STATE CLOSE TO CONCEALED-WEAPONS VOTE

If Senate leaders make time this week, a law extending to Missourians the right to carry concealed weapons could pass that body and go to a statewide vote of the people next year. Time is short: The General Assembly adjourns for the year at 6 p.m. this Friday. Last week a Senate committee voted 5-0 to pass the bill out of committee to the full Senate. It is known to enjoy majority support in the Senate as it does in the House, which passed it overwhelmingly.

The key provision in the bill is the referendum clause sending it to a public vote at the April 1999 municipal and school board elections. No other state has put this issue to a public vote. The 31 other states that have similar laws have all relied on passage by their state legislatures.

Accordingly, the National Rifle Association and other backers of gun rights have, until this year, always opposed the referendum clause. Six years' experience with Gov. Mel Carnahan, who is strongly opposed, and with certain legislative leaders, who also oppose the measure, have caused backers of conceal-carry to change tactics. Gov. Carnahan has consistently threatened a veto. A referendum clause in a bill bypasses the governor's desk and sends it directly to the people to allow them the final say.

The NRA has officially changed its position to support a referendum. Additionally, many longtime opponents such as state Sen. Jet Banks, D-St. Louis, say that while they still oppose the measure, they won't filibuster it if the people will get to vote on it. The filibuster threat was always before a major roadblock to gaining Senate approval. It may still be: Banks is only one opponent and doesn't speak for all others.

Still, with a few lucky breaks this week, by Friday Missourians could be closer than ever to gaining the right enjoyed by citizens of more than 30 states: The right to apply to the sheriff for a permit to carry a concealed weapon. In recent years Democratic governors have signed the bill into law in neighboring Tennessee and Kentucky. It is time Missourians gained this extension of our basic right of self-defense.