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In Which I Think We All Know Why

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Given the following incident, I think the answer as to why his roommates did not renew his lease becomes obvious.

When he came to collect his belongings on Saturday night, the two residents were escorting Simpson out of the house when Simpson grabbed a shotgun, racked it, and pointed it at them. The residents ran to the back of the house and called Pullman Police Department.

I wasn’t kidding when I said this was a lively time of year for little old Pullman.  Though this year so far has been considerably more lively on the firearm front than usual.  Now I don’t have specifics but I know it’s safe to say that pointing a shotgun at someone is against the law.

I have a feeling there is more behind the scenes here, however the answer is not to the shotgun.  Incidents like this though are what our opponents grab and latch onto as a reason why college students should not have firearms.  Many students, as well as employees are disarmed by the schools policies yet things like this still occur.  Yet this incident occurred only a half mile from the last incident.  Not to mention that students have been attacked walking home after class through these neighborhoods.  It’s as if all those policies and laws don’t really do anything except prevent responsible law-abiding people from having or carrying arms legally*.

So I would like to stand up, applaud, and thank this moron, James Simpson, for supplying ammunition to the enemy and furthering their goals to keep their honest law-abiding fellow students disarmed to be easy prey.

*After VT,  I know for a fact that there was a decent number of people who started carrying against school policy to class.  They did so after they discovered there was no real legal bite to the policy.  At worst they could be expelled if caught and the individuals felt, “Concealed means Concealed” and if they need it expulsion is the least of their worries at that time.

Doubly interesting is a good chunk of those who carried were engineering students.

Private Boomershoot Party

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Today I went out to the Boomershoot site to help Joe with a private party with some coworkers from Microsoft. We met up around 0800 at “The Breakfast Club” in Moscow. I had French toast which was extremely yummy, however what was totally awesome was the fact they had “Green Eggs and Ham”.

I would not eat green eggs and ham.

I do not like them, Sam-I-am.

If you don’t get it, well you need to go read more Dr. Seuss. From there we drove out to the Boomershoot site. Joe stopped off for a couple quick history lessons like showing the grade school he went to growing up, as well as stopping by the farm he grew up on as we left.

The weather for the event today was downright miserable, the Explorer said it was 36 degrees out. I’m extremely happy it didn’t happen last weekend. Winds were about equal to Saturday for the PRC, what was bad is the fact that it was raining, sleeting, and snowing most of the time. Everything was so moist as a matter of fact a new possible issue with manufacturing was discovered. The PC in the high humidity had a tendency to re-clump while sifting. This created issues in getting correct measurements. We had about 7-8 crates of left over targets from last weekend. Joe attempted to detonate some of the targets which provided an extreme disappointment.

Lesson learned: they will not store for a week.

TMW and Kim then proceeded to mix up targets for the private party. Only about 15 were mixed up, however while they mixed I burned. About 7-8 crates of targets were burned and I only lost the hair of the back of my left hand. That oxidizer lights up fast when it finally goes, and boy does it burn hot. After that we fully introduced Joe’s coworkers to the world of firearms and explosives. We pounded stakes, let the current squal pass, performed the saftey lecture and then got into it. I was going to destroy some harddrives for a friend however it appears I had left them at home. Another time do an Idaho Stress Test/data reduction method. For today it was going to be an extreme test as we were going to destroy them under the fireball as well.

The conditions continued to deteriorate; I was soaked through my Carhartts, inner layer, and base layer. What makes it worse was it was ice that was pelting us and quickly melting so it chilled to the bone.

Notice how my coat is glistening from being saturated.

Joe the ever vigilent instructor.

The productive results.


The happiness doesn’t fade either

The next shooter with Joe giving position instruction.

A successful hit.

As Joe says, people who complain are puritans.


Another happy customer. The white streaks are hail.


A smile attempting to hide.


Why Joe does it.


Proof that’s why Joe does it!


Satisfaction, He hit it… Finally. Where’s the grin, we assume just straight satisfaction!

After that everyone took a second boomer, some used my rifle instead, others used Joe’s. As a finale we attempted a fireball. Key word attempted. Unlike the blogger day the year before where we set the field on fire, it failed. It was too freaking wet and windy.

So after we finished up we then headed to the viewpoint overlooking Dworshak Dam. Joe gave us a short history lesson and thankfully we were able to stay out of the rain somewhat. After Dworshak we went to the Ponderosa for some dinner and conversation. Interestingly we discovered that Joe’s daughter, Kim, was married on the same day, same year, and same exact time as my wife and I. Amazing the little things you discover. Enjoy the pics from the dam.

