General Membership Meeting Minutes of WMSA

May 16, 2006

Trails West Branch, KCPL

The May General Membership meeting of Western Missouri Shooters Alliance was called to order at 7:16 PM., with Kevin Jamison, WMSA Past President, presiding and conducting the meeting. The meeting began with the Pledge of Allegiance led by Kevin Jamison.

Kevin began by noting that the Missouri state legislature was now out of session. He told those in attendance that the Castle Doctrine legislation flew through the Missouri House of Representatives but that the Missouri Senate seemed scared of dealing with gun-related issues in an election year. It was known that Missouri governor Matt Blunt had contacted the Senate leadership and asked them to bring the Castle Doctrine legislation to the floor for a vote but they were apparently afraid to do so. Kevin encouraged WMSA members to work to re-elect incumbent legislators later this year, telling them: “we’re the gun nuts and we’ll see you after the elections.”

Sheila Stokes-Begley, current WMSA arrived at the meeting at this point and took over conducting the meeting. She told the membership that it appeared that WMSA has found a new location for the general membership meetings. WMSA will apparently be able to hold future meetings at the nearby Missouri National Guard Armory at 2323 S. Crysler in Independence, Missouri. This will allow us to hold meetings until 8:30 P.M. and not be constrained by the one-hour limitation that the library has imposed in recent months with its 8:00 P.M. closing time. PLEASE CHECK THE WMSA WEBSITE, www.wmsa.net for confirmation that the July 2006 meeting site will be held at the armory building.

In further news related to potential legislation, it was noted that the Missouri Sheriff’s Association has stated that it would look favorably upon action by the Missouri legislature to eliminate the “permit to acquire” law currently in existence. Given that the federal NICS system covers the same ground, even the sheriffs recognize that the PTA law is redundant. Hopefully, action can be taken in the next legislative session to get rid of this annoying and unnecessary law in Missouri. Adding to the earlier comments made by Kevin, Sheila reminded that all WMSA members need to work hard this election year for those who have supported favorable legislation. Without their re-election, we could lose ground that we have already won. She also noted that it would be good if some WMSA members, who obviously support 2^nd Amendment rights, would consider running for public office.

An upcoming gun show at the old Montgomery Ward store near Bannister Mall, the “3 Trails Expo Center”, will be held on June 24^th and 25^th. The address for the show is 8844 Hillcrest Road in Kansas City. Attendees should take the 87^th street exit off of I-435.

Sheila thanked those who volunteered to work this upcoming gun show and asked for a volunteer to help coordinate the gun show effort. G.L. Heaton kindly agreed to assume that ongoing responsibility.

In a side note for those who did not know, WMSA is now associated with the Missouri Sport Shooting Association (MSSA). Kevin Jamison is the current MSSA president and Sheila Stokes-Begley and Gary Davis are also now board members of MSSA. Sheila also reminded members that new raffle tickets are being distributed and that the price is $1 each or 6 tickets for $5.

A brief discussion was held about the new Kansas concealed carry law. Kevin stated that he believed that those who currently hold a valid Missouri concealed carry license would be recognized as a valid out-of-state license in Kansas once the Kansas attorney general’s office has made its determination. We will have to await further communication from that office to know for sure, however. Please do not carry concealed in Kansas until the Kansas attorney general’s office has confirmed that Missouri permits are valid and that the law has taken effect! It will probably be January of 2007 before any permits are issued or become valid.

Mr. Scott Adams was recognized as being in attendance at the evening’s meeting. He is a current WMSA member from Blue Springs but said that this meeting was his first time attending a general membership meeting in person. We welcomed Scott and invite him and all WMSA members to attend our every-other-month membership meetings whenever possible.

No further business appearing, the meeting was adjourned at 7:53 P.M.