Liberty Notes 
K. L. Jamison 
22 October 2003

It is a very good day for Liberty.

I began writing this saying it is a great day for Liberty. Then the lawsuit was filed, and we are back to fighting for our rights. We have the advantage that the opposition is trying to take something away from us, a harder atrocity to accomplish. However, this atrocity was accomplished in New Mexico, costing an extra year for them to get License to Carry.

A number of us went to the Gun Rights Policy Conference in September. We were hailed by all for our success. Dean Johnson had printed stickers boasting that “WE DID IT IN MISSOURI”, just in case anyone had forgotten. We met, Ed Monk, who was in WMSA when he was stationed at Ft. Leavenworth. He is now at a training center in Death Valley where he is responsible for teaching soldiers what sand looks like. The war is taking a great many support units. Among other reasons, support units have female soldiers. In the culturally conservative Middle East it is less offensive to have a female soldier search homes, especially women's areas.

On 1 August, 2003 I helped teach a continuing legal education class on Firearms Law for the Missouri Bar Association. The comments on the seminar showed that most of the respondents liked the facilities, one did not, most said the instructors were clear, one did not. I remember that during the seminar, one of the instructors asked how many lawyers present were pro-Second Amendment, hands went up all over the room. He then asked how many were anti-Second amendment; one very brave hand went up. I think I have identified our malcontent.

During the seminar, an attorney from the Attorney General's office asked about the traveling exception to the concealed carry law. She investigates child abuse cases and must often visit unfriendly, inbred families in remote places. I told her that the exception would probably apply, her AG badge would keep her out of trouble, but her boss is anti-gun.

My book, Missouri Weapons and Self-Defense Law was in print on 5 August, 2003. On 11 September 2003, the Missouri legislature gave us a License to Carry law, forcing me to update the book. Had I known the legislature was waiting for me to publish, I would have done so years ago. My summary of the new License to Carry law is posted on http:// www.KLJamison.com and here.

Our great friend Missouri Representative Jason Brown had a trap-shooting contest as a fund raiser. I wanted to field a trench gun team. The way I shoot a bayonet mount would be handy.

There has been much interest in my comment that my dog is afraid of my mother. This is not unprecedented. During the War, Mom was an airplane spotter in Visalia California. Throughout the war the Japanese military, not known for its timidity, never sent a plane over Visalia. A submarine ineffectually shelled the coast to the south, and a seaplane ineffectually bombed the northwest forests, but they stayed away from Mom. They had Heard.

I was listening to a tape of Libel, a book about how the media hates us. The author mentions that the most successful books are about diets and cats. My next book will be The Grassroots Gun-Rights Cat Diet Book. You can loose a good deal of weight delivering literature to neighborhoods, lifting yard signs, and worrying about legislation; and there are always cats somewhere.

A report on the famous ambush in which Private Lynch was captured reveals that the soldier's weapons jammed. The M 16 has an old reputation for requiring maintenance, mostly because of bad ammunition used in Viet Nam, but these soldiers had venerable weapons jam; weapons with a reputation for reliability. This shows a lack of maintenance. In response, the Army is trying to get in touch with its inner warrior. The Army should say, with pride, that its job is to kill people and break things. Soldiers who have civilian experience in maintaining weapons will help keep fellow soldiers alive.

There is a bill in Congress to give national License to Carry to law enforcement officers. Currently, any Kansas cop who enters Missouri with a concealed weapon is committing a felony. The National Association of Chiefs of Police is against it. They say they can't control officers from out of state. They seem not to trust other police officers. However, this is not a trust issue, it is a control issue. If they can't control it, they don't want it.

I cannot respond to the rumor that General Custer was reading my book Missouri Weapons and Self-Defense Law at the Battle of the Little Bighorn. I can say that if he had been paying attention instead of reading, he would have noticed all those Indians.

We now have two Gary Davises in WMSA. The Board has considered how to tell them apart. After investigation, we have discovered that the Black Gary is six inches taller than the White Gary.

