As long as I’m complaining about the state of current journalism, there were two excellent letters to the editor in the paper today:

Punish criminals, not honest folks with guns

Your strident and hysterical objections to the recently passed concealed-weapons law are based on two false assumptions. First, you assume that honest citizens who obey the law and are no threat to anyone suddenly become dangerous monsters if they are licensed to carry a gun. I have carried guns under various circumstances since I was a child, and that was a long time ago, and I have never felt any urge to use one improperly or illegally. I am not alone in that. Honest people are honest, whether they are armed or not, and your assumption otherwise is insulting to all honest citizens. 

Second, you assume that passing a law against something prevents people from doing it. It doesn’t; it simply establishes a penalty for doing it. Honest people follow legal guidelines, but criminals ignore them and risk the consequences. That’s why we call them criminals. 

There are legal and illegal uses for guns. The right to have one available for legal use is guaranteed by the Missouri Constitution. The concealed-weapons law allows people to carry guns in a socially acceptable manner. Missouri is safer for it. 

Leroy Madden
Ellisville 


Tell it like it was

In reference to the March 7 story headlined “13 Palestinians are reported killed in Gaza battles”: 

Once, just once, can’t the main headline read “Palestine militants and suicide bomber attack at Israel-Gaza crossing point,” and a smaller one read, “In retaliation, 13 Palestinians are reported killed”? It is heart-wrenching enough to hear of such carnage without at least your telling it like it was. 

Please remember the words of the late Prime Minister Golda Meier, who stated at one point in a previous conflict, “We can forgive the Palestinians for killing our children, but we cannot forgive them for making us kill theirs.” 

Meyer and Selma Kahan
Creve Coeur 

Two excellent letters making great points clearly and concisely. Two (three?) amateurs providing better written content than anything else in the paper today. Of course, if they had to write a column, they’d have to pad them out to fill the whole thing.