Quote of the day—Michael Schaus

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Deciding that they should organize a protest outside of the NRA annual meeting in Indianapolis, gun control advocates “flocked” to show their disdain for American gun-owners… But, there was only one problem: With a mere 25 people deciding to show up for the rally, the “protest” looked more like an OFA global warming meeting.

Apparently, two dozen people was the absolute most the anti-gun group, Hoosiers Concerned About Gun Violence, was able to gather for the afternoon… Heck, I could probably attract a larger crowd by handing out high-capacity sodas on any given afternoon.

Michael Schaus
April 28, 2014
Bloomberg Is His Own Worst Enemy on Gun-Control
[David Hardy was there and took a picture with his cell phone (they blocked his video camera). I cannot count more than 25 in his picture yet “Moms Demand Action” claim there were “More than 100…”. And in the comments JT Niggle points out that on their Facebook page they claim “over 300”. They do have a picture up that might have 100 people in it but there is no way they have 300.

Anti-gun people almost always seem to have a problem with numbers. This is just one more example.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Cliff Schecter

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LaPierre, of course, is never held responsible for this rhetoric, even though it is not too much of a stretch to say that its repetition in all of the NRA’s magazines, radio show, emails, newsletter, speeches, on Fox News, and on right-wing talk radio and beyond clearly contributes to the killing everyday American citizens and members of law enforcement.

Cliff Schecter
April 28, 2014
Preparing for War in Indianapolis: Inside the NRA Plot to Terrify America
[And is Schecter ever “held responsible for this rhetoric” intended to promote the infringement of a specific enumerated right?

Imagine the outrage (and it would be appropriate) if Schecter had a similar screed about Muslims, women, blacks, or homosexuals. He would be (inappropriately)hounded out of a job if not investigated for hate speech.

As you can expect from anti-gun people they are all about the control of others but not of themselves.

As Sebastian said:

 

Don’t you find it telling that when he talks like this about the constitutionally protected class of gun owners you hear nothing but crickets from the those who claim to promote tolerance? This is just another data point that it’s not about tolerance. It’s about control. They want you either assimilated into the collective or banished to the gulags. It’s up to us to make sure there is at least a third option.

This is why there is Boomershoot.—Joe]

LOL of the day—The Gun Feed

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I found this on The Gun Feed:

NuclearBoomershoot

Boomershoot 2014 half price sale
– *Enlarged to show detail

If we had those type of boomers we would have to charge a lot more and require a bigger field.

Ry, Barron, and I would have to significantly step up our R&D efforts too.

Quote of the day—Malcolm Harris

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During Michael Bloomberg’s three terms as mayor of New York, he loved nothing more than to lord over the nation’s largest city. Now he’s just a normal civilian multibillionaire, sitting right below the prime minister of India on the Forbes list of the world’s most powerful people — a lowly position that is no doubt a source of immense personal disappointment. Short of patrolling New York’s parks in a spandex bodysuit to inflict vigilante justice on cigarette smokers and super-sized Slurpee drinkers, what’s a rich ex-mayor to do?

Luckily for Bloomberg, in American politics, controlling sublime amounts of capital is its own qualification, and lavishing it on pet issues counts as philanthropy. And this time, without an elected office to use for a pulpit, he’s going to need that money: After attacking tobacco and soda, Bloomberg is coming for guns.

Malcolm Harris
April 25, 2014
The real reason Michael Bloomberg cares about guns
[I think I found this via a post on Facebook but I can’t find it now to give the appropriate credit.

Bloomberg loves power and ordinary people having access to guns erodes some of that power.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Rocco Rizzo

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He owns his own electron microscope, so that he can see it when he goes to pee.

Rocco Rizzo
July 25, 2013
Comment to “Fuck All You Libtards,” Pennsylvania Police Chief Announces
[It’s another Markley’s Law Monday!—Joe]

Vampire time of year again

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It’s vampire season again. As I reported last year (and 2006, 2007, and 2008) the recurrent joke about all the wood stakes we consume at Boomershoot is that they are for vampires.

Barb and I bought all the 1x2x18 inch wood stakes that Lowe’s had in two different stores and topped off our shopping trip with a visit to two Home Depot stores.

At the second Lowe’s the clerk did ask what I was going to use them for. “In the garden?”, she asked. I managed to keep my face straight until after I told her, “Vampires”.

