End the War on Freedom

# On Monday, I said that Smith & Wesson's new 460 XCR revolver was measured at "half inch groups at 100 yards". Wrong. My aging memory fails again. After looking at the Shooting Times article again, they got a 1.5 inch group at 100 yards from the Hornady 200 grain load they tested in one of the two revolvers they tested. Still amazing for a handgun, but not quite as unbelievable.

# Vin Suprynowicz at The Las Vegas Review-Journal - But do we have enough freedom to export? - freedom begins at home. Great article from the man whose new novel I expect to receive any day now (some clairefiles folks have already gotten theirs).

Actually, America was supposed to be the beacon of freedom of the world by example. If Mr. Bush or anyone else in Washington wants to advance the cause of freedom, they could start by ending the domestic "wars" on Americans' medical liberty (the war on drugs) and self-defense. Then they could follow Mr. Jefferson's advice not to "steal the bread from the mouth of labor" --- simultaneously restoring our financial liberty and privacy --- by repealing the income tax.

The extent to which we have been trained to celebrate our bondage is demonstrated by the shrieks of terror (or instinct to ridicule) which even these modest suggestions now evoke among the self-anointed "freest people in the world."

...

If Mr. Bush wants to set an example in the fight for freedom, when does he plan to disband all this nonsense at the airports, going back to allowing a free people to carry arms and defend themselves --- given that all this metal-detector nonsense did not do a thing to prevent the events of Sept. 11, 2001, in the first place?

# Robert Kaercher at Strike the Root - The New Freedom - on Bushnev's newspeak. All hail the new freedom. [root]

I'm sorry to report that I did not have the opportunity to bear witness to history on January 20th and watch the live broadcast of the Great Leader's second inauguration. That evening, however, I was quick to download the full text of his inspirational speech to The People so I could prepare myself for the shape of things to come. I have to say, even though I gave up any childish delusions about politicians and government long ago, somehow I was still blown away by the mindboggling ramifications of King George II's words. Just when I thought Leviathan couldn't be any more transparently obvious in its bloodlust for omnipotence, its current High Priest brazenly peeled off yet another layer for all to see the brown shirt beneath the red, white and blue costume.

# Bruce Schneier - TSA's Secure Flight - why the new "Secure Flight" system is a waste of money, not to mention a threat to our liberty. [picks]

So far, I have four general conclusions. One, assuming that we need to implement a program of matching airline passengers with names on terrorism watch lists, Secure Flight is a major improvement -- in almost every way -- over what is currently in place. (And by this I mean the matching program, not any potential uses of commercial or other third-party data.)

Two, the security system surrounding Secure Flight is riddled with security holes. There are security problems with false IDs, ID verification, the ability to fly on someone else's ticket, airline procedures, etc.

Three, the urge to use this system for other things will be irresistible. It's just too easy to say: "As long as you've got this system that watches out for terrorists, how about also looking for this list of drug dealers...and by the way, we've got the Super Bowl to worry about too." Once Secure Flight gets built, all it'll take is a new law and we'll have a nationwide security checkpoint system.

And four, a program of matching airline passengers with names on terrorism watch lists is not making us appreciably safer, and is a lousy way to spend our security dollars.

# Gun Week - New Sixguns, Semi-autos Galore Debuting at Vegas SHOT Show - a report on handguns announced in Las Vegas last weekend. Articles on the new ammunition, optics, long guns, and knives are available only in the print edition. [gunweek]

Word has it Smith will unveil a couple of new .41 Magnums--one a Mountain Gun--and a big X-frame revolver in .44 Magnum, a bit later in the spring.

# Joseph P. Tartaro at Gun Week New Zealand Police Find Registration Useless - people in the know down under have discovered what they should have known in advance, gun registration doesn't help stop or solve crime. But the hoplophobes continue to refuse to listen to reason. Sigh... [gunweek]

# Jeff Cooper's Commentaries - January 2005: Practice Time - a particularly good issue. No time to summarize right now. Just read it. Especially good description of Cooper's color code.