Monthly Archives: June 2011

I’m sure Joe loves this little ditty just as much as I do.  I live in the middle of wheat fields and mice come seeking warmth during fall and winter.

To better protect children, pets and wildlife, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced today that it is moving to ban the sale to residential consumers of the most toxic rat and mouse poisons, as well as most loose bait and pellet products.

I mean, how else are we going to deal with these little bastards?

Cats would just feed the coyotes.  A bigger cat isn’t legal to leave around, and I doubt an exterminator will make a house call to the middle of a wheat field.  May the douchebag that came up with this piece of crap policy end up with an infestation of mice in his house so bad it is rendered uninhabitable and condemned.

H/T Tam.

You’re wrong.

1. After a SWAT team shot and killed Jose Guerena, a man who broke no laws and his only mistake was being related to someone who did. 
2. We had an incident where the Department of Education used their own SWAT team to kick down the door of the wrong person over “student loans.” 
3. The Indiana Supreme Court has ruled that the public cannot resist unlawful entry by police. 
4. We now have the FBI expanding the discretionary power of their agents.

The FBI is preparing new investigative guidelines for its agents that civil libertarians say would make it easier for agents to search commercial or law enforcement databases, conduct lie detector tests, search people’s trash and conduct physical surveillance, sometimes without any suspicion of wrongdoing.

To go after people who have “attracted” their attention, like their ex-girlfriend, their neighbor they hate, someone who cut them off in traffic.  People have a nasty habit of abusing any power available to them.  Couple that with the Indiana ruling and we have a storm that is ripe for disaster.  Sadly for some reason though the American people seem to look the other way as all of this is happening.  The Boston Massacre happened in the middle of a public street and riled Americans due to the liberties the king was denying them.  While now the government uses jack booted thugs to kick in our door in the middle of the night to kill the men who risked their lives to protect us.

Sadly I think Linoge nailed it on the head today with this statement:

The die has been cast, the train is in motion, the avalanche has started… however you want to phrase it, but what started as a grand experiment in the preservation of individual rights and liberties has ended, for me, with the bullet-ridden body of a United States Marine, laying dead on the floor of his home, guilty of nothing more than being related to some unsavory characters.

We have long past the precipice at this point, each time our rulers become more bold and ruthless.  An effective solution to this problem is becoming more and more difficult to see.  While we are all attempting to solve these problems through the soap box and ballot box, more and more we are seeing that the only remaining solution is the cartridge box.

The government is declaring war on it’s own citizens, it has militarized bands of jack booted thugs who are exempt from the law and legal restraint.  The are free to break down the door of any house and kill anyone inside.  The 4th amendment has been all but actually removed from the bill of rights.  It’s claws and teeth removed by the courts, and claims of necessity which gave birth to the TSA and DHS.  Their goals are to intimidate and scare their subjects in to compliance.

While my tripwire hasn’t been struck, people are certainly dancing around it.  I am stating this here and now, any no knock warrant executed on my house or that of my family will be considered a declaration of war against myself, my family and my freedom.  This includes warrants executed merely because they had the address wrong.  If you have reasonable cause to search my house, that of my family, and have a warrant from a judge, knock on my door and you will be let in peacefully.  Not only that but there are methods that could be used to ensure the safety of the officers and well as law abiding citizens.  I support the US Constitution above all else, and will defend myself against those who attempt to violate it so that they may violate me.

The government is murdering it’s own civilians and it seems like only a few of us are bothering to care or notice.  Frankly, that is the most saddening and disturbing prospect of all.  The American people no longer care about their neighbor, instead they tell the government to look after them and take care of them.

I weep for freedom, liberty, and all those who sacrificed themselves for this great American experiment.  FDR and the socialists have succeeded in what they set out to do, destroy America and the American dream.

Note: I do not condone indiscriminant acts of violence against the government or police.  I am merely condoning the act of self defense.  Someone kicking in the door of a law abiding citizen at Oh-Dark-Thirty with a gun, government agent or not, the home owner has every right to defend himself from the person invading his property.  Agents of the government can shoot people lying on the ground handcuffed in the back and get away with it.  I’d rather die with my boots on thank you.

