Rob Boudrie

Kim has asked that I make the position in the waitlist available on the report on your classification record, and I have just done so. There is no longer any need to email or call USPSA staff for this information. Rob

No particuluar judgement was made regarding the legitimacy of IPSC. The law provides for a "competitor's exemption" to the 10 round limit, however, there were two factors which worked against IPSC: 1. The federal law would require that the provinces administer yet another licensing scheme if "high capacity licenses" would be issued - work they were not really that interested in. 2. Gun control groups came out of the woodwork to lobby against the issuance of such licenses claiming they would render the prohibition nearly meaningless. The final official conclusion (from memory) - "After consultation with sporting organizations and gun control groups, it has been determined that the needs of public safety outweigh the legitimate interests of sportsmen and no such licenses will be issued." No shooting sports received the exemption provided for in the Canadian law. As someone else has said, once you frame the argument as a balance between the "needs of a game" and "public safety", the cards are stacked for a losing battle.

I have been advised that IPSC is recognized in Australia but has not yet been able to obtian the "large bore diameter" exemption which the government may grant to recognized sports.

There is an excellent summary by USPSA President Michael Voigt at: http://www.brianenos.com/forums/index.php?...topic=35170&hl= Michael has done an excellent job of explaining the position and momentum of the world body and IPSC President. Way back when the Classic Target was announced, I predicted that a future step would be watering down of stages. Various individuals - some with official standing within IPSC - denied this. Read Michael's post for more details on the current situation. To pretend that the World Body will not continue to push towards a flavor of the sport which obfuscates the martial origins by changing the character of competition will only lead to frustration as the dichotomy between "what is being said" and "what is being done" continues to expand. The USPSA board has chosen to address this issue directly, rather than accept the unrealistic conclusion that the current IPSC changes represent the final step in the path towards political correctness and appeasement. Hopefully, we will see an outcome whereby both organizations are able to pursue their goals within a framework of mutual support.

Recognition can take many forms and depends on the locality. It can be: - A firearms licensing official accepting that IPSC is a "legitimate" sport which creates a valid "need" to own a handgun. - It can be a formal determination by a government agency such as the ministry of sport - It can be a formal determination by a government agency such as the US BATF - which has already issued a formal opinion that practical shooting is not a "legitimate sporting purpose" for the purposes of the gun control act of 1968. US law allows certain guns to be banned or relegated to Destrictive Device status unless they are for a "legitimate sporting purpose". The BATF non-recognition of IPSC allows them to relegate the USAS12 shotgun to DD status - making it all but impossible to buy ($200 tax, federal paperwork, signoff by local police chief, advance ATF permission to take the gun across state lines, etc.) - The holy grail of recognition is Olympic Medal Sport status. Just below that is non-medal or demonstration sport. - The General Association of International Sport Federations is regarded as legitimate by many governments. - One example is Australia. IF the government decided to recognize IPSC as legitimate, it could allow posession of handguns above 9mm even with the current law. They have decided not to grant such recognition.

The USPSA range list is public information, so you will not members access once we have this available. Rob

The system automagically kicks out an email when Kim changes your status in the database, but you'll only get it if you entered your email address correctly, you spam filter does not block it, and nothing glitcvhes in the delivery. Checking the classification record is the most reliable way of verifying your status on the list and email is a less than perfect delivery mechanism.

1. USPSA is one region with a single vote. That will not change unless the majority of other members vote to reduce their voting power. 2. Certain influential factions within IPSC have made "recognition" the top priority, and have made it clear than sacrifices will be offered to the god of political correctness if it is felt that doing so will help towards this goal. #2 is in direct conflict with the goal of preserving the character and nature of our sport. The US is almost unique among regions since (1) We do not need any "recognition" to be allowed to own guns, and (2) USPSA is so insignificant in national politics that what we do, or do not do, will not change laws or US policy on gun ownership. In some regions, the very right to own a handgun hinges on "recognition." If fact, if Australia had chose to "recognize" the legitimacy of 40's and 45's in IPSC competition (they did not), members in that nation would not have been required to surrender all handguns with a bore diameter above 9mm. The goals of IPSC are no less legitimate than the goals of USPSA - but they are different. The first step in dealing with the situation is recognizing that fundamental truth.

The orange tips makes me wonder - are the police really prepared to assume that a gun pointed at then is not real simply because the tip is orange?

There was no crash. I took the system down for about 10 minutes. There was NO loss of data. I left the "test mode" flag enabled in the code, so the first 92 signups did not have the $20 wait fee charged to their card - although the system went through the "validate card number" process it did not submit the charge. What it means is this: 1. If you signed up before I fixed this, you ARE ON THE LIST. 2. If your card was not charged the $20 fee, you obviously don't have a $20 credit towards your slot. 3. No, don't bother contacting Sedro to pay the $20 waitlist fee - your waiting list spot will be honored.

I don't have any slots available. Kim has them all and she will be making the calls.

