Ashley Walker writing for www.emporiagazette.com obviously believes all the statistics AVN has conjured up over the years leading you to believe that Big Porn is bigger than OPEC:

Sexually oriented businesses, or SOBs as they’re called in legislator lingo, are taking center stage thanks to some recent legislation that would place new restrictions on strip clubs and pornography retailers in Kansas.

A bill recently endorsed by the Kansas House would prohibit strip clubs, adult stores and other sexually oriented businesses from locating within 1,000 feet of schools, libraries, public parks, licensed daycare centers and houses of worship. Under the new law, SOBs would also have to close from midnight to 6 a.m, nudity would be outlawed, and dancers could be seminude but would have to remain at least 6 feet away from patrons.

Naturally, the bill has aroused some strong opinions on both sides of the issue.

Proponents of the bill point to the negative secondary effects SOBs can have on communities, such as lower property values, increased crime and a general scum factor that is often associated with neighborhoods and cities where such businesses exist.

Opponents, on the other hand, see the bill as just another example of the government’s intrusion into private lives and a threat to their First Amendment rights.

True, study after study shows a connection between adult businesses and crime in the communities that host them. From prostitution and homicide to sexual trafficking and rape, research shows that a neighborhood that houses a topless bar can expect crime to double. And, true, SOBs do have a depreciating effect on communities who support them.

But… (Ah hem.)

Strip clubs are only one part of an even bigger business that has a much more prolific and damaging effect in our country, in our communities, in our neighborhoods and in our families, than the topless bar on the other side of town — it’s the multibillion dollar porn industry. With cable TV and the Web, it’s more available to more people than ever before.

At $13.3 billion, the sex and porn industry in the U.S. took in more revenue in 2006 than the National Football League, National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball combined. Worldwide, sex-industry sales for 2006 were $97 billion. (Microsoft’s reported sales in 2006 were $44 billion, by the way.)

Rendering an industry such as this one impotent is going to take much more than 6 more feet of separation or six fewer hours in the business day.

Then again, to proponents of the bill: Quit hiding behind the First Amendment. Sure, it protects your freedom of expression. But with a $13.3 billion (and growing) yearly price tag, it’s hard to believe that keeping strip clubs and other pornographic retailers operating and proliferating in our communities is about gratifying your Constitutional rights. Please.