Quote of the Day – The Learned Sergeant (1/6/2016)

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Obama has some real balls to speak of the better man Zaevion Dobson to a room of people who have had children die due to gun violence.

He just asked these people to see that our heroes die to protect their feelings. If my child is in high school and needs to confront someone when “gunmen start firing”, endangering people in the street, she will not need to serve as a human shield, but will be able to do so from a covered position with an AR-15 firmly seated in her shoulder by returning well disciplined rifle fire.

The Learned Sergeant – Facebook Post
1/5/2016

[I have nothing else to add. -B]

About Me

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I grew up in Western Washington south of Seattle in a small town. That town has since been over run and turned into a suburb of Seattle. Going home to visit friends and family is quite depressing, especially as crime has increased since I grew up there. At least now I can carry a concealed weapon.

I was extremely active in Scouting all throughout my youth. Most summers I was gone from home about two thirds of the time during vacation on trips and events. I Received my Eagle Scout just prior to my 18th birthday.

After high school I attended the University of Washington. After two years I was informed that I wasn’t good enough for their engineering program and fled Western Washington to Washington State University. The sad thing is I am by no means the only person who has been through this experience, there is also a common thread amongst those who have been through the experience, but if I say what it is I’d be called racist. I graduated in 2008 with a B.S. in Electrical Engineering, or applied mathematics as I call it. If you have an EE you get the joke.

After moving to Eastern Washington I decided I wouldn’t move back. The Peoples Republic of Puget Sound is just too much. The people are too self centered and not friendly. While many would say that the people out here are unfriendly I have one comment. They’re unfriendly because you’re probably being an ass. This also includes aggressively driving like you’re from a major metropolitan area.

In 2005 I was in a massive car accident which resulted in severe injuries to both my wife and I. It took us over 6 months to recover and I now have a metal rod in each leg. That accident resulted in a ding on my record which has provided me with a point of view of the system that not many people see. That accident also provided another view in that my wife is permanently disabled due to nerve damage in her arm. Currently we are writing a long post on the subject. Suffice it to say, any attempt to limit the features or capabilities of a rifle does not sit well in my house.

I currently write software for embedded systems as well as partake in my own pet projects on the side. I also actively help and participate in Boomershoot and I highly suggest that you make an attempt to attend.

That is the rough overview of who I am and a few of the major items that have provided me with the glass I use to view the world.

TMM

Quote of the Day – Jennifer Hast (1/22/2013)

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I’ll not rejoice if your delusions come crashing down.  I’ll not celebrate the day you discover that evil comes in many forms and will use any tool available. I hope that day never comes. Truly, I hope you live out all of your days in blissful ignorance and die peacefully in your old age.

Jennifer – I’ll Not Rejoice
January 21st, 2013

[Honestly go read her post, it is something that many of us on this side of the debate have encountered all too often recently.  We all know that anti-rights cultists are violent and down right despicable in what they say and how they act.  If you’re on the other side of the debate, think long and hard about the actions and words of your fellow supporters.

It is the only way they can debate and appear to be winning.  Be so down right mean and vicious that the people on the other end want nothing to do with them.  I haven’t been as active on the twitter front lately because honestly, the crap gets old, and most of them have absolutely no interest in an actual conversation.  They want to lecture us.

I did however have a nice conversation with a friend from high-school recently on Facebook and my patience was continued mainly because of the ties she had with my family growing up.  Honestly though I think it’s those ties more than anything that helped facilitate a civil discussion and a willingness to listen to the other side of the debate.  That’s the biggest issue right now, no one really wants to listen, they have their preconceived answers and are not even willing to be polite and listen to the other side.

The thing is, one side of this debate is listening and responding, for the most part there are some who aren’t, the problem is the response more often than not is the opposite of what those on the other side want to hear.  As Joe said, we need an accurate problem statement.  No one though has even bothered to try to create one, instead they throw out solutions, solutions that in many cases don’t actually solve any problems relating to what the proponents claim.  When people rebuke their solution they are played down, diminished, called names, and have violence wished upon them for a differing of opinion.

It does not help your position to behave in such a manner and to the many watching it indicates a lack of maturity and inability to support your position.  I am flattered by the comments that Garand Gal made about Linoge, Sean, Erin, and me.  But please don’t feel like you have to support us.  Is it nice, you bet, fire support is a wonderful thing, especially when viciousness like that starts getting thrown around.  It’s good to see a friendly face and it does give you that extra sense of, yes this is worth it.  But, and this is a big but, often it is emotionally draining and tiring.  In the end it ends up being nothing more than wrestling with a pig, sure you may think you win but the pig just wanted you covered in mud.

