July 2024 Member Meeting Highlights

Highlights of the July 2 Membership Meeting

The regularly scheduled monthly member meeting of the Mill Creek Rifle Club was called to order by President Michael Borkon at 7:30 p.m., July 2, 2024, in the Clubhouse. In attendance were approximately 10 guests and members, and 10 board members. A quorum was present.

In officer reports:

  • President Michael Borkon discussed the electronic front gate outage and the need to solicit membership for interest in the open vice president office. He also introduced new club treasurer Brad Thomas.
  • Treasurer Brad Thomas noted that about $60,000 of the $90,000 budgeted for capital improvements for fiscal 2024 have been fulfilled to date.
  • Membership Director Curt Cotton presented one candidate for membership induction, who the membership voted to induct. Mr. Cotton reported that current membership after processing of the bulk of the new year membership renewals stands at 38 short of the membership cap.
  • Construction Director John Krudwig reported the new overhead canopy on Law Enforcement Range 3 was completed and financial bids and installation details for the overhead canopy for Multipurpose Range 4 were being finalized.
  • Maintenance Director Eric Sigg reported a new front gate is being rebuilt, as the old gate suffered damage beyond practical repair during the recent vehicle incident. He estimated the gate would be out for at least another week. Mr. Sigg reported the club’s part-time maintenance worker had recently tendered his resignation.
  • Public Relations Director. Public Relations Director Mike Smith reported some recent complaints about outage of the club’s website and asked members present to notify him if they experience such outages.
  • Technology Director Kyle Gibson reported that all security cameras had been repaired and brought back on line.
  • Legislative Director Paul Day reported on two recent important gun-related decisions from the U.S. Supreme Court:
    • By a vote of 6 to 3, the high court on June 14 rejected the federal government’s argument that rifles equipped with bump stocks are machine guns. In an opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas, the court’s conservative justices emphasized that it is the role of Congress, not the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, to define what firearms qualify for regulation as machine guns. Because Congress did not include firearms equipped with bump stocks in that definition, ATF was wrong to interpret the federal ban on machine guns to extend to bump stocks.
    • By a vote of 8 to 1, the court ruled in United States v. Rahimi on June 21 that a federal law forbidding anyone subject to a domestic-violence restraining order from possessing a gun does not violate the Constitution’s Second Amendment.
    • Mr. Day also noted that although the Supreme Court’s June 28 overruling of the high court’s landmark 1984 decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council, which gave rise to the doctrine known as the Chevron doctrine, does not specifically involve firearms, the ruling does stand to significantly limit how ATF regulates firearms going forward. Under that Chevron doctrine, if Congress has not directly addressed the question at the center of a dispute involving a regulatory agency, a court was required to uphold the agency’s interpretation of the statute, as long as it was reasonable. But in the 35-page June 28 ruling by Chief Justice John Roberts, the justices rejected that doctrine, calling it “fundamentally misguided.” In his opinion, Roberts noted that federal law directs courts to decide legal questions by applying their own judgment, not by deferring to the opinion of agencies. “…it thus remains the responsibility of the court to decide whether the law means what the agency says,” he writes.

In additional business:

  • Mr. Cotton reported member Bill Pruett was celebrating his 64th year as a member of Mill Creek Rifle Club.
  • Mr. Borkon reported on progress toward forming a club-related not-for-profit foundation whose purpose would be accepted donations in order to support targeted firearms-related efforts, such as youth shooting organizations. He reported the first auction of two large donations of firearms, ammunition, and equipment was scheduled to be held September 4, at Stricker Auction in Gardner, Kansas. Mr. Borkon thanked Stricker Auction and owner Ron Stricker for hosting the benefit auction.
  • Mr. Borkon took special note of upcoming events on the club calendar, including a private party in August to recognize longtime member the late Chet Whitebread, and the September 28 Johnson County Kansas Sheriff’s Office "Shoot Out" to Benefit Special Olympics.

 

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