Liberty Notes 12 April, 2006

Kevin L. Jamison

It is a good day for Liberty.

We have one year and seven months before Hillary Clinton officially starts her presidential campaign. She needs 270 electoral votes to win. A local columnist speculates that she could get all of Kerry’s 252 votes, probably Arkansas’s 6 votes; if she took Virginia’s popular former governor as a running mate she might take another red state. President Bush barely won Ohio in 2004 and it has suffered scandals under its Republican governor. With this lineup, she could win the presidency with 20 electoral votes to spare.

Kansas Has passed License To Carry. The governor vetoed the bill, and the legislature overrode the veto with more votes than originally voted for the bill. I thought that this was a miracle when it happened in Missouri, and now again in Kansas. We cannot count on continued miracles. People have called to congratulate WMSA for the Kansas vote. However, we cannot take credit. We advised, we offered, but the Kansans did it themselves. As of this writing there are no rules specifying training. I spoke to Scott Hattrup, a Kansas attorney, who is working with the Kansas Attorney General’s Office on implementation. It does not appear that the rules will be onerous. The Kansas Attorney General has the authority to establish a list of state LTC’s which will be recognized in Kansas. We believe that Missouri will be on that list. The Kansas law is not in effect at this point. When the implementation is certain, it will be reported on the WMSA web site, wwww.WMSA.net. Details can be found at www.ksag.org.

We had not finished celebrating the Kansas LTC when Nebraska passed its LTC. This time, the governor supports the law. Certain cities have threatened to pass ordinances prohibiting concealed carry despite the state law. With victory in Nebraska, only Wisconsin and Illinois still prevent citizens from carrying the means of self-defense; two to go.

Indiana has passed, and its governor has signed a law providing a lifetime LTC. Unless one commits a crime, the license never expires. The Indiana Second Amendment Patriots organization is to be congratulated for the success.

At a recent gun show I found a 1911 magazine with a follower which had been put in wrong end up. I often find magazines which are badly dented, rusted or otherwise unreliable. This one had been maintained, but the owner had not paid careful attention when he disassembled the magazine for cleaning. The fact that it could be re-assembled wrong and still function, after a fashion is doubtless a design defect and proof that we cannot rely on engineers to construct equipment which will prevent negligence.

There have been huge demonstrations for immigration reform. I did not expect this. All of the illegal aliens I have represented are too busy working to demonstrate. Many Mexican Flags were seen; this does not bother me, I see many Irish flags on St. Patrick’s Day and Italian flags on Columbus Day. I am concerned over some “Kill the Gringos” signs which were reported. I think that the major lesson of these demonstrations is that we need to bring Hispanic elements into our movement. They represent a large block of voters, or soon to be voters; we need them on our side.

Representative Brian Munzlinger has introduced a bill to reform the Permit To Acquire system for handguns. The bill would make these permits necessary only for sales, not loans, and would exempt LTC holders from the need to get a license. This is a half-step forward, but the grass-roots groups discussed such a measure last fall and voted to support it. I appeared to testify in the committee hearings for WMSA and Missourians for Personal Safety. One advocate testified in favor of the bill by criticizing the sheriffs’ implementation of the PTA system. This was not a wise technique when an ex-sheriff sat on the committee. In addition, the sheriffs have a great deal of influence in the legislature. When advocating a position, one should consider one’s goal, consider the audience, and then form an argument to which the audience is likely to listen. The committee became confused over the difference between the sheriff’s checks and the NICS checks; an essential first step. Fortunately, one member of the committee was a firearms dealer. Despite the initial blunder of criticizing the sheriffs the hearing saw a landmark change in the fight to abolish the PTA system. The representative of the sheriff’s association testified that the PTA system was a nuisance and a liability to sheriffs, and the Sheriff’s Association wanted the entire system abolished. The committee asked if they had heard correctly, and I am glad they did; I wanted to make sure that I had heard correctly. The committee swiftly, if informally, agreed. The bill will have to be re-written, then sent to the House for a vote, then the Senate. There does not appear to be enough time for this process in this session. If it does not pass, we will begin the next session of the legislature with a consensus that this law must be abolished.

