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January 2010 General Membership Meeting Minutes

Hyvee Shopping Center Conference Room, Noland and 40 Hwy.

The January 2010 membership meeting of the Western Missouri Shooters Alliance was called to order with WMSA president Sheila Stokes-Begley conducting, and began with the Pledge of Allegiance at 7:33pm.

Sheila began the meeting with a thank you to Barb and Gary Davis for being the Newsletter Coordinators and insuring we get the Bullet every month.

Old business was first on the agenda. At the Missouri Valley Arms Gun Show there were not enough volunteers available to man the WMSA table. If anyone is in the least interested in representing the WMSA at any upcoming gun shows, please contact Tom VanEyck and let him know when you would like to volunteer.

Next it was announced that we would continue to hold the general membership meetings at the Independence Hyvee Shopping Center. Meetings will continue to be the third Thursday of every other month at 7:15pm.

The first order of new business was bills before the Missouri House.

• The first bill is from Representative Joan Bray of the St. Louis area. This bill mandates “safe storage” for firearms and would make negligent storage a Class A Misdemeanor. Safe storage of firearms as defined by this bill would involve firearms and ammunition to be locked away and inaccessible at all times.

• There are multiple bills before the state house to reduce the age for a conceal carry license from 23 to 21.

• There are also multiple bills at this time that would increase the length of time a conceal carry license is valid from 3 to 5 years.

It is expected that at some later date that all of the above bills will be rolled into one common bill.

• There is one bill that would make prosecutors, attorneys, and others involved with the legal profession exempt from most of the requirements for a conceal carry license, allowing them to carry concealed.

• Another bill would establish a firearms and ammunition sales tax holiday.

• The next bill allows convicted felons who have served their sentence to be allowed to possess a firearm, but would maintain the restriction that they may not get a conceal carry permit.

• The final house bill is the Missouri Firearms Freedom Act. This bill would allow for weapons that are made in Missouri from parts that are made in Missouri, and stamped with the words, “Made in Missouri”, to be except from federal controls and restrictions. The bill as currently before the House does not require raw materials to be made in state (i.e. wood or raw steel).

It should be noted that this law could have the effect of drawing manufacturers from gun-unfriendly states to Missouri, especially on the custom side of firearm manufacturing.

The next order of business was bill before the Missouri Senate.

• SB-660 expands the crime of unlawful use of a firearm to include discharges of firearms in Kansas City for celebration purposes. This law is redundant due to the fact that the discharge of firearms is already not allowed in Kansas City.

• SB-740 exempts prosecutors, attorneys, etc. from any of the requirements for a conceal carry license and is similar to the above House Bill.

• There is a concurrent resolution for state sovereignty under the 10^th Amendment, and this bill has been referred to the Joint Rules Committee.

• SB-587 establishes a 10^th Amendment Commission, and would require the commission to review a federal law any time it would appear the said federal law exceeds the bounds placed on it by the 10^th Amendment.

The next order of business was the gun rights rally. The rally will be April 8, 2010 in the Capitol Rotunda from 10am to noon. As usual, the WMSA will be providing a bus. The bus is planned to board from 6 to 6:30am.

The final order of business, Russ from MOFED wanted to let everyone know about a problem bill on MOFED’s radar. The puppy mill protection act is sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States (the anti-hunting group not to be confused with the local animal shelters) and raises standards for dog breeders well beyond current national standards, with the end result being to drive most breeders out of business.

With this said, a motion was made to end the meeting and the meeting was adjourned at 8:55pm.

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