Gun Rights Defender of the Month, 1996

When Commissioner Leroy Pittman cast the lone pro-gun vote following a debate on the issue by the Union County, North Carolina Board of Commissioners, John Michael Snyder, CCRKBA Public Affairs Director, decided to nominate him for the CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of Month Award for February.

"Hats off to Commissioner Leroy Pittman for standing up for the individual right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms," said Snyder. "We applaud his announced determination to resist attempts to undermine a new state law permitting law-abiding citizens to carry concealed firearms."

As reported last month in POINT BLANK, the Union County Board of Commissioners passed its ordinance banning the carrying of concealed weapons on county property.

In a four-to-one vote in early December, 1995, with Pittman the only one voting against the ordinance, the board passed a measure which bans concealed weapons at the library, Department of Social Services, and the old post office.

Snyder said that "decent people need to be able to defend themselves, their loved ones and their property against the violent criminal elements in our society. This is a real deterrent to criminal behavior, and Pittman deserves the CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month Award for standing up for this principle."

Pittman said "I’dont see that it’s necessary that we have this ordinance. I can’t support this ordinance once again. I think there has been some knee-jerk reaction to this. I don’t see what this is going to do."

Pittman has opposed the ordinance since it was initiated by Commissioner Paul Standridge in November of last year.

Union County is one of the last local governing bodies in the State to pass an ordinance banning concealed weapons. Marshville, Monroe, Waxhaw, Indian Trail and Stallings already have ordinances in place. Wingate voted recently to study the ordinances of other towns, and to take up the matter again later.

On December 1, 1995, North Carolina became the 24th State to allow citizens to carry concealed weapons.

"Every State has had a decrease in crime when they passed this law," Pittman said. "Someone is less likely to attack you in a dark parking lot if they don’t know if you are carrying a gun or not."

Pittman, a candidate for the United States House of Representatives from North Carolina’s Eighth Congressional

District, told POINT BLANK that "there has never been a time of greater need to defend the Second Amendment than right now. With Bill Clinton in the White House, the ability of law-abiding citizens to protect themselves from the thugs who roam our streets has been placed in imminent danger."

Born May 2, 1943 in Greenville, North Carolina, Pittman is Past Chairman of the Union County Board of Commissioners, Chairman of the Union County Fire Commission, Past Chairman of the Unfunded Mandates Committee of the Carolinas Counties Coalition, Director of the Carolinas Partnership, a Member of the North Carolina Republican Party Executive Committee, and a Member of the Heritage Foundation.

He is President and Chief Executive Officer of Advanced Micrographics Support, Inc. of Monroe, North Carolina, a Director of the Carolinas Regional Hospital, and holds memberships in the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the Eastman Kodak Advisory Council Board, and the Vietman Veterans Association. Pittman received a B.S. from the University of Maryland, and studied at the Graduate School of Banking of the University of South Carolina, and Bank Operations Management at the University of Wisconsin. Married to the former Patricia Anne Dollar, the couple have five children.

Pittman told POINT BLANK "I have always been an unwavering supporter of the right to keep and bear arms. I will never bend to the liberal anti-gun special interests who help criminals by taking away guns of law-abiding citizens.

"As a Congressman, I will vote to repeal the notorious assault weapons ban, the Brady Bill, and all other federal laws which clearly violate the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution.

"The liberals continue to trample on the Second Amendment and the rights of Americans to keep and bear arms.

Kenneth "Mick" Grise of Scottsdale, Arizona is the designated recipient of the CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month Award for March.

Mick is Vice President of Papago Concealment Systems of Scottsdale and also Vice President for Sales and Marketing of Papago Investigations and Consultants of Arizona.

In nominating Grise for the Award, John Michael Snyder, CCRKBA Public Affairs Director, said "a number of recent developments have shown that people across the country need and want to be able to carry concealed firearms for their own personal safety and protection.

"One indication of this fact is the popularity of state laws allowing the carrying of concealed weapons with a state-issued permit. As a number of sponsors of these laws have indicated, one of their reasons for promoting these laws is that they serve to enhance the public safety by enabling law-abiding citizens to protect themselves, their loved ones and their property from the perpetrators of criminal acts, especially violent criminal acts.

"Another indication of the growing popularity of the concealed carry concept is the development of business enterprises which exist, basically, because of the popularity of the carrying of concealed firearms by law-abiding citizens.

