Liberty Notes - December 2003
K. L. Jamison 
It is a good day for Liberty.

Our friend Phil Journey of the Kansas Second Amendment Society has been appointed to fill the remainder of a Kansas state senator's term. He intends to run for the state senate from Wichita Kansas. 

Remember to donate blood. Remember to wear your WMSA pin when you do so.

On 25 November, 2003 the Missouri Supreme Court ruled unanimously in State vs Jamie Avery. Ms. Avery had been walking her dog, while carrying a concealed gun. She had been gang raped once and did not want to have the experience again. When she returned home, a man who had abused her earlier in the day followed her in. She shot and killed him and was convicted of second-degree murder and armed criminal action. The Supreme Court ruled that she had been entitled to an instruction on accident, self-defense, and defense of premises. These are inconsistent defenses; the court stretched the law when they did not have to. The fact that this was a unanimous decision, and a not completely sympathetic defendant, may indicate that they are not as prejudiced against us as we fear. 

There is a video “The Dancer Upstairs”, a thinly disguised account of the struggle against the “Shinning Path” terror group in Peru. It is a good account of how terrorists are fought. There is an illuminating scene of detectives going through the trash for an entire street, looking for discarded skin medication used by a terrorist with eczema. 

My second son, my treasure, my jewel, my joy (one of them) has had an article published in the Kids Sports News. He was paid $15. This is a pivotal, life changing moment. When I took drama in college, the professor told us that if you got paid, you were a professional, otherwise you were simply promiscuous. 

Anyone who wants to be a promiscuous grassroots activist can call my office (8160 455-2669. We need the help; your children need the help.

I see that chimpanzees and humans share 98% of our DNA. I am reminded, however, that chimpanzees live in isolated remnant populations, and there are 6 billion of us. The 2% must be something special.

Massachusetts has legalized a form of gay marriage. With 50% of American marriages ending in divorce, one would think the gay community would want something better. Some fear that gay marriage diminishes heterosexual marriages. I cannot see how my marriage could have been diminished, unless I had done it twice.

You can’t have a gay old time anymore, not without explanations.

The US Supreme Court has ruled on the campaign finance “reform” law. Essentially they say it is constitutional to forbid citizens or organizations of citizens to speak out on candidates immediately before elections. They make this frontal assault on the First Amendment because of the evil of political corruption. Our freedom of speech must be infringed because something bad might happen. They have balanced bad possibilities versus constitutional rights. This is not the crew I would like to decide my Second Amendment rights.

I am reminded that Senator Dolan is still being investigated for returning from Cuba to cast the decisive vote on LTC. In retaliation for his vote, Governor Holden initiated an investigation to ruin his military career. He has a legal defense fund as well. We cannot forget his decisive efforts on our behalf. He needs $3,000, which cannot be commingled with election funds, nor can election funds be used for legal defense. Send what you can to: Jon Dolan’s Legal Defense, 3 Rudder Court, Lake St. Louis Mo 63367.

It seems that the multitude of lawsuits filed against gun owners have been designed to burn up our money. We shall have to find a way to return the favor.

A 10 December, 2003 photo on page B-2 of the Kansas City Star shows a shooting scene, directly under a Project Ceasefire billboard.

At the 6 December, 2003 MSSA dinner awards were given out for contributions to passing the LTC law in Missouri. Awards were given to WMSA, GCLA, and SACMo. The MSSA board of directors voted $5,000 to the LTC legal defense fund. 

I hear people say that they should not own a gun because they would hurt themselves. These are people who drive cars at 25 to 70 miles per hour (or thereabouts) among other people driving cars at similar speeds while paying attention to signs for speed, school zones, merge, slow, stop, and others. They comply with the rules of the road, watch for other drivers, pedestrians, and dogs, judge the speed of other cars, change radio stations, tapes, CDs, eat, drink, and talk on the phone. Handling a gun is simple by comparison.

The 9th Appellate Circuit recently decided US v Stewart, and found for the machine gun owner. The Ninth is the last place I would expect to see such a case, and I do not expect to see it elsewhere. Mr. Stewart made a machine gun for personal use. The court ruled that he was not guilty of possession of an unregistered machine gun because the law did not apply to homemade guns. The court reasoned that the law was passed under congresses interstate commerce power, and unless a significant number of machine gun parts had passed in interstate commerce, the law did not apply. This is an unusual win for our side; however I would not count on other circuits adopting the decision.

I have spoken to many gun owners since the court delayed our right of self-defense. I do not see anger as much as resolution. Whatever happens at the Supreme Court, we will fight on. Memberships are up, and people volunteer to work for the movement. We will win.

We did not pick this legal battle. However, sometimes the battlefield picks you. We shall have to pick more battlefields in the future, where the odds favor us. In the last thirteen years we have prevented the opposition from passing most anti-gun laws. They have had all they could do in fighting our LTC bills. The best defense is a good offense.

