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Liberty Notes |
It is a good day for Liberty. I was walking along Brush Creek and noticed signs all along the creek. They warned that the creek drained three sewage systems during "rain events". Rain is not so uncommon in Missouri as to be an "event". When water falls from the sky, most of us say it is "rain" or that it is "raining". The only exception is the twit who makes signs for the government. In order to communicate, we must use precise words, but also consider how the public uses these words. One of Daniel Boone's sons (I think it was Daniel Morgan Boone) is said to have trapped beaver along Brush Creek. Another, Nathan Boone was a captain of the Missouri Rangers, a federally organized militia tasked with protecting the frontier in lieu of a federal cavalry arm, or frontiersmen in the ranks. He is buried along 63d Street next to the police station. I went to my doctor recently. I had a hole in my stomach that I thought the doctor should look at. He told me that it was my belly button, that it was supposed to be there, and seemed surprised that I had not noticed it before. He also told me that under the new federal privacy act, it was very complicated to release my medical records, even to people whom I want to have my records. The government, however, can look into any medical record it likes in the name of national security. So now the government knows all about my belly button; I feel so much safer. Recently a Catholic monk came to the aid of a Texas police officer. The officer lost a wrestling match for her pistol. The monk rushed in, wrested the gun from the felon, and made the arrest. This reminds one of St. Gabriel Possenti, a monk in Isola Italy. In 1860 he confronted a group of bandits and snatched a revolver from one. The bandit sneeringly asked what he thought he was going to do with the revolver. With a snap shot the Saint took the head off of a lizard running across the road; and asked if there were any more stupid questions. There were none. The NRA fund raising letters cost the Association nothing. They are done by a company which receives a percentage of the return. Even the rabidly anti-gun Parade Magazine (of 1 June, 2003) refers to Michael Moore's "invented facts and staged scenes for Bowling for Columbine." Critics have called for the return of his Oscar. The editor of Very High Power magazine has requested photos (with captions) of anyone who has used the .50 BMG cartridge for hunting. The photos are intended to show that these guns are used for sporting purposes. This will help our movement, although the use of the guns is irrelevant to our right to own them. Send photos to FCSPI, PO Box 8499, Moreno Valley CA 92552. California and New York State are in the process of outlawing .50 rifles. We can expect to see such efforts here, and see them expanded to other rifles. The governor threatened to veto our License To Carry bill, but has not. The fact that he did not immediately act on his threat is a tribute to the vocal support of our people. By the time this comes out, he will have come to a decision. At present, we expect to have a busy veto session. We need to work on our senators. Even if the governor does not veto the bill, we shall have our hands full. When we win, we can expect a backlash. I was invited to a meeting of the Missouri Sport Shooters Association, and appointed a directed. Now they insist that I join. Very clever. Jason Blair, fired from the NY Times for fabricating stories, claims that racism made him do it. He describes lying in his stories as a slave uprising and recounts laughing at editors when they tried to correct his copy. He got caught lying and not only sees nothing wrong, but seems to believe his conduct was praiseworthy. His work was known at the Times as fraudulent for years, but no one had the courage to fire him. Mr. Jordan, of CNN, boasts that he knew about Saddam's tyranny but kept it secret in order to continue having access to Iraq. We often wonder what the problem is with getting the truth about guns into the media. I begin to get an idea. Members of the Sons of the Confederacy asked me if I had any ancestors who fought for the South. I am informed that my ancestor William Sprague, organized a Rhode Island regiment, but when his cotton mills ran out of cotton, he traded munitions for cotton through Bermuda. Perhaps he could claim both sides. I had another ancestor, Francis Wheeler, who was a toll taker on Concord Bridge one day in April, 1775. The toll was on government tyranny. The experience goes to prove the Libertarian claim that a toll discourages the taxed activity. There is a bill in Congress to make firearms subject to the Consumer Products Safety Commission. This is bad. Firearms were exempted when the Commission was formed because of prohibitionist chortling that they would use it to make guns too hard to market and too expensive to buy. We can never lower our guard. One of the troops in Iraq is PFC Konah Gweh, a native of Liberia. She lived through one of Liberia's savage civil wars when bodies littered her playground. She says that she is not concerned with going to war, "Now I have a weapon. Back in Liberia, I didn't." The sheriff of Lewis County Washington was confronted with a breathless TV reporter who wanted to "expose" the taped private sale of a rifle to one of the station's reporters. The sheriff said there was nothing illegal about the transaction. The reporter pressed that certainly he must be concerned about the sale. The sheriff replied that it was like a car going 50 mph when the speed limit is 50 mph. It may be troubling, and yes an accident could occur, but it wasn't a crime. "There was