LETTERS: PROP B OPPONENT HAD WRONG INFO

To the editor:

I am writing in response to the letter from Jerry D. Wolsey opposing Proposition B, which is to be voted on April 6. The information given in his letter is incorrect.

Mr. Wolsey assumes that otherwise law-abiding citizens who have gone through a background check and 12 hours of training and are not felons or mentally incompetent will pose a danger to those around them simply by exercising their constitutional right to bear arms for self-defense.

Statistics show that law-abiding citizens use guns to stop crime 4 times more often than criminals use guns to commit crimes. And most protective defenses do not involve discharging such a firearm.

Criminals are the only ones who should fear this law, not law-abiding citizens.

As to his assertion that concealed-carry laws do not reduce crime, statistics demonstrate just the opposite. Forty-three states currently have some form of concealed-carry laws on the books. FBI statistics show that on average in these states murder rates dropped by 8 percent, aggravated assaults were reduced by 7 percent, a 4.9 percent drop occurred in all violent crime, and robberies declined by 2.2 percent.

Finally, the Missouri Libertarian Party supports Proposition B and is working to defend your right to protect yourself from criminals. Don't let Missouri be the only state which denies its residents the basic right of protection from crime.

MIKE GARDNER, Treasurer

Cape Girardeau County Libertarian Party

Cape Girardeau