I saw an attorney reading The Death of Right and Wrong. This is regrettable. No word yet on who will probate the estate.

I am told that 80% of NRA members are 50 years old or older. One-half of one percent are in the juniors program. If we do not change those percentages, we will not have any shooting sports twenty years from now. MSSA reports that there are college scholarships for marksmen, and women. We need to bring young people into our sport.

Kansas City senator Mary Kay Bland will introduce a bill in January which reads like a wish list for the anti-gun crowd. She demands that there be a ten day waiting period for all guns. She wants a ban on “assault weapons”. She want one gun a month; as a limit, not a requirement. There is more, much more. It is easy to say that such a bill will never pass. However (the eternal however) the only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. After passing the LTC and gun industry protection laws, some lawmakers will actually believe that they have to give something to the other side. WMSA will be there to fight this attitude, but we cannot do so without letters and visits to legislators by a lot of members.

Over the last few years, the NRA has spent a fortune on LTC in Missouri. I have been assured that it will spend what is necessary to defend our gains. However, this distracts from other projects. There is no substitute for local activists visiting the legislature. A visit or letter from a voter is more valuable. There will be another rally this year.

Someone sent me a $100 check for a copy of my book, and the remainder to the WMSA legal defense fund (which we forward to the LTC Legal Defense Fund). He made the check to WMSA. I deposited the check in our legal defense fund and wrote myself a check out of that for the price of a book. I’m not sure who I report that to: one of you take care of it.

The LTC lawsuit has taken another odd turn. The judge in St. Louis called up a hearing on the plaintiff’s post trial motions involving the Hancock Amendment. The case went to the Supreme Court only on the plaintiff’s claim that they have a right to live in a state in which no-one carries concealed weapons (lots of luck with that!). They filed a motion for a new trial on the Hancock amendment issue. This amendment prohibits requiring activity from local government without also funding the activity. The plaintiffs claimed that the $100 fee for a license did not cover administrative costs of processing the license, but presented no evidence to this effect. They also wanted their bond money back. Normally the bond on a restraining order is released when the permanent order is issued. However, the plaintiffs walked into court on this case stating that it would definitely go to the Supreme Court. They should have been prepared to post a bond for the entire period. It was our side that wanted an expedited hearing in the case, and the plaintiffs who opposed it. The judge, on 10 December, 2003 granted a hearing on this issue without being asked. A judge normally has the right to do so, but it is unusual. There was a great deal of speculation on the purpose of the hearing. To everyone’s surprise, the judge denied the plaintiff’s post trial motions, and refused to return their bond.

I have been asked to speak at the UMKC Law School on the subject of guns. This rather broad subject matter will begin at 6:00 PM on 22 January, 2004. Taking the other side of the subject is a law school professor who used to work for Handgun Control (now the Brady Campaign). Please come. Please.

I wandered into Kansas and took refuge at the Bullet Hole gun shop and range. They had a unique revolver with a name I could not spell even when I could remember it. It was (and probably still is) a .357 magnum automatic revolver which revolves by recoil. The bottom chamber fires and the barrel is therefore immediately above the trigger. This should help control recoil. I had a Missouri permit to purchase a handgun, which did me no good at all. If I had a prescription from a Missouri doctor for dangerous or addictive drugs I could have filled it in Kansas, but a permit from a Missouri sheriff was worthless. 

There is a cartoon strip called “Mark Trail” which concerns the adventures of an outdoor writer. A recent strip had him in a big game hunter’s trophy room which he said was “nothing to be proud of”. The hunter turned out to be the bad guy. He has been highly critical of hunting; an odd attitude for an outdoor writer. This is what our kids are seeing.

In 1975 a Washington DC councilman tried to amend the District gun regulations to confiscate, without payment, all registered guns in the district. When asked if this would not break faith with gun owners who had been promised that their guns would never be confiscated he said, “That doesn’t bother me. I didn’t promise them anything.” Yes, we should compromise with these people.

I was reading The Rebbe’s Army a book about a group of what appears to be Jewish fundamentalists. They stand on corners and ask passerby’s if they are Jewish. If they are, they try to get him to put on ritual objects, which mark them as Jews. We do something similar. We stand at gun shows and ask people if they are gun nuts, and try to get them to wear pins, hats, and shirts which mark them as gun nuts. Anyone wanting to be a fundamentalist gun nut, call the hotline at 333-WMSA. The group seems to have a mission of encouraging Jewish people to be Jewish. When they move into an area this annoys some Rabbis who thought that they were already Jewish. They gain influence by providing services to the community, either free or low cost. These services range from rituals and religious instruction to day care. This provides some guidance for our activists. We have provided gun safety training and gun clubs have provided sight in days. If there is more we can do for our community it may work to strengthen our influence.

We shall overcome.