Court has ruled on carrying guns

To the editor:Regarding the article "Bill would end bans on carrying guns openly": Here is what the Missouri Supreme Court had to say about Article 1, Section 23 of the Missouri Constitution.

In State v. Wilforth, the court stated: "We do not desire to be understood as maintaining that in regulating the manner of bearing arms the authority of the legislature has no other limit than its own discretion. A statute which, under the pretense of regulating, amounts to a destruction of the right, or which requires arms to be so borne as to render them wholly useless for purposes of defense, would be clearly unconstitutional."

Then again in State v. White, the court stated: "The evident purpose of Section 17, Article 2, is to render the citizen secure in his home, his person and his property. Its purpose is to deny to the Legislature the power to take away the right of the citizen to resist aggression, force, and wrong at the hands of another. By no possible construction can that section of the Constitution be held to guarantee to the citizen the right to keep and bear arms for the purpose of his own aggression, wrong, or assault upon the person or property of another. The right of the citizen to keep and bear arms for his own protection or in aid of the civil power, when thereto legally summoned, is the only right guaranteed to the citizen."

Freedom in 1820, 1865, 1875, 1945 and, yes, 2007.

SHAWN CASSIDY, Farmington, Mo.