Liberty Notes

K.L.Jamison

10 June, 2005

Liberty Notes 10 June, 2005 K. L. Jamison

It is a good day for Liberty.

We have two years and five months to prepare for Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign.

Hillary Clinton invited Democratic officials from Iowa to a fund raiser for her Senate seat. Why Iowans would be interested in a senator from New York is unstated. Why she would invite Iowans is unstated, except that Iowa has the first Presidential primary.

Liberal pundit Bill Maher stated that he thinks that conservatives are “angry”. I disagree. Conservatives liked the results of the last election. It is liberals who are angry. They don’t want to be labeled angry, people fear angry persons.

With the passage of the “Hancock fix” to the License To Carry law the only holdout jurisdictions in Missouri should start to issue. However, St. Louis City and County are being St. Louis. They say that they will wait for the Governor to sign the law, then have their lawyers look at it, then wait for a fingerprint machine, and then, if they have to, schedule appointments. They do not want lines to form outside the office. It appears that we will continue to have work to do.

Gary Davis has finally received his License To Carry (LTC). There was some delay because his application was identified with another Gary Davis who has an unlikely number of social security numbers. After investigation they found an indication that the suspicious Gary Davis was not our Gary, the suspicious Gary is white.

In an episode of "The Shield" the police have a program to seize property under federal drug forfeiture laws. The police try to explain to a drug dealer that they can take his mother's house and anything else purchased with drug proceeds on their claim of drug involvement alone and that he would have to prove they were NOT purchased with drug proceeds, put up a bond to show he seriously wants his property back, and the state would not have to give him a lawyer. The doper looks at them dismissively and says "This is America!" Well, this is America, and that is the law.

Fifty caliber rifles took another hit when 60 Minutes repeated their hit piece. It largely consisted of claims from Tom Diaz of the viciously anti-gun Violence Policy Center. The maker of the .50 Barrett rifles was allowed to make some comments, but the enemy was given the final word; which was that there is no way of telling who has these rifles. We know that this is not quite true, in the sense that there is nothing true about it. These rifles can be traced from the maker, to the distributor, to the dealer, to the persons who buy them. These records are NOT destroyed, unlike the NICS checks. They allow the government to trace the rifles right up to the point where they are stolen. The 60 Minutes hit piece stressed that terrorists could use these rifles. Of course, if they were banned, a reasonably good machinist could make one. Of course the question should be, why would a terrorist want to use one of these guns? The hit piece claims that terrorists could shoot a plane that was landing or taking off. It would take a great many hits to damage a plane, so such an attack would rely on both the pilot and co-pilot being hit at the same time. This is unlikely for a moving target, and even if successful may not result in a catastrophe. There have been threats of laser attacks to blind pilots, and repeated warnings of anti-aircraft missiles. Why terrorists would take a step backwards to rifles is not explained. Of course, the terrorist warning is not the real reason; they just want to ban more guns. Along with arguments against .50 rifles, are definitions of “intermediate” caliber sniper rifles; these are defined as .30 rifles. The prohibitionists repeatedly state that no one should have a rifle that could kill at a range of 100 yards. Of course, any .22 rifle can be accurate at 100 yards.

The use of .50 rifles by terrorists assumes that they will buy a 3 to 8 thousand dollar rifle, fire thousands of practice rounds a $1.50 each (minimum) and then attack a target which could be more successfully attacked with a rocket launcher costing a fraction of the amount. Reports from the Middle East are that terrorists do not rely on marksmanship. If they take the Mr. Diaz’s advice, we may be sure that they will do little damage.

I attend gun shows to search for girls. At the last show off I-435 there were two impossibly beautiful girls selling sunglasses. I say impossibly because it is impossible for me to get anywhere with such women.

At GUNS Unlimited I saw a portable lockbox which is opened by fingerprints. The fingerprint screen is covered when not in use to prevent dirt etc from interfering. It takes a second for the box to recognize a print and open; this is about as long as a combination or key lock would take. The box stores up to three different prints.

I helped teach a Continuing Legal Education (CLE) program on firearms for the Missouri Bar Association. I taught a block on new federal developments, but fielded questions throughout the day. Another instructor was Richard C. Miller. This is the same Miller who argued against LTC in the Missouri Supreme Court; he did not list this event in his biography. He taught a block on products liability regarding guns. He said that he is not against guns, only “bad” guns. He mentioned several guns; none appear to have been “good”. He lists ten “historical bad guns”. These include: 1. Remington Bolt Action Rifles (Model 600 and 700), 2. Chinese SKS, 3. Pump up air rifles, 4. “Ring of Fire” pistols” (New term for “Saturday Night Special”), 5. Remington firearms, 6. Ruger single action revolvers, 7. Stevens single shot .22 rifles, 8. Winchester Models 92 & 94, 9. Glock pistols, 10. Remington shotgun barrels. He claimed that Remington Model 700s will fire when the safety is released, that this was known since the patent was filed, and that Remington is doing nothing about it and does not admit it. Remington is replacing safeties made before 1982, according to their web site. The old safety may involve the need to take the safety off before unloading the gun. Given the number of these guns bought by the Army for snipers I question his claims. He claimed that Chinese SKS rifles have a deliberately lighter trigger pull for the American market. I found no difference between the pull on Chinese, Russian, and Yugoslavian rifles, but some 5-year plan or another may have resulted in faulty sears. He claims that Glock pistols have no external safeties, and are prone to slam fire. From his description, it appears that they fire when holstered. Because of the design of Glocks, the firing pin is blocked from the chamber unless the trigger is pulled. This indicates that someone tried to holster the gun without taking his finger off the trigger.

