The Missouri Legislature.....

Is the Missouri Legislature insane or just stupid?!?

Apr 19, '09 1:52 PM for everyone

Full disclosure: I belong to a minority group so small it doesn't even have a support group: adult males in the U.S. who have never shot a gun (no, not even a BB-gun). I certainly don't get solicited by the NRA. Expounding on my distaste for weaponry, I once had a student ask me, "Mr. Berndt, does your wife feel safe with you?" I voted against conceal and carry.

Okay, the Missouri Legislature (and specifically our former state senator) ignored the majority vote (because it came mostly from urban/suburban areas, which means we're discounted by the rural power brokers in the legislature) and put in a conceal/carry law. While it didn't make me feel any safer, neither does it cause me to spend time wondering which random people I see are carrying a weapon. (I must confess that my bird finger does stay in much closer proximity to the steering wheel while driving, but I don't know if that's directly attributable to the law; more likely one of the benefits of age, or maybe Carolyn's clearly voiced displeasure.)

Now, however, our representatives in Jefferson City want to exempt colleges and allow students to carry concealed weapons on campus. The brainchild of a Young Republican in Columbia, the thought (and I use the word with a full sense of irony) is that some college hotshot-hero will save students from the next campus massacre. "If only those poor kids at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois had been armed, those crazed shooters would have thought twice." Another case of "Save me from those who wish to save me!"

What part of the shooters being crazy and wanting to die themselves do these morons not get? What part of young men (primarily), alcohol and guns in one package do people find comforting? Do these people really think that attaining the age of 21 brings an automatic gift of maturity? There's a reason bars have signs prohibiting guns! 

Certainly I want my granddaughter to be safe when she goes off to college. Or my daughter if she goes back to grad school, or my former students, or my niece, or anyone. But if this law is still in place when she's ready, I'll be lobbying like crazy to have her go out of state where at least the government isn't nuts (because crazy, evil people are everywhere, although I don't believe in such numbers as to warrant actions like this which will put more, not fewer, people at risk).

So far it's only the House that has passed the bill, but by more than a 2:1 ratio. Perhaps the Senate won't pass it with such veto-proof numbers. I have no knowledge whether the governor will veto it or not, just the hope that he would; I also have no hope that the Senate will show any more wisdom than the House, but I am somewhat hopeful that they might deal with real issues in their remaining few weeks and let this thing die.

Tags: politics