THE PUBLIC MIND: REJECT A POLICE STATE WHERE INDIVIDUALS MUST RELY ON BUREAUCRACY FOR PROTECTION

To the Editor:

This~ letter is in response to the guest editorial written by Cape's prosecuting attorney, H. Morley Swingle. Swingle's three columns simply restate the same tired arguments that all gun opponents use. His editorial contains nothing but emotional rhetoric and little ~substance. His ~six points to ponder attempt to show the hazard and the Dodge City mentality that would result from a legally armed populace but he fails to take into account some gun control facts.

Two thirds of the states already have laws granting their citizens the right to carry concealed weapons. Does anyone feel the underlying possibility of being shot when they travel through these states or are Missouri citizens the only ones with such a lack of self control that a bloodbath would ensue? Citizens are not so ignorant as to go around "...waiting for someone to `make my day!'" Writing that shows a serious lack of faith in the intelligence of your fellow man.

The argument that gun laws only affect honest people is far from specious. Thomas Jefferson stated, "Laws that forbid the carrying of arms ... disarm only those who are ~~~~~~~~~~~~serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."

The provisions within this bill are more than adequate for controlling who may receive the permits. Local law enforcement officials are given arbitrary rights to say who may get them. Once approved, a stiff license fee must be paid and mandatory safety classes attended. Only after these criteria are met will a permit be issued. I can see hundreds of potential gun toting maniacs lining up to involve themselves in this bureaucratic morass.

At one time people may have been placed in jail as a result of firearms violations but the present judicial system makes gun laws equivalent to traffic tickets. For example, on August 14, 1989, Henry James, 17, of Washington, D.C., was charged with intent to kill while armed. The charges were dropped. The same man was charged on October 14, 1990, with two counts of assault with intent to kill while armed, two counts of assault with intent to murder while armed, possession of a firearm during the commission of a violent crime, carrying a pistol without a license, possession of an unregistered firearm, and unlawful possession of ammunition. A thousand dollars bail bought his freedom on that occasion. Later the same year he was released from the Oak Hill Detention Center after serving a portion of his sentence on a juvenile offense. He was supposed to ~~~rema~in th~ere until February~~~~~ 1992. ~On November 16, 1991, James informed a friend that he wanted to kill someone so while on the Anacostia Freeway a car pulled alongside the one he was riding in. He fired a shot into that car and Patricia Lexie died. She had been married 11 months. She died as a monument to gun control laws that only restrict honest people.

I am perfectly willing to accept the risk that each person over 21 at Burger King may be carrying a .357 in his pocket than to allow myself or my family to become victim of societal animals who law enforcement and the judicial system find themselves unable to control. So in their frustration they place greater and greater restrictions on my rights as an individual to defend myself and my property. The threat to communal ~security is~n't in the threat of an armed populace but in an armed police state where the individual must rely upon bureaucratic organs for protection and justice.

~Charles Gibson II

Cape Girardeau