A letter from the president

March 5, 2003

 I purposely waited until after the Gun Rights Rally in Jefferson City so that I could include those events in my February, month end report.

 Starting with the Rally, let me say that I thought it was a huge success.  There were, perhaps 250 to 300 people in attendance and the enthusiasm was apparent. Even more importantly, the state representative and senators were listening.

 People from around the state took off work to attend and to visit their legislators.  All the major gun groups were in attendance.  Your SACMO had a fine display table set up with a brand new banner, attractive badges for attendees to wear and interesting reading material to be handed out to all.  

 Our booth was very well attended and I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank Fred        with Representative Brian Munzlinger     Heberer and Matt Wille from the St. Louis area for getting up at the crack of three hours before dawn for the trip to the capitol and Ron Vida from Jefferson City .  Their contribution to our booth's success was indispensable.  We gathered a lot of names and addresses of people who wanted to be on our mailing list and to help us in the cause of private ownership of firearms.  And, always necessary to our success, we were able to take in some money from contributions.  Thanks to all who contributed.  The money will be well spent on lobbying, communicating, alerting and organizing.

                  with Ron Vida

 February was a busy month.  We had to make up for some lost time because of the divestiture of a number of disruptive individuals in our midst.  I don't wish to dwell on the past but we had to do a house cleaning if we were ever to be a success.  A beautiful new "SACMO" banner was ordered to replace the several taken, the membership list of all your names and addresses was rebuilt, a new computer was purchased and set up.  I took a "crash" course in how to operate it so I could use e-mail to better communicate with all of our friends and supporters across the state.  And speaking of beautiful, how about this  web site? Our webmaster, Fred Heberer has done a fantastic job which I think must be done with some magic.  Thanks again, Fred!  Additionally, there were several meetings with the board of directors to correct long standing deficiencies in the by-laws, especially the part on our purpose.  SACMO is now a pure, pro gun organization and can no longer be misused as some kind of "civil liberties" fun group.  All this took time to fix, but that is now behind us, thankfully.

 As part of being a pure, pro gun group, I am please to announce that after years of infighting over it, SACMO is now affiliated with both The Missouri Sport Shooting Association (which has acted as a real friend to us during troubling times) and the NRA.  These alliances will cement the fact that SACMO is fighting for the right to keep and bear arms and is doing so with all the power that it can muster.  I see nothing but a bright future for SACMO.

 I journeyed to Jefferson City several times to testify before both the house and the senate in favor of license to carry (LTC) bills and to visit the various lawmakers involved.  I have included several pictures of some of those involved in the process.  Maybe you will recognize them from your trips to the capital.  Both the house and the senate hearings went very well in my opinion and I am confident that the effort will benefit our goals.  Both bills are doing very well for so early in the year and there    with Representative Larry Crawford is every indication the this might actually be the year that we place a LTC bill on Gov. Bob Holden's desk.

 I am sad to have to report that we experienced some continuing acts of childish behavior on the part of a few people who are actually committed pro gunners.  There was a deliberate, but failed, attempt to prevent SACMO from attending the Gun Rights Rally.  After all the hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars that we devoted over the last 10 years to the annual Rally, can you imagine that?  The effects of false reports about SACMO to some of the other gun groups in the state caused a lot of confusion.  We worked our way  through it and the truth that SACMO is doing very well, working effectively and growing larger every day is making some misguided people look pretty foolish.

So, all in all, February was a very good month.  We took in enough  money to stay healthy, increased the number of our supporters, spoke with a whole bunch of legislators, lobbied on behalf of pro gun bills, wrote some letters to the editor and got our infrastructure back in order. 

 

with Chuck Heiss,  Johnson County Sheriff

I would like to thank each of you, our supporters, for your indulgence while we got SACMO's damaged house back in order.  Our regular newsletter will be coming out to you very shortly with what has happened, what we have done and where we are going.  Please remember that we gun owners, after years of hardships, are finally experiencing fairly good times.  Now is the time to build the organization.  We need to get strong, be powerful and get our messages out.  For although it grieves me deeply to say it, there is going to be another Columbine type of tragedy or something like it and the anti gunners are going to try to use it to put us back on the defensive again.  We had better be ready for it.  If we continue to stick together, we will be!

 Most sincerely yours,

  Dale A. Schmid

 Dale A. Schmid, president

The Second Amendment Coalition of Missouri Inc.

previous letters

2/21/03