Post-Dispatch: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
This story was published in Editorial on
Monday, March 11, 2002.
The right to
carry
Well, you are dead wrong again. Contrary
to your Feb. 28 editorial, "A bad idea," Missouri voters did
not make it clear that they did not want a concealed carry law.
Rep. Carl Bearden is correct when he says
that the vote didn't reflect the true public sentiment. Voters were
bombarded with lies, misinformation and irrational, emotional doom
scenarios that are not happening in the other states that have adopted
concealed carry. And 104 of Missouri's 114 counties voted for concealed
carry.
But in one sense I have to agree with
you. Missouri does not need a concealed carry law. The entire country
needs a concealed carry law, including the right to carry in all the
public places and modes of transportation that terrorists are most
likely to attack. Police officers have never been, and never will be,
able to be in the right place at the right time to prevent tragedies and
save lives.
The true common sense approach would be
to give people the right and means to defend themselves, particularly
now that we are faced with such a dangerous and devious enemy.
In spite of a mountain of shortsighted,
narrow-minded, politically correct opinions, firearms can, and do, save
lives.
Stephen Nuebling
Lebanon, Ill.
As a senior citizen and
grandmother, I want the right to carry.
Would I carry? Probably not.
Would a criminal attempt to harm me if he
thought I was carrying a gun, probably not.
When you can assure me that there are no
more criminals and no more guns in the hands of criminals, I might agree
that a concealed weapon law is not necessary. In the meantime, don't
deny those of us who wish to have a concealed weapon that right.
We are not the people you need to worry
about. Between the media and the scare-mongers who talk about those who
will carry the guns into churches and schools, I think you need to
realize that this is being done right now, without a concealed weapon
law. Those who want to harm others manage to get guns, knives, matches
or whatever they wish, to carry out their goal.
The only time you would need to worry
about a gun that I might carry would be when you showed me that you
intended to harm me. And you better believe I would defend myself.
Betty Lindauer
Chesterfield
In reply to a March 4 letter, I
find the statement that the gun lobby is trying to sneak a concealed
carry permit system past the Missouri voters is a joke.
With all of the information being put out
by handgun control supporters and liberal editorials by this paper, it's
hard to believe anything could be sneaky in any manner. If the
Million-Mom March mothers would stay home and take proper care of their
children, maybe they would live in a safer environment and not worry
about gun control.
Edward Kedl
Florissant
Published in the Editorial section
of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on
Monday, March 11, 2002.
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