The Official Publication of the Western Missouri Shooters Alliance

PO Box 11144 
Kansas City, Missouri 64119

www.wmsa.net 
816-333-WMSA
816-333-9672

All materials may be reprinted unless otherwise specified, with attribution to this publication, author, and date of issue.

RALLY OF THE BEST

K. L. Jamison 

          On 4 March, 2003, some 500 of the best of the gun rights movement rallied in the Rotunda of the Capital Building in Jefferson City in support of a License To Carry law.  For two hours speakers cited the need for the law.  Larry Pratt of Gun Owners of America appeared as did former Congressman Harold Volkmer.  The Sheriff of Johnson County, Missouri announced that the Missouri Sheriff’s association supported the bill.

          Two years ago WMSA brought five pounds of orange walnuts to the Rally.  “Gun Nut” is the nicest thing we are called, and orange is the firearms safety color; it was thought that they would give the legislators something to remember us by.  They worked better than anyone dreamed.  The legislators understood the “nut” part; there was some confusion about why they were orange.  This only served to help them remember.  There are still orange walnuts on desks in the building.  Last year, to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the Rally, we brought ten orange coconuts, which were presented to the governor’s office.  His security detail searched the coconuts.  This year we had the Declaration of Right printed on orange paper, and piles of them gathered on desks around the capital.  The governor’s secretary asked where the nuts were.  We were all over the building.

          The bill was voted out of committee in the Senate during the rally.  It was debated on the House floor while we held our rally.  It passed.  It probably would have passed even if we had not appeared, but perhaps not in the same form.  All day long proponents fought off killer amendments.  The argument that “the people have spoken” was less convincing when the building was full of people speaking in favor of the bill. 

          All day long Greg Jeffrey of Missourians for Personal Safety and Mary Ann Bradfield of the NRA-ILA struggled to keep the bill clean.  At the end of the day 500 of the Best went home, and a clean bill was on the way to the Senate.  Your excruciatingly polite letters will help pass it through the Senate and place it on the governor’s desk.  He may not be as brave about vetoing the bill as he has been in the past.  Prominent Democrats whisper in his ear that a veto will hurt the party, and him.  He could sign the bill, but this is unlikely.  He could also let it set on his desk and become law by operation of law, or he could arrange to be out of the state and the Lieutenant Governor could sign it.  The last option is the best.  Last year Governor Holden signed a bill into law by mistake; he had intended to veto it.  I’d grab that with both hands. 

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Tom VanEyck

           What can I do…

          This is a question I often hear.  This is a terrific question too.  Each one of us is able to affect someone different.  Who is it only YOU can reach?  What can we really do anyway?

We can provide a really great time for a child, a neighbor, a relative, a co-worker; and along the way, we can teach them firearm safety, history, and citizenship, as the framers of this great nation lived it each day.

          Look around you throughout the next few days, weeks, months.  Right now, a war is being fought.  Whatever you think about this war, our men and women are engaged in combat.  They fight and they win, and sometimes they are wounded and die, and yet they continue to fight.  They are an all volunteer force these days --- just as they were 200+ years ago.  The structure today is very different, and from the standpoint of liberty, looks nothing like it did all those years ago.  But we DO have the same things at stake, that being responsible self defense and defense of those we are responsible for. 

Contrary to "political correctness", this is the same responsibility that you and I have EVERY DAY of our lives, we just aren't permitted the means (under law) to defend ourselves day to day.  The only way we are going to change this, is if we EACH touch others.  It's the joy and the hassle of living in a republic (notice I didn't say a democracy).

          It won’t be done for you or me though.  We must take action and we must do our part, both to achieve Liberty and to maintain it.  This is the cost of FREEDOM.  Freedom is only of value to real men and women, and only they are worthy of it. 

It's true today as it was so many years ago:  Freedom and Liberty cost --in Time and Effort.  We must be willing, to be free! 

Sam Adams said it quite clearly back on August 1, 1776 in his talk at the Philadelphia State House: "If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, go home from us in peace.  We ask not your counsels or arms.  Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you.  May your chains set lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen."

Now go out there and have fun --and bring someone new along with you…

           The Outdoor Message of February, 2003, the newspaper of the Gun Owner’s Action League, reports that a member required the services of the Visiting Nurse Association regarding an old wound.  At the first visit he was told that he would have to unload or lock away all firearms while the nurse was present.  He asked if he would have to remove his chef’s knives as well, and was told that he would.  Like the Saint guarded by two Roman soldiers, the member has taken this as an opportunity for missionary work.  With any luck, by the time his wound has healed, the nurse will have lost her fear of firearms.

          A local meat packing plant is faced with a similar problem.  The owners carry firearms, because of the neighborhood.  Federal meat inspectors have presented them with notices from their Department that all firearms must be locked away when the inspectors are present.  This is described as workplace safety.  The business can protest this policy; however, the inspectors will not inspect their meat if firearms are present.  If the meat is not inspected, markets will not buy it.  Faced with such economic blackmail, the business is forced to disarm when the inspectors are on the scene.  If a disgruntled ex-employee was to register his discontent with gunfire while the inspectors are present, doubtless the business will be cited for failure to maintain a safe workplace.

11 March 2003

Letters to the Editor
Kansas City Star
Subject:  Concealed Weapons

Dear Sirs:

           I notice the Star’s knee-jerk editorial of 7 March against a License To Carry concealed weapons system.  The editorial warns that it is a “dangerous idea”.  The 43 states with License To Carry systems have not found it to be a dangerous idea.  Opponents of less restrictive systems have later admitted that none of the dangers they foresaw had come to pass.  Until the Star can explain why Missourians are less responsible or more dangerous, it should abandon such comments.

          I also notice the Judge cartoon of 11 March, which implies that proponents of License To Carry are taking the low road.  In light of the demonstrable falsehoods and election fraud used to defeat this measure in the past, “low road” accusations are more than ironic.

          In the last four years new legislators have been elected, many of them on the promise to restore a License To Carry system in Missouri.  The legislature took the right from us, and it is time they gave it back.

Kevin L. Jamison
Attorney at Law

02/21/2003

The Star expresses worry that the new Patriot Act, among other things, “allows the government . . . to gather data without probable cause to believe crimes have been committed” (2/17 editorial, “Protect civil liberties in Patriot Act”).

One of these days media people in general, and The Star in particular, will realize that, to the government, we are all the same sheep.  We just happen to be in slightly different pens.

Even though only a tiny fraction of the nation’s gun owners ever commit crimes with their guns, many people in and out of government want all gun owners to be treated as potential criminals.

If the guns can’t be taken away, the government wants to severely restrict availability of honest ownership and create unreasonably burdensome paperwork.  Overly complex and often unnecessary laws have been passed that do little or nothing to protect society, and make “criminals” out of some honest gun owners.

Despite being ignored, gun owners have been trying to call attention to this type of government thinking for years.