Today, in Wisconsin Carry, Inc. v. City of Madison, Attorney General Brad Schimel filed a motion supporting Wisconsin Carry’s argument that state law preempts certain municipal gun regulations, namely, Madison’s Transit and Parking Commission’s rule banning all weapons from its Madison Metro buses.
Attorney General Schimel argues, contrary to Madison’s claims, that a municipality cannot delegate power that it does not have, and that municipalities do not have the power to regulate firearms in ways more stringent than state law. Since state law allows people to possess and transport firearms in vehicles, Madison may not ban them from its buses.
Investigators said the shooting happened at the store in White Center at approximately 5:45 a.m. local time. Witnesses said the man entered the store and swung a hatchet toward the customer before turning his attention to the clerk.
As the assailant attacked, the customer pulled out a pistol and fired, hitting the suspect. The clerk suffered minor injuries to his stomach and the suspect was pronounced dead at the scene.
The customer who shot the suspect is described as a 60-year-old Seattle man who visits the store every morning to get coffee. His name was not immediately released.
Authorities said the man who shot the attacker had a concealed carry permit and likely would not face charges as a result of his action.
Perhaps we should consider waiting periods for hatchets.
The Marquette Law School poll is out today. It has been one of the more accurate polls over the past few years. The horse race stuff is about as one would expect. The only thing of note is that Trump, while still leading, has less support in Wisconsin than he has in some other states. This is indicative of the fact that Wisconsin Republicans have become more conservative over the past few years. But this was the most interesting part to me:
Guns continue to be an issue in both state and national politics. In 2012, three Marquette Law School Polls asked whether respondents favored or opposed “legalizing possession of concealed weapons” while such legislation was under debate. Between 46 and 47 percent supported legalizing concealed carry, while between 49 and 51 percent opposed the proposal. Concealed-carry legislation was passed and became law in 2012.
In the current poll, respondents were asked if they favor or oppose the “current law allowing residents to obtain a license to carry concealed handguns.” Sixty-three percent favor the current concealed-carry law, while 31 percent oppose it. Those with a gun in their household support the concealed-carry law by 80 percent to 18 percent, while those without a gun in the house oppose the law by 47 percent to 43 percent.
To the Republicans in the Wisconsin legislature who are pussyfooting around things like repealing the minimum markup law – this is what leadership does for you. They passed concealed carry despite the fact that the people were split down the middle on it. They passed it because it was the right thing to do and the opposition to it was based on emotion – not facts. Conservatives and Republicans forcefully made their arguments and passed the legislation. Now, 5 years later, a full two-thirds of the people support it, and are more likely to support those politicians who support it. Why? Because many of them saw that their emotional arguments against it were incorrect in the face of the reality of living in state with concealed carry.
Leadership has a price, but it also has a benefit.
Wisconsin has an adult population (21 or over) of about 4.4 million. Roughly 1 out of every 16 Wisconsin adult residents now has a concealed carry permit.
There was one manslaughter homicide by a citizen with a permit — who claimed self defense, but was convicted by a jury– in the last four years. That translates into a homicide rate for permit holders of about .22 homicides per 100/000 people per year. That’s less than 1/13 of the homicide rate for Wisconsin on average.
Hopefully Wisconsin can advance constitutional carry so that these kinds of milestones become meaningless.
In an unexpected turn, the Democratic governor of Virginia struck a deal with Republicans to continue recognizing gun carry permits from 25 states despite the state attorney general’s decision late last year to do away with the recognition.
The deal, which will be moved through the legislature and signed by Gov. Terry McAuliffe, will restore the reciprocity agreements Virginia has with dozens of states. In exchange for restoring the agreements, Republicans have agreed to prohibit those with a protective order against them from carrying a firearm during the life of the order and to staffing gun shows with state police officers specifically dedicated to performing voluntary background checks on private gun sales. The deal would also keep Virginians who can’t obtain Virginia carry permits from using another state’s permit to carry in Virginia.
My column for the West Bend Daily News is online. Here it is:
The Wisconsin Legislature is back in session for a short time before they go home for the year to run for re-election. This November, a third of the Senate and every seat in the Assembly is on the ballot. Normally this session is a quiet one in which only mundane and procedural initiatives are addressed as legislators seek to avoid controversy before asking the citizens for their votes.