this one thing I was deeply troubled by", he continued, "something so concerning to me that it made me shake. Now, there is a liberal reporter with a gun." I bought a copy of REPRESENTATION PROCEDURE IN THE ROBBERY AND FIREARMS TRIBUNAL IN NIGERIA, by Oyeleye J. B. Esq. Nigeria has a firearms "tribunal" which was established, according to the book, for "quick justice . . . not bound by the formalities in the Regular courts . . . ". In short they have no protections and no appeal. More importantly, "they are easy to control". "The executive arm of the Government has a tremendous or absolute control over these Tribunals." Notice they are not called "courts". Of course, if a special court is established to "solve" any given problem, there will be tremendous pressure to convict everyone in sight. At one time Missouri was threatened with a "firearms court" to deal with "gun violence". Neal Knox put a stop to that. The existence of such a court is an admission that guns are the problem. At the last General Membership meeting Dean Johnson conducted a drawing. Everyone who attended got a ticket for a chance on several prizes. The next General Membership meeting is 17 July, 2003 at 7:30 PM at the Trails West Library near 23d & Stirling in Independence. I spoke at a seminar put on by the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association on the topic of consequences of municipal convictions on the right to own guns. It was well received. On 1 August, I am part of a firearms law seminar in St. Louis. I will be speaking on purchase and transport of firearms. St. Louis will not issue a purchase permit for handguns if the buyer says that he intends to use it for self-defense. It will be nice to call them idiots. Anyone willing to be a bodyguard, call my office. I've been reading HOW TO WORK A ROOM, and THE FINE ART OF SMALL TALK. They offer good advice to the socially inept on how to start conversations without becoming the subject of a restraining order. We all need to reach out to people outside the shooting community if we are to survive. This month, everyone find out what other people at work or socially like to do, identify with that interest, and then work in that you are a shooter. Nice, normal, person who is interested in the same things other people are. I celebrated Friday the 13th by donating blood. There is a serious shortage of blood, so loan them a pint, and wear a big orange GUNS SAVE LIVES button when you do so. Robin Carnahan is running for Missouri's Secretary of State next year. Her brother Russ Carnahan is running for the congressional seat now held by Rep. Richard Gephardt of St. Louis. Robin Carnahan ran the committee against Proposition B, which adopted the policy of lying faster than we could tell the truth, that cheated us out of a License To Carry bill in 1999. Now she wants to run Missouri elections. A woman in Florida was arrested and charged parental kidnapping; with having taken her children and hidden them from the father. She denied it. The father positively identified the woman as his wife, and the children as his. DNA tests showed that the children were not his and the woman was released. Enthusiastic eye-witnesses like this can do us all in. There are people out there who claim that the only reason we want guns is to assault people at random. This is bad enough, but they see what they want to see. I was in a radio debate once with Linda Spence. She claimed that I was waiving a gun around threatening people. I protested that I did not have a gun with me, and appealed to the radio moderator and the representative of the Kansas City Star to confirm this, they didn't want to. So much for reliable eye-witnesses. So much for a fair press. For Father's Day, my sons took me to a movie, they let me pay. I read of some fathers who received visits from belly dancers. I enjoy going to the movies with my sons, but . . . belly dancers. I read an interview with a belly dancer (they appear in print in order to frustrate me). The lady said that enticing men is an undesirable side effect of The Dance. Now I am all confused. What in hell are they dancing for? If the interest of men is undesirable, I expect they shall have to learn to live with it. If I continue going to gun shows, perhaps I will meet a belly dancer who is interested in a near-sighted and unshaven attorney. There are many gun shows lately, it could happen. Miriam Pepper of the Kansas City Star recounts her father's exploits as an investigative reporter. While investigating polling irregularities, an election judge pulled a gun on him. It is illegal in Missouri to carry a weapon into a polling place. I suspect this is so that the machine's thugs will be the only armed persons there. Wayne LaPierre was in Kansas City to promote his new book, and the NRA. He spoke about the "campaign finance reform" law, which for the first time since the Alien and Sedition Act criminalizes speech. It prohibits organizations, such as our NRA, from campaigning for 60 days prior to an election. The exceptions are the media, they can speak as they like. This is why the media has not spoken out against the law, it gives them a monopoly. We see some people who do no object to firearm restrictions; so long it does not touch their favorite gun. The proponents of the speech restrictions may have screwed up. The law was clearly aimed at us; however, it gave us access to free speech advocates and university students. It allows us to expand our message beyond our usual group. This gives us an opportunity. A police officer came to my office today. He wanted copies of my book, and to know the status of the License to Carry law. He is anxious to be an instructor. We shall overcome. |