"One of these business enterprises is Grise’s company, Papago Concealment Systems, which produces the Anytimer.

"The Anytimer is a $100.00 holster which looks like an executive-organizer notebook, but inside is a foam-padded compartment tailored to look like a handgun.

"In discussing the product, Grise says one reason for its development is that people who have executive or other office jobs want to be able to go to work while carrying a concealed firearm and still feel that they are attired properly for their occupational responsibilities.

"Mick Grise is contributing to the maintenance of the right to keep and bear arms by helping to make it possible for law-abiding citizens to carry concealed firearms. It is for this reason that I think he is worthy of this Award."

Mick is an investigator with expertise in military advisement, undercover and covert operations, and general protection and security. He oversees the development of distributorships across the country for the Anytimer new product line, and evaluates marketing methods and Papago’s present product line at industrial shows.

He is a former Marine, having been wounded in action in Vietnam, and is a Purple Heart recipient.

Mick is a Life Member of both the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Disabled American Veterans.

Mick told POINT BLANK that he and his partners in Papago, Dan Tschudy and Roger Otterstein, have extensive law enforcement, military and corporate backgrounds. He said the three recognized a need among professionals and fulfilled it with their creation of the Anytimer. It allows the professional to carry his or her gun in an inconspicuous manner rather than the conspicuous method of wearing a fanny pack around one’s waist.

The appointment book cases are of reinforced leather that unzip to reveal a black, sculpted foam insert which securely holds the firearm in place while providing easy accessibility. The inserts are "interchangeable" by means of a velcro system; allowing the use of inserts for multiple gun styles - with just one leather case.

The interior of the case contains a recessed area to hold an additional magazine(s) or speedloader(s). Inside the front cover are slots for managing business cards, and an acetate view window for credentials or concealed weapons permit.

The Anytimer measures 6-3/4 inches wide by 9-1/2 inches long by two inches thick. Mick says this size allows a business person to carry his or her firearm in a professional and inconspicuous manner.

Mick says also that the Anytimer design makes it more acceptable to the doctor, lawyer, real estate representative and professional who dresses in a manner where wearing a fanny pack might attract unnecessary attention, as opposed to carrying a stylish appointment book.

Mick and the Anytimer have attracted a lot of attention in Arizona. Last fall, the ARIZONA REPUBLIC featured a photograph of him holding the product along with an article on "Armed and fashion-conscious: Arizonans with concealed weapons - Packin’ heat in style is part of the New West."

According to the article, written by Beth Silver of the Associated Press, "many men and women prefer to go armed and anonymous, and they’re finding ways to pack a piece in style."

Readers of POINT BLANK who would like to contact Mick Grise may write him at Papago Concealment Systems, Inc., 8708 North 68th Street, Suite 2, Scottsdale, Arizona 85257, or call him at (602) 423-9345.

Bob Lesmeister, the Managing Editor of AMERICAN FIREARMS INDUSTRY and STOCKING FIREARMS DEALER magazines, is the designated recipient of the CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month Award for April.

In nominating Lesmeister for the Award, John Michael Snyder, CCRKBA Public Affairs Director, said that "Bob, for a number of years, has been in the forefront of those defending in public the right of law-abiding American citizens to keep and bear arms.

"He has written repeatedly against numerous attempts to undermine this precious right. Brilliant and articulate, he brings to the philosophical discussion of gun rights an understanding of firearms from the technical perspective. He is one of our greatest champions and is most deserving of this Award."

Hard-hitting in his prose and full of foresight in his analysis, Lesmeister wrote in AMERICAN FIREARMS INDUSTRY for November, 1993 that "one of the reasons the federal law enforcement authorities have not escalated their force on citizens as rapidly as they had hoped is found at the local law enforcement level. Town, city, county and state police forces are composed of people who live within the areas they serve. It is often hard, if not impossible, for the federal law enforcement authorities to get local law enforcement officers to do their dirty work. The FBI is especially known for exacting punishment on local officers who refuse to cooperate with them. In some cases they go so far as to set the local officers up in a phony scheme or just fabricate charges against them and then bombard the media with false information to convict the officers even before they go before a board or hearing...

"Clinton’s dream of a national police corps could very well spell the end of the Bill of Rights. Local police agencies would be dependent on federal money and therefore would have to acquiesce to federal demands and directives...

