LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: DEMOCRATS USE SCARE TACTICS ON GUNS, AMMO

To the editor:

With the announcement of Dick Cheney as the Republican vice presidential candidate, the Democrat machine of personal destruction went into high gear. Every Democrat is chanting the same mantra about cop-killer bullets and undetectable plastic guns that are only useful to terrorists. You might as well attack Mr. Cheney for failure to extend federal endangered-species status to unicorns while he was in Congress. What do plastic guns, cop-killer bullets and unicorns have in common? There ain't no such thing.

First, the undetectable plastic gun. Take a child to the emergency room at the hospital and tell the doctor the kid swallowed a plastic toy. I'll bet dollars to doughnuts the kid is under an X-ray machine in short order. Plastic does show up in an X-ray, and I have seen photos of a Glock (the original plastic gun) as seen by the airport X-ray machine inside a suitcase.

As for the plastic gun's not being useful except to terrorists: The next time you run into Cape Girardeau's own chief of police, any officer of the university's Department of Public Safety, ask what gun is in their holsters. Almost half the time the answer will be a Glock, the original plastic gun.

Now, cop-killer bullets: This term was applied to the KTW ammunition, a design originally intended to reduce the danger of lead in indoor shooting ranges, by the national media. The projectile was coated with Teflon to reduce lead oxide and control lead splatter. Later it was discovered to be able to penetrate the soft body armor commonly worn by police officers. Too expensive to produce to be practical in everyday shooting, the KTW ammunition saw limited distribution and was mainly sold to police. One of the TV news magazines started to investigate the KTW ammunition. Law-enforcement organizations ask the network not to carry the story as there was no problem with criminals' using this ammunition. But the TV show, using the sensational phrase "cop-killer bullets," aired the report anyway.

It is ironic that while there was never a documented case of a criminal being arrested with even a single KTW round in his possession -- much less shooting at, hitting or killing a police officer -- police had used KTWs on a number of occasions to stop dangerous criminals that were wearing soft armor. Eventually a federal law was passed banning the manufacture, sale or possession of such ammunition, so now even the police are unable to obtain this type of ammunition.

Both of these situations are typical of the liberal Democrat tactic of assigning a catchy or lofty title to some piece of legislation, then attack anyone who does not vote for it as being the moral equivalent of a child rapist. George W. Bush made a great selection for a running mate, and I cannot wait to cast my vote for two of them.

ROBERT A. CRON

Advance, Mo.