Posted on 05/02/2003 8:45:17 AM PDT by TroutStalker
Some people never tire of the same old song. In the Missouri General Assembly, the worn-out tune is the bill that would let people carry concealed guns under their clothing or in purses. They also could keep a firearm in the glove box or under the seat of their car. Gun advocates for 12 years have tried to force this misguided measure into law. They drafted it as a referendum in 1999. But voters didn't play along. Proposition B failed, with 52 percent of the voters opposing it. This year the National Rifle Association and other gun lobbyists have a Republican-controlled legislature that wants to turn the conceal and carry bill into a statewide anthem. To no one's surprise, the Missouri House in March passed House Bill 349. The Senate is expected to pass similar legislation before the session ends May 16. It's a bad sign of the times. Crime is down, but fear and paranoia are up. But concealed guns don't protect people. A recent Brookings Institution study showed that state laws allowing people to carry concealed firearms don't reduce crime and may even cause it to increase. Since 1970, 33 states have passed concealed-carry laws. Thank goodness Missouri has been among the holdouts, outlawing concealed weapons since 1875. The new bill would change that. It would enable people who are at least age 21 to have concealed weapons. They'd have to have lived in the state at least six months or have permits issued by another state or local government. The bill also would allow out-of-state people to have concealed weapons in Missouri. But there is no assurance that other states' laws are comparable to the one proposed here. Legislators are asking Missourians to "trust" that these guns will be in the right hands. People who aren't citizens couldn't get concealed gun permits. That smells of fear borne from the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, preventing documented and undocumented workers from enjoying this gun-toting "privilege." Missouri's gun bill also surfaces as the Homeland Security law starts letting pilots carry concealed firearms onto passenger jets. Fear over the endless war against terrorism and the war in Iraq has even made some of my anti-gun friends talk of getting guns and concealed weapons permits. That's never OK. A public packing guns like cell phones will only increase the likelihood of the weapons going off at the worst possible times. Conceal and carry permits wouldn't be issued to people who in the previous five years had misdemeanor convictions for a crime of violence or more than one conviction for drunken driving or drug possession. People found mentally incompetent or committed to a mental institution in the previous five years would be ineligible. But who's to say the five-year restriction is long enough or that someone who seems OK today will still be OK tomorrow? Then who's going to take away the gun and the concealed weapons permit? To get the permits, people would have to receive at least eight hours of training and prove they can handle a revolver and semiautomatic handgun. They'd have to hit a target at a distance of 21 feet with 15 of 20 shots. The gun bill does prohibit citizens from having concealed guns in police stations. But what about traffic stops, which put officers on the street at risk? Citizens couldn't take their concealed guns into sports arenas seating more than 5,000 persons. But what about kids' games at fields statewide where parents often go ballistic? Concealed guns would not be allowed at hospitals, day care centers, schools, casinos, airports, jails, bars, churches or other places of religious worship if the minister says no. But saying no is what legislators should be doing for everyone's safety. The House miserably failed that public safety test. The Senate will likely flunk, too. I hope Gov. Bob Holden does the right thing and vetoes the bill, as he's promised, preventing it from becoming a mournful statewide song.
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