Bamacarry, a statewide pro-second amendment group, held their annual firearms conference in Prattville Saturday, ahead of the 2023 Legislative session.
Kris Anne Hall, a Christian constitutional attorney, author, and professor, was the featured speaker.
Hall said that guns and the second amendment are “very important, but sometimes we need to take a step back and get reacquainted with the principles on which our constitutional republic was founded.”
Hall implored people to read and be better informed on U.S. history and the Constitution.
“I have studied and taught on the constitutions of all fifty states,” Hall said. “I have presented in 49 of the 50 states – Hawaii is the one I haven’t got to. Every single time I teach a state constitution, I have people who come up to me and whisper in my ear. ‘Thank you for coming and teaching us about our state constitution. I did not even know we had a state constitution.’”
Hall argued that history education has become “watered down.”
“We have online classes that teach American history back to 1660,” Hall explained. “The American education system has so watered down the teaching of our American history that it is no longer recognizable.”
“There is not a single solitary person you are going to send to Washington DC to fix what is wrong with America,” said Hall continued. “Our hope does not rest with the President of the United States.”
Hall called for Americans to understand the U.S. Constitution.
“We don’t need to rewrite our Constitution. We just need to read it,” Hall said. “To pursue liberty, we must pursue knowledge. Knowledge is not watching what they tell you on television. I have had a podcast for nine years. Let me be clear, watching a podcast is not pursuing knowledge.”
“If the constitution can give rights you can amend the constitution to take them away,” Hall explained. Rights come from natural law, which comes from our Creator.”
Hall spoke out against executive mandates ordering the closing of churches and businesses during the recent COVID-19 pandemic.
“Power without legislative consent is null and void,” Hall said. “We have an obligation to our children to non-comply with any order that is outside of the constitution.”
Many of Bamacarry’s county groups have grown inactive due to COVID fears and restaurants and venues closing during the global pandemic.
Johnny Moore Jr. is the Bamacarry Coordinator tasked with reversing that trend.
“I am the coordinator, and I want to get all 67 counties going,” Moore told the estimated 165 people in attendance.
Former State Sen. Scott Beason is a talk radio show host in Birmingham on 92.5 FM. Beason announced that his show will soon expand to Montgomery on 93.1 FM.
“We live in a weird world now,” Beason said. “We live in a strange time. Most of us are older. Most of us can remember some of the things from 15 years ago. Remember when we thought we are never going to have two guys getting married? Now we don’t even know that they are guys. Adam and Steve got married, and now they are women. How did we get here?”
“Bamacarry has made a huge difference in gun laws in Alabama,” Beason continued. “I was the sponsor of the first constitutional carry bill back in 2010.”
“Maybe we watch our phone too much; maybe we watch TV too much; maybe we pay too much attention to what the Los Angeles Dodger or the Atlanta Braves and what their stats are,” Beason argued. “The right to bear arms is in the Constitution. It has also been in the State Constitution since 1819. Every citizen has a fundamental right to bear arms.”
Beason was the sponsor of the 2013 Omnibus Gun bill.
“Why in 2013 did we need an omnibus gun law?” Beason said. “The reason is that somewhere along the way, we forgot, and we forgot what was given to us by our forbearers. The courts forgot. Judges forgot. Law enforcement forgot. Legislators forgot. Sometimes we need to remember what is there. Y’all have reminded legislators what our rights are.”
Beason believes prayer should be allowed in school.
“We used to teach prayer in school – I am for that,” Beason said. “There is right and wrong, and someday you are going to have to answer to God for what you did in this life.”
“Students meet in Bible classes and prayer services after school,” Beason continued. “In Arkansas, the left has decided that they are going to have a Satanist Club after school. Freedom of religion is freedom of religion, after all. Do you think that George Washington would be for it? Satanists are now claiming that abortion is one of their religious rights.”
Stephen Willeford spoke at the meeting as well.
Willeford, a ‘good guy with a gun,’ shot and ultimately killed mass shooter Devin Patrick Kelly after Kelly killed two dozen people in the Baptist Church in his neighborhood in Texas.
Willeford, a plumber who worked for a hospital, was on call that weekend. He was resting in his bed when he heard shots. Willeford’s daughter rushed in to tell him that a shooter in body armor was attacking the Church next door.
“I ran to my safe and grabbed an AR-15 (a semi-automatic rifle),” Willeford said. “I got behind a truck. I hit him in the chest. I hit him in the abdomen. Both were stopped by the body armor.”
When Kelly turned to get in his vehicle – that gave Willeford his opportunity.
“I put one in his side where it was not covered by the armored plate,” Willeford said. “I put another one in his waste.”
Willeford then flagged down a motorist, and the two drove after Kelly in hot pursuit of the gray Ford Escape – the driver talking to police dispatchers and Willeford shooting.
“My shots must have mattered,” Willeford said because Kelly eventually ran off the road dead.
“Nobody is coming to rescue you,” Willeford said. “I have the highest respect for law enforcement, but they are not going to be there to save you.”
“If you have a constitutional sheriff, you do not care who is in the White House,” Hall said, saying that sheriffs are the ultimate authorities on what is or is not constitutional. “We do not change America at the Whitehouse – you change it at your house.”
The Legislature, at the urging of Bamacarry, passed, and Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey signed legislation into law eliminating the requirement that Alabamians have to purchase a concealed carry permit from their sheriff. The next legislative session begins on March 7.
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