Have gun will travel [Do-Good Alert]

My wife, Valerie, and I didn't find out until later that people we had invited into our home for the first time for dinner had carried a gun with them for "protection."

One of our daughters or their friends could have stumbled over the woman's purse where the gun lay concealed on the family-room floor. A curious child could have picked up the firearm and discharged it, hurting or killing someone.

The male guest said the woman he was with carried the gun for protection. The questions that lingered in my mind are from whom were our guests protecting themselves and what had made them so afraid?

No good answers came to mind then or when the Missouri House last week approved a bill that would allow residents to keep concealed firearms in their vehicles.

I don't expect the Republican-controlled state Senate to bravely vote down this measure and resist the cash-larded lobbyists for the National Rifle Association.

I'm counting on Missouri Gov. Bob Holden's sensible veto to keep people in this state safe. A veto would uphold the public's mandate of three years ago.

Despite a multimillion-dollar pro-gun campaign, voters defeated the ballot measure known as Proposition B. Prop B would have let people legally carry concealed weapons. Nothing indicates that the voters have changed their minds, though the legislature seems not to notice. More weapons on the road will make people more fearful and less safe.

Firearms advocates say the ballot proposal won a majority in 104 of the state's 114 counties. But the more heavily populated urban areas of St. Louis and Kansas City ensured Prop B's defeat.

Gun proponents have returned, this time to claim that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and a public sense of "personal vulnerability" are behind the latest push for concealed weapons legislation in Missouri. I don't doubt it.

High above Missouri roads are passenger airliners, where many pilots say they also need firearms in their cockpits "for protection." Unlike guests entering homes or motorists, airplane passengers are thoroughly searched. So is their luggage.

But that's not enough for pilots. Flight attendants will settle for stun guns. The consequences of firearms discharging in pressurized cabins would be dire.

If the concealed-weapons bill passes in the General Assembly, vehicles being searched before they can be parked at Missouri's major airports will likely have guns that people forgot about.

What would folks rushing on the highway to airports do when the realization hits them? Grab the gun from the glove box and toss the weapon out the window to keep from missing a flight?

It sounds farfetched, but I used to think the same thing about the possibility of someone carrying a gun into my home. But these are meaner times. Too often people view others as the enemy instead of fellow human beings.

I also fear the globalization of weapons' use as problem-solving tools. Examples are the war in Afghanistan, the escalating violence between the Israelis and Palestinians and the threat of a new war in Iraq.

President Bush doesn't make people feel less vulnerable and more safe by labeling North Korea, Iran and Iraq an "axis of evil." Bush also said he'd use nuclear weapons against an enemy thought to be preparing to use weapons of mass destruction.

Attorney General John Ashcroft's actions also are perplexing. Ashcroft has refused to allow the FBI access to records to determine whether any of the hundreds of people held since the Sept. 11 tragedy have bought guns.

Ashcroft has been a gun-rights proponent since elected to offices in Missouri. The Second Amendment guaranteeing people the right to bear arms goes untouched under Ashcroft while other civil liberties are trounced in this climate of fear of terrorism.

Thank goodness Holden is our governor and not Ashcroft, who used to be. Ashcroft's shielding the Second Amendment while gutting the rest of the Bill of Rights makes about as much sense as guests carrying a gun into our home. It makes as much sense as Missouri lawmakers passing a concealed-weapons bill after voters said "no way."

Nonviolence makes good sense, too, locally and globally.

I have read some version of "our dinner guest brought a gun and we were scared" many times.

I think the author is a fearful little toad, but a couple thoughts come to mind-

Other people's kids can be nosy little beggers- Senior Management and I visited some friends for dinner- she took her .380 out of her purse, and left it with the Kimber in my truck. As we left, she noticed that one of the kids had stuffed some toys in her purse, which had been left on a closet shelf. I absolutely would not have put it past the little weasel to pick up, play with, and discharge that little DA .380.

Also, if you're going to carry concealed, don't tell people, particularly if you suspect they are fearful of guns, and you are in their house. Some folks get a charge out of "letting it slip" that they carry, or are carrying. Bad Idea.

Finally,if you're visiting someone's house..hey, it's their house- respect their wishes, spoken or implicit.

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