The system will also allow you to buy your slot on-line. Once HQ is ready to offer a slot, they will mark you as "offered" in the database - at which time you will have a private link which will allow you to buy your slot on-line. It will still be absolutely essential to fill out the waiver in advance of the match and send that to Sedro. I will be calling HQ to learn the procedure by which that will be done so I can put that info on the on-line payment form.

Everything went fine, with one small glitch ... The first 92 people who signed up were not charged the $20 fee. I forgot to turn off the "test mode, do not bill card" flag in the copy of the code on the server. These wait list slots WERE correctly added to the waiting list. If you are one of these people you will be notified when you are offered your slot - but you won't have $20 credit waiting towards your slot. Rob

What a great match. The only problem is that free pizza with match that only has a $45 entry fee is going to make all the others look bad. I'll be back in 07.

Try Beikirch's in East Rochester, NY. If you are within range of their fleet of ammo delivery trucks (yes, really) you get free shipping without hazmat for orders over $1000.

Luca - Would it help if USPSA added ICBM coordinates to it's club database, and provided a feature where you could extract the data into your conversion program? This way, you could get regular updates of the source data for the US from a central source. Rob

I am familiar with the concept of a "neighbor call" because of being known to have guns in the house. A friend parked in front of my house to help me move some furniture, but got to the house before I did. A neighbor called the police about a suspicoius character in front of the "gun house." The report of the converstation was something like this: Cop to suspicous character: Hey Erich, we got a call of a suspicious character in front of Rob's house. Have you seen any? Suspicious character: Nope, I haven't. Cop to neighbor: Thanks for calling, but it's not a problem. It's just one of the gun people, but we're always glad to check these things out. Neighbor: Do you know he has all sorts of guns? Cop: Yes Neighbor: Doesn't that bother you? Cop: No. I think the neighbor was disappointed.

This brings us back to the age old question of "Where is the line?" - What if we are told that not publishing stage diagrams will make our sport more palatable to the Olympics? - What if we are told that not offering "Multi-Gun" style competition will make our sport more palatable to the Olympics? - What if we are told that removing walls, doors, windows, hallways, tables and anything else which depicts an interpersonal enounter involving the use of the defensive sidearm will make our sport more palatable to the Olympics? - What if we are told that starting from a low ready and not running with the gun will make out sport more palatable? I would suggest that anyone advocating that we start down this path also state how far down the path USPSA should be prepared to go. There will ALWAYS be the next thing we can offer up on the alter of political correctness and appeasment. Before embarking on such a path, a game plan is necessary.

Yes, eastern time, or UTC-05+01 for DST. I will sync the clock with the national institute of standards and technology time server a few minutes before midnite to make sure it's accurate. The link will be on www.uspsa.org as well as on the members page. Midnite eastern time was chosen since it provides a good oppoirtunity for persons in all time zones.

I assume you missed my use of the term without their cooperation after the word useless. If you consider are willing to consider the hardware a loss in the event of any chane in monitoring company, there is no need to worry about this. If you don't want the hardware locked into a single company get the code, and insist on a contract clause granting you a right to the current code at any time.

To refine the question I proposed earlier: Ask the vendor if they will give you the "Installer Code". If the answer is "No", it generally means the hardware will be useless without their cooperation.

The 2006 USPSA Nationals Waiting list will go live at midnight on Sunday April 30. The link to the waiting list will be up on the USPSA web site before that time, and the system will start accepting applications at exactly midnight. I'll be monitoring the system at midnight to make sure everything is working. If there are any unexpected problems, I should be able to deal with them very quickly. Rob

I got my information from a neighbor who was an electrician before he retired and fled Massachusetts. He told he loved alarm work since he got a residual on the monitoring fees from all the alarms he installed. I'll ask the electrician at the local club what the customs are in this area. Although this person does commercial exclusively, he should know. The question is, given the choice, what is the better investment in a low crime suburb? A $1500 gun safe or trigger locks and 4 or 5 years worth of monitoring?

You need to: (1) Use Outlook Express or similar program, not whatever MSN gives you (2) Connect to a server on a port other than 25. This will probably not be your ISP, but another mail server. In simple terms, if you can find an unblocked port 2525 (for www.tzo.com), or any other unblocked port an provider will support, this solution will work. AT thsi point, you will just be using your local ISP as the connection to the network, not the provider of email sending services.

Chuck - You need to find an web hosting company that will offer SMTP email on a port other than 25 (2525 is commonly used). Most email programs provide an option for specification of the port (It's under the "ADVANCED" tab when configuring an account in Outlook Express). Port 25 blocking is sufficiently common that many ISP's already offer SMTP service on an alternate port. I suggest you contact the ISP hosting www.shooters.connection.com (email support@tristarnet.com) to see if this is the case. Alternatively, you can sign up for an independent SMTP service which exists to serve users with port 25 blockes. http://www.tzo.com/MainPageServices/Produc...ies/13_OMR.html is one service which offers Port 2525 SMTP to $49.95/year (up to 2,000 emails/month, higher prices for greater volume). They require a client on your PC to keep their servers updated with your dynamic IP address, since they use the IP address to authenticate that you are allowed to send email through their relay.