Liberty
Notes 16 August, 2007
Kevin L. Jamison
We have only three months before Hillary Clinton starts her sprint to the White House. We do not yet have a candidate we can rally around with enthusiasm. This makes it all the more important to be organized and ready.
State Senator Chris Koster has left the Republican Party to be a Democrat. He will run for attorney general as a Democrat. He was been a good Second Amendment supporter for his entire political career, and we hope that this shall not change. However, the national leadership of the party hates us and we must fear their influence.
I am told of a shooter who lashed out at another shooter who was criticizing Democrats. The Democratic defender was a union member who thought Democrats were on his side. We do have Democrats on our side, but the national leadership is hostile, although they are discrete enough to hide it lately. We have found more support with Republicans of late, but much of that is just politics. We vote for the person, not the party. We have supported Democrats before, and shall do so again.
Teresa Hensley, the Cass County Prosecutor, a Democrat, spoke at our July general membership meeting. We did not support her in the election; we supported her opponent. Despite this she has sought us out to speak at our meeting. She discussed her policy on self-defense cases and intoxicated and in possession cases. Her remarks were well received.
President Sheila was bitten by a brown recluse spider. This put her out of action and out of sorts for some time. She now has a 20 gauge “Spider Gun”. Brown recluse spiders are now our anti-mascot.
I went to give blood recently. I always wear a “Guns Save Lives” button or something similar when I give blood, no reason our people shouldn’t get the credit. They test blood before the donation. In the course of this test they found that I had goblins in my blood, 14.8 of them, and not just any goblins but hemo-goblins. The donation people did not seem concerned about this, so I elected not to worry about it. I don’t know how the .8 goblin got in there, perhaps one of them was pregnant.
The Missouri Department of Conservation has built a new range in Dent County, southeast of Rolla. It has also repaired and revitalized the Bush range in St. Louis. The Missouri Department of Conservation is fulfilling its responsibilities to the shooting community. This is fair as it is our hunting licenses and taxes on our ammunition and guns which provide its budget.
The Permit To Acquire handguns ends 28 August 2007. I am told that people are holding off buying handguns until that day. The $10 fee is not the point, the principle is not the point for many, people lost time from work getting a PTA for no reason. After the big day no advance permission is needed to buy a handgun. When buying from a dealer only the NICS check is necessary. In person-to-person sales there are no regulations at all. It would be a good idea to go through an FFL to ensure you are not dealing with a prohibited person, who will get you sued for selling to him. At minimum I would get a bill of sale. Now that the PTA is abolished, gun owners must keep records of their own handguns like we have for long guns. The Missouri Sport Shooting Association sells a notebook to record such information for insurance and other purposes. People in New Orleans are being harassed with demands that they prove ownership of their confiscated guns. This is not supposed to happen to us now, but it was not supposed to happen in New Orleans either. It is always best to have records.
have been told that the legal portion of the LTC course is easy “In a face to face encounter you have to be in fear of your life, that’s it.” I have defended self-defense cases for 24 years and I have never found it to be easy. One can do everything right during the gunfight, and actions in the aftermath can get one charged, and convicted, and jailed. The trauma the adrenaline, the stress of a gunfight makes people do things they would not do otherwise. When I teach the legal class I give the students the legal tools to build their defense. I teach them how not to answer the questions the police will ask, and how to construct a police statement when they are ready to do so. Citizens need to justify their choice of a gun, ammunition, training, and every action taken from the time they decided to carry to the time of trial. People need to understand what will happen to them in the stress of the shooting aftermath. Excited statements and panicked actions made after the shooting come out at trial. Slogans from bumper stickers and T-shirts get thrown into the mix. A town marshal killed a man who attacked him with a hammer, and was convicted of murder. A rape victim killed her attackers hours after the incident, and was convicted of multiple murder. It is not simple. We are not dealing with the mechanical application of law. This is not physics; it is people.
I enjoyed the show “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.” It was one of the few shows in which a devout Christen was not portrayed as a buffoon, humorless, uptight, or hypocritical. This was interesting enough, but the characters showed extraordinary loyalty to each other. Loyalty is a rare quality in life. The show, of course, has been canceled.
