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