Recently in Right to Keep & Bear Arms (RKBA) Category

This last weekend, I bought a Surefire G2 Nitrolon high-output flashlight at a Reno gun show, about $35. It's a very good alternative to the more expensive, earlier metal version, the Surefire 6P. For those of my friends who are getting into defensive pistolcraft for the first time - and who have budget constraints - I recommend this lightweight version.

Today's QOTD is a bit of background on the graphic novel "Roswell, Texas" by L. Neil Smith and Scott Beiser, which has been serialized in webcomic form on the Bighead Press website. It's a kick, and I recommend it highly.

….This custom is so thoroughly ingrained that, when the Pink Nazis loot the Vatican. the survivors refugee out to former Catholic girls’ school in Brownsville, and a new Pope (the former Cardinal Fulton J. Sheen) takes over from the assassinated Pius XII, he orders that everyone working for the Church (including priests and nuns) comply with the letter and spirit of the law of the nation of which they are presently guests. That’s why you see a .22 Colt Woodsman — ” … only a Popegun, sir … ” — on the poker table at Pius XIII’s elbow.

….The only standing groups resembling a military are the Texas Rangers (of which there are damned few — “One riot, one Ranger”), and the Texas Air Militia, which only has half a dozen planes.

….With a thoroughly armed society (of course you can get out of gun-toting if you apply for a license _not_ to carry a gun and go through fingerprinting and psychiatric evaluation) who needs an army or the cops?

L. Neil Smith
"Taxes in the Federated State of Texas"

As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I met my friend Dale Seago at the Pleasanton Highland Games this last weekend. Both Dale and our dojo chum Garland were wearing the new version of the Cold Steel Special Projects Scottish Dirk, which Dale reviews today in Swordforum.com. I was deeply impressed, and took Dale's advice to order it from the vendor indicated by Froogle as the lowest price supplier, Premium Knives. Noticing how Garland's unmodified Cold Steel-supplied dirk sheath loop seemed flimsy, I took Dale's advice at the Games to pick up a Scottish Dirk Frog from onsite vendor Ravenwood Leather, for the amazingly low price of $10.

I'm looking forward to receiving the knife in a few days.

Part of the human condition is that we make an emotional investment in our hardware. We allow a caliber, cartridge, or specific firearm to define us rather than the other way around. It is understandable, as many of us are happy to say we are a "Bud-man," a "Harley-man," a "Swaro kind of guy," or a variety of other tenuous ways of describing nothing in particular. Though we talk of "inherent accuracy" (a dubious concept, indeed), few would attempt defining it, only parroting that it exists.

We take the same path in using unsophisticated terms to describe sophisticated events. "Knock-down" is one, a physically impossible concept that is never the less widely used. The same strained, tortured approach is used to define "kinetic energy" and "energy transfer." Autopsies are not fun reads; nor are obituaries. We will search long and hard to find a medical report that lists "kinetic energy" as the cause of death.

Surely, after all these years, there must be one recorded instance where a human being lost his life to a sudden gust of kinetic energy? Yet, medical journals are generally void of energy and velocity as causes of death. Perhaps it is because neither ever is. Those waiting for the Surgeon General to alert us to avoid kinetic energy exposure are in for a very long wait, indeed.

The Gut-Wrenching Nightmare of Caliber Worship
by Randy Wakeman

L. Neil Smith finally does a real blog, "L. Neil Smith at Random", with comments enabled. I've long thought that Neil's writing would fit the format, and now I'm sure of it.

I picked up a decent sword stand in San Francisco's Chinatown yesterday. It's 23 inches high, $25 (apparently non-negotiable in the store from which I bought it) and comes in four matt-lacquered wood pieces with a set of wood screws. Power screwdriver in hand, I assembled it in a couple of minutes. Here it is with my Bugei Samurai Koshirae Katana:

The base is indented to hold the end of the saya in place, and seems fairly sturdy. They're available in most of the tourist gift shops in San Francisco's Chinatown. Not as common as the conventional over-the-mantlepiece (or in the tokonoma) horizontal stand, but has a nice "shotgun ready rack" aspect to it.

FEMA, in fact, is an illegal organization. It's mentioned nowhere in the Constitution (which lists the lawful powers of the government in Article I, Section 8), nor did anybody ever vote about it, neither you nor I, nor even the Congress. It was created out of thin air by Presidential fiat, and given unprecedented power to override, at gunpoint, the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and the rule of law in general.

L. Neil Smith

I'm rested now and recovered from last weekend's attendance at the 4-day tactical shotgun course at Front Sight Firearms Training Institute near Las Vegas, Nevada. I surprised myself by making Distinguished Graduate, so I'm now qualified to come back to attend the 4 Day Advanced Tactical Shotgun course. On the second day of training, Greg Carroll snapped this pic of me after the two of us had done our respective runs through the outdoor canyon "clean the hostage takers out" simulator exercise:

The (visible) firearm is my Benelli M1 Super 90, with a nylon tactical sling and a GG&G M3 Tactical Illuminator mounting rail in the 2 o'clock position on the foreend, not the 10 o'clock position GG&G recommends on their website (experience in a previous course having shown me that, as a right-handed longgunner, the 10 o'clock position allows the light to bump on.)

I'd last done a tactical shotgun course about 4 years ago, and so I was quite interested to see how training doctrine had changed in respect of that weapon at Front Sight. The men in the evolution I attended - those 13 in the class who were there for the full 4 days - were all at least previous attendees at another weapon systems class (e.g. defensive handgun, practical rifle) so the class was run at a slightly accelerated pace befitting the audience. Attendees were about evenly divided between cops, active duty military (a Marine heading back to Iraq soon) and private citizens, all of whom were treated exactly the same by the instructional staff, the excellent Chuck Burnett and John Pierson.

One difference I noticed was the much heavier emphasis on incorporating movement, keeping the fight dynamic, and training that way to the limited extent allowed in the "square range environment." I was particularly pleased that, after the Monday (4th day) afternoon skills test, and the "load and go" indoor tactical simulator, I was allowed to do several rounds of 2-man team shooting on the move, with my new friend David L. Loads of fun, and I was pleased to find that a walking skill I'd been cultivating the last few years, walking fast with very short tank-tread heel/toe action to keep the hips and shoulders on level planes, allowed me to get good hits moving both forward and backward, without muzzle bob.

I'm at a level of membership at Front Sight that allows me to take any firearms course free for the rest of my life, much like some golf club memberships. So, I get to take these courses again and again, which allows me not only to revisit, revive, and refine my skills, but also to work out equipment issues. I've discovered I really don't like the Lyman TacStar SideSaddle mounted on the left side of the receiver: it catches on my clothing, when loaded it dampens recoil (and hence reliability) on this recoil-operated weapon, and with the standard provided cross-receiver screw, was coming loose even though I'd installed it properly and Lock-Tited it. I guess a couple of thousand rounds will do that to the Lock-Tite. That, and I'm leery of over-tightening that screw for fear of impeding bolt travel. Oh, and there's the issue of potentially "egging out" the screw holes on the aluminum receiver. My friend David assures me that, should I care to keep the SideSaddle, I can send the weapon to a gunsmith who specializes in Class 3 firearms with aluminum receivers, experienced in setting up weapons to resist receiver failure, but I'm going to switch to keeping my slug rounds on a belt carrier anyway.

Nor am I going to solve the "problem" of having extra ammo by changing out the tube magazine from a 5 to an 8 round capacity. This is my home invasion repellant device... if I can't solve The Problem with what's available in that weapon, then I'm in a very serious situation indeed. I'm more and more preferring lighter, more maneuverable weapons the more I train, with as few bells and whistles as I can get away with. I've heard more than one long arms instructor over the years comment on how students will arrive at a course with their all-singing, all-dancing Space Gun rigs, everything mounted everywhere, only to find themselves quickly shedding equipment after the first day... especially when training in the 105 F degree desert heat. Heh.

Recommendation: check out Estate Cartridge's low-recoil 12-gauge 9-pellet 00 SWAT loads. I've used this buckshot at a previous shotgun course, and had made the decision to attend this most recent course with too little lead time to order more of the same for this class. So, I had a mere few dozen of them to use at various times during this course, instead using a mix of Winchester and Federal buckshot for most exercises. No comparison. At half the price of Federal, the Estate-branded cartridges gave outstandingly tight and nicely distributed (e.g. no annular "donuts of death") patterns, turning heads on the firing line and eliciting a number of "what are you shooting, man?" enquiries.

I had the pleasure of remaking the acquaintance of at least one old friend, who was taking a course on an adjacent range. Additionally, I was happy to have a couple of libertarian friends, longtime (but previously untrained) gunowners, take the full 4 Day Defensive Handgun course on the same weekend. Both men, Alan and Chris, came away from the experience very much more competent than when they arrived.

The idea of a constitution, we’re told, is to limit government power. It’s supposed to bind the government to certain operational procedures that restrict its ability to violate rights. So a constitution cannot grant human rights; it can only spell out what are seen as the proper functions of government, and try to limit its ability to invade rights.

The US constitution came perhaps as close to this ideal as possible, until its meaning was perverted into a complete reversal, from restricting power to enabling it, from binding government to giving government a mandate for a thousand things to do to us.

But here is the problem. Constitutions by necessity leave the government as the primary enforcement agency. It’s like a memo: "Government to Self: don’t become tyrannical." It only works so long as the enforcement agent operates in good faith. If we remember that the worst rise to the top in government, as Hayek noted, we can have no realistic expectation that this good faith will last. Government gains not by adhering to its own restrictions, but by re-rendering them as positive mandates.

Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.
"A Constitution for Iraq"

In my opinion, ninjutsu is not a spiritual system (outside the confines of martial training) or a religion. Some may disagree.

Asking for ninjutsu without the martial aspects would be akin to asking some Navy SEAL "I want the spiritual strength and tenacity of a Navy SEAL but I don't want to do any hard physical training."

Jeff Sherwin

My teacher Dale Seago sent this reference to "Oppressive Knife Laws" to our dojo's mailing list. This summary dates from 1998, but is a nicely written short piece on the key features of this particular type of prohibitionism.

A new online bookseller recommended by a member of my extropians mailing list: "Bill of Rights Press," for those hard-to-find titles that Laissez-Faire Books won't carry.

Jim Lesczynski reports that "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" on Comedy Central is repeating last night's new episode tonight at 4pm Pacific (7pm Eastern) time, with the 18 February 2003 segment in which he was featured, "Guns For Tots," spliced in.

My friend L. Neil Smith emailed this today:

"Russell --

I thought you and Dale [Seago] might enjoy seeing a project I put together a long time ago, possibly before you came to Fort Collins the first time. As you can see, it's a Camillus Marine Corps knife wedded to a bayonet. It fits my M1 Carbine, the standard issue bayonet for which is a disgrace.

Note the serrated portion at the base of the blade. That was done with a
checkering file. Ahead of my time, I guess."

Here's another:

My Bujinkan teacher Dale followed up:

"Very sweet piece of work -- nicely done!!

BTW, the Marine Corps has adopted a new official-issue bayonet which largely retains the look of the old Ka-bar, but with a longer blade (8" instead of 7"). It's an issue item for Marines, but available commercially for private purchase as well."

This is the new Marine issue item, the "ON3S ONTARIO Marine Bayonet Khaki Brown Handle And Sheath 8" Blade":

Cops are armed when civilians can't be, often with weapons civilians can't have. I can't tell you how sick I get of seeing notations in catalogs like Brigade Quartermaster that certain items are for cops only.

Cops live and operate within a strict hierarchy, usually with titles like "sergeant", "lieutenant", "captain", and so forth. Most of them wear military-style uniforms, and an argument can be made that so-called "plainclothes" operations ought to be outlawed. Increasingly, they wear military battledress and carry military weapons.

Cops form a culture all to themselves, like professional soldiers, and usually have little to do with those who are not cops. They do call us "civilians". I never heard this term "little people" before. They also call us "assholes" and say that the public just consists of criminals who haven't been caught yet. I know because I was there at one time.

Yeah, I understand the theory that they're civilians, too. I repeat that it's bullshit. What they are, in fact, is an occupying military force, with strategic bases in every hamlet in the nation -- which is why they and their hangers-on lie to us and possibly to themselves about being civilians, too.

They are the very standing army that the Founding Fathers were afraid of.

And for good reason.

L. Neil Smith
In response last night to a post I made on a mailing list about how cops refer to non-cops as "civilians" when they, too, are in fact "civilians."

