{"id":1226,"date":"2011-03-05T12:29:43","date_gmt":"2011-03-05T16:29:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/?p=1226"},"modified":"2011-03-05T12:29:43","modified_gmt":"2011-03-05T16:29:43","slug":"weirdness-in-wisconsin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/weirdness-in-wisconsin\/","title":{"rendered":"WEIRDNESS IN WISCONSIN"},"content":{"rendered":"

Teaching in Wisconsin last weekend gave me ample opportunity to discuss with the natives the strange tableau they\u2019re experiencing, with their state legislators from the Democratic Party having fled to Illinois to avoid a controversial vote. Meanwhile, demonstrations in the streets of Madison have reportedly involved tens of thousands of citizens. The new Governor, citing a desperate lack of funds, has just issued layoff notices to a spate of state employees.<\/p>\n

One item on the table for the crippled Wisconsin legislature this year is shall-issue concealed carry, which would end a longstanding situation in which only Wisconsin and one other state, Illinois, have absolutely no provision for law-abiding citizens to carry loaded, concealed handguns in public for defense of self and others. Twice in the past, the Wisconsin legislature has passed the concealed carry bill\u2026and both times then-Governor Jim Doyle vetoed it. Each time Doyle then called in chits, subverting key legislators to override their conscience and turn against the citizens they\u2019d supported, and each time Doyle was able to get just enough legislators to change their votes that his veto couldn\u2019t be overridden.<\/p>\n

They say the third time is the charm, and with Doyle gone and gun-friendly Scott Walker now in the Governor\u2019s office, it was thought that concealed carry would be a fait accompli <\/em>this year. But will it pass now, in times of budget crisis so great it calls the world\u2019s attention to Wisconsin? Where will funding for the licensing bureaucracy come from?<\/p>\n

Gun owners\u2019 civil rights activists have a brilliant answer: simply pass permitless carry. Called \u201cConstitutional carry\u201d by some, such a law allows any law-abiding citizen with a clean criminal record to carry loaded and concealed in public. It will entail only a cost-free vote and a stroke of the Governor\u2019s pen. That model has worked for Vermont for as long as any living citizen can remember, and every year Vermont is one of our lowest crime states per capita, some years THE lowest. It has worked for years in Alaska. It is working in Arizona, and will undoubtedly work in Wyoming, which just became the fourth state to pass permitless carry.<\/p>\n

It will work in Wisconsin. It would be a brilliant stroke that would cut the Gordian Knot, at least on this issue, for an entangled Wisconsin legislature.<\/p>\n

Comments invited, of course, particularly from Wisconsinites.<\/p>\n

Thanks to Jeff Dege for this great graphic representation of how far gun owners civil rights have been restored since 1986. <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

\"CCW<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teaching in Wisconsin last weekend gave me ample opportunity to discuss with the natives the strange tableau they\u2019re experiencing, with their state legislators from the Democratic Party having fled to Illinois to avoid a controversial vote. Meanwhile, demonstrations in the streets of Madison have reportedly involved tens of thousands of citizens. The new Governor, citing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1226","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-firearm-owners-civil-rights"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}