous post. I put some of the targets in a cooler and kept them at ice temperature and I kept other targets warm. The targets in January were kept at about 70F for 26 hours. This time the hot targets spent the night wrapped up in two coats on top of a hot water bottle then put out in the sun for the day. I didn’t measure the actual temperature because I just wanted to see if the temperature made a difference.
Another thing I did was that for some of the targets I used plastic baggies for the Boomerite of instead of the shrink wrap on the outside of the boxes. Unfortunately the targets in cold storage got completely soaked when the ice bag leaked. Only the cold stored targets that used zip lock baggies could be tested.
The total storage time from mixing until testing was about 23 hours.
In the results below the number represent the range in yards using my .22 with Stinger ammo that the given result occurred. The estimated velocities for the various ranges at the altitude and temperature I was experiencing are
| Stored | Sealed In | Result |
| Hot | Shrink wrap | 23 pop |
| Hot | Shrink wrap | 13 dud, 11 pop |
| Hot | Shrink wrap | 11 dud |
| Hot | Baggie | 23 dud, 12 boom |
| Hot | Baggie | 20 pop |
| Hot | Baggie | 11 boom |
| Cold | Baggie | 23 boom |
| Cold | Baggie | 25 boom |
| Cold | Baggie | 30 boom |
It is very clear the cold storage preserves the Boom. There are also some strong hints the baggie storage may preserve the Boom better than the shrink wrap storage.
One conclusion that could be reached is that I need to make the Taj Mahal into a walk-in refrigerator. As brother Doug said, “That’s inconvenient.” Another is that there is a chemical reaction going on that is accelerated by temperature and that perhaps I should change the recipe such that no such reaction takes place.
As always, more tests are needed.
It’s an attitude I’ve seen before: “Something must be done. This is something. Therefore, we must do it.” Never mind if the something makes any sense or not.
In reality, this is CYA security, and it’s pervasive in post-9/11 America. It no longer matters if a security measure makes sense, if it’s cost-effective or if it mitigates any actual threats. All that matters is that you took the threat seriously, so if something happens you won’t be blamed for inaction. It’s security, all right — security for the careers of those in charge.
Bruce Schneier
April 15, 2015
Metal Detectors at Sports Stadiums
[Gun control outside of a stadium is of the same mindset but multiplied by some very large factor. It’s stupidity at a governmental scale.—Joe]
The paid nra trolls, better known as the #tinycockclub can’t get enough of me. Remember kids, guns are for cowards. #bokbok #gunsense #yup
Bacon @Baconmints
Tweeted on December 23, 2014
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!
Via a Tweet from BFD @BigFatDave.—Joe]
Don’t kid yourself that you’re in the clear because of your ancestors; it wasn’t just Jews, and the others weren’t all gay or gypsies, either: the politically unpopular got one-way trips, too. Once a nation starts down that path, each step into evil is easier than the one before.
You don’t have to like politics, but you’ve gotta keep an eye on it. No matter who you are.
Roberta X
April 15, 2015
Holocaust Remembrance Day
[The German people of the late 1930’s and early 1940’s are best known for their evil behavior but the Russians while Stalin was in power easily eclipsed the German body count. The Chinese killed millions at various times during the 20th Century. The Rwanda genocide wasn’t on the same scale in absolute numbers but may have account for as much as 20% of the population. The examples are incredibly and depressingly numerous.
There is one thing governments, of any type of people, do very well and that is killing people. We have lots of government in this country and it going to require lots of attention until we can get it back down to the originally designed limits. The stakes are incredibly high if it goes totally malignant.
This is Why Boomershoot. It’s next weekend. Be there if you can. You can be part of the solution if things go really bad.—Joe]