Another image from my recent trip to Beijing, this one a sign at Beihai Park admonishing visitors not to do or bring certain things into the park. I'm still trying to figure out what it all means. One is a pictogram apparently forbidding rifles in the park:

Indeed, I am opposed even to free market supplied "police" in the conventional sense. The potential - indeed, universal reality - of armed agencies abusing their power is such that I believe that it is foolish for individuals to delegate their use of just force and to rely on third parties. We need an armed citizenry, the "hue and cry", and the use of specialist/expert "martials" for arrest only in restricted cases.

Dr. Chris R. Tame
Excerpted with permission from a recent private correspondance

For a martial art to be a martial art, rather than some other form of physical expression (some other "art" entirely), its focus must remain on fighting. A truly accomplished warrior may renounce violence -- but only his or her mastery of violence makes this possible. If the style or system you study leaves you unable to defend yourself in a realistic self-defense scenario, it may indeed be an art -- but it is not martial at all. Its practitioners delude themselves if they believe that it is.

In the same vein, a martial art or martial artist whose attitude towards weapons is one of contempt, mistrust, fear, or condescension tells you volumes about its, his, or her "martialism." Weapons are force multipliers -- tools that perform the same function as hammers, levers, and pliers in that they make it easier to accomplish a specific task. As the purpose of a martial art is to deliver force against another human or group of humans, only the most ignorant of martial artists would dismiss or reject tools that make performing this task more efficient and less risky. There is no such thing as an immoral tool. There are only immoral tool users.

Phil Elmore

Today is National Ammo Day, our favorite buycott.

Anton Sherwood has moved his musings to a blogging system with a commenting facility and much friendlier navigation. No trivial feat, given that he's been blogging (in one place) since February 2002... this meant converting over 1400 postings! Take a look.

The infamous "Assault Weapons Ban" died today. I wish I had more time to express my happiness about this, but I'm extremely busy.

By the title, I mean I didn't expect that my friend Andy would be taking a picture of me at this moment:

It was pretty dark in the shade of the shooting stall, in stark contrast with the sunny range, and no fill flash was used. I managed to extract a bit more information using the GIMP.

Firearm was a full-frame H&K USP in .45ACP, firing on a "hostage rescue" metal silhouette at 15 meters. Hard shot, wouldn't want to have to do that for a living. I would never seek to be in such a horrifying predicament, and certainly wouldn't want to have to use a pistol, at relative long range, unsupported, to try pulling it off. Still, one should always train for the unthinkable.

I'll tell you what I'd prefer our government's foreign policy to be, assuming we need to have a State at all. My proposal is pretty simple: Swiss-style armed neutrality. That means no invasions, no military threats, no foreign aid, no "covert operations", no military bases outside the country, no attempts to influence the internal affairs of foreign countries whatsoever.

No one blows up bombs in the streets of Geneva. No one from Switzerland gets kidnaped in third world countries to protest the evils of Swiss foreign policy. Wherever they go, at worst, people think of the Swiss as boring — it is rare that anyone feels the need to buttonhole someone from Zurich or Lugano and tell them off for what their government does.

The Swiss are not pacifists, though. They have a very strong militia for defense, and in times past when Europe was less peaceful, it would have been extremely costly for an attacker to invade them. Even if (in the case of particularly strong enemies) an invasion might have ultimately succeeded, it would have yielded very little of value at an astonishing expense.

Perry Metzger

If forced to shoot someone in self defence, you should claim that you were robbing him at gunpoint after discovering him in your home.

That way you get out on probation immediately, can buy a replacement firearm off "the street", and serve no jail time.

Kristopher Barrett

Jeffrey L "the Hunter" Jordan is freed, with a few hundred dollars' fines (and months of expense and a lost job and other anguish,) and even gets to keep his own property. I first posted about this 8 months ago. I'm glad it's (mostly) over, with the exception of his upcoming expected fight with Verizon over their cowardly treatment of him. More news as it happens.

By the way, I did notice the glaring omission of the National Rifle Association in the list of those organizations that assisted Jordan. Figures.

Prakash Chandrashekhar, a libertarian blogger in India, recommends L. Neil Smith's "The Probability Broach" on AnarCapLib.

Monica White comments on L. Neil Smith's "Captain Bligh’s Revenge," in which he informs us (I'd not known) that the British government is intent on wrecking the tiny society of Pitcairn Island: stealing their guns and imprisoning those who don't conform to their standards of marriage practice.

Anton Sherwood informs me of this funny little cartoon rant against "smart guns"; the lead character reminds me very vaguely of Cerebus the Aardvark.

As Congressman Ron Paul has said, "To many politicians the American government is America and patriotism means working for the benefit of the state." Thus, on a crude level, the draft appeals to patriotic fervor. This, according to Congressman Paul, is why the idea of compulsory national service, whether in the form of military conscription or make-work programs like AmeriCorps, still sells on Capitol Hill. Conscription is wrongly associated with patriotism, when it really represents collectivism and involuntary servitude.

Ronald Reagan said it best: "The most fundamental objection to draft registration is moral." He understood that conscription assumes our nation's young people belong to the state. Yet America was founded on the opposite principle; that the state exists to serve the individual. The notion of involuntary servitude, in whatever form, is simply incompatible with a free society.

Michael Badnarik

Chris Claypoole has some interesting commentary today inspired by his recent reading of Eric Raymond's essay "Ethics from the Barrel of a Gun."

I had already known that disarming the public was a standard tactic of repressive governments. I have always been a "no compromise" supporter of the right to bear arms, but from the perspective of the right to self-defense. I had not made the connection between bearing arms (not merely gun ownership, but carrying as a normal part of life) and development of a responsible adult. The kind of person that will take responsibility for his/her actions, regardless of the consequences, motives, or lack of full information. Which means that this kind of person tends to think before acting when possible, and act decisively from a sound set of ethical principles when necessary.

This brings me to the tangential epiphany: When Robert A. Heinlein wrote that "An armed society is a polite society," I had always thought he meant that people tend not to act like an asshole if it might get them ventilated. Now I believe that what was also, and more importantly, meant was that people in an armed society grow up polite because they are armed! Knowing that a careless act or moment of unguarded anger could ruin your life and end someone else's will make the vast majority of people act more responsibly.

Orkut.com and Chris Claypoole both inform me that Libertarian Party presidential candidate Michael Badnarik hits the half-century mark today. Congrulations on your continued survival!

Brian Smith passes on this fantastic link to a placed call eMachineShop. Their blurb:

eMachineShop is the remarkable new way to get the custom parts you need. Download our free software, draw your part, and click to order - it's that easy! Your part will be machined and delivered. Even better, your cost is low due to the Internet, software, and automated machines.

Why waste time traveling, calling, faxing or emailing to conventional machine shops? Reduce your total time up to 90% and open doors to new products and projects. Intelligent design software gives instant exact pricing, expert feedback, and unrivaled convenience.

I meant to publish this a couple of days ago, but since I've been busy with work and school, I simply made some quick notes on an index card, which I'm posting here now.

On Tuesday of this week, while wrapping up some work and getting ready to head out to my night class, I had the TV in the background tuned to the Fox News Channel, and was about to turn it off, since the segment that was starting to air was that of Bill O'Reilly, a rude, populist jerk whom I can't stand, broadcasting from the Democratic national convention in Boston. I decided to leave the tuner alone and watch a very short segment (1701-1710 Pacific time) of an impromptu, live interview with Ben Affleck, who was attending the convention.

Unscripted, Affleck actually acquitted himself well; he's not quite the empty shell the press makes him out to be. I was particularly interested to hear him make the following assertion, when questioned by O'Reilly about his political leanings, after calling himself a "moderate liberal" and emphasizing that he doesn't necessarily hew to a party line:

I believe in all the Bill of Rights, including the Second Amendment.

That's a direct quote from Ben Affleck, which I'm preserving here, without editorially correcting "all the" to read "all of the." I'm not sure why I'm preserving this, but it's not inconceivable that the guy might run for some public office eventually, as his career (continues to) wane.

A few weeks ago, on a mailing list I run, it was reported to me by a good friend that the present management of the Extropy Institute disavows free-market libertarianism as its politico-economic root. As a matter of fact, we're told, extropianism was never about liberty and its deepest ramifications. To those people, I have a large number of examples from the early history of the extropian movement which contradict that claim, such as this reprint of a short declaration by law professor Tom Bell, writing in 1988 as "T.O. Morrow," a piece called "Economics and Politics" (words in brackets below added by me for clarification):

As information processing systems, good economic and political systems must meet the same standards that apply to any of their kind; they must achieve their ends efficiently. Researchers such as Friedrich Hayek have demonstrated that the most efficient economic and political systems are those that exert a minimum of control, allowing spontaneous orders to flourish. Economic and political systems must furthermore advance (trans)human ends. Extropy [magazine] takes the [editorial] point of view that these two qualifications are entirely compatible; the most efficient economic and political systems are those that maximize human liberty. Thus the best economic systems are free market, and the best political systems libertarian. (Libertarians assert that the state, if one is neccessary, should permit all acts except assault, theft and fraud.) Extropy [magazine] will pursue such free market and libertarian analyses of economic and political systems, working toward the day when economic and political systems serve us, rather than we them.

(T.0. Morrow, '88-'98. All Rights Reserved. Please attach this paragraph to all copies. Fully attributed noncommercial use of this document hereby permitted.)

This was, as mentioned, published in the paper version of Extropy magazine (a copy of which I own), and is notated "online version, edited Nov. '96." I plan to publish many more such examples as I run across them, at my convenience. Why? Well, while I do acknowledge that the term "extropian" has been diluted to the extent it's indistinguishable from standard socialist transhumanism - and this is a tragic thing - I will not stand for the historical revisionism being pushed by some of those in the existing "extropian" movement... especially since I've been around that movement from the very beginning, and will not drink the Kool-Aid.

An excellent essay by Eric Raymond, "Ethics from the Barrel of a Gun: What Bearing Weapons Teaches About the Good Life." (Thanks to Steve Pegram.)

To believe one is incompetent to bear arms is... to live in corroding and almost always needless fear of the self — in fact, to affirm oneself a moral coward. A state further from the dignity of a free man would be rather hard to imagine. It is as a way of exorcising this demon, of reclaiming for ourselves the dignity and courage and ethical self-confidence of free (wo)men that the bearing of personal arms, is, ultimately, most important.

This is the final ethical lesson of bearing arms: that right choices are possible, and the ordinary judgement of ordinary (wo)men is sufficient to make them.

Armalite announces how they'll deal with the AWB sunset (thanks to Steve Pegram): "the ArmaLite® Post-PostBan ™ Rifle Program."

Kristopher Barrett passes along this amusing photolog of colorful AR-15 furniture. Someone should inform the Pink Pistols.

Anton Sherwood has found an interesting advocacy of the right to keep and bear arms... as a campaign issue by liberal Democratic editorial cartoonist Ted Rall, "Democrats for Guns: Why Kerry Should Stand Up for the Second Amendment":

The best argument for coming out as a pro-gun nut relates to the need for an adjustment to the long-term strategy of the Democratic Party. For too long, both parties have treated the Constitution like a Chinese menu. Republicans whittle away at the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches and smear opponents who exercise their First Amendment right to free speech. Democrats rail against the states rights expressed by the Tenth Amendment and absurdly argue that the placement of a comma reflects the founders' original intent to limit gun ownership to members of 18th century militias. Aside from its fundamental intellectual dishonesty, our politicians' take-some-leave-others attitude deviates from most citizens' belief that every section of the Constitution holds equal weight.

First of all, the Founding Fathers loathed a democracy, calling it a tyranny of the majority. The United States is not a democracy. The United States is a constitutional Republic based on private party and individual rights. In the 1860s we passed the 13th amendment, which presumably eliminated slavery and it took well over 100 years to erase the racial hatred between the whites and the blacks. How does the American government think that they can go into another country and
override thousands of years of culture? It is not our job to export anything except products and services.

Michael Badnarik

Security is an important aspect of a good life, but if you live in a society where a government potentate can nullify your citizenship and completely strip you of your rights just because he doesn't like your looks, with no real accountability for his actions, then you are not secure at all.

Self-defense is as basic a bodily function as eating and defecating, and cannot truly be delegated -- unless you want to live life as an effective cripple, or as someone else's property.

Scott Bieser

Personally, while I like [L.] Neil [Smith]'s idea in Hope of a "Bill of Rights Party", I think a better idea would be a "Mind your own damned business party":

Don't like guns? Don't own one, and mind your own damned business!
Don't like homosexuals? Don't associate with them, and mind your own damned business!
Don't like pagans? Don't associate with them, and mind your own damned business!
Don't like nuclear power? Don't use it, and mind your own damned business!
Don't like hunting? Don't hunt, and mind your own damned business!