If you feel it’s worth it to spend time discussing with someone, by all means do so, and if you see a reasonable discussion going on, by all means chip in, just don’t be a dick, let them do it on their own if they’re going to.  The time spent with chatting with my family friend paid off, she’s no longer focused on the tool and can see from this side of the debate.  There’s a few other things still to work out but it’s a start and a good one at that.  Sadly she’s not physically close otherwise I could go more easily hands on.  It ends up there were some people who made very poor decisions regarding firearms around her while in college and it has provided a very negative view of gun owners.

Pick and choose your battles and work where you think you can gain the most ground if you’re going to spend a lot of time on it.  Last week a particular individual kept wasting my time and kept running in circles.  I kept trying to escape out of the conversation but she kept dragging me back.  Finally after calling me an extremist for not wanting to be lectured I asked to be dropped from the conversation.  She did, for about 30 minutes and then mentioned me in another tweet.  I went off, ripped apart her argument again, and then said leave me the hell alone.  She then tweeted me again, this time it wasn’t falsehoods or lies just a general antagonism so ignored it, yesterday morning her account was evidently suspended.

Let me say right here right now, I had nothing to do with it.  I didn’t report her, I didn’t even block her.  I do however have a strong feeling with her behavior that she went down the same road as the individual debating with Jennifer.  In so doing I’m reasonably sure she used some not so nice words and possibly made threats towards someone’s safety.  Honestly, that woman wasn’t worth my time at all beyond illustrating to the world how dumb her idea was for “smart guns”.  Pick and choose your battles wisely and do your best not to get sucked in because you have to constantly fight their lies, because that’s what they do, spout lies and drivel so you come back with facts.  Some times it’s just not worth it.  Overall though in the grand scheme, this fight is most definitely worth it and the effort of debate is a small price to pay. -B]

Quote of the Day – Sebastian (1/10/2013)

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If you know someone sitting this one out because they think the anti-gun groups don’t matter, slap them silly. We’re not facing the anti-gun groups, we’re facing the White House and the whole Obama coalition, and if you think that doesn’t matter, just ask Mitt Romney whether he agrees with you.

Sebastian – Why This is Serious

January 10th, 2013

[Like Sebastian I’m nervous.  I keep hearing from more and more people who they’re “voting with their wallet” to indicate their opinion.  Well that’s all well and good but it doesn’t really help where the real fight is.  Currently I’m working on creating a kiosk for the local gun shop so people can contact their representatives right there.

Form letters should be avoided I know, and I will help anyone who asks write a letter.  I have been meaning to post my letter but keep forgetting.  I will however post a copy of TMW’s because honestly it was much better and probably considerably more effective, it’s also what I have a copy of handy.

Honorable xxxxxxxx,

The tragedy at Sandy Hook elementary school has sparked new proposed legislation regarding firearms.  Currently many throughout the country are riding on emotion and crying for something, anything, to be done.  Even if ultimately what is done would have no bearing on what happened.

The actions of that lone monster belong to him and him alone.  His actions should not affect the law-abiding gun owners in this country.  The calls for “gun control”, a new “assault weapons ban”, and “magazine ban” stem from an emotional reaction to the tragedy.  The emotional response is placing blame on the law abiding instead of the deranged individual who is actually responsible.

If any new gun control is passed, it will not only affect the able-bodied law-abiding gun owners, but the disabled as well.  As a disabled woman, it is very discriminating to me and others like me.  A new assault weapons ban, as well as a magazine ban, will risk my life as I will have no other effective means to defend myself.

The AR-15 is by far the easiest and most comfortable rifle for me to shoot and operate with my disability which limits function of my dominate hand.  Many of the features being attacked are what make that rifle functional for myself and others who are disabled like me.  Having an adjustable stock merely allows the rifle to properly fit the user.  A pistol grip allows my disabled hand to form a more natural angle and operate the rifle.  The rail system allows me to attach things to aid in supporting the rifle with my functional arm.

Yet legislation being brought to the floor wants to strip me of a tool that allows me to level the playing field with men stronger and fully able-bodied; a tool that actually allows me to enjoy hunting with my husband since I can properly use and employ it.  Currently due to a work related injury to my other hand the AR-15 is the only firearm I can operate safely.

Further my defensive pistol, which is much less comfortable to operate, would be rendered much less useful as well.  Magazine restrictions stand to require me to have to reload and work considerably harder to keep the weapon in the fight.  Instead of focusing on stopping the threat I will have to focus more on worrying about running out of ammo.  This magazine restriction will not stop an able-bodied attacker, it will not even slow them down, it will however slow me down.

