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The 2009 January Las Vegas Antique Arms Show is now
history and a good show it was. A number of guns
from Slim Kohler’s fine collection were offered for sale
and other sellers also had interesting Remington pieces.
RSA’s Annual Membership Meeting was held on
Saturday evening with good member attendance. This year’s
RSA election results were announced to those present. Reelected
were President Rich Shepler, Vice President Mike
Streitbeck, Treasurer Robert Kneppler and
Director Gene Myszkowski. Billy Smith joined
the Board as a Director replacing retiring Jack
Heath. Terms for all these positions are 3
years except for a one time 4 year term for the
President which was done to return to
sequencing the President’s and two Vice
President’s terms so that they end in different
years.
We would like to thank Jack Heath
for his many years of service to our organization,
including playing a central role in RSA establishing the
excellent relationship we enjoy with Remington Arms
Company. Among Jack’s other contributions were his
presentations at RSA Seminars, always freely sharing his
extensive knowledge of Remington products and history, and
being a friend. We wish Jack and his wife Gail the best of
everything in their future.
This year’s experiment with changing the RSA
election process to nominating and voting by mail so that
members unable to attend the Annual Membership Meeting
could participate was successful. In addition to Board
members receiving a number of positive comments, the large
number of RSA members participating by voting was encouraging.
Consequently, the Board decided to use this new
voting process again for next year’s elections.
Members attending the Annual RSA Membership
Meeting were also given details of the 2009 RSA Seminar
which will be at the Remington plant in Ilion, 29 – 31 July.
Full details are provided elsewhere in this issue of the
Journal. It is shaping up to be another great Seminar and I
heartily encourage everyone who can make it to do so. If you
have participated in a RSA Seminar in the past, you know
what a great time it will be. If you have not been able to
attend before, come to this one and I promise you will not be
disappointed. Nowhere else can you surround yourself with
so many Remington collectors and researchers and immerse
yourself in things Remington so completely for three days.
One of the things we do during Seminars is to have auctions
and raffles of donated Remington items to raise funds to
support RSA’s various activities. Even if you cannot attend
the Seminar this year, you can still participate in this fun
activity by sending donations to me. I will be driving to the
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Seminar and can bring all such contributions with me. If you
have any questions about the Seminar, contact me. All my
contact information is published at the front of every Journal
along with that of all your RSA Officers and Directors.
The National elections are over but politics never
sleeps. Those who would take away our firearms rights were
encouraged by the election results and have
started introducing a bunch of national and
state proposals which would be devastating to
our interests. Some include banning all
removable magazines and clips; banning high
capacity magazines and clips; banning all
semi-automatic rifles, shotguns and handguns;
banning so-called assault weapons;
and banning other firearms these people just
do not like the looks of; or those guns of large
caliber. Others would require child-proofing
guns which would severely reduce their
effectiveness for self defense, coding firing pins so that they
would leave an imprint on primers and rimfire rims, coding
ammunition which would make it much more expensive and
outlaw individuals reloading their own ammo, increasing
taxes on ammo to make it prohibitively expensive, or making
all firearms laws apply equally to percussion and even
flintlock guns. Then there are proposals to limit how many
guns can be purchased in a period of time, and others which
would limit how many guns an individual is allowed to own.
The list seems almost endless.
Don’t think that the antigun people will tire and
such proposals will go away on their own. We have a
President elected because voters did not care what he looks
like, who favors outlawing some firearms just because he
does not like what they look like. Don’t assume that your
antique firearms will be ignored. Ammunition is available for
most of them which would allow them to be fired, albeit not
safely. Don’t think that just because the antis don’t seem
today to be after the kinds of guns you are interested in
means they won’t get around to it after they outlaw others.
All firearms collectors, hunters, recreational shooters and
those who legally have guns for protection need to be
mutually supportive or we will all lose. There are a number of
organizations whose purposes include protection of our
firearms rights. If you do not like one’s approach, look at
others. Any firearms enthusiast should be able to find one or
more they can feel good about supporting. The time to get
involved is now, not when there is a loud knock at your door.
Best regards,
Rich Shepler
RSA President
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