See how easy it is? All the individual has to do is live and let live, follow the basic precepts of ALL major religions, as far as love, tolerance and respect, and mind their own damned business!

Ron Beatty

Reed's Sporting Goods in San Jose, California is having its 46th Annual Firearms, Ammo, and Reloading Sale, which started yesterday and runs through this Sunday, 18 July 2004. They generally have excellent deals on a very healthy selection (for California) of goods. Every year, too, Winchester shows up with at least a semi-tractor load of their high-quality ammunition. I'm going to try to make it today or tomorrow. Any of my local friends are welcome to join me.

Jackie D at Samizdata reprints a recent article by Hollywood screenwriter Robert J. Avrech, "Jews and Guns":

Ariel [Avrech's recently deceased son] was always amazed at how many Jews - Shomer Shabbos Jews - aligned themselves with the advocates of gun control, in reality a movement to banish the private ownership of guns by lawful citizens. During the Los Angeles riots of 1992, Karen and I, Ariel and Leda were inside a film theatre. Abruptly, an angry mob congregated outside; soon they were trying to break down the doors. Trapped inside, we were all terrified. I held Leda in my arms; she shivered like a frightened rabbit. Karen held Ariel's hand.

"Don't worry," I said with false confidence, "the police will be here soon."

But the police did not arrive that night, nor did they protect the city from arson and widespread looting. In fact, we watched in disbelief as news cameras captured images of police officers standing idly by while looters gleefully committed their crimes.

A few days later, I bought a gun.

I bought a gun because I realized that the day might come again when the people who were sworn to protect us would once again choose not to.

Bob Tipton has a less than stellar experience with a Savage Scout.

I was told of this by a poster to the smith2004-discuss list, an incredibly meticulous comparison of the performances of a number of common ammunition types: "Terminal Ballistics Comparison in Water Media", a compilation of many years of data generated by 84 year old Carmon Crapson (published by Stephen Ricciardelli.)

Texas congressman Ron Paul, in today's "Texas Straight Talk", reports on an incredibly intrusive expansion of the American census, the "American Community Survey":

You may not have heard of the American Community Survey, but you will. The national census, which historically is taken every ten years, has expanded to quench the federal bureaucracy’s ever-growing thirst to govern every aspect of American life. The new survey, unlike the traditional census, is taken each and every year at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars. And it’s not brief. It contains 24 pages of intrusive questions concerning matters that simply are none of the government’s business, including your job, your income, your physical and emotional heath, your family status, your dwelling, and your intimate personal habits.

The questions are both ludicrous and insulting. The survey asks, for instance, how many bathrooms you have in your house, how many miles you drive to work, how many days you were sick last year, and whether you have trouble getting up stairs. It goes on and on, mixing inane questions with highly detailed inquiries about your financial affairs. One can only imagine the countless malevolent ways our federal bureaucrats could use this information. At the very least the survey will be used to dole out pork, which is reason enough to oppose it.

Keep in mind the survey is not voluntary, nor is the Census Bureau asking politely. Americans are legally obligated to answer, and can be fined up to $1,000 per question if they refuse!

Well, isn't this this grand: national concealed carry for cops has become a reality, but the rest of us have to go state-by-state for our "permits" to exercise our fundamental civil right.

James R. Rummel passes on a fascinating account of harassment of the Pink Pistols contingent by goons at the Stonewall Union gay pride march. The offending security guard - and her goons - seem to have bought hook, line & sinker the dogma that people with guns are predators, while in fact (in this case) they are usually protectors. If you read into the comments, you'll see where a legally savvy person notes the legal basis for taking the guard and her 20 goons to court, in some detail. Interesting indeed.

Anders Monsen informs us of the publication by Brad Linaweaver and J. Kent Hastings of "ANARQUÍA: An Alternate History of the Spanish Civil War," which sounds like a great deal of fun in the vein of L. Neil Smith's "The Probability Broach." I'm a fan of Linaweaver's work, such as his excellent "Moon of Ice," which comes to market far too rarely.

If a politician isn't comfortable with any individual being able to walk into a hardware store, pay cash for any firearm without producing identification or signing a single scrap of paper (and that individual being able to carry that protection concealed or open), then that politician does not support freedom.

Gun-control laws only disarm potential victims, thus creating a safe work environment for criminals - kind of like an OSHA for felons. And criminals won't be deterred from getting a weapon because of a law. Criminals don't follow laws. Any attempt to rid the world of a tool that would give my 130-pound wife a fighting chance against a 230-pound man would be immoral.

Ernest Hancock

A couple of weeks ago, my friend Steve Pegram passed along a detailed and fascinating online version of a military report generated last summer, "SOLDIER WEAPONS ASSESSMENT TEAM REPORT 6-03". Much of the report is rather dry, given the nature of such a document, but scattered throughout are a great many little observational gems such as this:

...soldiers rank reliability and durability as key weapon characteristics and are not willing to trade them for anything – to include weight. Similarly, soldiers do not consider the weapon as part of their load, but rather as an enabler. They are willing to carry the weight if the weapon or device increases his lethality. This is best illustrated by soldiers purchasing their own magnified optics and the strong desire to carry an additional sidearm or shotgun for defensive and offensive purposes. Lethality is more important to the soldier than any other consideration or factor.

Here's empirical verification of the usefulness of white lights in combat, a point which I've had driven home by anecdotes from trainers at every school I've attended:

Several soldiers were observed with flashlights taped to their weapons and some using the Weapon Flashlight Mount. But all soldiers described using the tactical light for temporary target incapacitation.

Libertarian Party presidential candidate Michael Badnarik has a blog.

My friend Franklin sent along this ironic bit of news from Saudi Arabia: "Saudi: Foreigners can carry guns."

Brian Smith informs us that Bushmaster now markets an AR-10 semiclone that accepts FN-FAL magazines (both inch and metric). This is fairly interesting to me, since I've been mulling over picking up a carbine in .308 caliber since I encountered the Springfield Armory SOCOM 16 in a gun store a few weeks ago.

I'm sure this is old news now, but I just found out that the ultralightweight carbon-fiber Carbon 15 rifle is now a Bushmaster offering. I've had the opportunity to handle one of these 4-pound carbines in training, and found it rather pleasant. I'd be interested in knowing how rugged they actually are.

Eric Pavao reports that Libertarian Party presidential candidate Michael Badnarik of Austin, Texas will be interviewed by Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly tonight.

Bill of Rights Nullification by the US Supreme Court:

They have nullified the first: you have to be a politician to criticise a politician on TV or radio before an election.

They have nullified the second, repeatedly, since 1934.

They have nullified the third: we are now serfs, via taxation. We don't directly quarter the troops... they wouldn't lower themselves to live in our hovels.

They have nullified the fourth: there is no such thing as an illegal search anymore.

They have nullified the fifth: remaining silent is now unlawful.

They have nullified the sixth: you only get a speedy trial if the Supreme Court decides you deserve one, jurors are subordinated to the judges, and you can be tried secretly or get no trial at all if you are declared a "terrorist."

They have nullified the seventh: unless your civil case involves the exchange of 21 antique silver dollars, you have no right to a jury trial.

They have nullified the eighth: if you are declared a terrorist, it's torture and Gitmo time for you.

They have nullified the ninth: apparently the commerce clause and vague language about the common good cannot be contradicted by a later AMENDMENT.

They have nullified the tenth: no Supreme Court judge since the 1803 Marbury decision has obeyed that one.

The United States Supreme Court has finally nullified every one of the Bill of Rights amendments through judicial fiat. The destruction of rule of law in the U.S. is now complete.

Kristopher Barrett

Steve Pegram passes this on:

Note the name of the castle first build specifically to protect against firearms.

The first castle in Britain to be designed specifically for defense by guns was Ravenscraig Castle located in Scotland. Built in 1460.

I have come to the conclusion that the reason people don't just "throw the bums out" and vote for freedom, is that they genuinely are afraid of their neighbors. They fear freedom for other people, thinking that regulation is the only thing that stands between themselves and violent death.

Handguns are an excellent example. Someone who wouldn't think twice about balancing their own checkbook, and "looking both ways" before crossing the street, dreads a handgun because it represents no longer relying on those regulations for personal safety.

They cannot admit that regulations do not provide "safety", so anything that reflects badly on those regulations is itself anathema. They fear what firearms in private hands truly represents.

This adds yet another layer to hoplophobia. It makes it still harder for someone with the condition to admit they are irrational, because they might honestly say they do not "fear" guns.

They fear their neighbors. What an awful fear that must be.

Curt Howland

Don't become a novelist; be a statistician, much more scope for the imagination.

via Samizdata

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.

Ronald Reagan

Today's the 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy. I'm reminded that a couple of weeks ago, a couple of friends of mine and I went shooting at a rifle range in northern California, taking a number of weapons including an M1 Garand rifle which probably saw action in WWII. Here, my friend Andy Chen, a brand new shooter (and 18 y/o college classmate), fires my other friend's Garand:

This was Andy's first time out shooting... and on steel reactive targets set out at 100 meters - after having been briefed on safety and weapon operation - he kept up with us two trained, experienced shooters, at least on the sandbag rests. He's spent his high school years reading military history, and knows an incredible amount of factual data on weapons history. He's also used to playing first-person shooter games - in which I've never been interested, thinking them useless for training - causing me to start to re-think my opinions of twitch games.

An older gentleman at an adjacent shooting stall took some time to discuss the Garand with Andy, pointing out that he had ordered his own Garand (which he was also shooting) from the U.S. federal government's Civilian Marksmanship Program, which I've heard about over the years, though I'd bought my own past two Garands from commercial sources.

I'm encouraging Andy to join a local CMP-affiliated club and shoot a match this summer, so that he can be eligible to buy at least a "rack grade" rifle for as low as $350... shipped Fedex directly to his door (yes, they do that)! I don't see Garands selling at gun shows for less than around $800 nowadays. Here's a very detailed and interesting account, with photos, of the experiences of two CMP participants in the purchase and shooting of their own CMP Garands.

It's especially worth noting, for California residents, that a Garand is "Kalifornia legal", making it an excellent rifle to keep locked in the trunk of one's car... just in case. Also note that a number of companies (such as Smith Enterprises) do "tanker conversions" to shorten the overall length, and one can convert the weapon to .308 caliber.

It is a shame that the precautionary principle is not applied to government regulation: in the absence of any overwhelming proof that it will work, such regulation ought to be prohibited.

Antoine Clarke

Just heard on our dojo mailing list that Discovery Channel will air "Ninjas" tonight twice, at 1800 and 2100 PST. I've heard Stephen Hayes will put in an appearance. I have no idea whether this show will suck or not, but I'll be recording it regardless.

I found out from posters to the smith2004-discuss list this morning that C-SPAN keeps video archives of recent shows available for downloading. A search for "libertarian" on their website yields all the video coverage of the recent Libertarian Party nominating convention in Atlanta along with a follow-up interview (which I'm playing now) with the newly nominated presidential candidate Michael Badnarik.

All of us must begin telling everyone we know—especially if they're not libertarians—that if they're fed up with this mess the Republicans have made in Iraq and Afghanistan, if they want to see the USA Patriot Act go down in flames, along with all the unconstitutional intrusions and limitations that it has inflicted on us, if they want to see drug laws, the income tax, and federal gun laws repealed, and if they don't believe life under a Kerry Administration would be any better than it has been under Bush, their only option is to see both "major" parties shocked and embarrassed by a high turnout for Michael Badnarik.

L. Neil Smith

Michael Lorrey reports on Orkut community Libertarians the results a few minutes ago of the presidential candidate nomination at the national convention in Atlanta, Georgia:

LP 3rd ballot

256 249 423 Michael Badnarik winner
246 244 Gary Nolan
258 285 344 Aaron Russo
xxx 005 011 NOTA [None Of The Above]
015 others

All single digit vote candidates dropped on 1st ballot.
NOTA is never dropped.
Nolan is dropped on 2nd ballot.
Shock. Badnarik was thought to be trailing in third place.
Nolan speaks to convention and endorses Badnarik.

I'm happy, I like Mike, I met him in November at the LPNH convention, where he gave one of his Constitution classes.

I'm happy too: these results give me some confidence that the Libertarian Party is serious about its founding principles. Congratulations to Badnarik! I'm looking forward to seeing whom he chooses as running mate... I hope he doesn't choose Nolan in a quid pro quo for having thrown his support to Badnarik after the 2nd round of voting.

