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Minutes of the 26th July 2005 General Membership Meeting |
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Taken & submitted by Rory Marshall General Membership Meeting Minutes of WMSA July 26, 2005 Trails West Branch, Kansas City Public Library
The July General Membership meeting of Western Missouri Shooters Alliance was called to order at 7:11 PM., with Derek Ward, Esquire, WMSA President, presiding and conducting the meeting.
The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance led by Derek Ward. After the pledge was completed, Gary Davis, past president of WMSA requested a moment of silence on behalf of Dean Johnson, former WMSA board member who recently passed away.
Bob Hanson, WMSA treasurer told those members in attendance that the current balance in the WMSA treasury was approximately $950.00. He said that after the next newsletter was mailed, the balance would be reduced by approximately one-third. He noted that membership renewals have been slow to come in recently. On another topic, he mentioned that the raffle ticket sales have not been robust recently. In response, Derek Ward told the membership that new raffle tickets have been printed but have not been mailed.
Derek reminded members that it was possible to order quality merchandise which sports the WMSA logo through the organization’s website at www.wmsa.net. There was mention that there were a number of items which members would enjoy and which would help raise a bit of money for our cause. Gary Davis then rose to let members know that the United States Senate was about to take up debate on an important bill. The "The Protection of Lawful Commerce In Arms Act.", S. 397, was about to be debated on the Senate floor over the next few days (as of July 26, 2005). He echoed the request currently being sent to NRA members to help the NRA finish the job in the U.S. Senate by contacting your U.S. Senators and urging them to support S. 397 without any anti-gun amendments. The legislation, if passed, will help protect lawful firearms manufacturers from frivolous lawsuits. This legislation was attempted prior to the lapse of the Clinton “Assault Weapon” ban but was killed at that time because anti-gun Senators attached a number of amendments to it which would have caused great harm to American gun owners. This time, the NRA is hopeful that the senators will reject attachment of any anti-gun amendments such as:
Kevin Jamison, another past WMSA President stood to update the membership. He reminded those who might not know it that Missouri Governor Matt Blunt recently signed the so-called “Hancock fix” to Missouri’s concealed carry law. Kevin said that he and Gary Davis were in attendance at the signing of the bill and that each received a copy of the legislation bearing an original signature of Governor Blunt. He noted that this was the first bill in his remembrance that became law because of a Missouri governor’s signature. Kevin then displayed a beautiful wood plaque that bore engraved inscriptions designating it as the Dean Johnson award. As noted above, Dean Johnson was a long time supporter of 2nd Amendment rights and a long time valiant member of the WMSA board of directors. The intent is to present the award annually to one Missourian who has been deemed to have made a significant contribution to the furtherance of the rights of lawful gun owners in Missouri. The 2005 recipient was announced to be Greg Jeffrey who played such a vital role in the passage of Missouri’s right-to-carry legislation. While discussing Dean Johnson’s great contributions to WMSA, Derek Ward mentioned that Dean often paid for tables at NRA banquets. Derek encouraged members to attend these banquets whenever possible. Both he and Gary Davis said that those in attendance at NRA banquets often have a fairly good chance of winning a quality firearm as door prizes at one these events. Kevin Jamison distributed the newly revised “Stay Out of Jail” foldable wallet cards to members present. He encouraged them to freely distribute them to their gun-owning friends and suggested a one-dollar donation for each card to help cover the cost of their production and to help put some additional funds in the organization’s treasury. Kevin noted that the attorneys who assisted in the litigation of Missouri’s right-to-carry law are still owed approximately forty-to-fifty thousand dollars. He said that additional raffles, as previously noted, are in the works. Some quality items such as a very nice M1 carbine will be prizes in the upcoming raffle. Tickets for this raffle will sell for five dollars each or five tickets for twenty dollars. The drawing for these prizes will be held in January of 2006. It was also noted that there has not been any recent movement on the release of the $250,000 bond put up by anti-concealed carry advocates at the outset of the litigation against the new law. We continue to be hopeful that our attorney team will be successful in justifying the awarding of a significant portion of that bond money to cover the remaining legal costs. Sheila Stokes-Begley, WMSA vice president, requested that those who have remembrances of Dean Johnson go to the WMSA website and post their comments at the site which can be used to create a Book of Remembrances which the WMSA board plans to give to his widow in the near future. Kevin Jamison was asked about how things were proceeding to force Jackson county sheriff Tom Phillips to comply with the law requiring his office to accept applications for concealed carry permits from those who hold NRA instructor credentials. Kevin said that the next suit in small claims court was scheduled for early August. Hopefully, after several of the judges in Jackson county are presented with this same complaint enough times, they will direct the duty-derelict sheriff to cease and desist from denying NRA instructors their lawful right to receive permits. No further business appearing, the meeting was adjourned at 7:55 P.M. |