Liberty Notes

17 July 2006

Kevin L. Jamison

It is a good day for Liberty.

NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre was in Kansas City to promote his new book. For two and a half hours the safest place in the area was the Barnes and Noble bookstore at Zona Rosa. For two and a half hours a steady stream of gun nuts came to have their books autographed. President Sheila and her first gentleman were there. Wayne asked about local races this year and complimented us on the job we are doing. Of course, we know that we are doing well; the trick is to do better.

I saw a CD called “Bill’s Gun Shop”. It also contained director’s comments and the comments of cast and crew about guns. It concerns a young man who knows every gun used by every character in every movie. With these credentials, he gets a job at “Bill’s Gun Shop”. The director says that he is trying to be something that he is not, and although he finally gets the girl, several girls, this is taken as a bad thing. The director seems to have felt compelled to place a nazi as one of the clerks. This is reprehensible, although interesting. The director had a Minnesota carry permit, and had a confrontation with a gang and used his gun to run them off without shooting. He built this movie around this incident. There is a real “Bill’s Gun Shop” but he never gives a reason for putting a nazi in it and there is no excuse for it. Despite this slander, this is not an anti-gun movie, or a pro-gun movie. It is supposed to be a factual movie set in a gun shop. It is interesting that the director allowed his actors to improvise the confrontation with the gang. He says that what the actors did and said was exactly what happened to him.

A friend of Gary’s was attacked in car wash. He was forced to kill the attacker. Some reports had him shooting the attacker in the back; this report is not true. The citizen was washing his car, when the thug who had three prior car jackings came up behind him. The first indication of trouble was a gun against his head. Awareness is always our fist weapon. The citizen did everything he was told but when the thug couldn’t get the truck started he became agitated and made more specific threats to kill the citizen. When the thug’s stopped waiving the gun around and began to move it in the direction of the citizen, he knew that there was no choice. He emptied the revolver into the thug, and believes that he continued to pull the trigger long after the five shots were gone. This is typical of gunfights. The thug lived long enough to stomp on the gas and drive the truck into a wall. This is also typical. When the police arrived the citizen walked up to them and told his story. Not what I would advise, but the man had enough presence of mind to tell a coherent story. This is not typical. Other people confirmed his story; this cannot be counted on. The police were very nice, but explained that it was their policy to put him into handcuffs. This is unfortunately typical. The police told him that this was the thug’s fourth, and last, carjacking. They questioned him, the report will go to the prosecutor, who typically will take it before the grand jury, which typically will return a “no true bill”, which exonerates the citizen. So a typical ending to a non-typical day. At the end of the day, he saved someone else from an increasingly violent car-jacker.

The United Nations has dropped its attempt to ban our guns, as least for this month. It and member nations and foundations continue to give enormous amounts of money to anti-gun groups; we have to hold raffles. There is one thing they cannot provide, our network and our people. I tell politicians that we can put hundreds of signs out in a weekend. They don’t believe me, until they see us do it.

Concealed Carry Magazine has a monthly feature which profiles people with carry licenses. In the most recent issue the featured person has a skull tattooed on her back. If she ever has to shoot someone, what do you bet that this tattoo will come up?

A north Missouri Deputy Sheriff brought an old sawed-off shotgun into headquarters, and was arrested for possession of a sawed off shotgun. He was tried in state court, where it was discovered that the gun did not have a serial number; this shows that it was manufactured sometime before the National Firearms Act of 1934. The gun’s maker is long out of business. It was also discovered that the gun had Damascus barrels; this indicates the gun was made before 1898, but not conclusively. Since the prosecution could not prove the gun was made after the antique cut off date of 1898, the charges were dismissed. I was surprised that they were ever filed, until I learned that the Deputy was running for Sheriff, and it was his opponent who had him arrested. The Deputy did not win.

Police in Florida arrested a creature who raped, tortured, and murdered a child. Seven times the creature asked for an attorney, and seven times he was ignored; even worse, they continued to ask questions. The judge suppressed his confession. Fortunately, there is plenty of other evidence against the creature, including a later confession he made in jail. The police massively broke the rules and this could have unleashed a child killer back on the street. Many people do not like these rules, but they exist for a reason, and the consequence of disregarding them is well known. Despite this knowledge, experienced detectives disregarded the rules. They probably fill out their statistics forms wrong too.

Mom complains that I do not eat enough vegetables; not true. I eat French fried potatoes, onion rings, corn chips- plenty of vegetables. Plus, it is all a matter of definitions. All law students read a case which defines tomatoes as vegetables, although botanists agree that they are fruit. The difference was that vegetables were taxed and fruit was not. I pay sales tax on everything that I buy.

Bill Clinton , an unemployed ex-president once said, “The problem is, we have another culture in our country that I think has gotten confused about its objectives. We have a huge hunting and sport-shooting culture in America . . . When there are no constituents for this movement, the movement will evaporate.” The prohibitionists intend to whittle down the number of shooters, sport by sport, gun by gun, person by person with any excuse at all. When we are an elderly remnant with dim memories of single shot hunting guns locked in police stations until we can produce an acceptable reason to check them out, it will be much easier to abolish our children’s rights.

The WMSA General Membership meetings are now held at the National Guard Armory on 23d street east of the library we used to use.