Is it moral to carry arms? You bet it is! When I enter your home or your business with a firearm, concealed or otherwise, I am tacitly agreeing to share with you the responsibility for defending your property and your family. When I eat in the same restaurant, I am prepared to shed my blood in your defense. There are survivors of the horror at Luby’s in Killeen, Texas, who would appreciate what I am saying here.

I will never, never need to ask some poor cop to die for me. I value my own life enough to defend it myself. I carry arms proudly, as a free American.

Do you?

Kathryn A. Graham
"Handguns - A Moral Imperative"

Just because I'm feeling like it: a plug for my friend Jeff Chan's Right to Keep and Bear Arms website.

Scott Beiser passes this on:

Please vote in this CNN online poll regarding the assault weapons ban. The results are showing much better now than when I got [notice of it] but we still need more votes for our side.

I believe it was Dr. Johnson who said famously that "Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." It is also the first refuge of an idiot. My loyalty is to the ideas on which this country was founded, not to the two-century-long string of governments that have done their best to destroy them.

L. Neil Smith

I don't normally post more than one formal "quote of the day", but this one from Adam Michnik (I don't know who that is) coming via Chris Claypoole deserves immediate posting:

As a rule, dictatorships guarantee safe streets and terror of the doorbell. In democracy the streets may be unsafe after dark, but the most likely visitor in the early hours will be the milkman.

I first heard about this on the local news today or yesterday, and through one of "small world" circuits I've gotten used to since I discovered the Internet in the late 1980's, my friend Steve Pegram forwards me the local news station's coverage of it, "Mountain Lion killed in Palo Alto neighborhood":

The media think this footage is graphic. The officer made a good shot. She used an M4 with an EoTech. Based on my limited knowledge of cat physiology (from reading hunt reports and watching OLN) it appears to be a lung shot. I surmise this from the cat's reaction based on known lung shots I've observed on hunting shows.

Perhaps we should rename the 5.56 Poodle Shooter to Kitty Killer?

The video does go on to say that the shot was lung/heart/lung, which is almost as good as such a game shot can get (additionally breaking one or both scapulae to keep the cat from running would have been even better, and a brainstem shot would have rated "perfect".) The only thing that would have made this better is if the householder had dispatched the threat herself. By the way, I should mention that there have been several recent public accounts of mountain lion attacks on hikers in the nearby Stanford hills (The Farm really is farmland)... good riddance to bad cats.

To believe in gun control, you have to believe that it's wrong to make snide, sexist comments about women, unless the comments are about women who own guns.

Bill Hartwell

The objectives of bullies are Power, Control, Domination, Subjugation. They get a kick out of seeing you react. It doesn't matter how you react, the fact they've successful provoked a reaction is, to the bully, a sign that their attempt at control have been successful. After that, it's a question of wearing you down. The more your try to explain, negotiate, conciliate, etc the more gratification they obtain from your increasingly desperate attempts to communicate with them. Understand that it is not possible to communicate in a mature adult manner with a disordered individual who's emotionally retarded.

The Number One rule for dealing with this type of behaviour is: don't respond and don't engage. This is not as easy to do as it sounds. It's a natural response to want to defend yourself, and to put the person right. However, never argue with a serial bully; it's not a mature adult discussion, but like dealing with a child or immature teenager; whilst the serial bully may be an adult on the outside, on the inside they are like a child who's never grown up - and probably never will.

Unattributed

Well, it didn't take long for this to happen. We've been "adopted" by a stray dog. This is Pesky.

I found him at our gate, shivering and obviously starving, a couple of days ago. At first, it was a toss-up: have him put to sleep, or try to nurse him back to health. In the end, his sweet disposition won me over. If he's this nice of a dog when he's near death, he must be a genuinely nice dog. I'm keeping a watchful eye on him, however, just in case he starts to show menace. One of the side benefits of being always armed is that I can be comfortable taking controlled risks with something like an unknown dog. In an unarmed society, there would be only one route for dogs like Pesky - some gov-goon would show up and either shoot him on the spot, or lock him up for a few days until he was gassed.

Bob Tipton

BTW, do you know what you say to a person that walks into a gun store where you work, asks to see a "9mm Automatic" and then, when it is handed to him/her, slide back, promptly lets the slide slam jarringly shut on an empty chamber and then ejects the magazine onto the floor?

"How are you today, officer?"

Forrest Halford

Fuck euphemisms. Dammit. Some would have us believe that a woman raped and strangled with her underwear is somehow morally superior to one that put two rounds into the chest of that motherfucker, saving future women from his predation.

Though I suppose the recent photos of abuse in Iraq point out again that people can be abusive, not just men.

God fucking dammit.

Rapists should meet a wall, and at least one .30 bullet. Fuck. My girlfriend was reading a study to me last night on at least one American college campus that had over 60% of the male respondents answer that they might, when "rape" was substituted with "force intercourse", or similar verbiage.

Stop rape. Go armed, and love yourself enough to know that you are fucking WORTH DEFENDING.

John Shirley

[Occasional blog contributor and fulltime friend Tom Burroughes returns to us with his own endorsement of the Firefly series - Russell]

I have watched a lot of science fiction in my time, and although many films and television shows have hit great heights of drama and special effects wizardry, such as Babylon 5, very few have ever really engaged me emotionally and in humorous ways to the extent achieved by the Firefly series, now available in Britain on a DVD format.

I bought the whole set last week and it is one of the best investments I have made in a long time. I think it is a notch above B5 (high praise indeed), and I love the way it weaves in the culture of the old West with the format of a science fiction adventure. The cast are excellent, particularly the lead actor playing the ship's captain, who has a sense of humour so dry it sounds like Clint Eastwood at his best. The women are great -- frequently more than a match for the men, and ahem, very easy on the eye indeed.

The core of Firefly, as Russell has already noted, is its unmistakably libertarian sense. These adventurers, smugglers and desperadoes are up against a totalitarian world government; they are unabashed traders and entrepreneurs, fun-lovers, individualists, not to mention serious partygoers when required. Think of a series containing elements of Robert A. Heinlein, L. Neil Smith and Eastwood's finest Western, The Outlaw Josey Wales, and you will get what I mean. Oh, and throw in some superb country backing music for good measure.

I find it very distressing that as yet, Joss Whedon's creation has only made it to one full series. Back here in Britain, where our domestic TV drama is a swamp of tragic soap opera crud and the occasional historical re-reun, Firefly is like a shot of brandy to a half-drowned man. What a great series. More, more!

Wiley Clapp has an article on the BAR [Browning Automatic Rifle] in the current Shooting Illustrated. He sums it up thus:

"The BAR is like a blind date that is a little overweight and not very pretty, but redeems herself with enthusiasm and skill in the activities of the late evening."

Steve Pegram

Aaron reminds me that today is the 2nd annual BAG (Buy A Gun) Day!

The concept of porn invading our homes all by itself is simply the right-wing equivalent of the left-wing nonsense of guns (ahem) pulling their own triggers.

Dave Aronson

Apologies for Bob Tipton for not having gotten back to him in email, but I'd like to take the time to announce here that he's launched an interesting new blog, "Serenity: A diary of our family's experience in moving to the country." Included is a review of handgun training at Storm Mountain and other interesting material. Oh, and he does post photos; I'm a sucker for eyecandy, so I like that.

The world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil, but because of the people who do nothing about them.

Albert Einstein

When the Governor-General requested that the Miao be prevented from having weapons, and that Chinese merchants be forbidden to trade with them in such items as lead, saltpeter, and sulfur, I did not grant his request. It was not only that the Miao depend for their livelihood on the game they could kill by hunting with crossbow and fouling piece -- it was also that effective control of them had to depend on the sensitivity of the local officials. Besides which, of course, there was the question of how you can get the common people to hand over their weapons to the government officials at all -- as I pointed out to the Board of Works vice-president Muhelun when he presented his crazy scheme of disarming the people of Shantung province.

K'ang-hsi, Emperor of China from 1661 to 1722, quoted from page 35 of
"Emperor of China: Self-portrait of K'ang-hsi", compiled by Johnathan D. Spence, 1974

Brian Micklethwait today on Samizdata comments on the myth of the "Wild West" that some of us have for years known as a myth:

One of the most potent anti-liberty memes has been that simple phrase, the "Wild West". Wild as in lawless, violent, murderous. And one of the most potent pro-liberty memes is therefore, if only because it negates the first meme, the fact that the Wild West was, in the words of a famous Journal of Libertarian Studies article by Terry Anderson, the Not So Wild Wild West.

This anti-"Wild West" meme deserves wider propagation.

J. Neil Schulman's two nonfiction books on Second Amendment matters cover the territory [a reader] describe(s) pretty well. For what it's worth, you're wrong, too, about the 18th century meaning of "regulated". Back then, it meant "adequately provided for" and even later, regulation meant "facilitation", not "interference" as it does today.

He makes an even more important point by consulting two well-thought-of grammarians. The phrase containing the words "regulated" and "militia" do not condition the rest of the article in any way. In fact, as you'll read, it actually works the other way. This may be the best argument ever, as people like Madison (who wrote the amendment) and Jefferson (for whom, essentially, it was written) were very careful with their words.

There were two types of militia back then: a government-sponsored "organized" militia into which men were often conscripted - the 15,000 troops that marched on Pittsburgh in 1794 were of this sort - and volunteer "unorganized" militia. Unfortunately, the general incompetence of the former has rubbed off historically to some extent on the latter, which actually had an excellent record. The best source on this is Jeffrey Rogers Hummell.

L. Neil Smith

Anyone ought to be able to sell any kind of gun they choose, anywhere they want. Anyone who chooses to, young, old, male, female, black, white, or green, or any shade between, ought to be able to walk into any store selling guns, pick one out, purchase it with the appropriate ammunition, load it, put in their pocket and walk out, no questions asked.

To the extent that idea frightens you, the anti-gun terrorists have won.

Reginald Firehammer

And that's one of the big reasons things keep getting worse, because we let the cops get away with enforcing obviously unconstitutional laws. Any time one of them arrests somebody for breaking an unconstitutional law, he should be tried under 18 USC 241 . The kidnapping clause would apply making the punishment life in prison or death.

Bill St. Clair

Americans have the will to resist because you have weapons. If you don't have a gun, freedom of speech has no power.

Yoshimi Ishikawa, author of Strawberry Road

You know my first impression of this was in fact that the man led her away. She appears to have gone along. Reluctantly, but compliantly. There was no screaming, fighting... nothing. The girl complied as if the man was her father or teacher at school. Yet, we are told, she didn't know him.

...are we teaching our children to be too compliant and docile? Are we teaching them excessive submission to anyone in authority such as any adult? I think collectively we are. As ridiculous as it sounds, I think society is trading the Carlie Brucias away for fear of creating potential Columbine Kids.

Gabe Suarez

After chemistry class yesterday, I had the pleasure of taking a friend and classmate pistol shooting for the first time in her life, at the excellent Reed's Indoor Range in Santa Clara, California. She did very, very well, and handled my Glock 23 (.40S&W/Liberty) competently. She confirmed my long-standing impression that women learn basic pistolcraft much more quickly then men, on average: they know that they don't know, so they absorb training with intensity and sincerity, no chips on their shoulders.

I always leave the range feeling very good about the world when I introduce a friend, especially a female friend (who's much more likely to need a pistol), to the art of the pistol. I urge you to do the same: take a woman to the range this weekend.

Grouchy jackasses have rights too, and I have some difficulties with the idea that running from the cops automatically means you deserve to get the crap beaten out of you... grouchy jackasses and religious wierdos are the warning system for a free society. They're the ones the machine goes for first, because they're easy prey. Because of who and what they are, comparatively few folks are gonna leap to their defence and complain about them being treated badly. But if nobody says anything, then the machine starts getting the idea that it can get away with more daring stuff. Far too often, it's correct about that.

Joe Crow

Melissa Skypod alerts us to the Assault Weapons Ban sunset reference website Awbansunset.com:

The goal of this organization is to nurture a grass roots movement of honest citizens who want to make certain that this Act does indeed sunset, as it should. The focus of our website is to educate gun owners and non-gun owners alike with information about the history and provisions of the Assault Weapons Ban, and gun control in general. We are not working to just end this ban, but also to prohibit any further Federal action in this regard.

If you think you can get away without them knowing who you are, then running from the cops is the right thing to do.

If you think the cops are likely to pound the crap out of you because they don't like who or what you are, then running from the cops is the right thing to do.

If you think there's a chance that the cops might shoot you, then running from the cops is the right thing to do.

If you don't like being treated like a slave, then running from the cops is the right thing to do.