A book has appeared which purports to be a history of the struggle for License To Carry in Missouri. Written by a University of Missouri-Columbia political science professor, SHOWDOWN IN THE SHOW-ME STATE was written ten miles from one of the major players in the LTC struggle, and thirty minutes from the political figures in Jefferson City, yet the author did not conduct a single interview. He excuses himself by saying that one side refused to talk to him, and he did not want to prejudice his work by only talking to the other side. Instead he bases his research on newspaper accounts. Several times he mentions that the state newspapers opposed LTC; most people would worry about the effect of this bias on coverage. The author does not appear to have had any such concern. The problem with this approach is illustrated by his treatment of the supposed “death threat” against Senator Jet Banks in 1995. Late in the 1995 session a LTC bill was poised to pass the legislature and land on the governor’s desk. The back story is that the governor desperately did not want the bill on his desk. Senator Jet Banks dutifully rose in the Senate to claim that an advocate of the bill had threatened to kill him. The Senate closed ranks and killed the bill. The author quotes the newspaper accounts and treats the incident as if it really occurred even stating that Senator Caskey, the sponsor of the bill seemed to believe Senator Banks. Had the author spoken to Senator Caskey, or anyone present for his remarks, he would have known of the extreme sarcasm used to refer to the “honorable” senator. Had he spoken to anyone involved he would have learned that when reporters told Senator Banks that LTC leader Tim Oliver had called him a liar, the “honorable” senator reportedly dashed through the corridors of the capital shouting “I’ll kill him, I’ll kill him”, an incident not reported in the newspapers. After the session ended, senator Banks told newspapers that the LTC advocate he had accused had said that he could no longer support senator Banks. The senator rationalized that since there was no other candidate in his district, this lack of support was a death threat. The author does not mention this absurd rationalization. The author’s theme appears to be that the NRA did everything, that groups such as ours were formed and financed by the NRA, and that there was no significant local support for LTC. He repeatedly claims that police officers in favor of LTC were part-time gun dealers. He details the NRA friend of the court brief filed for the lawsuit on the constitutionality of LTC, but does not mention the Missouri intervener or the money raised by the Legal Defense Fund, or the financial hit taken by opponents of LTC due to the efforts of the Legal Defense Fund. The book reminds me of all the work done on LTC, all the people who have been involved, and that we have not truly won until we write the history.

I continue to meet people whose plan for post self-defense shooting is to “improve” the evidence in their favor or even conceal the event entirely. I must point out the lines of Exodus which describe how Moses killed an Egyptian, attempted to conceal the event, and was found out. If God’s best friend cannot escape earthly detection, what chance have the rest of us?

I have listened to a tape giving the history of Joan of Arc. The author went into detail on several subjects which did not interest me, including the Saint’s bust line. To date I have not seen a history of the Saint which explains why God wanted the English out of France. It may be that He had some long-range plan which depended on France and England having different governments. This separation worked out well for the American Revolutionaries. We should not, however, take too much pride in this accident. It may be that our nation is intended to be nothing more than another ball rolling across an eternal pool table to hit an unknown eight ball into a celestial side pocket. We shall see, but probably not in our time.

I spoke to the First Federated Republican Women’s Club of Clay County regarding LTC. Since these ladies are party activists, I threw in how we can help candidates, and have helped candidates. The theme was that when politicians help us, they make good and effective friends.

New York’s mayor Bloomberg is now advocating nation-wide legislation which will limit purchasers to one gun every 3 months. Prohibitionists used to advocate a limit of one purchase each month. So much for being reasonable.

A client used a cell phone to call 911 for good and sound reasons. His phone immediately emitted a siren, which was not the desired result, the bad guys being within hearing distance. I am a big believer in cell phones but one should be sure of the accessories one is getting.

Ray County refuses to issue a LTC in less than 45 days even if the background check has come back clean. This is in violation of the law; however taking him to Small Claims Court takes more than the 45 days. The sheriff needs to hear from his constituents.

Buchanan County demands that applications for a LTC be made within 2 weeks of taking the firearms safety class. This is questionable at best. The statute does not specify how soon one must act on an application. If anyone is refused in Buchanan County based on this arbitrary standard, please call my office.

I hear that rape victims often bathe and change clothes after an assault, which changes or removes evidence. People who have acted in self-defense also often take counter productive acts, flee, throw away the gun or lie about events. Both sets of actions are due to the stress of the event. The difference is that the actions of rape victims are treated sympathetically, the actions of self-defense shooters are not. On the contrary, the shooters’ actions will be interpreted as evidence of evil motives. This is not fair, but it is to be expected.

At a recent gun show I found a replica of a Winchester 1887 lever action shotgun. The gun was made in the People’s Republic of China.

A newly discovered gospel claims that Judas was the good guy and the only disciple to really understand Jesus. As a defense attorney I am always interested in new evidence which will provide a basis for a new trial. However, I am not inclined to take this new document at face value because it was written 300 years after both men died. This small detail seems to have been lost in the headlines about the discovery.

Iraqi terrorists have kidnapped Germans despite Germany’s opposition to the war and have kidnapped, tortured and murdered an American anti-war “Peace Activist” who was in Iraq to document crimes by the US military. I grow less and less enthusiastic about these guys winning the war. If they commit such crimes against people who are on their side, what will they do to all those people who voted against them?

A pacifist who won the Medal of Honor has died. The gentleman was a combat medic and was awarded the Medal for the rescue of wounded while under fire. I have often criticized pacifists as being kept safe by better men and women. However, I must admit that there are pacifists who have seen the elephant and have even sought out the Beast.

We shall overcome.