Liberty Notes 17 January, 2002
Kevin L. Jamison

It is a good day for Liberty

An American has been captured fighting with the Taliban.  This is not the first time an American has served the enemy.  Axis Sally and Tokyo Rose were convicted of treason.  Robinson Jeffers [Ed. an alert reader has notified Kevin it was actually the mad poet Ezra Pound, not Jeffers, who helped the fascists.  Kevin acknowledges the error and requested this change on 5/4/2003], one of the great American poets, and a fixture of all American poetry anthologies made propaganda broadcasts for Italian Fascist radio during WW II.  He was sent to a mental institution for fifteen years after his capture.  As a poet, this was an easy call.  There were a miniscule number of British and Americans who joined the enemy in WW II.  There were Americans who collaborated with the enemy in POW camps in Korea .  Their liability was mitigated by the conditions of the camps, but fifteen were court-martialed.  One was convicted of murdering fellow POWs.  For an excellent review see BROKEN SOLDIERS.

I reviewed The VILLISTA PRISONERS for Military Review.  It is the only account of the trials of Pancho Villa’s men who were captured during or after his raid on Columbus New Mexico .  They were tried for murder in the County Court.  The book is frustratingly brief, but presents some of the questions we will have to answer in putting terrorists on trial.  I also reviewed A PECULIAR CRUSADE, concerning an American attorney assigned to defend SS troops who doubtless murdered American troops during the Battle of the Bulge; as well as other atrocities.  They were convicted, but were eventually released because the trial did not comport w! ith American notions of justice.  The nazis had much lower standards of justice, but they are not our teachers.

Our WMSA Webmaster, Captain Jacq, has advised me to write brief reviews of Second Amendment related books for our web site.  There will be links to Amazon so that we get a commission on the sale.  This is a good idea.  Actually, Captain Jacq did not advise me to write the reviews, he advised me that I WILL be writing the reviews.  In all the reviews I write for Military Review, I try to throw in some Second Amendment angle.  Some of these reviews have passed Captain Jacq’s standards and appear at www.wmsa.net.

I live and work in Gladstone Missouri .  The water supply was cursed last week.  It required the ministrations of exorcists chanting for three days while wielding ceremonial objects to lift the curse.  To be frank, it looked like plumbers with wrenches swearing at pipes, but Gladstone is a suburb and we are not that crude.  Still, the water was unfit to drink for three days.  This was a minor annoyance.  During the Y2K hysteria, I washed out 2 liter Coke bottles, and empty Gatorade jugs and filled them with water; I thought it would be embarrassing if the hysterics were proved correct.   The supply thus put by was ample to cover this minor emergency.  There are greater and lesser emergencies, and greater and lesser tyrannies.  The Founding Fathers wrote the Second Amendment in part to ensure that citizens had the ability to resist a tyrannical federal government.  Aside from the late unpleasantness in the 1860’s, this has not come up.  There has been resistance to local tyrannies, political machines such as in Athens Tennessee in 1946.  There has been a great deal of resistance to the lesser tyranny of crime.  An elderly person who is a prisoner in his home for fear of crime is as oppressed a! s if targeted by the KGB.  A woman afraid to work in an area after dark is as persecuted as any racial minority suffering apartheid. 

The Liberty Memorial will re-open on 25 May, 2002 .  The tentative keynote speaker will be President Bush.  The Liberty Memorial is the only museum of WW I in the United States .  It has examples of the various substitute standard rifles used during the war, the militarized shotguns and revolvers, and wooden guns used in drilling for lack of the real thing.  It is a unique and valuable resource.

A WW I hero has still not received his due.  Henry Johnson, then of the Black 369^th  Regiment of the New York National Guard and father of Herman Johnson of Kansas City, was given the highest French award for gallantry, but never recommended for the Medal of Honor.  Pvt. Johnson was on outpost duty when a raiding party tried to take a comrade prisoner.  Pvt. Johnson, although wounded 20 times fought off the raiders, liberated his friend and, out of ammunition, was hobbling after the Germans with a knife when relief arrived.  He’ll do.  

The dancers at Diamond Joe’s contributed a portion of their tips to a Christmas charity.  If anyone needs a reason to visit a topless joint.  

The City of Kansas City has proposed regulating newspaper vending boxes.  The concept is only that the various “unsightly” individual boxes be replaced with a set of connected vending boxes.  The newspapers, which rabidly endorse any and all restrictions on firearms, did not once consider if this is a reasonable restriction, a step in the right direction, or good for the children.  

There is much hysteria that terrorists are buying guns at American gun shows.  The idea that a terrorist would fly to America and spend $1,500 for a semi-automatic AK when he could buy the machine gun version at home for $75 is farcical on its face.  In Mozambique , an AK with two magazines of ammunition can be purchased for $14, or a bag or grain.  The few cases where this may have occurred seem to have involved persons with more enthusiasm than sense.  They were caught.  

The family has a photo of my father-in-law escorting a North Korean infiltrator he had captured.  The North Korean had a PPsh 41 submachine gun with 71 round drum magazine.  My father-in-law (the South Korean) had a 1911A1.  In the photo he clearly had the North Korean outgunned.  I’m sure Colonel Cooper would agree.  