On the other hand, if you're a narc or a stooge, then hey, stick around and say hey. Because, after all, the police are your friends.

Joe Crow

Yesterday I posted a note about Jeffrey Jordan's indictment for concealed weapons charges in Ohio. I placed a link to that note on Packing.org, which has generated some interesting response from High Power shooters who plan to boycott attendance at Camp Perry, Ohio in protest. An example from miller1952:

You should be aware that the felony indictment of Jeffery Jordan for the "crime" of traveling through Ashland County and failing to secure his legally owned handguns in his trunk is viewed with some level of alarm in the shooting community. I am advising everyone I know to avoid Camp Perry in the future. Over the last few years rifle matches with three day venues like Perry have sprouted up in Missouri and Minnesota as an alternative to the expense of Perry. If the State of Ohio follows through with ruining this young man's life via a felony conviction I think you can expect a widespread grassroots "Boycott Ohio" movement in the gun owning community. Take a hard look at K-Mart.

Ward Griffiths has alerted me to the news today that Jeffrey Jordan has been indicted by an Ashland County, Ohio grand jury. From the article, "New Hampshire man indicted for carrying concealed weapon":

ASHLAND -- A New Hampshire man arrested last month by the state patrol was indicted Thursday on a felony count of carrying a concealed weapon by an Ashland County grand jury.

Jeffrey Jordan, 42, was arrested Dec. 31 by a trooper of the Ashland post of the Ohio Highway Patrol after a traffic stop. He faces a charge of carrying a concealed weapon because troopers said they found two handguns on him.

Jordan is scheduled to be arraigned Monday at 11:30 a.m.

...Samizdata.net took on a cool new look over the weekend.

Firearms and painkilling drugs are among the principle advancements of modern humanity. A sorry crew of US legislators have understood that it is their job to stand between human beings and these advancements made by humanity - no matter if it kills the human beings.

Mary Dolan

I'm still waiting for permissions to post some more of the pics from last night's Firefly shindig. In the meantime, while I'm waiting, I'll post one of the pics from the set which Fred Moulton handed me on a CD when we met at the event:

That's Anton Sherwood on the left, who was also in attendance at last night's Firefly shindig. I think he's dressed as "The Man with One Brown Shoe." Me, I'm dressed as myself. Really. Or, at least an aspect of myself. And yes, the blades are real. Party was at the home of Romana Machado Reynolds and Dr. Kurth Reynolds, Halloween 2003. Romana has always held cool parties.

The 1st Silicon Valley Firefly MicroMiniShindig will be held tonight in Mt. View California, and looks to be great little gathering of friends old and new. If you're planning to come but haven't told me yet, traverse the links to the RSVP instructions to tell me privately, or you can do so publicly as a comment on this blog entry.

I'm no longer looking for a copy of the Steyr Scout Owner's Manual in PDF form: I have it now, thanks to private mail from Claudio in Zaire, and Mikael Häggström in Sweden on the Yahoo! Groups ScoutRifles mailing list (who posted it into their "Files" section for other seekers). Thanks to both of you, and also to Bill St. Clair and Steve Pegram.

In the post-reconstruction period, when the pendulum swung back to overt racism, Taney's philosophy resurfaced as "the return-of-the-repressed" -- the American trauma, It was during this period that the most rabid anti-gun legislations, designed to keep guns out of the hands of black men, were enacted. This racial paranoia about black men with guns, which was at first southern, eventually spread to the north. This paranoia was potent enough to cause the infringement on a basic right: "the right... to keep and bear arms." To allow this to happen, two basic American tenets had to be ignored: one grounded in constitutional law and the other based on natural law.

Roy Innis, speaking in 1991
National Chairman, CORE (Congress of Racial Equality)

I know my paper copy of my Steyr Scout Owner's Manual is around the house somewhere, but I can't find it. Remembering that Steyr's erstwhile U.S. distributor GSI published a PDF version of the manual online, I went looking for it, and discovered it gone from the GSI site, unavailable from the Dynamit-Nobel site... and as a side effect, saw that Steyr is once again changing U.S. distributors!

I went to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine and was delighted to find snapshots of GSI's site from 2 years back... but no stored PDF documents! I've looked all over the Scout-related sites, Googling widely, still no luck. Does anyone know where I can find this file?

Being elected President and taking my cues from Alexander Hope. L. Neil Smith would be my Secretary of State ("go fuck yourselves, fellas -- TANSTAAFL!"). Russell Whitaker would be my John Pondero ("don't even THINK of reaching for it, sucker.") Genghis Khan [Mark Quon] would be my Secretary of Defense. Tom Knapp would be in charge of destroying every other Cabinet level department. ALL of you would be free to take whatever jobs you wanted, with the goal of putting yourselves OUT of a job in 60 days or less.

Alan Weiss

I was rummaging around a couple of boxes trying to find my Steyr Scout's owner's manual when I ran across this photo, which I popped into my Epson flatbed scanner:

That's me about 7 years ago hanging out with my good friend in Arizona. I like this picture.

Speaking of content on the AnCap Wiki, Terry Egan just posted a pointer to John Ross, author of "Unintended Consequences," pointing out that Ross does have a personal website.

Bill St. Clair's AnCap Wiki seems to be past the "stone soup" stage now. There are more anchors for adding content... in the form of existing content that about half a dozen contributors seem to have been adding in the last few days (myself included).

Bill St. Clair announces:

I got to playing with wiki [while] playing with one set up for collecting legal information for Hunter [Jeffrey Jordan]. I set up my own, initially to provide space to mirror that info, but then decided to call it "AnCap Wiki" and devote it to creating, in our lifetimes, anarcho-capitalist societies around the world. Check it out. Contribute if you're motivated to do so. Links to instructions near the top of the page.

The internal combustion automobile is one of the biggest engines of personal liberty ever created, right up there with the firearm. With it, the individual is free to leave the jurisdiction, free to travel on his own schedule, and free to haul an enormous amount of stuff around with him if he desires. "Mass" transit trains its users to be livestock, and so it is no wonder that our putative betters are constantly trying force us into its cattle cars. The old saw about totalitarian governments making the trains run on time cuts deeper than many think. By contrast, the automobile makes you captain of your own ship.

Robert Clayton Dean
14 January 2004

Bastiat, like many great thinkers, understood that a collective – no matter how you define it – consists of individuals, and ergo the idea of a “collective right” is based on a false premise. A collective right does not exist, because without individuals, the collective does not exist. Individual rights are the basis – the root – the foundation of any just society, because the individual is the basis, the root and the foundation of any society. Individuals create society, and consequently government. Their rights exist apart from governments and aren’t granted by other individuals. Individual rights exist because individuals exist – not vice versa. Bastiat understood this simple concept. Our Founding Fathers understood it even better. It’s only when ignorant, bed-wetting, socialist dullards, who are deathly afraid of an armed populace threatening their seat of power, get a hold of these sacred ideals, that the individual right gets mired in vacuous invective and subjugated to the great whole! Therefore, for any pseudo-intellectual hacks with pretensions to being a body of justice to noisily squawk their “interpretation” of the “collective rights” theory, and worse yet, ascribe that type of idiotic thought to those who founded this great country is ignorant, disrespectful and deceitful.

Nicki Fellenzer

Jeffrey Jordan is back in Ohio to retrieve his stuff from the For those in the area of Ashland, Ohio. If you're in town in the morning (tomorrow, Saturday 10 January), Matt Gaylor invites you to meet Jordan:

For those within driving distance of north central Ohio, please join us for breakfast with Jeff Jordan, Liberty Round Tables' The Hunter. Jeff was recently charged with carrying a concealed weapon by the Ohio State Highway Patrol. Jeff is coming back to Ohio to get his vehicle and belongings back from the OHP. You can show your support for RKBA and Jeff by showing up tomorrow. Please dress respectful, business causal would be good. Everyone who values freedom is welcome to attend.

I spoke to Jeff this afternoon and he will be in Ohio this evening along with DLT.

When: Saturday, January 10th at 9am
Where: Bob Evans Restaurant 1304 E MAIN STREET, ASHLAND OH 44805

Just exit off I-71 at St. Route 250 and head west toward Ashland. The Bob Evan's is on your right about 2-3 miles from the Interstate. Ashland is about 80 miles north of Columbus, just off of I-71.

For a map just go to Mapquest and enter the address above.

We'll meet in the parking lot, and then have breakfast together. Just look for a 2003 Black Ford F-150 Supercab as a rally point. Our presence will mainly serve as a respectful send off for Jeff and to provide moral support. Other details will be provided in person.

For additional info you can contact me on my cell phone at 614-313-5722 or DLT at 608-345-7731.

Regards, Matt Gaylor

Remember "H.E.A.P." ("Holocaust Education and Prevention") from Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon? Well, Ken Holder maintains an excellent H.E.A.P. site.

Cartoonist Scott Beiser has this to say - or portray - about the Jeffrey Jordan situation in Ohio.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports today that a "Concealed weapons compromise is reached" in Ohio (as per Matt Gaylor). Note that:

The compromise hinges on allowing broader access to gun-permit records. Under the deal, journalists would be able to get complete lists of permit-holders, rather than single names - but access would still be denied to the general public.

What would you bet one of these journalists will sell his copy of the list to someone who'll leak it to others, say, nosy neighbors? Also, does anyone else besides me object to a government grant of special privileges to the Fourth Estate in this country?

I just noticed that Fox News on 3 January 2004 published John Lott's "Why People Fear Guns" on their website.

A little over a week ago I was sitting in a hotel room in Portland, Oregon, checking my email, when I discovered that Ricky Roberson (whom I'd misattributed earlier as "Ricky James") of SciScoop had written a rather lengthy post on his site entitled "The Toy That's Not For Christmas" expressing his fascination with my ownership of an Armalite AR-50 single-shot .50BMG. I'd mentioned my discovery of his blog a few days before, and he was apparently returning the favor, in spades.

Ricky expresses his apparently sincere and heartfelt belief that if guns are going to exist, then he'd rather be in the group who has access to guns:

...I do unfortunately see the need to kill humans upon occasion - preferably a selected few key enemies instead of massive indiscriminate "shock and awe." An Armalite AR-50 is the best tool out there as far as I'm concerned for accomplishing this grisly task, and if this fearsome rifle is going to exist, I want to be in the group of people who have access to this technology instead of belonging to the group that doesn't.

While I essentially agree with this sentiment, I should point out a few things. First, I don't think the AR-50 is the best tool for that "grisly task". There are better tools for sniper and countersniper work nowadays, e.g. the 300 Winchester Magnum, or the 300 Lapua. Both these and related types are in increasingly common use nowadays by people whose paid jobs require their use as tools. A 700 grain .50 caliber bullet, for long range antipersonnel work, is fast becoming an outmoded approach. The guns are heavy, the ammo bulky, and the ballistics, while impressive, aren't nearly as optimal as the new breed of .30 caliber wonderguns (two of which I just mentioned).

Well this is interesting: journalists at the News Journal in Ohio are going deeper into the Jeffrey Jordan story, in an article today entitled "Gun-toter has 'Liberty' on his side", profiling his involvement with the Liberty Round Table, even including a sidebar with a summary of the group's mission.

Mary Lou Seymour has just published in Rational Review a comprehensive update on the Jeffrey Jordan situation, "Liberty Action of the Week: Free the Hunter."

I'd meant to get this out earlier today, but it's been a very, very busy day for me on a number of fronts. Here's the latest today from Matthew Gaylor, reprinted as usual with his explicit permission, on the Jeffrey Jordan situation, told from the first-person perspective; I've added links to his original text, for research purposes:

Hello everyone,

I thought I'd respond in an open letter format to the deluge of comments I've gotten concerning Jeff Jordan's recent arrest for CCW near Ashland, OH this past week.

First I want to thank everyone for the kind words for my helping out Jeff. It was really nothing, albeit my significant other was a little pissed about it being New Year's Eve and all, but I'd want you to help me if I got into a jam. She wasn't all that pissed as she had to work early on the 1st and went to bed early anyhow.

For those who haven't figured it out already Ohio is a state with ample law enforcement, I travel frequently by vehicle all around North American and I can always tell I'm home because the police always seem to be around. The Ohio Highway Patrol has a reputation for being one of the toughest agencies in the nation which make speeding in Ohio a risky proposition. The OHP also are vehemently anti-CCW, in fact our Republican Gov. Bob Taft, who the Cato Institute gave an "F" for fiscal policy, cites the patrol opposition to CCW as his reason for not supporting out right to carry concealed. Ohio's legislator's have passed a CCW bill, but Taft is threatening a veto unless law enforcement friendly changes are made.

