This sounds like a bad joke, but it's not. The Milwaukee Common Council voted Tues. to allow residents to keep chickens if and only if the chicken owners get permission from all their neighbors and also pay for a permit. The Wisconsin Senate Judiciary Committee votes Wed. to recommend that the state allow residents to keep concealed guns without any training or even obtaining a permit of any kind (previous post here).
That means, in the very near future of our state's largest city, it will be more restrictive to keep a chicken than it will be to keep a concealed weapon.
Does that sound right to you?
Showing posts with label concealed carry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label concealed carry. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Monday, May 9, 2011
Concealed guns for everyone!
Republicans are about to turn back the clock--to 1872, the last time it was lawful to carry concealed weapons in the state (great background here). That means the stressed guy in the next cubicle, the angry road-rage hothead you just accidentally cut off in traffic, the drunk who's picking fights in the bar could all be packing heat.
And it gets better. A current Republican-sponsored bill would require no permits, no background checks, and no training. (JS Online article here). But the bill does have the stringent requirements that someone walking around with a loaded handgun in their Jockeys be at least 21 years old, not a felon, and not have been ruled mentally incompetent. Thank goodness, huh?
I admit I don't know an awful lot about the issue. My post was late tonight because I was doing some more research on it. It seems a lot of the pro-concealed carry argument comes from the seminal Lott-Mustard study of 1997 showing that concealed carry correlates with lowered crime (because, as Lott says, "criminals are uncertain which potential victims can defend themselves"). However, there are studies reviewing the same statistics and coming to the conclusion that concealed carry actually increases crime (one example study here). Unfortunately, I couldn't find any reputable studies from the last ten years that backed either side.
To be sure, Wisconsin is one of only two states (along with Illinois) that does not allow concealed carry. And even Senator Russ Feingold backed a Republican-sponsored proposal in 2009 that would have allowed concealed carry into Wisconsin if it was legal in someone's home state.
But that doesn't make it right.
And they figured that out already back in the days of Billy the Kid..
And it gets better. A current Republican-sponsored bill would require no permits, no background checks, and no training. (JS Online article here). But the bill does have the stringent requirements that someone walking around with a loaded handgun in their Jockeys be at least 21 years old, not a felon, and not have been ruled mentally incompetent. Thank goodness, huh?
I admit I don't know an awful lot about the issue. My post was late tonight because I was doing some more research on it. It seems a lot of the pro-concealed carry argument comes from the seminal Lott-Mustard study of 1997 showing that concealed carry correlates with lowered crime (because, as Lott says, "criminals are uncertain which potential victims can defend themselves"). However, there are studies reviewing the same statistics and coming to the conclusion that concealed carry actually increases crime (one example study here). Unfortunately, I couldn't find any reputable studies from the last ten years that backed either side.
To be sure, Wisconsin is one of only two states (along with Illinois) that does not allow concealed carry. And even Senator Russ Feingold backed a Republican-sponsored proposal in 2009 that would have allowed concealed carry into Wisconsin if it was legal in someone's home state.
But that doesn't make it right.
And they figured that out already back in the days of Billy the Kid..
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