KINDER'S COMMENTARY: CUTTING THROUGH THE HEAVY FOG OF OPPOSITION TO PROPOSITION B

Is it possible to cut through the incredible fog of misinformation opponents of right-to-carry are throwing up in advance of the vote on Prop B on April 6? It's tough, but we'll keep trying. Here's a succinct morsel to chew on:

"So what do we know about the results of the experiment? First, that about 1 percent to 5 percent of a state's population typically applies to take out concealed-gun permits. Second, we know what doesn't happen: America doesn't turn into the Dodge City of myth, with fender-benders becoming hailstorms of lead. (Actually, Dodge City, Kan., wasn't the Dodge City of myth. It was much safer than today's Washington, D.C., with homicides running one or two per cattle-trading season and marshals mostly concerned, writes historian Roger Lane, `with arresting drunks and other misdemeanants.') People who are willing to register with the sheriff, pay a fee and take a gun-safety course turn out to be unusually law-abiding, safer even than off-duty cops. In Florida, only 0.13 percent of concealed-carry licenses were revoked from 1987-97 for criminal activity of any sort. No murders seem to have been committed by people carrying licensed guns in public. The `shall-issue' law may actually deter bad behavior, since if you get into any sort of trouble you can lose your license." -- Jonathon Rauch, writing in the National Journal of March 20, on the effect of the spread of right-to-carry laws concerning concealed weapons.

As noted here before, what does some politician or law-enforcement official have to fear from a law-abiding citizen carrying a gun? As also said here before, it's all in your hands at the voting booth on Tuesday, April 6.

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It's a miracle: B-2 effects a conversion of gunboat liberals: "During the Gulf War, 47 Senate Democrats opposed giving George Bush permission to strike a dictator who had invaded a sovereign U.S. ally. But in Kosovo, with U.S. interests less at stake, 42 of 45 Senate Democrats voted to let Mr. Clinton attack his own Bosnian peace partner who is now crushing an internal province. Whatever happened to the peace movement?

"Arizona Sen. John McCain, on the other hand, joined 15 Senate Republicans in voting yes, despite his deep misgivings about Mr. Clinton's strategy. The Vietnam-war hero said in an interview he didn't want to hamstring Mr. Clinton the way liberals damaged U.S. policy during that war.

"... Liberals are proving this week that they know how to use the weapons Ronald Reagan gave them (such as the B-2 bombers based in western Missouri) to start a war. What the rest of us worry about is whether they know how to finish it." -- Paul Gigot, The Wall Street Journal.

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Banning infanticide in Missouri: House Bill 427, the Infant Protection Act banning partial-birth abortion, has been sent over to the Missouri Senate nearly a month ahead of last year's schedule. The House approved it by an overwhelming, veto-proof margin. Gov. Mel Carnahan and his cohorts who oppose the bill can now spend the rest of the session summoning up their best efforts to explain to us all why we absolutely must have a health exception for infanticide.

Come on, governor. You famously granted clemency to a guilty and unrepentant triple murderer. How about these tiny innocents?

~Peter Kinder is assistant to the president of Rust Communications and a state senator from Cape Girardeau.