The back seat of my vehicle is now full of wood stakes for Boomershoot 2014:

WP_20140427_002

The empty milk jug you see in the picture will be consumed at Boomershoot as well. It is one of a dozen or two (or three, Ry hasn’t told me yet) that Ry will use in the opening fireball.

Boomershoot 2014 half price sale

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We have had quite a few cancelations due to things like Obamacare premium hikes, a funeral (the Oso mudslide), and various health issues. What this means for you is, due to the cancelations, I’m putting the remaining positions on sale. The High Intensity, the Private Boomershoot Fireball, and the main event on Sunday are all half price for the next few days. This does not apply to the Precision Rifle Clinic or Field Fire.

Tell your friends this is a rare opportunity. Boomershoot prices have not been this low in many years and may never be this low again.

Sign up here.

Quote of the day—Charles C. W. Cooke

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The National Rifle Association is successful because it is popular, because its members are highly engaged, because it is defending a right that is enumerated in the nation’s founding document and a tradition that is cherished by members of both major political parties, because its opponents routinely embarrass themselves with their hysteria and with their lack of rudimentary knowledge about the topic at hand, and, most of all, because it is a single-issue organization that maintains its focus.

Charles C. W. Cooke
April 27, 2014
The NRA’s Next Challenge: Its Success
[H/T to bitterb.

There are other problems with success as well. You get lazy. An organization can rot from the inside and only have an empty shell that looks imposing but doesn’t have the inner strength to take on the next opponent.

This is why I think it is good that the NRA has competitors for the dollars and grassroot minds of gun owners, such as SAF, CCRKBA, hundreds of state organizations, and even GOA and JPFO.

I want each of these organizations to be constantly thinking and working to improve themselves. They should be constantly asking themselves, “How can we be more successful in crushing the enemies of the Second Amendment? How can we repeal ineffective, stupid laws that infringe upon the rights of innocent people?”

NRA and gun owners in general are headed in the right direction but our current set of infringing laws and oppressive public sentiment has been decades in the making and it will probably be decades more before the likes of The Brady Campaign, Bloomberg and friends, The Violence Policy Center, and Coalition to Stop Gun Violence are as despised as much as the KKK are now. The NRA, and gun owners in general, need to keep the final goal in mind as well as fighting and winning the individual battles.

As Cooke points out this will require some focus and discipline. It would be easy for a lot of the supporters of the NRA to dilute its power by branching out into issues such as abortion, homosexuality, and racial issues. Our opponents recognize this as our softest spot and frequently attack it. Don’t make their jobs easier. The issue is the specific enumerated right to keep and bear arms. As soon as our opponents veer to another topic call them on it. Announce they must be admitting defeat on the topic at hand. If the best they have are dick jokes and absurd claims of race or a “war on women” then most people will recognize the crazy rants for what they are.—Joe]

Quote of the day—Barb L.

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You are on the Boomershoot channel. I’ll get you back in ten days or so.

Barb L.
April 23, 2014
[There is a certain amount of truth to this.

This was after me talking about a number of tasks I had completed or had yet to do for Boomershoot 2014.—Joe]

Boomershoot 2014 Field Fire and Clinic info

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Gene Econ, the Boomershoot Precision Rifle Clinic Instructor, has some last minute information for Field Fire and Clinic participants.

Continue reading →

Quote of the day—James Dawson

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No need for new gun laws, but will you please make all NRA Members, including you, take a Mental Test!

If this was to happen, you and 96% of NRA Members would fail a mental test.
BTW, you already failed..

James Dawson
April 24, 2014
Comment to The battle over gun policy: Old fight, new strategies
[This was in response to “Kim Jong” who said:

States/counties that issue CCWs have statistically lower crime rates. The more guns in the hands of ordinary citizens the more empowered they become against gun toting criminals who don’t care what the gun laws are.

Jong made a calm, rational, claim of fact and is told that he would fail a mental test on the basis of this statement. And the anti-gun side says we are preventing there being a national conversation on guns. Wow!

This “Progressive” wants to make all NRA members take an mental test. What is the moral, political, constitutional, or common law justification for anyone or organization having such power?  For someone to believe what he believes means I do not have any words for him. It is simply not possible for me to have a conversation with someone with whom I have no common basis to communicate. He is an alien life form who intends to destroy me and our culture and should be treated as such.—Joe]

Studying “gun violence”

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CNN is no friend to the Second Amendment so it comes as no surprise they published such a biased piece on gun control. But I continue to be amazed at how widespread the prejudice and bigotry extends into so many aspect of our culture.

