From: DRGOTWW@aol.com
Date: Wed, 31 May 1995 23:01:55 -0400
To: firearms-alert@shell.portal.com
Subject: LETTER


I enclose a letter I wrote in response to an editorial in California Journal
(June 1995 issue). The author takes a stance against "law-abiding" (his
quotation marks) citizens packing concealed handguns. California Journal
 usually takes a middle path between liberal and conservative positions and
analyzes issues evenhandedly, but not in this case. Hence my reply:

Editor
California Journal
2101  K  Street
Sacramento  CA  95816

Dear Editor:

In the June 1995 issue's Two Cents Worth commentary editor A.G. Block voiced
a concern heard repeatedly in the right-to-carry-firearms
debates of other states. That is, can citizens be trusted to have and use
lethal force for lawful purposes?

One half of the states have now given an affirmative answer to that question
and have passed "shall-issue" or nondiscretionary laws allowing their
law-abiding citizens to carry concealed weapons.The uniform experience of
those states is that homicide rates did not increase after enactment of these
laws, despite the initial worries of opponents.

The law-abiding citizen of whom I speak is a mature and responsible citizen.
She is not a rarity, and is easily distinguished from the reckless or
criminal person by a notable lack of brushes with the law. He has the moral
judgment to not use lethal force in a traffic dispute or against a political
opponent. This citizen can be trusted.

California should learn from the states which have pioneered right-to-carry
laws, and should pass its own law soon. Let us govern not with the turmoil of
emotion, but with the wisdom of experience.


Yours truly, 

Timothy Wheeler, MD
Director

Doctors for Responsible Gun Ownership
  a Project of The Claremont Institute
P.O. Box 1931 
Upland  CA  91785-1931

   e-mail  drgotww@aol.com