Some legislators, however, are willing to risk controversy in order to advance bills to better Wisconsin. Senate President Mary Lazich, R-New Berlin, and Rep. Robert Brooks, R-Saukville, introduced a bill last week to allow more latitude for people licensed to carry a concealed weapon in Wisconsin to carry their weapons on K-12 school grounds.
Under current law, people who are licensed are permitted to carry their weapons in most places in Wisconsin, including college campuses, restaurants, stores, taverns and any private property unless the owners prohibit it. But they are not allowed to carry their weapons on K-12 campuses at all — even locked and unloaded in their vehicles. It is a crime to do so.
Lazich’s and Brooks’ bill would allow licensed people to carry their concealed weapons on campus grounds and leave it up to local school boards to decide if they would allow people to carry their weapons in school buildings.
The immediate problem the bill seeks to solve is that roughly 5 percent of Wisconsinites are licensed to carry concealed weapons and they become instant felons if they drop off their kids at school with a gun with them. There is no rational reason why parents who carry a weapon, who pose no danger to anyone who is not trying to harm them, should have to surrender their constitutional rights or run afoul of the law just to drive through a parking lot while transporting their kids.
But the bill also addresses the larger problem of blanket prohibition of firearms in schools. By allowing local school boards the latitude to define the parameters by which people will be allowed or prohibited to carry weapons in schools, those school boards would have more tools available to them for addressing school safety while being responsive to their constituents’ wishes.
For example, a school district could allow only former military or law enforcement personnel to carry their weapons. Or perhaps allow it for everyone, but only after registering with the office. Or maybe only allow district employees to carry weapons. Or the school district could maintain an absolute ban on weapons. Whatever the case, the proposed law would put that decision into the hands of locally elected leaders.
As expected, the anti-liberty crowd has gone into full fever pitch at the mere suggestion of allowing guns in schools. Mayor Tom Barrett, who presides over the city ranked as the seventh most dangerous in America in 2015 (up from 10th place in 2014), went as far as to call the measure “insane,” as if his prescriptions to mitigate violent crime have been successful.
We have heard these lamentations before. We heard them before concealed carry was passed into law in 2011. We heard them before Texas allowed open carry this year. We have heard them every time people seek to exercise and protect their Second Amendment rights. And those lamentations and predictions of doom have universally failed to come true. In fact, even now, 18 states already allow guns in schools with no or minor conditions and there have not been any negative consequences in those schools.
All constitutional rights are subject to some restrictions. The standard should be whether or not the government has a vital interest in restricting a right. In this case, there is no data to support the contention that allowing licensed concealed-carry holders to carry their weapons on campus decreases safety. In contrast, there is some reason to believe that allowing campus carry would enhance safety by allowing a good guy with a gun to mitigate the damage caused by a bad guy with a gun.
Unfortunately, the Republican leadership in the legislature has already signaled that this bill is not likely to see a vote in this session. They are not willing to risk controversy — even if the facts and tenets of liberty are on their side. If that proves to be the case, let us hope this is one of the first bills brought up when they are ready to get back to serious lifting of the people’s business.
When I boarded the commuter rail, you were already in the midst of a spirited phone conversation and didn’t seem to care about how loud you were talking. You were talking with someone about the Paris train attack and the growing epidemic of gun violence in America.
You spoke about the “murderous NRA” and “bloodthirsty gun nuts” who were causing our schools to “run red with blood.” You spoke profanely of the Republicans who opposed President Obama’s call for “sensible gun control,” and you lamented the number of “inbred redneck politicians” who have “infiltrated Capitol Hill.”
I found myself amazed at the irony of the situation. While you were spewing your venom, I sat quietly next to you with my National Rifle Association membership card in my wallet and my 9mm pistol in its holster. You were only 12 inches away from my legally owned semiautomatic pistol. I suppose I didn’t look like the “bloodthirsty gun nut” you thought I should be. It apparently didn’t register to you that I could so cleverly disguise myself by wearing a fleece coat, Patriots hat, and khakis.
