Major Projects on the KeepAndBearArms.com Table
Major Projects on the
KeepAndBearArms.com Table
from Angel Shamaya
Founder/Executive Director
Director@KeepAndBearArms.com
November 11, 2002
There are three major projects in development
around here. They each stand to make a tremendous impact for gunowner rights.
Take note, and tell a friend:
»
Lawsuit Against the Department of Justice
» Highly
Specialized Online Database of Armed Self Defense Events
» Major
Site Redesign that Includes a Way to Make Money Promoting Gun Rights
Put on your thinking cap...
Lawsuit Against the Department of Justice
The Petition for the
Enforcement of the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States
is a collaboration between KeepAndBearArms.com and Citizens
of America. Spearheaded by KABA featured writer and COA Co-founder David
Codrea, the Petition effort has garnered many thousands of hand-signed
petitions, from all over the nation, pressing Attorney General John Ashcroft to
perform his official duty by putting an end to the gross violations of civil
rights taking place via unConstitutional anti-Second-Amendment "laws".
If this project is new to you, or if you have not yet signed the petition and
gotten other liberty advocates to sign it and send it in, get up to speed on the
Petition Home Page.
Aside from a weak-kneed
response from the Department of Justice's "Terrorism and Violent Crime
Section" -- the mere fact of which appears to any observant reader as a
threat intended to have a chilling effect on our efforts -- Mr. Ashcroft and
his band of merrymen haven't seen fit to provide a legitimate response and then
take action.
Unacceptable.
We approached a hard-hitting bulldog attorney
whose name many would know -- a strident liberty advocate and politically savvy counselor
with whom we agree philosophically. We showed her some of the evidence we've
collected to justify a lawsuit and shared our general vision, and she said she thinks the case has merit
and would like to do
the legal discovery before telling us to pull the trigger on fundraising. (You
might realize, if you stop and think about it, that suing the United States
Department of Justice could run up a small tab.) By "pull the trigger on
fundraising," that means "call on the generous
monies pledged for such a project by our readers, members, and the gun
rights community at large."
This attorney, in whom we have ample faith --
especially when it comes to rigorous honesty, fairness, and a ruthlessness for
victory -- requires a small fee of $1,500 to have a team do the research
necessary to make certain we have a winnable case. (Note: a
"certain" winnable case means it's sound and won't be thrown
out on clear precedent; on Constitutional challenges, there's no such thing as a
"sure thing" -- especially when you're talking about a Supreme Court
hearing of the Second Amendment. The $1,500 was a lowball number; it could
actually run a bit more.) It makes no sense to go to court only to later
find that we're on a known dead-end trail. And we haven't been willing to call
on the $134,440
in pledges for an offensive Second Amendment lawsuit until we had a few
pages of sound legal strategy mapped out by a dependable and articulate
attorney. So we've been in a catch-22 for at least a month now. We are
requesting support in one of the three following manners:
»
Join KeepAndBearArms.com:
Online or By
Mail
»
Donate Directly
» Help
Us Finish Our "Summer" Raffle
Highly Specialized Online Database of Armed
Self Defense Events
Nothing has the power to sway an undecided but
open-minded person like a real life story of an armed citizen using a firearm to
save a life. Furthermore, the developed and creative use of such data will open
minds. While a few of the more disturbed and deranged anti-gun fanatics would
rather let a pregnant woman get raped and murdered than have her shoot any
derelict who'd commit such a heinous act, most of the more moderate anti-gunners will at
least stop and think, at least a little, when confronted with a story where
severe injury or death was clearly prevented by the effective use of a firearm
in self defense -- especially when you can show them someone with whom they can
relate (age, race, living situation, locale, etc.) who self-defended
successfully.
Our Operation Self Defense
team continues to bring armed self-defense news stories to thousands of people
every day. Hundreds of people are monitoring
news websites to find these stories, and that number will be growing
substantially. Soon. This is a good thing. And we've always planned OpSD to be a
huge national project, and a huge national success, from Day One. And it will
be. And here is why:
GoodGuysWin.org
A great deal of time, attention,
energy, focus, creativity, back-and-forth communication and teamwork has gone
into defining exactly what kind of information needs to be instantly available
from a large and growing database of armed self defense news stories. We have
thousands of stories in our possession. Imagine being able to INSTANTLY pull
every known instance of a female over 65 using a "Saturday Night
Special" to stop a violent ex-convict from doing her in. Imagine being able
to respond to an editor with cold, hard facts and real names, dates and
situations where disabled citizens used a semi-automatic "pocket
rocket" to assure that they weren't stabbed and robbed. When you take a look at the
above GoodGuysWin.org website's functionality and features and let your mind wander on
the possibilities, you may come to understand why so much careful attention was
put into its design.