"In order for such a national police corps to be an effective oppressor, citizens first have to be disarmed...

"The federal government’s anti-firearms agenda doesn’t start or stop with just the law enforcement community...

"While gun owners are the most newsworthy intended victims of a national police corps, non mainstream religious groups would probably be the first victims of national police as they are the most vulnerable. Religions that weren’t one of the four or five recognized religious institutions would be labeled cults and as such denied the rights of the First Amendment and federal authorities would have a lot of help from ‘established’ religious leaders."

Bob entered the firearms industry as a staff reporter for AMERICAN FIREARMS INDUSTRY magazine in 1980, having graduated from Journalism School at Northern Illinois University. Prior to that he served a tour of duty in Southeast Asia with the United States Army.

As Associate Editor of AMERICAN FIREARMS INDUSTRY, Bob broke the story on the first all plastic pistol technology, still in development. As Editor of FFL NEWS in 1985, he published the first story in the United States on the then unknown Glock pistol. Throughout the 1980s, he also edited NFA JOURNAL, a firearms publication targeted to law enforcement and Title 2 firearms dealers.

In his current position, Lesmeister has written extensively on the rights of citizens to own and use firearms for both self-defense and recreation. He has written a number of series detailing the abuse of honest gun owners and firearms retailers at the hands of anti-gun legislators and overzealous police.Lesmeister has articulated many of these same opinions in such publications as THE NEW YORK TIMES, BOSTON GLOBE, GUN WEEK, GUN NEWS DIGEST and Associated Press reports. He wrote an editorial explaining the right of honest citizens to own and use firearms for the CHICAGO SUN-TIMES which Patrick J. Hurley used later in his college textbook, A CONCISE INTRODUCTION TO LOGIC.

Dennis Walker of Columbus, Ohio, the Chairman of the Peoples Rights Organization, is the designated recipient of the CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month Award for May.

In nominating Walker for the Award, John Michael Snyder, CCRKBA Public Affairs Director, noted that "Dennis, for a number of years now, has worked ceaselessly and on a volunteer basis to protect the individual right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms. He has distinguished himself as a leader of the gun rights movement both in Ohio and in the Nation. He is most deserving of this Award."

Born March 15, 1948 in Columbus, Dennis graduated from Bexley High School in 1966.

He attended Rio Grande College in Ohio for two years. He worked a variety of jobs, including factory, gas stations, bars, short order cook, catering and truck driver.

Dennis became disabled in 1985 as the result of a motorcycle accident and degeneration of the knees from jumping in and out of trucks for many years.

He attended Columbus State Community College in Construction Management for two years, maintaining a 3.7 grade average but dropped out to devote full time to the Peoples Rights Organization and the defense of the Second Amendment.

Dennis learned to shoot at the age of 12 at Camp Minnehaha, a summer camp in West Virginia. He told POINT BLANK he has hunted rabbit, pheasant and deer, "though there is not much time to do any hunting at all anymore."

In 1989, Dennis "hooked up with," in his words, "a fledgling group called the Peoples Rights Organization (PRO). He and others had become incensed after the Mayor of Columbus at the time, Dana "Buck" Rinehart, had come back from the 1989 Conference of Mayors "with the idea of banning semiautomatic firearms within city limits."

While PRO gathered thousands of signatures for a referendum petition to repeal the semiautomatic ban, they did not have quite enough valid signatures. So then they filed a lawsuit against the city to overturn the ban. "In 1994, PRO won its lawsuit against Columbus and recovered attorney fees of $68,000," says Dennis. "Dr. Stephen Halbrook is still our attorney in these matters."

In March of this year, with Dennis’ coordination, PRO hosted the first Ohio Outdoor Sports Political Seminar, which featured national, State and local pro-gun rights activists as speakers.

Dennis also is active in the Ohio Constitution Defense Council, of which he is Vice Chairman, and is a strong proponent of a CCW law for Ohio.

Congressman Jim Ross Lightfoot of Iowa, a CCRKBA Congressional Advisor, is the recipient of the CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month Award for June.

In nominating Rep. Lightfoot for the Award, John Michael Snyder, CCRKBA Public Affairs Director, said that the Iowan "has been a consistent congressional supporter of the individual right of law-abiding American citizens to keep and bear arms. Recently, he voted to repeal the Clinton ban on semiautomatic firearms and multiple capacity ammunition feeding devices.