The opposition is trying to divide hunters from activists. They use the slogan “No hunting gun was ever banned”. They do not say that this was not for want of trying. During the “cop killer bullet” hysteria it was demanded that all bullets capable of penetrating soft body armor be banned. This would include all center-fire rifle ammunition, including great grandfather’s 30-30 deer-hunting favorite. San Francisco’s gun ban prohibited bringing new long guns, including hunting guns, into the city. The housing authority in Chicago confiscated all guns. New York City is seizing long guns, of any description that are semi-automatic or belonged to persons who have died without doing the paperwork to leave them to heirs.

Internet dating services fill my computer. I have noticed that they are now matching me with women who live over a thousand miles away. I asked why they are promoting such inconvenient unions, and they said that all the women within a thousand miles already know about me which forces them further afield.

There is a new gun shop in Platte City; Centerfire Central at the corner of Main and 2^nd Street conveniently down the street from the Courthouse, at least for me. The shop is co-located with a computer repair company; the owner teaches the class for the Utah License To Carry. There is also a car dealership on the corner. There may be other commercial activity, but my attention span ran out.

A new study claims that Americans have few friends. I am a lawyer; I have an excuse or at least an explanation. If the researchers had studied our people they might have come to a different conclusion. The gun culture sticks together, if one needs help, the others respond. This is an old cowboy tradition, “Ride for the Brand”, denoting loyalty to the outfit one works with. We are loyal to other members of our community, and to those who are loyal to us. This is something the politicians need to be reminded of constantly.

Jessica Chastain plays a part in “Blackbeard” a highly fictionalized version of the pirate’s demise. In the cast comments to the DVD she recounts a scene where her character shoots at coconuts. She knows that she is shooting blanks, and the coconuts explode through the efforts of the special effects department. However, when she fires the musket and the coconut explodes she reports feeling elated over her accomplishment. The lady was not altogether clear on what sort of gun she was shooting, but was elated when the target exploded. This demonstrates how easy it is to get people hooked on shooting, if we can just get them to the range. This also suggests the value of reactive targets with new shooters.

The NRA traces its history to a meeting of officers of the New York National Guard on 5 September, 1871. Coincidentally, WMSA was incorporated on 5 September, 1989. The NRA was formed in response to poor marksmanship of Union troops during the War. WMSA was formed in response to the executive order establishing the assault weapons ban. While we survived the assault weapon law, the executive order still stands.

The Castle Doctrine bill did not move in the legislature because the leadership was afraid of moving a gun bill in an election year. The congressional leadership is afraid of moving a bill to repeal the DC gun ban. Even after all these years we still need to prove to the politicians that we help them win elections. Many politicians are calling on us for help this year. We will help them, we will even help those who were yellow this year, and when we do we will tell them “We are the gun nuts, we will be back to see you after the election.”

The North Korean long-range missiles do not work, not yet. Their short and medium range missiles do work. They have been running a protection racket for a long time. They make their neighbors think they are crazy enough to launch a war, unless they are given food and energy. They cannot afford to go to war with their suppliers, but they can create enough tension to extort more aid. This makes them less dangerous that other problems, but sooner or later one must deal with the gangsters.

The US Coast Guard is responding to piracy problems in various parts of the world, notably the Horn of Africa. These are not funny Johnny Depp Hollywood pirates; they are killers.

I attended the Kansas Attorney General’s seminar on teaching the Kansas License to Carry class. Attorney General Phil Kline spoke briefly; he is not the buffoon the local newspaper likes to portray him as being, this does not come as a surprise. The Kansas law is significantly different from Missouri’s. It is a concealed handgun law; it does not authorize carrying concealed knives or long guns. There is a standardized sign to post businesses which do not want to do business with us, it is 8 & 1/2 by 11 black on yellow, the sign should now be on the web site www.Ksag.org. Carrying into a banned area is a misdemeanor. The list of banned areas is slightly different. A test is required to pass the course, one must pass with a perfect score on the written test. There is a list of standardized questions from which a test can be constructed. The shooting test is not required to be perfect. We shall have to become acquainted with the law; however we have until 1 January 2007 to do so. There is high confidence that Kansas will recognize a Missouri license, but it is not definite yet.

The CZ International, importing high quality guns from the Czech Republic, offers a bayonet for their pistols. It slides onto the rail in the same fashion as laser sights or flashlights. One might think that it is for those of us who can’t deal with intruders with the available cartridges. However, it appears to have been a celebration of the end of the congressional Assault Weapon Ban. Salesmen for the company tell me that it is very popular. This makes no sense at all, but I want one.

There is some concern that people qualify for their LTC with a .22, and then carry a .357. I oppose requiring people to qualify with their carry gun or even caliber as this could lead to something like the serial number specific license seen in New York state. If one of us should shoot someone, it is highly probable that some opposing lawyer will ask what gun was used to qualify. It would go over better with the jury if the response was a recognized police caliber. It would be even better if the answer honestly described one’s carry gun or equivalent caliber.

Scott Hattrup is running for the Kansas legislature for the 30^th District in Johnson County. Scott is an attorney, an accomplished pistol competitor and an instructor for the NRA and Massad Ayoob. He has been a driving force in getting License To Carry in passed Kansas. He will be a vast improvement in the legislature.

We shall overcome.