Even if you were to concede they had some sort of constitutional authority to exist how can the National Institute of Health think it has any business studying criminal use of firearms?

NIH has and will continue to fund research to inform prevention programs related to firearm violence,” agency spokeswoman Renate Myles said. “Studies designed to develop and evaluate firearm injury prevention activities are part of larger efforts to develop more effective public health education programs.

Would it be appropriate for the NIH to be fund research on Muslim/Christian/name-a-religion violence and develop religion injury prevention activities? Or how about developing free speech injury (such as inciting to riot) prevention activities?

Why can’t these people understand? Government has no business preventing crimes in this sense. You don’t prevent people from falsely yelling fire in a crowded theater by gagging them as then enter the theater. You punish those that cause injury after the injury has occurred. Anything else is prior restraint and has been clearly decided as unconstitutional.

ATF cultural heritage

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I saw this tweet from the ATF this morning and the picture stuck with me.

What sour looking faces they have. Is it because they hate their jobs? Is it because they hate people who drink alcohol? Something else?

Whatever the reason I can’t help but wonder if the prohibitionist culture is still alive and well at the ATF. Alcohol and tobacco are still regarded by many as at least somewhat “sinful”. By lumping firearms in with them doesn’t that create some sort of “guilty by association”? The FBI and your local police force deal with people as potential problems. People commit crimes and are fined and/or sent to jail as needed to punish them.

If alcohol and tobacco are considered harmful substances and must be controlled then is any stretch to think it would better if they were banned? Certainly a ban on alcohol reached a critical mass in popularity during the early 20th Century. The “founding fathers” of the ATF were the enforcers of that ban. This Tweet could lead one to believe the some people in the current organization are proud of their “founding fathers”.

I remember discussions about potential bans on cigarettes in the late 1960’s and 1970’s. And handgun bans were certainly being discussed during the same time frame. Wouldn’t the agency charged with regulation of these “sins” attract people more inclined to them being banned?

They may have changed their name but I can’t help but wonder if culturally it still is the “Bureau of Prohibition”. Certainly their anti-gun supporters want them to be that and it would explain some of the nasty things they have done to gun sellers and owners.

Quote of the day—William Kent Suter

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What do these cases have in common? First, the government lost all four in unanimous decisions. Second, each case dealt with a government infringement on a fundamental right—freedom of religion, the right to be free from unreasonable searches, the right to enjoy private property and due process, and the right to compensation when the government takes your property.

It is rare for the executive branch to lose four cases dealing with fundamental rights in unanimous decisions in one term. Those who believe in the Constitution and the rule of law should feel uneasy about the administration’s positions in these cases.

William Kent Suter
April 22, 2014
Executive Power on Steroids
[H/T Glenn Reynolds.

“Uneasy”? How about outraged?

It’s clear the current administration wants to be tyrannical. It’s just not always successful in it’s efforts.—Joe]

Cut the budget not expand it!

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The NSSF wants the Office of Enforcement Program and Services (EPS) of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to be increased.

While their goal is appropriate, decreasing the wait time for processing National Firearms NFA forms, there is a much better solution. They should eliminate the requirement for the NFA forms and delete the EPS from the federal budget.

I realize repealing the NFA isn’t politically feasible at this time but I submit that making sale of NFA items contingent upon filing a 4473’s and a NICS check might be. The NFA form processing is essentially the same thing. It’s just common sense to eliminate the redundant system that is currently running 10 months behind doing what takes no more than a few minutes in your average gun store.

Also of note is that in the same NSSF post they report:

ATF’s troubled eForms system being taken down until further notice.  Users of the system were told by ATF in an email that “The eForms software is not performing to our expectations. As a result, we are taking the eForms system down until further notice.

Anytime the government gets involved in a software project, anything actually, you should expect it to be “troubled”. I’ve written software for the government and I know others who worked in software development at other facilities. It’s not surprising the ObamaCare exchanges and the ATF’s eForms system are unusable. Even after working at Microsoft and knowing how the software development processes could be improved it just didn’t seem possible for the government to adapt those improvements.

If you want something degraded and destroyed without being directly blamed for it the best way to do that is get the government to “improve” it. I submit gun control and ObamaCare as my prime examples.

The best American is a stupid, silent American

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(that is to paraphrase the radio show host, Michael Savage)

Teacher gets suspended for showing kids his tools. Via the Second Amendment Foundation (saf.org).

Properly, that school would have all of its funding suspended until it publicly apologizes to the teacher and agrees to allow tools in the classroom.

