Frontiersman Editorial Board

On Friday in Buffalo, New York, James Kopp received the maximum sentence of 25 years to life for the 1998 sniper slaying of Dr. Barnett Slepian. Kopp hid outside the doctor's house and shot him in his kitchen just hours after Slepian had attended services for his late father at a local synagogue. Kopp murdered the 52-year-old obstetrician because Slepian performed abortions.

Kopp apparently committed the pre-meditated murder in keeping with his strong anti-abortion views. It's that unusual philosophy of committing murder to prevent murder. The extreme anti-abortionists who condone this sort of crime argue that people like Kopp are protecting innocent lives by ending a sinful one. On the Web site www.jameskopp.com, you will find the words, "Unlike this unborn child, however, Barnett Slepian was no innocent victim. He did not find himself in the crosshairs of a rifle that night because he was a husband or a father or a doctor or a Jew, but because he was a killer who would kill again in a few short hours. The hands that so carefully placed the soup bowl in the microwave that night would be busy in the morning deftly crushing and shredding the bodies of live babies -- perhaps 25 or more." It is an argument, it might seem on the surface, of passionate moralism. However, you don't have to peel much paint off to begin to uncover the flaws beneath. Murder to prevent murder is not the act of a moral hero, especially when that hero hides in the bushes with a high-powered rifle and then flees the country (Kopp was eventually extradited from France). That is the act of a coward who hasn't the strength of his own convictions. Supporters who praise Kopp for preventing what they perceive as the murder of innocent children are apparently only opposed to certain kinds of violence. It seems it's fine to kill bad people, and it seems people like James Kopp are endowed with the ability to determine who the bad people are. If you have committed a sin in the eyes of a James Kopp, you'd be well advised to stand clear of your kitchen window.

Cases like Kopp's are not even worthy of being included in the debate over Roe v. Wade. In a country of laws and due process, bullets fired from behind trees are not a valid form of argument. When we are preoccupied with the war on terrorism, it is good that the courts have leveled the strongest sentence possible on this American who would terrorize others who are acting within the law. The death penalty was not on the table for James Kopp because the French government would only extradite him on the condition the death penalty not be applied. It's more consideration than Dr. Barnett Slepian got.