Excellent open carry article

[Curt581]

I'd like to add that I don't think it gave any real legal direction to civilians either, hence my confusion.

And no, Krause wasn't the test case. But what do you think of the federal lawsuit filed by Wisconsin Open Carry earlier this month - could it finally be the case to set some precedent?

Here's a link if you unfamiliar with it: http://www.wisconsincarry.org/pdf/GFSZ_Complaint.pdf

That's not a link to the Krause case, it's something else.

Something I haven't really emphasized enough, Wisconsin is a strange state. On one hand we've got a very strong hunting tradition and culture, but it's almost entirely related to long guns. Compared to other states, very little handgun hunting goes on. As a result, most of the state's population can relate to a rifle or a shotgun as something benign, since they grew up with them, but handguns are a different story. I don't know why, but it's always been that way.

The media has been fairly successful in painting handguns as somehow inherently evil, or at least a corrupting influence. Rifles are for shooting deer, shotguns are for shooting ducks and clays, and handguns are for shooting people. We just had a long spate of investigative-type stories on gun stores selling to straw purchasers. There's one store the press has decided to single out to do their level best to put out of business.

When you combine the state's history on handgun legislation and the fact that relatively few people have any experience with handguns at all, people panic and call the police everytime they see a handgun or even think someone has one. There's been more than a few cases of off-duty police officers being stopped and detained because a citizen saw a holstered gun or an imprint on clothing and called the cops.

We're trying to get legal CCW passed through the Legislature, but it's been an uphill battle. The current Governor has stated that he will veto any such bill that makes it to his desk, but thankfully, he's on his way out. The mechanism for granting permits has also come under fire, mostly from the state's sheriffs. They support CCW in concept, but they don't want to deal with it. They don't want to have to create a complete infrastructure from the ground up and have to pay for initial start-up out of their own budgets. The state is notorious for unfunded mandates. They also don't want to have to monitor or be liable for any required training.

[Safety Steve]

Awesome Samuel!

Be Safe.

[retdetsgt]

Until the late 80's, the sheriffs in Oregon has sole discretion in issuing CCW permits and the requirements were pretty loose. Consequently, in the rural Eastern part of the state, it was easy to get one and nearly impossible in the urban, Western part.

Then there was a push to require the sheriff to issue one as long as there was a background check and a mandatory training class was completed. The liberal legislature approved it with the trade off that the waiting period to pick up a handgun was lengthened from 5 days to 15. I have no idea what the logic was behind that.....

Initially of course, there was a surge in permits issued. I admit I had some misgivings, but the only change in crime I saw was the spike in thefts of handguns from cars. That was would have been comical had it not put some many well made guns out in the criminal world.

I never saw that it made the world around here either safer or more dangerous (other than putting better guns in the hands of crooks). We've had very few incidents involving people with CCW permits and their guns. But for every time a holder did something good, at least one did something stupid.

In fact, the only case I can recall where a CCW holder did anything really close to heroic was a woman shot a burglar when she returned home and found him breaking into her garage. But we've had a number of cases where homeowners w/o permits have shot intruders. We've had no incidents where a CCW holder did anything worthwhile out in the public that I know of. And something like that would have been a worthy news story around here.

In the metro area, there are quite a few thousand permits out there, but I suspect very few actually pack a gun. I imagine a lot of people find it's more of a pain in the *** than they realized once the initial thrill subsided. And there isn't a real handgun mentality around here either. That's why open carry would just wouldn't fit the culture of the area like it does in E. Oregon which is a lot more cowboy.

[wisco]

That's not a link to the Krause case, it's something else.

I know, that was for the federal lawsuit I mentioned. Without looking, I believe Hannon-Rock and Bernson are the plaintiffs.

The state is notorious for unfunded mandates.

Ain't that the freakin truth.



At least we have our beer