The Gun Rights is not a spectator sport. Winning License to Carry is not the end of our battle. Already the opposition is threatening to start a referendum to repeal License to Carry. They are threatening to defeat our friends in the next election. The drumbeat of claims that our bill is flawed will continue. They will demand further restrictions. We must prepare for the next elections. We must reward our friends and punish our enemies. Governor Holden has proved himself to be vindictive. Although many think that he is an idiot, he has the connections to make trouble. Now that we have momentum, it is time to pursue and destroy. Recruit new members, raise money. Everyone can do something; that is how we have won so far, that is how we will continue to win.

A California bill would have outlawed the use of dogs in hunting. It was beaten, but after their recall, it will be back, and we will eventually see it here. The new governor is not our friend, in fact he is against almost everything we favor.

The assault weapon ban will expire in 2004, however there is a proposal to extend it. The proposal goes beyond extending it, the bill would ban M-1 Garands, the Ruger rifles specifically exempted from the prior law. It would outlaw all semi-automatic shotguns which carry five rounds or more, which is all of them. The "extension" does not have the votes to pass on its own, however, it will be attached to another bill, that is how the existing law was passed.

We have been raising money to fight the St. Louis lawsuit. We have to pay the lawyer who intervened on behalf of Centerfire Range $10,000; and that only covers the initial hearing on the restraining order. For the inevitable appeals, it will cost $75,000.

WMSA Board Member Jacq' Tucker has found a unique way to raise money. As an accountant, he audits people's wallets for money that will cause them tax problems, which is all of it these days.

The opposition claims that it is unconstitutional for the legislature to pass a concealed carry law. Some of them have mortgaged their houses to finance the fight against us. We must do as much. It will cost $100 to get a license to carry, unless we win this case, there will never be a license. Invest in Freedom First.

I was at a gunshow where a merchant was selling switchblades. I mentioned something about switchblade law (in connection with MISSOURI WEAPONS AND SELF-DEFENSE LAW). The merchant scornfully said he didn't know what Missouri law I was reading but he was going by the law passed one year and six months ago, which, he said, allowed people to carry switchblades so long as they were not concealed. It is possible that the law changed, and I missed it, not likely, but possible. I looked it up, and I was right, the law had not changed, and it is still illegal to sell switchblades except to collectors. I do not know what this guy read, or thought that he read, but it was not true. I often meet people who think that they know the law -- and get very huffy when someone who does know the law contracts them. 

A local gun show had established "Traveler", a coffee can to raise money for the WMSA legal defense fund. Even after the current court challenge, there will be others. The governor is supporting a referendum to abolish the license to carry law. The theory is that they won Prop B, and so they can beat us again. They could find it harder to get dead people and dogs to the polls this time, but they intend to try, and we intend to beat them.

Essential Latin Non Illegitimi Carborundum, “Don’t Let the Bastards Grind You Down”.

The suit against us also seems to work for us. Following the restraining order, I pulled ten times the usual number of memberships out of the post office box. Every time someone spits in our face, gun owners get active.

The NRA has spent a great deal of money in recent years and needs to replenish its coffers. Do your Christmas shopping at the NRA store (after buying everyone on your list Missouri Weapons and Self-Defense Law), attend the Friends of NRA Dinners, encourage your friends to join the NRA. A strong NRA is taken as the measure of the strength of the Movement. 

One of the D.C. sniper suspects has elected to act as his own attorney. This is known as judicial suicide.

Returning from the Gun Rights Policy Conference, I found a notice in an outside pocket of my luggage which announced that it had been opened and searched for my protection. The inspector would have then seen my copy of The Perfect Soldier, which does not appear all that suspicious.

I have reviewed CORPORATE WARRIORS, about private security firms, in the broadest possible sense of the term. It mentions that in parts of Africa an AK 47, a real one, sells for the price of a chicken; I have seen other references to AK’s selling for the equivalent of a sack of grain, or $14. Yet people claim that terrorists come to US gunshows to buy semi-automatic rifles, costing more than a gold-plated chicken, and pay to transport them overseas.

Some people don’t want to become active in the Movement because they fear being on a list. We are all on a list. I fear not being on all the right lists.

Opponents of License to Carry demand to know if “this is what we have become?” No, not at all, we never changed. I’ve read cases from ancient Greece, the holding of the case is always the same, people don’t change.

We shall overcome.