Elgar Macy, the Missouri for Personal Safety president, recounts attending a legislator’s meeting with constituents.  One rose to say that the legislature could do anything they want to pistols or semi-automatics or sniper weapons or etc, so long as they left his shotgun alone.  Right, that always works.    

We had scheduled a demonstration in front of the Kansas City Star (a daily tabloid).  Unfortunately, we scheduled it for 11 October, the anniversary of the terrorist attack.  There were a number of other activities going on, the governor was in town and media coverage unlikely.  It was canceled.  We still had 8 hard core souls show up.  

The rally in Jefferson City is scheduled for 17 April in the Rotunda of the Capital.  The repairs on the Rotunda have been put off until after the session.  This will be a working rally.  There will be no politicians to say how much they support us.  We reward results, not platitudes.  Buses will be scheduled and a good time had by all.  

The book ARMIES OF THE RAJ is the history of the Indian Army up to independence.  During WW I, a unit in Singapore mutinied and began killing every European they found.  Local civilians were formed into a self-defense force until the Navy and loyal units got matters in hand.  The Founding Fathers were always suspicious of a standing army and guaranteed us arms in case units went bad.  

The UN says that Afghanistan must be disarmed.  Right, that worked really well when the British tried it.  The Taliban began by disarming citizens on the grounds that they no longer needed guns, and that the Taliban would protect them.  The Taliban protected them into tyranny.  

I am reviewing a book on Army lawyers in Viet Nam and after.  In Grenada , a lawyer went in with the assault force and wrote "use of force" guidelines.  This told the troops how much violence to use.  He told young men with automatic weapons to use minimum force, use bullhorns to convince snipers to stop, and, my favorite, "shoot to wound".  This last, which is laughed at by every police trainer in the country, is akin to asking a golfer to make a putt, on the run, while the hole, moves, hides, and tries to kill him.  When I write this review, I get to call somebody stupid again.  

Missouri House Bill 1049 is presented as giving License To Carry to former law enforcement officers.  However, in the next paragraph, it requires that ANYONE who wants to buy a permits to buy a pistol, not to carry concealed, just to own, must pay $100 (currently it is $10) and must provide a certification of physical and mental health.  This will act to prevent collectors from collecting, and large segments of society will be priced out of owning handguns.  Write your politicianthing, call them, e-mail them.  Tell them we are coming.  

Randy Farr is the new president of WMSA.  Gary Davis, our president for the last three and a half years, found a way to retire; he convinced the Board that he had taught Randy how to talk to White People.  Since that is the only qualification for the job, Randy was in.  His first order was “Off with his head”.  “Whose head?” we asked.  “Use your imagination”, he replied.  It was immediately moved, seconded, and unanimously passed, that we begin conspiring against Randy immediately.  Randy insisted that it could not be a unanimous vote, since he didn't vote for it.  He doesn't seem to understand this conspiracy ! thing yet.  

If you want to learn to talk to white people, start by working the gun shows.  

I have reviewed THE LAW OF WAR, a treatise on the subject.  It seems that civilian armed groups are considered legitimate combatants, so long as they carry arms openly and refrain from war crimes.  This allows them prisoner of war status if captured.  This may seem to be an odd sort of benefit, but the alternative is often execution.  

Senator Carnahan is being elevated to sainthood by the local media.  Jim Talent is running against her.  He is strongly in favor of our rights.  Ms. Carnahan is from the party faction that hates us.  We need to give Mr. Talent all our support.  

"Americans for Gun Safety", which has never taught a gun safety class, claims that thousands of people who should not have passed NICS were allowed to buy guns.  "Allowed to buy guns" is the appropriate term, it is government permission.  I question the validity of their "study".  I do so on principle.  The claims are typically constructed from invented data.  They claim, for "gun safety", we have to place more restrictions on honest citizens.  There are state and federal restrictions on who can buy guns.  A third set of restrictions only reinforces failure.  In the rare instance that a check is not done in three days (actually five) and in the rarer case when it comes back bad, a federal agent goes out to collect the gun.  He could arrest the buyer as well, but that seems to be against policy.  This "study" is simply more hysteria to distract people from the facts.  WMSA was called by some media for our reaction.  This is encouraging.  However, the Kansas City Star (a daily tabloid) did not care to hear our opinion.  

When Hemingway was covering WW II, he collected some weapons and an entourage of French Resistance fighters, and set out to create some war to cover.  See HEMINGWAY AT WAR for the details.  War correspondents are not supposed to carry guns, but go argue with Geraldo Rivera.  This rule may well need reform given the irregular nature of modern warfare.  

I was called by AOL, asking that I buy their service.  I told them that I had just canceled them because they contributed to anti-gun organizations, and that was a sore point with me.  The nice lady asked me to remember that the donation was not her idea.  We meet people all the time, each is an opportunity.  

If a person dies without a will, his estate is distributed according to the law.  This means that the Missouri legislature decides who gets your stuff.  If this does not set off a stampede to estate and trust lawyers, you have not met our legislature.  

We shall overcome.

--- Kevin Jamison

--- kljamisonlaw@earthlink.net

--- EarthLink: The #1 provider of the Real Internet.