"In 1994, he voted against the Brady Bill. He also voted against the Clinton so-called ‘crime bill’ which included the ban on semiautomatics.

"Last year, as Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Treasury, Postal Service and General Government, Rep. Lightfoot requested the General Accounting Office to look into three aspects of BATF operations: its policies regarding use of force, its treatment of firearms dealers, and whether BATF databases fall within guidelines set by Congress.

"In late April, Rep. Lightfoot held public hearings on BATF operations, after releasing, in his words, ‘the first of two GAO reports - regarding ATF’s use of force policies and ATF’s treatment of firearms dealers. The third report, on the use of databases, has been delayed.’

"It’s very important that Members of Congress use their federal bureaucracy oversight function in this way. That’s how to keep government bureaucrats’ feet to the fire. Rep. Lightfoot has been doing a good, solid job in Congress and certainly deserves this Award."

According to the GAO report on federal firearms licensees which Congressman Lightfoot released, "since reaching a high point in April, 1993, the number of licensed firearms dealers sharply declined by about 35 percent, from about 260,700 to about 168,400 dealers, as of September 30, 1995. This decline occurred nationwide, ranging from a 23 percent decline in Montana to a 45 percent decline in Hawaii. A decline occurred both in applications for new licenses and renewals of existing licenses. During this period, the number of applications abandoned and withdrawn by former and prospective dealers was much higher than the number of licensed denied and revoked by ATF.

"Our analysis of ATF data showed that several factors collectively contributed to this decline. Principal among these factors were that:

"Since January, 1993, ATF has implemented efforts to increase enforcement of existing laws by closely scrutinizing firearms dealer applicants and licensees through increased inspections.

"In response to an August, 1993 presidential memorandum, ATF, in late 1993, revised the application requirements to obtain more information about applicants.

"Federal legislation passed in November, 1993 increased licensing fees, and legislation passed in September, l994 added more licensing requirements, including requiring applicants for firearms dealer licenses to certify compliance with state and local laws as a condition for federal licensing.

"In addition, state and local agencies’ enforcement of their laws may have resulted in reductions in the number of firearms dealers."

Michael Patrick Sessa of the Detroit, Michigan area is the designated recipient of the CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month Award for July.

In nominating Sessa for the Award, Alan M. Gottlieb, CCRKBA Chairman, said "Mike has worked hard and long in Michigan for the pro-gun cause. He has done all kinds of great things to promote the individual right of law-abiding citizens to keep and bear arms, and has been unstinting in support of our freedoms.

"One of the most remarkable things he has done is originate the Gun Owners of Macomb County and coordinate annual pro-gun rights freedom rallies at the Freedom Hill County Park in Sterling Heights, in suburban Detroit, sometimes attracting thousands of participants.

"This year, the rally, called GUNSTOCK ’96 PLUS, attracted at least a thousand participants, and those of us whom Mike invited to speak were most heartened by the experience.

"The survival of freedom in Michigan and indeed throughout the United States is dependent directly on the efforts of dedicated people like Mike and many others like him all across America.

"Mike most certainly deserves the CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month Award."

Mike, 35, is employed by the American Team, a plastics injecting molding company, as a Secondary Operations Processing Manager, and has worked for the same company for 15 years.

The eldest of four children of Michael C. and Marlene J. Sessa, Mike, a high school graduate, is continuing his education with college level courses.

At age 10, Mike was introduced to high power rifles. During the next 25 years, he developed into an expert (non-rated) rifleman, shotgunner, black powder shooter and archer. Utilizing all of the shooting sports, he says, he became an accomplished hunter. He also says that, at a very early age, he became aware of the "politically correct" anti-hunting, anti-Second Amendment fringe faction, and has been fighting them ever since then.

Mike is Vice Chairman of the Macomb Coalition of Republicans, Vice Chairman of the Macomb County Young Republicans, a Member of the Republican Liberty Caucus, and a Republican Party Precinct Delegate.

Mike says he has worked many political campaigns at all levels, and has been successful, he says, in getting his father elected County Commissioner since 1988, and himself elected county wide as a Trustee for Macomb County Community College in 1994. Both father and son are up for reelection this year.

He is a member of the Second Amendment Foundation, the National Rifle Association of America, the Firearms Coalition and Gun Owners of America.