So, to the angry liberal who sat next to me on the commuter rail: I don’t hate you. I don’t have any ill feelings toward you. I don’t wish to do you harm. And I don’t regret sitting next to you. On the contrary; I feel bad for you. It must hurt carrying that much hate inside of you.
You obviously have strong opinions about this hot topic. So, let me say this as plainly as I can: If a bad guy with a gun had decided to walk onto that train and start shooting people, I would have been prepared and able to use my gun to defend my own life and the lives of everyone else on that train, including yours. Although you may hate me, a gun owner, I would risk my life for you.
Opinions and ideologies make a pretty thin shield against the bullets of a madman. Your liberal self-righteousness and ignorance may have made you feel superior and comfortable, but during that 40-minute train ride to Boston, my gun kept you safe.
Vos, a Rochester Republican, says he supports the concept of carrying weapons in campus buildings. But while he has not discussed the Republican-authored bill with his caucus, Vos said he has not heard an outcry in support of it from his colleagues.
Vos wants the Assembly to finish its work by the end of February, and said the bill probably won’t get a vote by then.
The shooting this weekend at the East Town Mall in Madison makes clear that the leftist theory that a gun symbol inside of a circle with a line through it does not make the citizens of this state safer. It is evident that the criminal whom shot off his pistol at the mall either couldn’t read the gun ban sign or he didn’t comprehend the universal symbol that is now referred to as a “target rich environment”?
Personally I’ve never been in East Town Mall, as I refuse to spend my money at any business that believes my second amendment rights have to be left in my car. I’ve been unable to get a safe and secure feeling with the extra mall security that is now in place, yes, those individuals carrying nothing more lethal than a flashlight and maps explaining how to get to the coffee shop. I’m sure these employees are there to help clean up the mess, as an unprotected shopper gets caught in the criminal cross fire.
Currently our university students are as unprotected as the shoppers at this mall. Unfortunately, these students don’t have the option of studying at a different state college, as I have the option of shopping at other retailers, as all state universities have implemented the “target rich environment” theory.
AB 363 is in process in the state legislature at this time, and needs to get passed quickly so that students have a fighting chance if a criminal element picks their campus as the location of their next shootout. This bill allows students, faculty, and visitors, the same rights of self-protection as are enjoyed by state residents throughout this fine land.
Wisconsin does not have a death penalty law, but with significant practice and careful aim, law abiding citizens can help clean our society of these scum bags. Criminals no longer have any fear of our courts or our prisons, so it’s time that the citizens of this fine state stand up and fight back. A gang banger in the mall with a gun is going to think twice if there could be a law abiding CCW holder standing behind them fully prepared to shoot center mass, as this is how you’re trained to eliminate the threat these creeps pose to you, your family, and all law abiding citizens unwillingly dragged into their public crime spree.
He had me up until that last paragraph. I agree that gun free zones merely serve to disarm the good guys while having, at best, no deterrent effect on the bad guys. I also agree that allowing people to legally carry weapons on campus, if they so choose, is a good thing.
But then we get to that last paragraph. I believe that Gannon is trying to express the common sense idea that good guys with guns deter, or limit the damage of, bad guys with guns from behaving badly. Unfortunately, his rhetoric comes off as advocating violent vigilantism.
As someone who often carries a weapon, I pray that I never, ever, have to use it. And if I do, it will only be as a last-ditch effort to preserve my life or the life of someone else. Encouraging people who carry weapons to use them to “fight back” is reckless and dangerous for everyone involved. No, don’t use your weapon to “clean up our society.” Only use them to as a last resort to preserve a life.
Furthermore, as a passionate supporter of exercising our Right to Bear Arms, Gannon’s comments are frustrating because they damage the cause by playing to the worst emotions of those who oppose our rights. It feeds their fear that 2nd Amendment supporters are a bunch of yahoos looking to shoot someone. The fight to protect and expand our 2nd Amendment rights has come a long way in the last 20 years by saying and demonstrating that armed, law-abiding citizens are a net positive to our society. Gannon’s rhetoric is not helpful. I fear that his last paragraph may have torpedoed the campus carry bill for which he advocates.
It’s almost a shame that an armed robber with such an awesome name met such a fate. Almost…
A robbery was thwarted at a Southwest Side corner store Saturday night when a patron with a concealed carry license shot and killed an armed robber, authorities said.