I got a call from a U.S. Senator's
assistant the other day asking me for data on self-defense stories in their
area. I had to search and search through individual files to find what he needed
and still only came up with a fraction of what I know we have available -- and
GoodGuysWin.org will let him find it himself, INSTANTLY.
A couple of people have asked me
how we intend to make money with this project. I told him we had no intentions
of trying to make money with it, that support of KeepAndBearArms.com would
sustain it once it was loaded and ready to launch. It will be available to every
internet-ready journalist, student, teacher, preacher, housewife, parent,
legislator, neighbor, writer and activist on the planet -- for free.
Meanwhile, we're financially
challenged -- a fact that has kept many projects, like this one, in
frustratingly slow motion. We require financial support.
Major Site Redesign that Includes a Way to
Make Money Promoting Gun Rights
When I took a stand for gun rights over three
years ago, I put the cart before the horse. I had passion and conviction, I had
a deep-seated knowing that the grassroots wasn't nearly as well organized or
informed as it could be, I had ideas and some personal capital, and back then I
even had credit cards that weren't maxed out -- yet I didn't have a way to
actually generate the kind of money that it takes to fill numerous needs in the
gun rights community that are still to this day remain dormant for lack of
funds.
Those days are coming to an end.
We ran a poll
recently that asked the following question:
"We are exploring new paradigms on how
to fund our organization. Included in our exploration are free market ways
people can make extra money promoting gun rights. If we establish a way you
can generate extra income working to help fund our organization and promote
gun rights, would you *consider* getting involved?"
2,152 responded. (Some people just don't
do polls, obviously -- several times that number come to KeepAndBearArms.com
nearly every day.)
1,308 people said: ABSOLUTELY!
686 people said: YES!
The Strategic Plan is roughly 90% mapped out
(some of the map comes via laborious custom programming). The website work is
30-40% done. 40% of the web designers' bill is already paid. That's $10,000 --
already handed over on a $25,000 project.
When we launch the next level of what this
organization is going to become, KeepAndBearArms.com PAID members in good
standing are going to be treated with full access -- to all site features, and
to the ability to start making money promoting gun rights immediately -- before
anyone else even knows what's going on. Paid KeepAndBearArms.com members
will see the project and begin benefiting from it before anyone else does. And
Life Members will stand at the front of the line.
When I asked the leader of our web re-design
team to give me words to share with you about our upcoming project, here is what
he said:
"What KABA is going to be, they have NEVER seen the likes of in the gun
rights community. It will create organization, communication and education unlike any pro-gun movement, including the NRA, has ever been able to accomplish."
While that's a tall order to fill, I'm crystal
clear we are going to cut new trails. I said that before we ever launched
KeepAndBearArms.com and lived up to my word, and I'm saying now: We are puny
compared to what is coming. If going from KeepAndBearArms.ORG
to .COM was a 10,
we're about to do a 100.
YOU CAN HELP
We require $15,000 to finish our complete site
redesign. We require $1,500-2,500 to get legal discovery done to get the "pro
Second Amendment" Department of Justice leader John Ashcroft out of his
feel-good platitudes and into some action in defense of our countrymen who are
being outrageously abused by the broken-oath enforcement of blatantly
unConstitutional "laws". We require the space to have our operating
expenses covered for the next 90 days while we finish our redesign and set about
making gun rights history.
A fellow activist told me late Thursday that
he's hanging his liberty advocacy "career" -- ten years fighting for
our rights -- on the coat rack of the past and leaving America, probably for
good. He says there's no hope in righting the system, that it's too corrupt,
that it's run by crooks, for crooks, and that tyranny and war are America's only
future. I wished him well.
And I see things quite differently. Our newborn
son is even more incentive to restore this nation than I've ever had in my life
-- and I was already fairly motivated.
(October 17, 8lbs 6oz., first child, Jaden Isaiah Ray, picture
1, picture 2 picture
3) There's an American Spirit that will live as long as patriots hold the
line. In
the world of liberty advocacy, good things have happened recently, and bad
things have happened recently. Historically speaking, liberty always requires
vigilant defense. Our nation's Founders included countless people who paid the ultimate price
to give us America. We owe ourselves, our sons and daughters and their progeny
the Bill of Rights.
Right now, it's time for people who use our
website every day or with any regularity, and really any gun owner who cares
about strengthening the cause, to help grow
the Liberty Defense System -- a chance to be a part of pivotal new developments
in direct alignment with foundational Principles we hold dear. By
"people", I mean you, your gun owning friends and family, your
shooting buddy, anyone. We've got enough time and success under our
belts around here to feel confidant that you who've watched KeepAndBearArms.com
evolve from .org (and before that, from an email list of ten people) will
stretch with us for many more realized successes -- major ones. The first few
steps take money. Please give as generously as you can. We require money today.
»
Join KeepAndBearArms.com:
Online or By
Mail
»
Donate Directly
» Help
Us Finish Our "Summer" Raffle
Angel Shamaya