Had a DQ craving and swung by the Man Shack since I was in Pullman.  It was an interesting night.

I took a bunch of pictures of the guys hitting the jumps as well as other stuff throughout the night.  The above is probably my choice as the best one of the bunch.  In between the runs I was talked into hopping on a bike.  I’m not a big fan of motorcycles mainly due to the lack of protection for the operator.  However I consider knowing how to operate different types of machinery a valuable skill to have.  So they started to teach me the basics of riding.

I was doing decently well, then I ended up laying it down.  The wife stopped taking pictures when that happened, she was more interested in if I had broken anything.  I know to avoid the front brakes, my mountain bikes rear brakes are the same as the front brakes on the bike.  When instinct takes over it’s a problem.  Thankfully it was just some road rash in the palms.  I spent 20-30 minutes scrubbing getting as much of the gravel and dirt out as I could.  There’s still a few black specs in there but its still amazingly clean.  Rubbed some alcohol across as disinfectant, put some antiseptic on there and wrapped it up.  Today I’m leaving it open to the air to heal.  Some say bandages work faster, it’s been my experience that air helps considerably.

We had a shipping crate that needed destruction, it was awesome when it finally fell.  We had fresh Kokanee from Dworshak grilled up as well.

No surprise to the rest of us though absolutely NOTHING happened.  While at the Genesee community days today the wife and I were open carrying.  There were numerous sheriffs deputies and state patrol walking around the area.  While there we saw something quite interesting form in the sky.

We stopped and chatted with the local sheriff after spotting a funnel cloud and took the opportunity for pictures.

We actually chatted with him for an extended period of time about open carry and different things he’s run into.  Evidently people often come up to him when working events like this and the county fair informing him of people who are carrying firearms.  His response to them is usually along of lines of, "and this is a problem because.”  It reminded me of the Pullman PD officer I met who looked at the person freaking out and pointed at the gun on his hip and said, “I have a gun, what’s the difference?”

It’s Idaho and as he put it, “It’s all that remains of the Western frontier.”  It’s talking with officers like him that reminds me while some are driving the us versus them wedge, it is by no means all officers doing it.  Especially since he has evidently gone to Boomershoot.  I told him he needs to come again.

To further put the icing on the cake, I gave Mike one of my blogger cards.  He had mentioned having a holster shirt but couldn’t remember the manufacturer.  After I was going to finish this post I was going to email him for the brand.  In my email I just got a message from him.  He has one of these and really likes it.  Anywhere else that whole exchange would probably have been forgotten.

There was a nice car show, here’s a simple set I did.

I got a bunch of pictures from the car show as well, but those will be processed slowly and will probably end up dumped on my photography site.

I often have people look at me funny when I tell them other than work, where carry is prohibited, I am ALWAYS carrying.  Seriously, I visit friends from work and the first few times they see me outside of work and they’re surprised because I wasn’t joking.

Often the question is posed by some that I live in rural Washington so when is someone going to really attack me.  The thing is, a gun is a tool.  Works on two and four legged varmints just the same.  Four legged varmints out here can be just as deadly as the two legged.  I saw a wonderful reminder today.

A "bloodthirsty" pack of dogs has killed about 100 animals in the past few months while eluding law enforcement and volunteers in northeastern Washington state, residents and authorities said.

…

Most recently, the dogs killed a 350-pound llama Tuesday night. They’ve also killed goats and other farm animals.

As of this writing no humans have been killed yet, but if they’re taking down large animals it’s only a matter of time.  Carrying a firearm is merely being prepared for the unexpected.  Could be an animal or a human, either way I’m going to remain vertical relative to the varmint trying to do me harm.

1944 Lee Enfield, with the Bayonet of course, we need that for Jay.

Here’s another one of the family, a 1918 Enfield.

Here is a panoramic from Boomershoot 0.90.  It’s on the far right of the shot.  I must say, I love it out here.

If you’re from the area, that’s the Clearwater valley and towards the right of the picture is looking WSW towards Lewiston/Clarkston.

Jennifer asks:

But whether I’ve met you or not, I want to know your story.  The vast majority of my readers are firearms enthusiasts of some stripe.  How did that happen?  How did you become gunnies?