Why must I be disarmed and rendered less able because of the actions of a lone mad man?  Why are technological advances that benefit women and the disabled being thrown under the bus?  Why do you support the disenfranchisement of disabled women?

I implore you, respect and defend the rights of gun owners and in so doing respect and defend the rights of disabled women to have a choice in what their most effective means of self-defense is.

Thank you,

TMW

Now this was a targeted letter sent to the two Senators, both of whom support gun control.  We sent this over a week ago, we still haven’t gotten a response from either Senator.  There was a modified version that was sent to the more gun friendly representatives.

I will say I was quite pleased with one of my state representatives.  He actually sent a reply the Saturday after we sent it.  The good news on that one is he’s evidently been hearing from all over his district to head off new gun control.

On that same front, I will say I do have some good news for Sebastian if he’s reading this.  There are many people I know of who also were just consistently on the bench who are now moving to become active in the political fight.  Hopefully we can keep the momentum and keep growing.

If you haven’t contacted your representatives yet, do so now.  -TMM]

Quote of the Day – A Girl (12/18/2012)

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When I was mugged I blamed only 2 people. My attacker and myself. I can’t control him, so I looked at myself to figure out what I could do to put myself in a better position for survival should the element I couldn’t control decided to come after me again. I took responsibility. I didn’t blame the cops or the grocery store parking lot or even my parents. They had some influence as did society, but it was me who stood there and did nothing. It was me. I did not come after you or anyone else. I didn’t go to congress and ask for new laws to protect my lack of action. I took action. Law abiding, legal action and I took responsibility for my part in that day. I can tell you none of it felt good. I didn’t feel good after I picked myself up off the ground, I didn’t feel good as I hid in the bathroom and took care of my scraped up arms and back. I didn’t feel good when my so called friends turned their backs on me. I didn’t feel good when my daughter looked me in the eye and told me she didn’t feel safe because I didn’t stop the and guy. It didn’t feel good when I showed up in the park to learn how to defend myself. I felt anything but good. I felt sad and lonely. I felt lost and broken. I felt ashamed and confused. I felt scared and and hopeless. And I fought all of that everyday for over a year in order to take responsibility. In order to feel good again.

A Girl – Feeling Good
December 18, 2012

[First, go read the whole thing, it’s worth it and there were a few other quotes I almost put up first till I hit that one.

Now when I read that my immediate thought was, “No one ever said doing the right thing was the easiest route.”  I did a previous rant in the immediate wake and honestly her post and mine are intertwined together.

Feelings are driving the conversation for a lot of people right now, they want to do something, anything.  As I said before:

They want to be able to look at a physical object and blame it for what as happened.  They want to destroy the physical object and blame it for their grief.

They don’t want to admit that ultimately there was a person behind the gun.  They don’t want to admit no matter how hard they tried, they wouldn’t be able to control him.  They don’t want to admit all the efforts they took in advance to feel good in the wake of things like Columbine and other mass shootings in the end did nothing.  Not only did they do nothing, but the may have made it worse.

To them though that last thought is an impossibility   It is impossible that the actions they took to satisfy their feelings could have been counter productive.  How could they?  Their responses felt right to them in a previous time of emotional tragedy.

People currently forget that 11 years ago a group of men brought this country to its knees with a set of box cutters.  The tool is a tool and nothing more.  It’s use for good and evil rests entirely with the person holding the tool.

The principal, Dawn Hochsprung, gave her life ultimately trying to protect her students.  She was forced, by law, to be unarmed in that encounter.  The aggressor however broke numerous laws and had to actually steal the firearms to carry out his crime.  Think about that for a second, objectively.  We, as a community, trusted that woman, as well as the staff with the care and protection of our children.  We trusted that they would do what is necessary to keep them safe and educate them for the future.  We trust them enough to send our children there for a decent part of their young lives.  Yet we refuse to allow them the choice of carrying a firearm to defend our children should evil come before them.

We refused to allow the people immediately on the scene to respond to the threat posed against the children.  Instead the shooter was given 20 minutes to perpetrate his crimes.  He was given 20 minutes with defenseless victims.  Victims who were in the charge of responsible adults.  Those responsible adults, responsible for the children in their charge, were forcibly disarmed under the law.

The law in this case guaranteed the outcome.  We will never know what the outcome would have been had just one teacher been able to choose to be armed.  We can hypothesize given previous events, such as the Pearl High School incident in 1997.  But we can never actually know, all we can do is wonder.