The dead man has been identified as Reginald Gildersleeve, 55, of the 5000 block of South California Avenue, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Gildersleeve was pronounced dead on the scene at 7:10 p.m., according to the medical examiner’s office. An autopsy is slated for Sunday.
Citing preliminary information, police said a man walked into a store in the 2700 block of West 51st Street in the Gage Park neighborhood around 7 p.m., announced a robbery to an employee working behind the counter and displayed a handgun.
Another employee came from the back of the store, and the gunman pointed his weapon at her, police said. He then made her go to the back of the store, which also serves as a currency exchange.
After that, a customer who was also inside the business pulled out a gun and opened fire at the robber, killing him, police said. Police initially said the robber was possibly in his 40s.
Police said the shooter has a valid concealed carry license and a valid firearm owner’s identification card.
CHICAGO (AP) — A customer with a concealed carry license shot and killed an armed man attempting to rob a Chicago neighborhood store, police said Sunday.
A masked man walked into the store and currency exchange about 7 p.m. Saturday on the city’s southwest side, displayed a handgun and announced a robbery to an employee, police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. The gunman then pointed his weapon at another employee and forced her to the back of the store.
The armed customer then fatally shot the man, identified Sunday by the Cook County medical examiner’s office as 55-year-old Reginald Gildersleeve. Other details about Gildersleeve weren’t released.
Madison, WI – Today, Representative Jesse Kremer (R-Kewaskum) and Senator Devin LeMahieu (R-Oostburg) released the Campus Carry Act, a bill that would allow students and faculty to carry concealed firearms in buildings on public college campuses.
Currently, it is legal to carry a concealed weapon on campuses, but the law allows universities to ban the practice as a matter of policy. Since the public owns the public universities, the proposed law would prohibit the public universities from prohibiting campus carry.
As usual, the Left and and anti-gun nuts are in full froth over the proposal. We are hearing the same discredited arguments we heard when concealed carry was initially proposed. But just like that time, Wisconsin is not, by any means, a pioneer here. In fact, it is quite common:
All 50 states allow citizens to carry concealed weapons if they meet certain state requirements. Currently, there are 19 states that ban carrying a concealed weapon on a college campus: California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, Tennessee and Wyoming.
In 23 states the decision to ban or allow concealed carry weapons on campuses is made by each college or university individually: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Minnesota, Montana, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.
Because of recent state legislation and court rulings, eight states now have provisions allowing the carrying of concealed weapons on public postsecondary campuses. These states are Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Mississippi, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Wisconsin. During the 2015 legislative session, Texas’ legislature passed a bill permitting concealed weapons on campus and making it the eighth state to permit guns on campus. The legislation will take effect in August 2016.
For all of those opposed to this law, please point to the negative impact in all of those other states that already allow it.
A state appeals court on Thursday agreed with a Dane County judge who ruled last year that a Madison city policy banning guns on city buses does not violate Wisconsin’s concealed carry law.
Wisconsin Carry, a gun rights group, contended that state law preempted the policy. But the state 4th District Court of Appeals said that, as written, state law doesn’t bar the rule, which prohibits guns on Metro Transit buses.
“Applying the language of (the state statute) as written, we agree with the circuit court and the city that the statute plainly preempts only ‘ordinances’ and ‘resolutions,’ ” Judge Paul Lundsten wrote for the three-judge panel. “And, we agree, it is clear that the bus rule is not an ‘ordinance’ or ‘resolution’ under case law providing generally accepted meanings for those terms.”
The Appeals Court may be right. Clearly the Madison bus policy violates the spirit of the law, but it might not violate the actual language. But by that standard, any city could pass gun bans and just call them “rules” or “orders” or “policies” or whatever to get around the law. The legislature should take it up in the Fall to revise the statute to be more clear what the intent is. Perhaps something like, “public entities shall not take any action that has the effect of restricting the carrying of concealed weapons wherever state law allows.”
With a Republican legislature and governor, I would think this minor change should be quick and easy.
MILWAUKEE — The police showed up to deal with a group of people armed with guns at a public facility — and concealed carry advocates say what happened next is against the law.