The problem with Mr. Miller is that he is very good. He convinced a St. Louis judge of a mind numbingly stupid constitutional argument, and he had many in the CLE class believing that the NRA is beholden to the “bad” gun companies and the only hope of safe guns lies in lawsuits. He repeatedly stated that firearms are not governed by the Consumer Products Safety Commission. Of course, when this agency was established, the prohibitionists raved that they could use it to ban guns and require so many “safety” procedures and devices that guns would be too expensive for the average person to buy. When the prohibitionists announce that they will not play fair, we had no choice but to use our influence to stay out of their sights.

Mr. Miller said that he was at a meeting in San Francisco regarding suits blaming gun companies for criminal activity. He says they knew they would lose money on these cases. The opposition mortgaged their homes to put up a $250,000 bond to prevent LTC on a nonsensical theory. This is money they have not gotten back, and must have realized that they might never get back. The enemy has shown that they are willing to sacrifice in order to take away our rights. We have to sacrifice to keep them.

I ran across a reference to a 9^th century British King whose laws authorized a husband to kill an unfaithful wife. It does not appear that a wife was authorized to kill an unfaithful husband, which indicates who was writing the laws. In the last thousand years, the laws have changed. It is not legal to kill an unfaithful spouse, of either gender, in any of the 50 states, Puerto Rico or Guam. On occasion, very occasionally, one hears of a jury acquitting a person under such circumstances, or coming back with a verdict of manslaughter. However, I believe that this is the result of an exceptionally good temporary insanity argument. Such arguments rarely work.

Going over some old papers, Mom found that Monmouth memorial Hospital in Long Branch, New Jersey billed her $176.29 for my birth. This includes $6 for circumcision and $2.24 telephone costs. My theory is that she called her mother in California about my birth; Grandma remained interested in such things for her entire life. There was also a receipt showing that Dad paid the bill for my birth, which prevents troublesome repossession attempts. It is always wise to keep receipts. Lately there has been renewed discussion about keeping receipts for gun purchases, and a copy of the PTA for pistols. A gentleman in St. Louis was stopped and searched for loitering with intent to commit mopery, a quasi-legal term for anyone who does not seem to fit the neighborhood. He had a handgun in his car, which was quite legal, but the police ran the serial number and said that it was stolen. The gentleman had purchased it new ten years before and knew that it was not stolen. It appears that the police ran the serial number, but not the make or model; a small mistake which will cost the gentleman several thousands of dollars in attorney fees. Keeping a copy of the receipt and PTA for a gun will limit such problems. We should not have to do so, but the reality is that it is a good idea.

Rex Shell has closed his Harrisonville gunshop. Rex has been a great supporter of WMSA. His presence will be missed. A new shop called “Gunslinger” has opened in Harrisonville at 2110 Royal St next to the Central Bank on 291 Hwy.

I saw an old Glen Ford movie “Day of the Evil Gun”. Ford plays a gunfighter who is giving up the trade. He rescues his wife and daughter from a band of unusually inattentive Apaches. He then goes to the general store to get them new clothes, but finds that he owes a $36 fee bill and cannot get credit for new clothes. He offers his Colt Peacemaker in trade for the clothes. The storekeeper examines it, pronounces it an “evil gun” and that he does not understand what would bring a man to kill another. But, he takes the gun in trade, only for the clothes; Ford still owes the $36 feed bill. Walking out of the store Ford meets a man he is at odds with. The man shoots Ford in the leg and then prepares to execute him. At this point the storekeeper shoots the assailant dead with the “evil gun”, having found what would cause a man to kill another; to save a customer who owes him a $36 feed bill.

A local gentleman was arrested by the ATF for making machine guns. He was held without bond on the claim that he was exceptionally dangerous. He recently reached a plea agreement with the government to a charge of being a drug user in possession of firearms. His original arrest appears to have been an attempt to force him to inform on the Missouri Militia. He did not know of any illegal activity by the Missouri Militia which forced him to plead to something. The government appears to have a couple of drug dealers in hand who claim that he sold them machine guns and got high with them. Drug dealers are only considered to be reliable witnesses when they are working off charges for the prosecution.

Police found a man carrying a vial of poison around his neck. He explained that after being mugged, he carried it for self-defense. I try to imagine how poison can be used in self-defense and come up empty. I discuss poisoned bullets in MISSOURI WEAPONS AND SELF-DEFENSE LAW and determined that they are ballistically and legally a bad idea. A mind more evil than mine (a remote possibility) might find a way to use them.

We shall overcome.