Mike informed POINT BLANK that he himself started the pro-gun, grassroots, politically active Gun Owners of Macomb County. Based in southeast Michigan, the organization is expanding on a statewide basis. Mike said that the group’s "impact on the political system is exactly as calculated - devastating to the political elite!"

Mike says "the Gun Owners of Macomb County group has been blasted by irate anti-gun politicians, left wing groups such as ADL and Morris Dees’ Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms."

He says "you wear these attacks as badges of honor in your fight to preserve freedom and liberty. We’ve been attacked by these organizations not because we have broken any laws, not because we’re racist or anti-semitic, but simply for vocalizing and organizing against bad public policy and attacks on fundamental individual rights."

Mike also operates his own fax networking system known as the Minute Man Fax Network, which he describes as "a state-wide instant information forwarding system which reaches over two hundred political activists in Michigan. Its impact on Michigan politics is dramatic. The recipients of Minute Man communications could be referred to as a Rapid Deployment Force of Political Activists."

Sessa says his goal in life is "the elimination of liberalism within one generation of Americans."

Congressman Jay Dickey of Arkansas is the designated recipient of the CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month Award for November.

In nominating Rep. Dickey for the award, CCRKBA Public Affairs Director John Michael Snyder said "the pro-firearms owners rights movement in the United States owes Congressman Jay Dickey a vote of gratitude and thanks for his successful leadership of the effort to curtail the anti-gun activities of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control (NCIPC) of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)."

Under the directorship of Dr. Mark Rosenberg, NCIPC was using funds to promote the anti-gun agenda. He even stated he "envisions a long term campaign, similar to tobacco use and auto safety, to convince Americans that guns are, first and foremost, a public health menace."

Dickey initiated an appropriations move to take $2.6 million, the exact amount spent by NCIPC on so-called "firearm injury research," and reprogram it within the CDC budget.

By the time Congress adjourned last month, the moneys in question had been earmarked specifically for traumatic brain injury research.

"This is a great achievement for Congressman Dickey and the individual right of law-abiding American citizens to keep and bear arms," said Snyder, "and he is most deserving of this CCRKBA Award."

During the congressional debate on the issue, Rep. Dickey said "this is an issue of federally funded political advocacy. We have here an attempt by the CDC through the NCIPC, a disease control agency of the federal government, to bring about gun control advocacy all over the United States through seminars, through the staff members and through the funding of different efforts all over the country on this one issue, to raise emotional sympathy for those people who are for gun control. It is a blatant attempt on the part of government to federally fund lobbying and political advocacy. Rather than calling violence a disease and guns as a germ, these people should be looking at the other root causes of crime: poverty, drug trade, gangs, and children growing up without parental support, and the cruel trap of welfare dependency. Those things have more to do with crime control than trying to come at it from a disease definition.

"Ownership of guns by itself is what this particular amount of money is going to. It is not a public health threat. In fact, the violence related to guns has been found to be going down to the extent of two-thirds, where we actually have a 173 percent increase in the number of guns in the United States. So it is obviously not a public health threat, because we are doing this through education and training and not through a discredited study program by the CDC through the NCIPC.

"Some quotes that exist from one of the officials that we pay federal money to, what we need to try to do is to find a socially acceptable form of gun control. Experts from Harvard and Columbia medical schools have reviewed the work on firearms that this agency has done with federal money and have stated that it displays an emotional anti-gun agenda and are so biased and contains so many errors of fact, logic and procedure that we cannot regard them as having a legitimate claim to be treated as scholarly or scientific literature. So this is discredited by authorities. It is not something we should be doing."

Congressman Dickey was born in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. After graduation from Pine Bluff High School, he attended Hendrix College for one year on a basketball scholarship. He then transferred to the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, where he made the Razorback basketball team and was given a full athletic basketball scholarship, only to contact polio in the spring of 1960, almost ending his athletic career. He fully recovered from polio in time to have an undefeated season with the tennis team as its No. 1 player, marry Betty Clark of Walnut Ridge, and enter law school. He graduated with a B.A. Degree from the School of Arts and Sciences in 1961 (combined degree) and from the School of Law in 1963.

Jay returned to Pine Bluff to practice law with his father. Early in his law career, he was asked to represent the Arkansas Fox and Coon Hunters Association against the Game and Fish Commission over the issue of the running of dogs. That series of suits took place around 1968. He won the suit and there is no such restriction on the use of running dogs.