The group of people showed up at a waste disposal facility on Lincoln Avenue in Milwaukee on Tuesday morning, August 4th to try to prove a point. They believe they should be able to go to the outdoor, city of Milwaukee-run center with their guns in tow.
Signs on city property warning people to leave their guns at home have become a common sight at places like the Milwaukee Public Library. There is a sign posted at the waste disposal facility on Lincoln Avenue — but concealed carry advocates feel they should be allowed to carry there, because it’s an outdoor, public facility.
[…]
“The city is not allowed to ban concealed carry on this property,” Nik Clark, the chairman of Wisconsin Carry said.
A note to the reporter… it’s not that “they believe they should be able to go to the… center…” It’s the law.
But it isn’t just what people say. They are clearly putting more stock in self-defense. Since 2007, the number of concealed-handgun permits has soared, from 4.6 million to 12.8 million. A new study by the Crime Prevention Research Center finds that a record 1.7 million permits have been issued in just the past year, a 15.4% increase.
Nationwide, 5.2% of adults have a permit.
But in five states, more than 10% of adults now have concealed-carry permits. In some counties around the United States, more than one in five adults are licensed to carry. In much of the country, someone among theater-goers or restaurant customers is likely to be legally carrying a permitted concealed handgun.
[…]
These new permits seem to have worked well. Between 2007 and 2014, murder rates fell from 5.6 to 4.2 deaths per 100,000 (according to preliminary estimates). This 25% drop coincided with a 156% increase in the number of adults with permits. A similar drop occurred in other violent crimes.
The data have consistently shown that states with the biggest increases in permits also experienced the biggest reductions in murder rates. Dozens of academic papers have documented that allowing concealed carrying leads to a reduction in violent crime, and the Crime Prevention Research Center report shows that this pattern has continued over the last few years.
Permit holders are extremely law-abiding — even more law-abiding than the police, who are rarely convicted of crimes. The latest data from Texas and Florida continue to show that permit holders are convicted of misdemeanors and felonies at less than one-sixth the rate that police officers are.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Nearly 243,000 people in Wisconsin hold a permit to carry a concealed gun.
A report from the state Department of Justice says about 34,000 permits were issued in 2014 — the third full year after the concealed carry law was approved by legislators.
So nearly 5% of Wisconsin’s population can now legally carry a concealed weapon and there haven’t been running gun battles in the street and it’s not the “Old West” on the streets of Eau Claire. It’s almost as if we proponents of concealed carry were completely correct.
Michelle Iracheta, Houston Chronicle | October 4, 2014 | Updated: October 5, 2014 11:21am
Two men were fatally shot by a customer after they attempted to rob a north Harris County bar early Saturday — the latest in a flurry of shootings in Houston this week.
Jenny O’Donnell, owner of EJ’s Place, said four armed men came to her bar in the 16400 block of Kuykendall at Colwell, around 2:30 a.m.
O’Donnell, who was not there at the time of the incident, said a head bartender and waitress were closing up for the night when two men walked into the bar and demanded everyone get down on the floor. Two other men “lingered at the bar door,” she said.
That’s when a customer at the bar pulled his own gun and started shooting at the men, she said. The attempted robbers fired at least three rounds inside the bar, said O’Donnell.
“That man was a hero,” said O’Donnell. “We could have had some bodies.”
The men then turned around and ran out the door, O’Donnell said. One of the men died right outside the front door, while the other man died at the end of the bar’s parking lot, she said.
The other two men and the unidentified customer with the gun fled the scene. Authorities are searching for them.
More than likely the unidentified customer fled because he was drinking while carrying his gun, which is completely wrong. Still, what could have been a truly tragic crime resulted in two dead bad guys because one of the good guys was prepared. That’s a good result.
The majority of Illinois’ 73,714 active concealed carry licenses — 90 percent — have been issued to white people, demographic data shows. Only eight percent of African-Americans have secured licenses, according to the FOIA information.
Within Cook County, the top five concealed carry ZIP codes per capita are all predominately white, middle class and are in areas that have low crime rates. However, the most violent neighborhoods within the county — all of which are on the South Side of Chicago — are predominately black, where residents earn less than $48,000 annually and hold the fewest concealed carry licenses as a percentage of the population.