Seriously; who doesn’t think there’s been a war going on against individual capability, productivity and self sufficiency in this country? If people are aware, knowledgeable, strong, confident and self-sufficient, who’d need our current nanny style government, after all? That would put 90% of our government right out of business, and we can’t allow that, now can we? “Oh no, Preciousss….nassty kids musst bow to our greatnesss, yesss they mussst. Make them crawl, we will…”

ETA; I wish people would stop using that word (liberal) to describe authoritarians. We CAN take the language back. That would be a great first step. Just use words correctly. It’s easy. Authoritarian. There; I just did it. See? I wasn’t hit by lightning or anything. Don’t be afraid. Go on; try it. It doesn’t hurt a bit.

Do they spit in leftover food too?

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Bitter reports NYC requires the buyers of their empty brass from the police ranges to destroy it so it cannot be reloaded.

The mayor’s office defends this policy:

Phil Walzak, the press secretary to Mayor Bill de Blasio, said: “As a member of Mayors Against Illegal Guns, Mayor de Blasio has pledged to protect our people and support the national movement for common sense gun control. Limiting the sales of bullet shell casings and lead to metal recyclers supports our overall commitment to public safety.”

So… it’s just “common sense gun control” to make ammo more expensive for the civilian market?

I see. They really don’t get the part of the Heller decision where they said the right to keep and bear arms is an individual right.

This story reminds me of something I read in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. One woman did not want her slaves to eat the same food as her family so at the end of the meal she would spit in the leftovers before the cook and maid could share it with their families.

It appears the politicians of New York City have an attitude toward gun owners similar to that of some slave owners in the 1800’s. I’m not surprised. As Daniel Webster said, “There are men in all ages who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they mean to be masters.”

Quote of the day—Italian Rose

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Banning guns for people that had any drug conviction is rational and common sense. We should also ban guns from anyone who received a DUI or had their drivers license suspended for any reason. People who are late on their bills should also not have guns and the mental health provision should be if you have ever as much as ever spoke with a counselor you should not possess guns.

Italian Rose
April 21, 2014
Comment to A gun control law that even the Massachusetts attorney general’s office thinks is unconstitutional (as applied in two cases)
[As I started reading the comment I was certain it was sarcasm and that would be made more clear by the end. But it wasn’t. Then I looked at the name, Italian Rose. Oh! They have been featured here before (and here).

I’m still not entirely sure whether it should be tagged as sarcasm or not.—Joe]

I’ve stopped getting it

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I got it earlier. It made sense earlier. It was predictable. In the fall of ’08 when a certain someone was promising to Fundamentally Transform America, and Spread The Wealth Around, it made sense that people began buying guns and ammo in huge quantities, bracing for a new round of restrictions or worse.

That was six years ago. That’s longer than the time between the attack on Pearl Harbor and the A-bombing of Nagasaki, with all the design, procurement, tooling, production and logistics efforts involved in fighting and winning a highly mechanized, all-out war over most of the planet.

So why is there still almost no powder or 10 mm bullets on the shelves?

Yes, I’m venting, and yes I’m sitting on the sidelines complaining while doing nothing about it.

A twilight zone of my own making

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If it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, it’s a duck, right? Not necessarily.

Yesterday I got a letter in the mail, clearly and properly addressed to my company, from one of our out-of-state distributors. Inside was a copy of one of our invoices to that distributor.

This is all perfectly normal as far as it goes (it is common enough to send a copy of an invoice along with the check in the amount of that invoice) except that the check was missing.

I showed it to Stephanie, our bookkeeper, with a chuckle; “Oops, it seems they made a bit of a mistake there. No check. I guess I’ll have to call them…”

But since Steph is the one who prints the invoices and posts the payments, she looked at the invoice date and number, because each distributor and account status is familiar to her.

It turns out that it was not our distributor’s mistake, but our own.

It was a VERY recent invoice, you see. We had mailed ourselves one of our own invoices, by simply reversing the positions of the two address labels. The post mark being from a nearby town and dated one or two days earlier was another clue, only noticed after Steph had identified the problem, but who studies post marks before opening mail from regular associates?

Fortunately I didn’t get so far as calling the distributor to tell them about “their mistake”.

Spending time reacting to complete misinterpretations of reality. How much of our lives are spent doing that? That’s a much deeper, broader point, see.

Hm; now if we would take to sending ourselves the checks along with the invoices, maybe we could cut out the distributors and customers altogether. Then we could call ourselves The Federal Reserve or something.