I think the most wonderful thing about being me is I don’t really remember a time in my life I wasn’t around firearms.  I don’t even remember the first time I went shooting.  I was 3 1/2 and my dad sat me on his leg and guided me through the whole process.  I squeezed the trigger and grinned from ear to ear.  I got my first .22 when I was in second grade for my birthday.  I spent hours at the range with my dad with him teaching me to shoot.  Pushing my capabilities and comfort.  If it looked easy he quickly remedied that.

In about 5th or 6th grade I started shooting pistol.  He started me off with a 22 and by the age of 14 I was regularly shooting a 1911 and driving tacks.  My dad shot competition pistol while at MIT, I still have the pistol he used to compete.  It is one of my favorites and one that provides the most piercing memories.  I had a habit of pushing with my thumb on the grip.  His solution to the problem was the same his coach used, thumbtack placed pin up taped in place.  I only screwed up once and I forever remembered and never made that mistake again.  Even now when I pull my 1911 my thumbs are well clear and are NOT going to push on the weapon.

All this time growing up I absolutely loved shooting.  Between that and flying those are the two stand out memories I have of spending time with my dad.  Even now shooting for me becomes very Zen like and I often hear my dads voice.  After a shot it’s his voice I hear telling me what I did wrong, if it’s a good shot I hear him telling me to call it.

Growing up my household was very libertarian in philosophy and politics.  I remember coming home on the day Waco burned.  I remember seeing the anger and aggravation on my dads face and in his voice.  At the time I was so young I didn’t understand what was going on.  As I got older that would change.  It changed most dramatically one day while sitting with him after an excursion to the range.

I don’t remember how or why the conversation took this turn, but my dad began to tell a story.  A story about a young boy who at the time was the same age I was.  Hearing something in the woods grabbed his rifle and his dog figuring it was a deer.  His father and a family friend proceeded to follow out the door behind him with their rifles as well.  The boy and his dog proceeded through the woods in the direction of the noise.  Then it happened, a burst was fired at which point the dog dropped dead.  In front of the boy was three men, heavily armed.  The boy, having seen them kill his dog returns fire and tries to retreat to safety.  They shoot the boy in the back while he is retreating.

I then ask my dad who the armed men were and why they were there.  The response was memorable to me, “They were there as representatives of the government.”  My dad then proceeded to tell me about the rest of the incident, including Vicki Weaver, and how Lon Horiuchi got away with murder.

I couldn’t help but place my self in Sammy’s shoes at that point.  He was my age and I began to wonder why I was any different or what prevented that from happening to me.  I have no doubt that the reason my dad told me that story was because he was looking at the incident from Randy Weaver’s position.  What would he do if they had shot me in the back and killed my mother?  I do know my dad had stated that Horiuchi was lucky my mother and I were around.  If it wasn’t for us my dad would have had nothing to prevent him from going on the hunt.  Some would say “yeah sure”.  If you knew my father, that wasn’t a joke and any thing he said was anything but an idle statement.  If he said it, he was damn serious. 

From that point on I was a very big gun rights advocate.  I did numerous projects through school, many my instructors disliked, on the falsehoods of gun control and the dangers of government. 

Eventually as I went through college and began to finish up I started moving back towards the gun community.  During school I had neither time nor money to play.  In 2008 I attended Boomershoot and led to me creating this blog.  I had other sites but hadn’t really started the blog.  I figured it would be a good on the side hobby and a way to relieve stress when necessary.  The blog just turned 3 and has resulted in some interesting communications.    I also found it a great way to pursue writing on freedom and liberty, not just gun rights.

I have grown more recently as now where I work, I’m like Joe, many have heard of me and know me as the “Guns and Explosives guy” before they’ve even met me.  People who a friends of friends are coming to me with questions.  Which is awesome, and very neat.

So there’s the story of why I’m a gunny.  There’s a lot of heart in why I’m here.  The happiest memories I have from my dad usually involve a firearm.  For me nothing is more peaceful that settling in behind the last gift I got from my father and reaching out and touching something.  I can’t help but remember that great man and all that he taught me.

H/T Sebastian.