EDITOR’S page

TWO CHEERS FOR THE TEXAS Legislature, which wrapped up its session in late May with a mixed but pretty decent record. “Ashley’s Laws,” championed by state Senator Florence Shapiro of Piano, will toughen penalties for those convicted of sex crimes against children and allow cities to know the whereabouts of paroled offenders. Way to go, Senator.

The school voucher plan, a bad idea that would damage both public and private schools, was turned down. Some of the education reforms will return more authority to local school districts and allow teachers and administrators to do a bette : job for their students. However, the weakening of the state’s landmark no-pass, no-play rule, the toughest in the nation, was a sad step backward.

Even sadder is the legislature’s ill-advised passage of one of Governor George W. Bush’s pet projects, the concealed-weapons bill, staunchly but vainly opposed by state Senator Royce West of Dallas. But some critics of the gun bill missed the real point with their shrill cries about a return to the bloody days of Dodge City and Tombstone. I think-I hope- -those tears are overblown. Other states with right-to-carry laws have not seen an epidemic of dueling drivers. As some experts have pointed out, the new law may simply make de jure what is already de facto. That’s the view expressed in “Why the Rich Pack Heat,” (page 26), William Simon ; trenchant look at affluent North Dallasites who were arming themselves long before Austin got into the act.

But while the new law probably won’t fill the malls with ricocheting bullets, there’s little reason to think it will make us much safer in the long run. The law’s advocates put their faith in the old balance-of-terror theory of the Cold War, often cal led Mutual Assured Destruction: Don’t blow us up, or we’ll- blow you up. If large numbers of good guys are armed and ready, the theory goes, then bad guys won’t know the pigeon i from the falcons. Unfortunately, there’s little hard evidence that serious criminals are deterred by much of anything ( hough the death penalty can still be justified as society’s vengeance). For one reason or another-low intelligence, alcoholism, drug addiction- many criminals tend to live in their own private Now.

Supporters of the gun law tout their work as a proud step toward empowerment, but the bill’s passage is really a wrenching cry of failure. We are telling our children that the forces of order and civilization cannot protect them. What they need, they will learn as they grow up, is their own gun. Every man his own cop.

And when it comes down to the moment of truth, what will happen to our gun-toting neighbors? Consider what happens to many police officers. All cops know they may need to shoot to kill at any moment. They undergo much more firearms training than Texans will have under the new right-to-carry law. And even the stupidest, most strung-out criminals know that cops carry guns.

Still, despite all that caution and training, scores of officers are killed in the line of duty each year-many of them without ever drawing their guns. It’s certainly possible that some newly licensed Preston Hollow housewife might clear leather in time to win an apres-theater shootout with an armed attacker. But is it likely? I don’t think so.

IT’S THE KIND OF STORY D WOULD LOVE TO RUN: FOUNDER of a company leaves at the height of its success; goes on to forge a new life and career; company is later bought by huge financial conglomerate and run into the ground; a newcomer to the city sees that Dallas still needs the company, revives it, and brings back the founder to make it a success.

Great story, except we can’t run it because it’s about us- and Wick Allison, who with this issue returns as publisher and editor-in-chief. Between us, Wick and I have worked on almost every issue in the magazine’s 20-year history- he from 1974 to 1982, I from 1982-1993 and since March of this year. His intelligence and commitment to excellence are unquestionable. Together, we plan to give our readers the best D they’ve ever seen.

CHRIS TUCKER, EDITOR