Matthew Gaylor forwarded those of us on interested lists a link to the on Jeffrey Hunter's arrest from New Hamphire's Nashua Telegraph, "Area man arrested in Ohio."

Thanks to Bill St. Clair, Mary Lou Seymour, and Matthew Gaylor for keeping us on the smith2004-discuss list apprised of Jeffrey Jordan's situation. The Liberty Round Table has now posted an informational page with incident background and instructions on how to donate to Jordan's legal defense fund. There's also now a very vigorous thread on this issue on the The High Road: "Please help! Good guy arrested in Ohio." More news from the conventional press too, this time from the same local Ohio that first reported the news: "Police looking into gun charges."

It's dangerous to be right when your government is wrong.

Voltaire

A few days ago, I mentioned that I was visiting Portland, Oregon, and was updating my blog from my hotel room. One of my readers, Michael Reed, offered to buy me lunch in downtown Portland. Right before I left, we did meet up, and spent over two hours exchanging interesting bits of information, ranging from restaurants to books to DVDs - he'd bought Firefly based on my blog entry earlier, which was gratifying - to insights on concealed carry in Oregon and other states. Michael gave me a great deal follow up on, and I'll be posting some of his recommendations soon.

Speaking of recommendations, I would be remiss not to mention that the place we had lunch was Sungari, a Szechwan restaurant in Portland's Yamhill district. I had the Rainbow Scallops, which were huge, succulent, and wonderfully spicy. Thanks for lunch, Michael!

If someone has a gun and is trying to kill you, it would be reasonable to shoot back with your own gun.

The Dalai Lama
May 15, 2001

My Bujinkan teacher Dale Seago asked me to take some pictures of his new custom dirk last night. This is the first pic I snapped as he was about to place it on the tartan plaid backdrop on the dojo mat on the floor between us. I thought this captured one aspect of Dale so well that I have to share it (the spots on the pic are from the camera lens.)

A couple of weekends ago, I finally took out my Armalite AR-50 .50 BMG for a spin. I've owned it for quite a while, but I hadn't gotten around to shooting it: I wasn't yet convinced until recently that I wouldn't break the scope I was hoping to mount on it, a Leupold Vari-X III mil-dot model with a Premier Reticle (3.5-10 x 40mm). Once I was convinced, I mounted the scope and took it out for a bit of fun, using some surplus South African ammo I'd ordered a couple of years ago. No intention of serious zeroing, but I figured it would be fun to get at least a rough zero at the longest range I could manage.

The range was only about 300 meters deep, so for fun I set up to shoot at a vertical paper target, figuring I'd try to adjust for about one foot over point of aim. My first shot, with the elevation and windage on the scope set to "0", resulted in a hit right over the target... 4 feet over. It didn't take me long to get the hits down to roughly where I wanted them. Like I said, this was simply a set of warmup shots (also remembering that the first few shots through a new barrel will change point of impact.)

One of the things that amazed me about this weapon is how light the recoil was... and how loud it was! Both aspects make perfect sense given the combination of the weight of the weapon (37lb/16.8kg) and a well-designed muzzle brake (the size of a Coke can.) The muzzle brake, in the course of doing its recoil reduction job, introduces a lot of noise to either side and back of the muzzle. You do not want to be within 10-15 feet on either side of the weapon when it lights off! Interestingly, in the shooter's position behind the gun, it's much more bearable... but less so 6 feet behind the shooter. Interesting acoustics.

I plan to take this lovely piece back out to the range in the next few weeks, under more controlled conditions. I'll write about it at length, and may even have someone do a video of the firing sequence, so you all can see and hear it in action. This thing is fun!

I'm on break between school terms, and am catching up on some entertainment. Friends on the smith2004-discuss list had been raving about a short-lived 2002 Fox television series called "Firefly," which had been cancelled due to poor ratings.

I'd actually tried to catch the first episode as it aired in the U.S. last year. I tuned in only to find that some sports event had pre-empted the airing. I tuned away in disgust. It turns out that Fox wasn't airing the pilot ("Serenity") that night; instead, they were airing "The Train Job", which was written hastily over the space of a weekend at Fox's whim... the pilot, which set up the world, the characters, and the arc of the plot, didn't air for weeks later. As a matter of fact, of the 14 episodes that were produced, 10 were aired, and most of those out of sequence.

Fox did nothing to promote the show, and placed it in a suicide slot. The show was pre-empted several more times by sports events. It died a year ago to the protests of a fanatical viewer base spread across continents. In the last year news of the series has spread by word of mouth - the way I found out about it - and seems to have created a larger fan base in its absence.

Less than 2 weeks ago, Amazon.com released the entire, properly sequenced set of Firefly episodes on DVD. As of this writing, the DVD set ranks 17th in sales, with 261 reviews and an average 5-star rating!

Firefly: The Complete Series is also available for rental from Netflix.com. Several weeks ago, I added it to my Netflix rental queue - they allow pre-release reservations - and as soon as it was available to be rented, it was shipped to me. My loved one and I spent several evenings this last week watching the entire set. We are completely enamoured of this series, and now we're wondering how we're going to follow up with anything nearly as good.

The Free Arms Project just opened today for business, spun off the smith2004-discuss Yahoo Groups mailing list:

"The Free Arms Project is committed to the development of a patentless, Open Source, Open Engineering personal defense weapon."

It'll be interesting to see where we take this. The Weapon Shops of Isher?

I just got back from attending Michael Janich's Martial Blade Craft Course Levels 1&2 (MBC) this past weekend (Nov.8/9th). The class itself was hosted by Suarez International and was held at the Angeles Shooting Range just northeast of Los Angeles.

In addition to being an instructor renowned among students of edged weapons, Mr. Janich is also the author of numerous survival/self-defense books and videos published by Paladin Press.

Day/Level 1 started off with the usual (and necessary) mission statement as well as the defining of the overall goals of the classes followed by a short but informative lecture. Soon afterward, we were taught the basics which the rest of the course would build upon i.e. grip, stance, different methods of deploying a folder, Five Angles of Attack, Zones of Defense, and Defensive Responses. Afterward, we pretty much spent the rest of the day drilling on the various aspects of attack and defensive responses. We were also introduced to various drills taken from the Filipino Arts e.g. Largo Mano Flow Drill, Six-Count Flow Drill etc. in order to sharpen our technique, teach us to chain our responses and help develop an appreciation for the ability to perceive an attack and responding in a smooth and instantaneous fashion. In between all this, we were given a lecture on things to look for when choosing a folder and the numerous pros and cons of the various carry locations/positions. Later in the day, we were also given a demo on lethality and effectiveness of the fighting knife against flesh and blood targets as Mike slashed and ripped away at a pork roast (tied around a wooden dowel and wrapped in saran which was in turn sheathed by layers of denim) which was meant to simulate a human limb. The results were quite grisly but impressive.

Day/Level Two began with a brief review of Day/Level One before proceeding onto more advanced concepts/drills such as retraction cutting, Crossadas, Sumbradas, varying your range, etc. In between these comprehensive drills we were taught and given the time to practice both targetting and application for all the techniques we had spent the better part of a day and a half practicing. Towards the end of Day Two, we were also shown how the concepts and techniques that we were taught could also be applied to other contact weapons (canes, sticks, chains, belts) or in some cases, empty handed fighting.

Overall, I found the two day course to be a very gratifying experience. Mr. Janich is a top notch instructor who is not only intimately familiar with the subjects at hand but he also able to present the subjects in such a way that was easily understood and the fact that he had a sense of humor sure didn't detract from the experience.

As for the curriculum itself, I found it to be quite practical and thought provoking. The techniques taught were easy to learn and more importantly easy to apply in a real world situation. I think one of the best things about the concepts-based system of MBC is that by attaining familiarity with just a few basic concepts plus mastery over a few techniques the student is prepared for the entire spectrum of conflict involving contact weapons (or even empty hands) and this aspect of it should be very attractive to those of us who are seeking a simple, direct and highly adaptable fighting system to add to our Combative Skills Composite.

I laugh when some trainer advertises his class as “for police only,” as if that phrase somehow makes the class more advanced or the topics more "deadly." Rubbish. The state of the art resides in the private sector salles d'armes, the unofficial shooting schools.

Gabe Suarez

There are three reasons to own a gun: to protect yourself and your family, to hunt dangerous and delicious animals, and to keep the King of England out of your face.

Krusty the Clown

If the gun-banners are so fond of compromise, may I propose one?

They shut up and go away and never bother me again, and for my part, I will restrain myself from kicking their genitalia up into their throats.

Eric Oppen

I'd not heard of this guy before today, but a number of friends whom I deeply respect are throwing their support for Michael Badnarik, who is working to become the Libertarian Party's 2004 candidate for the U.S. presidency. See his blog too, in order to make up your own mind.

Not receiving enough email? Looking for yet another mailing list to consume? If you're a libertarian, and aren't familiar with the incredibly prolific pamphleteering of the UK Libertarian Alliance, I recommend joining the Yahoo mailing list libertarian-alliance-forum, if for no other reason than to witness the astounding post rate of my longtime good friend Dr. Chris R. Tame.

Someone on the smith2004-discuss list said he'd like me to post a picture I had taken last year of an MBA Gyrojet 13mm rocket carbine. Here it is. The owner had it on display at a gun show in San Jose, and was kind enough to allow me to have a couple of photos taken.

"warren_et" on the same list calls the projectile a - get ready for this - "Single-Stage-To-Obit rocket".

The Free State Project picked New Hampshire today, using an innovative voting technique called Condorcet's Method. It's interesting to see that the FSP people have done a good job getting the word out: on the same day of the announcment, the UK Guardian, a major daily paper (and leftist at that), writes its own coverage of the announcement: "'Free staters' pick New Hampshire to liberate for sex, guns and drugs."

Sounds like a fine recommendation to me.

The Get-A-Republican-As-Governor-At-Any-Cost crowd in the California gubernatorial recall effort are exerting more pressure on the field to "get behind Arnold", which means attempting to shame conservative Republican candidate Tom McClintock into dropping out of the race. Only a few voices are urging Arnold to drop out and throw his support behind McClintock. Fox News personality and talk radio High Church Republicrat Sean Hannity, who initially supported McClintock, seems to have been bought off by the Arnold crowd, since he's now reversed himself and is berating McClintock for not dropping out of the race. So much for holding dear his "conservative" principles.

I'm an admirer of McClintock now. I'm a libertarian and disagree with him on the abortion issue - I'm all for a woman's right to choose - but I understand that as Governor, he would have no say in the matter. We do both agree that there should be no government funding of the practice, which suits me fine. Where we do almost completely agree is on matters in which he as governor does indeed have some say. For example:

“I'll spend the rest of my first day as Governor to personally de-fund every state agency that duplicates local or federal jurisdictions, or overlaps other state agencies or that is performing functions that the private sector could and should do anyway.”

He says this consistently in radio and television interviews, usually crediting the libertarian Reason Foundation for many of his policy ideas. He's an A+ supporter of the human right to keep and bear arms, and is not afraid to say so, time and again, on radio and TV. The Gun Owners of America endorses him, noting "...Senator McClintock has a perfect voting record on Second Amendment issues..."

I am a libertarian. I am not, however, a Libertarian Party loyalist. If a candidate espouses libertarian ideals, and has a shot at winning, I'll support him. McClintock seems to be The Man in this race.

If you carry a gun, people call you paranoid. That's ridiculous. If I have a gun, what in the hell do I have to be paranoid about?

Clint Smith
Director, Thunder Ranch

Sean Gabb announces today the publication of "All the Way Down the Slippery Slope: Gun Prohibition in England and Some Lessons for Civil Liberties in America" by Professors Joseph E. Olson and David B. Kopel; an excerpt from this long and well footnoted article:

Is it possible for a nation to go from wide-open freedom for a civil liberty, to near-total destruction of that liberty, in just a few decades? "Yes," warn many American civil libertarians, arguing that allegedly "reasonable" restrictions on civil liberty today will start the nation down "the slippery slope" to severe repression in the future.[3] In response, proponents of today's reasonable restrictions argue that the jeremiads about slippery slopes are unrealistic or even paranoid.[4]

This Essay aims to refine the understanding of slippery slopes by examining a particular nation that did slide all the way down the slippery slope.(p.400) When the twentieth century began, the right to arms in Great Britain was robust, and subject to virtually no restrictions. As the century closes, the right has been almost obliterated. In studying the destruction of the British right to arms, this Essay draws conclusions about how slippery slopes operate in real life, and about what kinds of conditions increase or decrease the risk that the first steps down a hill will turn into a slide down a slippery slope.

