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SPECIAL - 4/7/99

CARNAHAN/CLINTON-GORE COALITION DENIES MISSOURIANS RIGHT TO CARRY

Yesterday, voters in Missouri narrowly defeated "Proposition B" -- the state's Right To Carry ballot referendum. Despite critical support from NRA and the tireless work by our grassroots group, Missourians Against Crime (MAC), the tactics of the anti-gun cabal of Gov. Mel Carnahan (D) and President Clinton worked to deny law-abiding Missourians their right to self-defense. The two untold stories of this campaign will no doubt be the stellar on-the-ground work by NRA members and Right To Carry volunteers, who poured hours of their time into participating in the political process. Unfortunately, it is they and the rest of the law-abiding citizens of Missouri who lost out on Tuesday. The other story you probably won't read about in the anti-gun press is the unscrupulous manner in which Caranahan and the resources of the Clinton-Gore Justice Department manipulated the process.

Carnahan had thwarted the will of the legislature to pass Right To Carry the last few years. When their bills passed the Missouri House by overwhelmingly votes, each time, the Governor was able to twist enough arms in the Senate to halt bills there. Then, early last year, the General Assembly passed a bill authorizing a Right To Carry referendum. Carnahan, term-limited and eyeing a 2000 U.S. Senate race against staunch Second Amendment defender Sen. John Ashcroft (R), promised first to remain neutral during the referendum campaign. As we saw later, however, Carnahan put his own personal political aspirations first, and broke this pledge.

In fact, it was Carnahan's daughter who chaired the Safe Schools and Workplaces Committee (SSWC), the major group organized against the measure, and she inherited his political network, including his top dollar consultants. High ranking members of the Carnahan administration also worked to defeat Prop. B. They were their most destructive in the "battle of the ballot language." The referendum ballot language passed by the General Assembly read:

Shall state or local law enforcement agencies be authorized to issue permits to law-abiding citizens at least 21 years of age to carry concealed firearms outside their home for personal protection after having passed a state and federal criminal background check and having completed a firearms safety training course approved by the Missouri Department of Public Safety?

When polling data showed majority support for Prop. B as it was passed by the legislature, a lawsuit challenging that language was filed and won. Carnahan's personally-appointed Secretary of State was then able to rewrite the language, which unsurprisingly was approved by the administration's anti-gun Attorney General. The language voters saw April 6 did not include "law-abiding citizens" or the age, criminal background checks and firearm safety training qualifications originally passed by the legislature.

In its efforts to deny Missouri citizens the freedom of choice, the Carnahan political machine was aided and abetted by another friendly anti-gun administration -- that of Bill Clinton and Al Gore. The weekend before the election, in a recorded telephone message directed at women voters and automatically dialed to 75,000 homes statewide, Hillary Rodham Clinton assailed Prop. B as "just too dangerous for Missouri families."

Even more offensive was the use of your tax dollars to lobby against Prop. B! Officials in Janet Reno's Justice Department, Missouri's two U.S. Attorneys, Edward Dowd and Stephen Hill, co-signed a letter on U.S. Department of Justice letterhead urging sheriffs and police chiefs across the state to rally resistance against Prop. B. Their letter not only listed a toll-free number in Dowd's office through which callers could receive anti-Prop. B materials, but also outrageously mischaracterized Prop B. The U.S. Attorneys went so far as to say that the measure would allow permit holders to carry firearms that were banned by the federal government in 1934!

When the Associated Press called Dowd after MAC issued a statement criticizing the "obvious use of federal funds and resources to influence this election," he refused to discuss the matter. Reporters instead were referred to the Department of Justice, which had approved the effort. The tax-payer funded lobbying by Dowd and Hill drew praise from the Kansas City Star, which like the St. Louis Post Dispatch, shrilly opposed Prop. B. The state's largest papers devoted thousands of words -- both on and off the editorial page -- to scaring readers into opposing the referendum.

On April 6, the combination of political strong-arm tactics and the media's scare campaign proved too hard to beat.

As supporters of Right To Carry and as consumers, we thought you would like to know who the key financial backers of the anti-Prop. B movement were. Listed below are the companies and organizations that contributed at least $1,000 (through March 25) to the defeat of Prop. B:

Our sincerest thanks go out to all of our Missouri volunteers who worked so tirelessly to pass "Proposition B." We are not giving up the fight to pass Right To Carry in Missouri, and look forward to working with you in the future to pass this much-needed legislation.

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This information is provided as a service of the National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action -- www.NRAILA.org

For further information, visit our website at http://www.moccw.org/ or send email to .

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