I see advertisements for a legal “service” firm which provides forms for divorces, wills, and business actions. The company claims that the forms are complete and provide low cost legal services. I have often been asked to repair divorces filed with these useless forms. The ones I have seen have not been complete and rely on persons to make legal decision when they have never read the statutes much less court rules and decisions. I can fix the divorces. I could usually fix the business actions. However, there is no fixing the wills. The only time the defects in these forms will be discovered is when the party dies. Despite all the zombie movies, there is no way to dig the party up and have him sign a repaired will. Dead people have voted, but they cannot sign a will. These forms will unnecessarily send estates into probate where they will be distributed by judges under rules set down by the legislature, which should send people screaming to an estates and trust lawyer. The cost of a lawyer might seem high, but it is much cheaper to do it right to start with than to fix it after the principle’s death. This gives more of the estate to the heirs, and preserves the principle’s desires in distributing his or her property. It would be a shame if a gun collection went to the wastrel anti-gun relation because a fill in the blank will was thrown out as improper. People think such a thing could not happen, they are wrong. Such things have happened and will happen again.
Judge Don Burrell Jr of Greene County hosts an annual shooting event for the Missouri Bar Association (an association of lawyers not bar owners). Regrettably, I am unable to attend.
Part of my fee in a case was a handgun. When the case was over I went to the Harrisonville Police Department to recover the gun. I took a permit to acquire with me, it being the law at the time. They acted like they had never seen one before. They insisted that I pay for a Highway Patrol background check to get the gun. I refused. They insisted that the law required them to do this, I told them it does not. They then justified it on the grounds of the NICS system, I told them that only applies to FFL dealers. They were not sure if Clay County did a background check before issuing a PTA. I had to have the Clay County Sheriff’s office assure them that the Sheriff follows the law.
I remember reading a 1969 Law Review article about the Gun Control Act of 1968. The article said that gun owners should be grateful for the restrictions and were silly to worry about further restrictions because anti-gun people were only interested in pistols and had promised not to go after long guns. Of course, now they are going after long guns. Prohibitionists will argue that “assault weapons” were not available them; but this is not true. Military semi autos advertised in the 50’s and 60’s included M-1’s, Johnson Automatic Rifle, G-41 and 43, Tokarev rifle and FN 49; these rifles had the capacity of ten rounds or less. However, advertisements showed rifles with a 20 round capacity to include FN-FAL, G-3, CETME, M-1 Carbine (15 and 30 round magazines), an “M-11 Assault Weapon” which is similar to an M-14 but not precisely, and a variety of 20mm anti-tank rifles. There were also pistols such as the French 15 shot MAB, 13 shot Hi-Powers, and 32 round snail drum magazines for Lugers. Prohibitionists are opportunists trying to ban or restrict any type of firearm until they ban all types of firearms. I am not the least bit grateful.
I have been reading Tough Towns by Robert Barr Smith Twodot press Helena MT 2007. The book recounts communities that fought back against bank robbers from the old west through the 1930’s. In an age before federal deposit guarantees, a bank robbery could ruin the bank, and ruin the depositors and ruin the town. One such incident was in the early 30’s in the town of Boley OK, this was an all Black town and the gangsters seemed to think this would make it an easy target. They chose the day before quail season for the robbery and many farmers were in town buying shotgun shells. They did not get far. Some towns had organized Home Guards among surrounding merchants. The Oklahoma Banker’s Association paid a bounty on dead outlaws, nothing for live prisoners. This does not appear to have increased the number of dead outlaws. People wanted to protect their money; killing was incidental.
I have the honor of being made an honorary life member of the Missouri Valley Arms Collector Association. This Association puts on the glorious gun shows at the Airport in January and July of each year. They help preserve the history associated with firearms. It is an honor to be among them.
The rash of vicious home invasions has increased the number of people taking License To Carry classes. In one case victims were tied to the bed and the beds set on fire. The young lady kidnapped from a Target parking lot in broad daylight and murdered has also had an effect. People want a fighting chance. It also helps to have a dog. Dogs are territorial, they bite, they bark. If home invaders broke into my home, I’m sure the noise of my dog licking their faces would alert me.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration attempted to pass new rules which would have the effect of shutting down the ammunition industry. Pressure by the shooting community stopped them. They withdrew the rules and are reported to be reconsidering them. What they may be reconsidering is who wins the next election.
The UN may take up the attempt to adopt a new “small arms” treaty which would not only violate the Second Amendment but savage it. The new attempt, if successful will be ready for the next president and the next congress.
The Washington DC Court of Appeals found that the Second Amendment is an individual right in the Parker case. The City of Washington DC is scheduled to file their appeal of the Parker case on 5 September, 2007. This is the 18th anniversary of the founding of WMSA. I hope that this is a good sign. We can expect the prohibitionists to throw everything they have at the case. Besides contributing to the defense fund, we can write letters to the editor. And we can get out and vote. It is said that the Supreme Court reads the newspapers and the election returns. This is not supposed to have an effect, but it almost certainly does.
We shall overcome.