Sean Gabb, of the UK's Libertarian Alliance, has himself written a number of superb essays on the RKBA over the years. After reading the piece above, visit the LA's site and look for his work.

Eric S. H. Ching passes this along: US Map of CCW Laws.

At last night's dojo training, I showed this knife to Russell Whitaker. If you visit the Northerner.com site, you can see they have a few others as well.

The Suomi people would call this knife a puukko. The people themselves live in Finland and the northern parts of Sweden, Norway, and a bit of Russia. (BTW, there is a Tornedalen dialect of Finnish or Suomi spoken by about 30,000 people in Sweden.)

For comparison, here's a pic of another traditional Suomi-style knife with the sheath made from reindeer antler and leather, and yet another using both curly birch and reindeer horn for the sheath. These sheaths, by the way (mine included) are made with a small drain hole on the back side at the bottom, in case water should get into the sheath. Deep pouch-type sheaths are the norm throughout Scandinavia (not just in the Suomi country), to avoid loss of the knife.

Being made without finger guards, the overall design of Suomi knives favors "pulling" or draw cuts (important if you're out in the cold with numb fingers or wearing mittens, etc.), but the size and shape of the Tornedals knife handle also makes it easy to brace into the palm of your hand if you need to use a pushing motion.

I don't know whether the blade of my Tornedals knife is carbon or some sort of stainless steel, but either way it takes an incredible edge. I tried to test the edge last night by shaving a little hair off my arm, but it was hard to measure my success because the hair appeared to be leaping off in terror before the blade could quite reach it.

I'd also recommend checking out the Scandinavian & Lapp knives from various makers here (scroll down the main page).

Y'know, with just a knife like this and a good tomahawk, such as the Rogers' Rangers Field Grade Spike Tomahawk from American Tomahawk Co., I'd feel very well equipped for any situation I might run into in the boonies.

Damn, just wish I had that 'hawk... :-)

A friend just sent me a link to this San Francisco Chronicle article: "How Sean Penn got gun permit" in Marin County, California, which is the county just across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco itself.

I'm reminded in the article that Kern County remains a great place to acquire a permit to exercise your fundamental human right to carry, but hadn't known that Shasta County seems to be another good place to acquire that "permission". Alameda County and San Francisco City remain blatant tyrannies.

You cannot invade the mainland United States. There would be a rifle behind each blade of grass.

Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
1941

Steve Pegram pointed me to this site, which - among other things - sells Kydex holsters.

I'd enjoy seeing more of these shots on their site... I may have to lobby them.

Dale Seago will be teaching at the Schola St. George Swordsmanship Symposium the weekend of 7-8 June 2003 in Benecia, California (near the San Francisco Bay area), bringing a cognate perspective to this historical European martial arts event:

Dale Seago will demonstrate and teach techniques of armoured Japanese combat, and Japanese armoured wrestling.

See Dale's excellent comments of today on SDF on the rebirth of traditional European martial arts.

Phil Elmore, a prolific contributor to the Self Defense Forums, has his own related site: The Martialist: the Magazine for Those Who Fight Unfairly.

As I looked at my two young sons, each with his gun, and considered how much the safety of the party depended on these little fellows, I felt grateful to you, dear husband, for having acquainted them in childhood with the use of firearms.

Elizabeth Robinson
The Swiss Family Robinson, by Johann David Wyss
Unabridged version

"...and I'm a selfdefenseaholic."

A few days ago, I discovered the Self-Defense Forums, and have been reccommending that high-quality site to a number of people. My teacher Dale Seago has been doing a lot of posting there, including this introductory piece with lots of great photos of Scottish dirks.

I recently bought a new pistol, one that I have craved since it was announced nearly a year ago. It is a Sig-Sauer P226ST chambered in .357 Sig. It is the all-stainless configuration. It differs from the standard P226 in that the frame is made from stainless steel, whereas the standard P226 frame is alloy. It has heft, to the tune of nearly 40 ounces. Shooting it is a dream. The action is very tight, recoil and muzzle flip are reduced by the heft, and delivers outstanding accuracy. It also has the new M1913 Picatinny rail for attaching a light, if desired. It is also available in 9mm and .40 Auto.

As we have seen, the first public expression of disenchantment with nonviolence arose around the question of "self-defense." In a sense this is a false issue, for the right to defend one's home and one's person when attacked has been guaranteed through the ages by common law.

Martin Luther King, Jr.
Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?
Chapter II, Black Power, p55

Another discovery from my server logs: "Self-Defense Forums: For A Fighting Chance".

Proof that some of us pay very close attention to our server logs: howdy, Australian Survivalist readers! A special hello to "Warrigal".

If Wendy McElroy is correct, then there may be a bit of a culture shift happening in the midst of at least one demographic usually opposed to gun ownership.

Der größte Unsinn, den man in den besetzen Ostgebieten machen könnte, sei der, den unterworfenen Völkern Waffen zu geben. Die Geschicte lehre, daß alle Herrenvölker untergegangen seien, nachdem sie den von ihnen unterworfenen Volkern Waffen bewilligt hatten.

[The most foolish mistake we could possibly make would be to permit the conquered Eastern peoples to have arms. History teaches that all conquerors who have allowed their subject races to carry arms have prepared their own downfall by doing so.]

Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), April 11, 1942, quoted in Hitlers Tischegesprache Im Fuhrerhauptquartier 1941-1942. [Hitler's Table-Talk at the Fuhrer's Headquarters 1941-1942], Dr. Henry Picker, ed. (Athenaum-Verlag, Bonn, 1951)

We have tried to reward overall self-sensitive and self-controlled performance with a sportsman's trophy. To sophisticated folk's way of thinking, this prize, given to the entrant who best used his equipment and best exercised his judgment, is the most important categorical award of all. That riflist may not have a notably high score, but he will see everything, he will shoot at nothing he should not, and he will not miss. That riflist is truly a hunter in the greatest sense.

Dr. David N. Kahn, speaking of the Keneyathlon

Those who do not have swords may still die upon them.

J.R.R. Tolkien
The Two Towers

Steve Pegram pointed me to this 3-part article in "Film Threat" magazine's on-line edition, "The Fictitious Truths of Michael Moore", which ends with an online petition to have Moore and Michael Donavan's Oscar award for "Bowling for Columbine" revoked.

An excerpt:

The movie uses this tragedy as a springboard into the great gun debate, but the Columbine massacre is obviously about more than guns. A quick look at the story shows these two ghouls were plotting the event for some time and their acquisition of guns was a late bit of fortune for their designs. Along with firearms, this aberrant duo brought with them a propane tank modified into an explosive device, as well as a quiver of napalm fueled pipe bombs. It is doubtful the absence of guns would have stalled their quest for long.

and:

Another target in the film is the NRA, and specifically, its president Charlton Heston. The movie uses creative editing and a fluid timeline to paint Heston as a reactionary, who rushed into towns in the wake of shooting deaths of children to hold pro-gun rallies in an effort to stave off anti-gun sentiments. We get to listen to Heston’s Denver address, in which he sounds like a heartless boor in light of the current events in the region, but what is actually broadcast is a judiciously edited version that also contains segments from another speech that was given across the country, nearly a year later. Heston’s original speech was somber and conciliatory, but the audio cut-and-paste transforms him into a state of bloodlust. Moore not only fails to make this distinction, but he edits the scene with visuals so that the audio sounds to be seamlessly delivered from the Denver podium.

It gets worse.

Terry Egan passes this along to me; lunacy from the European Union:

The Adam Smith Institute has denounced the latest batch of EU regulations as yet another example of economic illiteracy. It singles out the new requirement, imposed by EU Safety Commissioner Senator Fapirollo, that the maximum length of knife blades permitted within the EU after 1 January 2004 will be 10cm (approx 4 inches).

Even Stalin and Hitler hadn't thought of that little gem of legislation.

A reader, Roger Bjerke, sent me email today with a record of his interaction with the national NRA vis-a-vis the Ronald Dixon case on which I've commented a couple of times here, here, and here. Reprinted below with Roger's permission.

Here is an email I sent to the DA, which I cc'ed to the NRA, and the NRA's response. Looks like they are ready to help, if asked.

Mr. Hynes,
Just what is going on in that part of the country? Has Hillary's influence clouded common sense? Ronald Dixon should be honored by the city for protecting his family, not persecuted and prosecuted. Whenever I think I've read it all, I come across something so utterly ridiculous that it is on the verge of lunacy. This is one such case.

Roger
North Dakota

Dear Roger,
Thank you for contacting us. We are aware of Mr. Dixon's situation and we offered our help. We will follow the case very closely as it is of great interest to the NRA and to the firearms community. In the mean time, we would gladly consider any requests from either Mr. Dixon or his legal representation, but we would not wish to insert ourselves into his personal situation uninvited. Thank you very much for your support and please feel free to contact us if you ever need anything else!
Best regards,
Don [last name not given]
NRA Member Communications
11250 Waples Mill Rd.
Fairfax, VA 22030

If the officers spend their shifts in fear that the average middle-aged motorist is hoping for a chance to pull out a little .25 and plug them, why did they volunteer for this line of work? None of them were drafted.

Or why don't they at least lobby heavily (don't tell me they don't lobby the legislatures; they do it all the time) to end the War on Drugs and the War on Guns and all these revenue-seeking traffic stops, whereupon they could simply go back to answering emergency calls and chasing violent felons?

Vin Suprynowicz, via Daniel J. Boone

Someone's finally done it: a site dedicated to watchdogging that noxious pile of festering Oscar-nominee-waste-of-protoplasm, "documentarian" Michael Moore:

MOOREWATCH is dedicated to unearthing the truth behind the doublespeak and falsehood that spews from the mouth (and keyboard) of Michael Moore on a regular basis. Moore is a disingenuous danger to this country, and his assumptions and assertions should not go unchallenged. The collective expertise and research abilities of the entire Internet are more than enough to debunk most of the nonsense Moore regularly puts forth as fact, and we at MOOREWATCH hope to be the clearinghouse for this information.

One to watch; thanks to Ian Hamet.

I'd like to extend a warm welcome to new contributor Mariko Kage, whose interests in martial arts, firearms, medicine, and fieldcraft parallel my own. Mariko was born in Japan, and has lived in the U.S. for most of her life.

Ms. Kage recently attended Tom Brown's 1-week (Standard Class) Tracker School, and will be writing a review for this site.

In the Militia Act of 1792, the second Congress defined militia of the United States to include almost every free adult male in the United States. These persons were obligated by law to possess a [military style] firearm and a minimum supply of ammunition and military equipment…There can be little doubt from this that when the Congress and the people spoke of the militia, they had reference to the traditional concept of the entire populace capable of bearing arms, and not to any formal group such as what is today called the National Guard.

Report by the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on the Constitution 1982

Slavery in the modern world implies the absolute deprivation of the individual’s liberty, while possession of weapons and mastery of their use are means to the individual’s liberation. We do not perceive how a man may be armed and at the same time bereft of his freedom.

John Keegan

...once the kind of folks who think of themselves as "the government" have had a couple of generations to get used to their monopoly on armed force and coercion, they quickly tire of pretending to act as our "servants." They start to assume the attitude of thugs, bullies, street criminals and condottieri. Their first instinct is to do what they want and take what they want at gunpoint, using the "command voice."

Watch a cop disarm a peaceful and compliant driver who has a permit to carry a concealed weapon, before writing him a traffic ticket. Wouldn't it be more appropriate for our "servant" the policeman to take off his gun, unload it, and lay it on the hood of the car, "for the driver's safety," until he had concluded his business with his servant and master, the taxpayer/voter? After all, his quick computer background check has already revealed this driver to be one of the safest and most law-abiding and best-trained citizens out there -- those "pistol permits" don't come in Cracker Jack boxes, you know.

Only when they come up against equal or nearly equal force do these thugs back down, reconsider and try "negotiation."

Vin Suprynowicz

Gun control is the idea that Nicole Simpson lying dead in a pool of her own blood is better than Nicole or Ron Goldman explaining to the police how O. J. Simpson got all those nasty holes in his anatomy.