It’s time to stop passing laws based on irrational emotion and examine a very simple and harsh fact.  When evil finally shows up, how can we react.  We focus too much on stopping evil out right and preventing it from ever happening.  While definitely a worthy goal, it is almost impossible to achieve since you cannot actually control the aggressor.  All you can do is react as quickly as possible and try to minimize damage.   What you can control to achieve that goal is yourself and your response, except in many cases the law has neutered that ability from the victims. -B]

Bloomberg Wants You to Be A Victim

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So Mayor Bloomberg Fat @$@! George, said the following recently which provides a very nice window into the mind of a crazy person:

“We appreciate the help,” Bloomberg said. “The National Guard has been helpful, but the NYPD is the only people we want on the streets with guns, and we don’t need it. There’s been one or two minor outbreakings, disgraceful though they may be, of looting reported in the paper, but the vast bulk of people are doing the right thing.”

Umm, evidently the mayor has missed the memo, actually multiple memos about how his police force aren’t some how magically superior than the rest of the public.  As a matter of fact, they have probably the highest incident rate in my criminal count currently.

Instead of accepting help to prevent looting and restore order, thus allowing his citizens to stop living in fear since he forcibly disarmed them, he says no, he wants only his paid thugs to be armed in the city.  Remember this man has his own private army to protect him and his family.

As for the comments about the National Guard allowing for a police state to occur within New York City, you haven’t been paying attention have you.  I have three words for those who think New York City isn’t a police state, “Stop and Frisk“.

The mayor that is more worried about big gulps and preventing law-abiding citizens from defending themselves unsurprisingly is actively preventing others from defending those same citizens.

Mr. Mayor, I suggest you recite the Scout Oath and Law, since it’s become blatantly apparent that you’ve forgotten it.  Not to mention I’m reasonably sure that you wouldn’t know a good turn if it hopped up and bit you square in the face.  Frankly sir, I wish you would just shut up and step down because between you and Michael Moore, you’re making the rest of us look bad.  Your statements and actions reflect on all of us and you would do well to remember your charge.  Here let me help you.

The Eagle’s Charge

The foremost responsibility of an Eagle Scout is to live with honor. To an Eagle Scout, honor is the foundation of all character. He knows that “A Scout is trustworthy” is the very first point of the Scout Law for good reason. An Eagle Scout lives honorably, not only because honor is important to him but because of the vital significance of the example he sets for other Scouts. Living honorably reflects credit on his home, his church, his troop, and his community. May the white of the Eagle badge remind you to always live with honor.

The second obligation of an Eagle Scout is loyalty. A Scout is true to his family, Scout leaders, friends, school, and nation. His loyalty to his troop and brother Scouts makes him pitch in and carry his share of the load. All of these help to build the loyalty which means devotion to community, to country, to one’s own ideals, and to God. Let the blue of the Eagle badge always inspire your loyalty.

The third obligation of the Eagle Scout is to be courageous. Courage has always been a quality by which men measure themselves and others. To a Scout, bravery means not only the courage to face physical danger, but the determination to stand up for the right. Trusting in God, with faith in his fellowman, he looks forward to each day, seeking his share of the world’s work to do. Let the red in the Eagle badge remind you always of courage.

The fourth obligation of an Eagle Scout is to be cheerful. To remind the Eagle Scout to always wear a smile, the red, white, and blue ribbon is attached to the scroll of the Second Class Scout award, which has its ends turned up in a smile.

The final responsibility of an Eagle Scout is service. The Eagle Scout extends a helping hand to those who still toil up Scouting’s trail, just as others helped him in his climb to the Eagle. The performance of the daily Good Turn takes on a new meaning when he enters a more adult life continuing service to others. The Eagle stands as protector of the weak and helpless. He aids and comforts the unfortunate and the oppressed. He upholds the rights of others while defending his own. He will always “Be Prepared” to put forth his best.

You deserve much credit for having achieved Scouting’s highest award. But wear your award with humility, ever mindful that the Eagle Scout is looked up to as an example. May the Scout Oath and the Scout Law be your guide for tomorrow and onward.

Yeah, about the only thing you’ve done in that charge is walk around with a grin that approximates Joe Biden’s smirk.  Honestly though that point is probably the least important of the points.

If you feel that you’re being courageous and doing the right thing here’s a pro tip: it’s not being courageous when others are dead and victimized for your decisions.  It is anything but courageous to tell someone they cannot carry arms in their own defense while paying someone else to carry arms to defend you.

Courageous in this day is standing up for individual liberties and rights from nanny statists like you who would rather rape and pillage the land for their own profit.

People of New York, remember your mayor would rather his men, one of which was recently arrested for planning a kid-napping where he was going to eat the victim, than have the national guard arrive and restore order.

When it comes time for reelection, you would do well to remember his behavior because he needs to be sent packing.