Minutes of the General Membership meeting January 2005
Submitted by Rory Marshall-Recording Secretary

General Membership Meeting Minutes of WMSA

January 25, 2005

Trails West Branch, Kansas City Public Library

The January General Membership meeting was called to order at 7:05 PM., with Mr. Derek Ward, Esquire, WMSA President, presiding and conducting the meeting.

Derek began the meeting with the announcement that the Jackson county sheriff’s department will begin taking applications on February 7, 2005. He directed members to the website www.missouricarry.com for further information about Jackson county.

Derek mentioned to the membership that the January board of directors meeting of WMSA was cancelled twice due to dangerous road conditions from the ice and snow.

He then began to discuss the legislative priorities that were felt to be worth pursuing in the Missouri house and senate this year. Derek said that he and many people with whom he has spoken are desirous of having the long-existing permit to acquire provision in Missouri law abolished. Secondly, he advocated the abolition of the ability of individual cities to establish preemption of open carry of handguns. Thirdly, he said that he was a strong advocate of establishment of a so-called "Make My Day" law that would shield those who were required to use a gun in self-defense from later civil lawsuits for monetary damages filed by the relatives of the perpetrators of crimes against the persons who protected him or her selves.

Derek informed the membership in attendance that we at WMSA are aware that the NRA is anxious to see a Hancock amendment "fix" to the law that would clear out any remaining roadblocks from the implementation of the right-to-carry law in the remaining holdouts of St. Louis county and St. Louis city. Derek stated that he and Kevin Jamison, past president of WMSA, were in strong agreement that it would be unwise to see the Missouri legislature attempt to fix the law because it opens up Chapter 571 of Missouri statutes and would allow hostile legislators to attempt to attach unfavorable amendments to a simple effort to fix the Hancock issue. Kevin reminded the members that there are many freshmen legislators in Jefferson City who, not yet having a firm grounding in how things operate, might be cooperative with anti-gun legislators who urged them to compromise on certain amendments that might be proposed. In addition, Kevin told those in attendance that the umbrella group Missourians for Personal Safety (MPS) has voted to oppose the Hancock fix in the legislature. A discussion about this issue was held. After discussion, a motion was put forward to oppose the Hancock fix by the membership of WMSA. The motion to oppose the fix passed overwhelmingly.

The focus of the meeting then shifted to other topics of interest. Derek displayed a Second Amendment magnet ribbon suitable for use on cars and trucks. The web address for the ribbons, if you wish to order them, is http://www.davrow.us/

Continuing, Kevin mentioned that the date for this year’s rally in Jefferson City was March 10th. He said that, as usual, WMSA would sponsor a bus to provide transportation to Jefferson City from the Kansas City area.

For some time, WMSA has been selling raffle tickets to earn money to help pay off the debt from attorney fees incurred while dealing with court challenges with the license-to-carry law in Missouri. At this meeting, the drawing of the winners was held. Kenneth Keifer won the Benelli shotgun, David Huffman won the derringer pistol and Ed Linton won the jacket with the NRA logo. In addition there was a raffle for three door prizes of a VHS tape, a gun cleaning kit, and a book about guns.

Bob Hanson, WMSA treasurer, announced that WMSA had a gross amount of funds in the bank of $4,300 of which $2,200 represented the raffle proceeds contributed which would be sent to the legal defense fund. Kevin reminded the membership that the legal defense fund still owes approximately $40,000 that will be reduced a bit by our raffle proceeds.

Sheila Stokes-Begley, WMSA vice president, said that another raffle would be starting in the near future and that more information will be announced later.

A question was asked about what was happening with the legal proceedings about the $250,000 bond that was placed by the opposition at the outset of the original court proceedings. Kevin said that the judge who would be making the final determination has been changed. The decision was taken away from Judge Ohmer’s St. Louis court.

There being no further items of business or discussion, the meeting adjourned at 7:53 PM.