Anonymous

31 January 2003

Letters to the Editor
American Journal of Preventive Medicine
K. Patrick, MD, MS
San Diego State University
5500 Campanile Drive
San Diego, CA 92182-4710
619-594-7344
619-594-5613
Submitted By E-mail Only: ajpm@mail.sdsu.edu

Re: Coben JH, Steiner CA. Hospitalization for firearm-related injuries in the United States, 1997. Am J Prev Med (2003 Jan) 24(1):1-8

Dear Editor:

We wryly recall the late Sen. Edward Everett Dirksen's "pretty soon we'd be talking about big money" quip as we note that the much-vaunted $802 million estimate of 1997's gun injury medical costs represents 0.064% of America's $1.25 trillion in annual total medical costs. Apparently, neither the authors nor the peer reviewers noticed that this already minuscule fraction represents a 60% decrease from the last published estimate of gun injury medical costs. [1]

That minuscule percentage highlights another conceptual flaw in Coben's methodology. Where in medicine would we settle for a risk-without-benefit analysis? Doctors have themselves estimated that we kill 180,000 people each year (five times annual gun deaths, the equivalent of three jumbo-jet crashes every two days).[2] Would we leave the analysis of American physicians at that sensational factoid without considering the benefits physicians provide? We think not. When we last visited this issue,[3] we noted, with detail and citation, that every one of the relevant 15 studies found that annually 400,000 to 4 million Americans use guns to defend themselves. Using the methodology of gun ban advocates Max[1] and Nieto,[4] we calculated that the economic benefits of defensive gun usage was potentially $4.5 billion annually. Lives saved, injuries prevented, property protected, and medical costs averted are the benefits from guns far outweighing the purported detriment.

Another factor is invariably overlooked in tallying the benefits of gun ownership. As many as one-third of a billion people died at the hands of government in the twentieth century,[5] dwarfing all tallies of private crime. We doubt that anyone can convincingly refute that America's high rate of individual gun ownership has played a fundamental role in protecting Americans from deadly genocidal tyranny and planned wartime invasions. What is that worth in lives and money?

Finally, for the last 10 years as the proportion of the crime-prone 15-25 age cohort has fallen in the US population, so too has violent crime fallen (yet gun sales have skyrocketed). Medicine's gun ban polemicists have been silent about this news, but we expect that when violent crime parallels the anticipated increase in the crime-prone age cohort, we will once again hear Chicken Little in white coat and stethoscope shriek that "the sky is falling"; and, of course, that will certainly be "due to guns."

Yours,
Edgar A. Suter MD
Chair, Doctors for Integrity in Policy Research Inc.

[1] Max W and Rice DP. Shooting in the dark: estimating the cost of firearm injuries. Health Affairs. 1993; 12(4): 171-85.
[2] Leape LL. Error in medicine. JAMA. 1994; 272(23): 1851-57.
[3] Suter EA Waters WC 4th Murray GB Hopkins CB Asiaf J Moore JB Fackler M Cowan DN Eckenhoff RG Singer TR et al. Violence in America. Effective solutions J Med Assoc Georgia (1995 Jun) 84(6):253-63.
[4] Nieto M, Dunstan R, and Koehler GA. Firearm-related violence in California: incidence and economic costs. Sacramento CA: California Research Bureau, California State Library. October 1994.
[5] Rummel RJ. Death by Government. London: Transaction Publishers. 1994. p. 9.

Thanks to the Liberty Belles for the image above. Relatedly, read "The Racist Origins of US Gun Control" by Steve Ekwall, as well as Tim O'Brien's shorter piece.

Fox News' Hannity & Colmes just now completed an update on their coverage of a month ago on the plight of Ronald Dixon, again interviewing Mr. Dixon, the Brooklyn man who honorably defended his family - his wife and 2 year-old child - from a vicious scumbag home invader (who, by the way, has a 15-page Brooklyn rap sheet and 5 felony convictions under his belt). I'm not surprised to hear that the Brooklyn DA is dead set on persecuting/prosecuting Mr. Dixon.

The DA wants to put Mr. Dixon away, in prison, for a year, on a spurious "unregistered firearm" charge. I consider this actionable criminal behavior on the part of the DA: an attempt at prosecution with malice. The DA should himself face charges.

Mr. Dixon is doing the honorable thing, refusing to plea bargain with the DA. Even Alan Colmes, an anti-gun liberal, is passionately on Mr. Dixon's side in this matter. It's interesting to note that while Mr. Dixon appeared with his defense attorney Andrew Friedman, at no point did Friedman try to keep Mr. Dixon from saying anything he wanted to say. This is a very clear-cut case of justifiable self-defense, and the DA is not exercising his discretion in dismissing the spurious registration charges.

Greta Van Susteren asked an interesting rhetorical question of Colmes in the transition to her show: is the Brooklyn DA elected or appointed?

I'll remind readers here that there's a cheap, effective way to contact the Brooklyn DA. Use it. Use it again.

News of Mark Morford's latest disgraceful San Francisco Chronicle article has spread like wildfire the last 36 hours. Quite a few people have expressed their displeasure with his irresponsible rantings, writing him directly. I'm not convinced that writing the guy does anything more than let him know that he's succeeding in angering people he obviously wanted to anger. He's a print-medium version of a radio shock jock: he wants to raise our hackles.

I would like to emphasize, as I did in my original post on the matter, that he should lose his job at the Chronicle, since he's going to cost his employer advertising dollars if he continues. That's the way to be truly effective. Certainly, you should copy Morford on your complaint, but he's much more likely to get that special sinking feeling when he realizes that he's simply a 3rd party in the complaint.

The SF Chronicle does have an impressively comprehensive "Address Book" page, from which I'll excerpt this interesting little tidbit:

Reader representative: If you have comments on The Chronicle's coverage, standards or accuracy, please call Dick Rogers, the readers' representative, at (415) 777-7870. Written comments can be e-mailed to readerrep@sfchronicle.com, faxed to (415) 442-1847, or addressed to Readers' Representative, c/o San Francisco Chronicle, 901 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94103. For information on delivery, billing or how to become a subscriber, call (800) 281-2476.

The Chronicle has a page listing contact information for the people who run the revenue side (advertising makes up the lion's share of a newspaper's revenue stream).

Consider contacting these people directly:

• George Raine - Business Reporter, Advertising and Marketing
• Beverly Best - Retail/National Sales Manager - (415) 777-7244

And here's the masthead: the people who actually run the paper's operations. Contact them.

I'd written earlier about a piece of trash writing pawned off on San Francisco Chronicle readers today. Geoff Metcalf returns fire against Mark Morford in an analysis piece; highly recommended. Geoff also makes the point that the Chronicle is especially potentially vulnerable in respect of their advertising revenue (thanks to Dr. Edgar Suter for passing this along).

Dale Seago once again alerts us to another wildly hysterical San Francisco Chronicle opinion piece by Mark Morford, this time entitled "Me And My Big Dumb Gun", bemoaning the introduction of the new Smith & Wesson .50 caliber handgun.

I urge you to read the article and see just how vile a writer can be. Search this site for references to "Morford", and also read Dr. Edgar Suter's early commentary on the same, as well as Dr. Jim Finn's response.

These were done in response to Morford's earlier rant, but - surprise, surprise - seem to have done little or nothing to convince Mr. Morford (unlikely, anyway) or his employer to curb his nasty behavior.

I suggest this: do continue to editorialize against the idiot writer, but direct your responses to the advertisers of the San Francisco Chronicle, copying the Chronicle editors. This is a tactic suggested a while back by L. Neil Smith, who is in my experienced opinion correct in stating that the threat of losing advertising dollars is the only thing editors truly fear.

I will very gladly reproduce well-written letters here. Copy me at whitakerATsurvivalartsDOTcom (replace the appropriate tokens with "@" and ".", proving to me you're not a spambot).

Thanks to commenter Dirk for pointing me to this excellent resource! I highly recommend pointing your friends to this site, Oleg Volk's "A Human Right", especially potential new shooters - females, particularly - and political fencesitters.

Aside from being an excellent source of pro-rights arguments, there are so many superb, powerful images worth reproducing. For fellow Bujinkan practicioners, there's an interesting article by a Texas shidoshi on martial arts & firearms.

The Liberty Belles issue this challenge:

Which would you choose?

Celebrate Diversity!

Thanks to fellow Bujinkan practicioner Jeff Sherwin, who knows my interest in firearms, for giving me copies of a couple of photos he took on a recent trip to Japan. Pictured here is what is apparently either a flintlock or percussion blackpowder single-shot pistol, artfully concealed to resemble a tanto. This would be worn in a samurai's obi, even in a castle, where longswords were often not allowed. This is a digital scan of a low-contrast analog photograph, so please forgive the lack of detail:

Here's a blurb from a Japanese tourist guide:

The simple yet magnificent castle has become the symbol of Matsumoto. The 5 tiered 6 storied castle tower is approximately 30 meters tall and is the nation's oldest among existing castles. The dark stairwell leads to a viewpoint of the Matsumoto plains. The moon-viewing turret and all sorts of crenelations for stones, arrows, bullets and such still remain. The battlements and the scarce windows are all parts of the historic war strategies which display the intense power struggle of the times.

On the 2nd floor of the Matsumoto-jo Castle tower is an exhibit of 106 historic guns [emphasis mine - ed.] as well as references regarding modern weapons.

All the times I've been to Japan, and the year I lived there, I never thought to visit this museum near Nagano. I plan to make the trip sometime, and take a very good digital camera with me. Jeff has enticed me with descriptions of grenadier samurai armor and lacquered blackpowder grenades. I really must see this stuff.

Oh, and relatedly, I guess it's about time I get around to writing a review of Noel Perrin's Giving Up the Gun: Japan's Reversion to the Sword, 1543-1879, as I'd mentioned a while back.

Thanks to my friend Michael for passing this along to me: the Rock SOPMOD M-14 conversion ("Commando Carbine"). I'd love to try one of these 9-pound carbine modifications. It's apparently a smaller overall package than even a typical M-4.

I lived in London the early part of the '90's, and had the opportunity to go shooting with the Imperial College Non-Staff Shooting Club - on campus! - at their indoor range, where I learned some neat tactical tricks from a retired Hong Kong cop. Even then, though, I didn't know there existed an "NRA of Great Britain", but now I know, according to a Samizdata article by David Carr.

I do hope the NRA/GB is not like the crowd of statist wimps which characterize the National NRA of the US, crying out to "enforce the existing laws" of the land. I wonder if there's a JPFO/GB or a GOA/GB... until then, the UK Libertarian Alliance is the closest thing they have.

Speaking of the club at Imperial College, I see that while they apparently still exist, and under the name Imperial College Rifle and Pistol Club, there is no mention other than in name of the word "pistol" on their website. I'm assuming that the nice little underground pistol range that ex-girlfriend Nagako and I trained at a decade ago has been turned into a rimfire range, at best. Ugh.

Another glance at the ICRPC website mentions this sad fact, emphasis mine:

ICRPC only owns one fullbore target rifle so we normally organise our shooting trips in conjuction with the University of London Rifle Club. The rifles we use fire 7.62mm rounds, normally 155 grain.

As I implied in a piece I wrote for Samizdata a few months ago, a once-great country has been strangling it grassroots culture of weapon ownership at its base. I predict that the ICRPC will eventually lose even that one rifle... unless the students are willing to fight for it.

I'd meant to post this a week ago, but I just now recovered the digital camera I left at the Bujinkan Stockton dojo in my post-training fatigue.

Those of you who didn't make Dale Seago's Guns 'N Blades seminar at the Bujinkan Stockton dojo last weekend missed a training event worth travelling for.

As had been advertised in the original announcement, and at the request of the Stockton dojo, Dale spent some time talking about the care and maintenance of Western-style blades. Pictured above, Dale speaks about the differences in sharpening techniques between blades with conventional bevelled edges, e.g. most pocket knives, regardless of expense, and the relatively less common convex edge on a blade such as the custom Bowie pictured with Dale here.

Don't miss the airing of the "Guns for Tots" giveaway that Jim Lesczynski bravely attempted a few weeks ago in New York City:

We're getting one last hurrah out of this silliness, when "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart" on Comedy Central broadcasts its report on "Guns For Tots" on Tuesday, February 18, at 11 pm eastern. Check your listings for local time and station.

If you don't get the joke after watching it on "The Daily Show", there's not much hope for ever getting it.

Jim Lesczynski

Unlike its antonym, 'hoplophilia' does not describe an aberration: a man who loves weapons is no more abnormal than a woman who loves babies. Countless millennia of hunting and war fighting have programmed man with the knowledge that a weapon means LIFE. This stark realization repels some - they are the hoplophobes. To us hoplophiles it is a delight.

Paul Kirchner

Thanks to Edgar Suter for passing this on: the current History Channel Poll is "Which right or freedom is most crucial to America's democratic way of life?" As of this posting, the right to keep and bear arms, as written in the 2nd Amendment, is leading the poll.