Below is a letter from one of our members to State Senator Mary Lazich regarding Constitutional Carry:
Senator Lazich,
Wisconsin presents a principled united front expecting a smaller government/freedom minded approach to the right to carry firearms as our founding fathers derived our freedoms as inalienable rights not given to us by man or government, but by God. You can open-carry right now in Wisconsin for free, with no permit & no government registration. You shouldn’t have to register with the government and pay a permit tax if you want to have your coat/shirt over your sidearm. The criminals don’t abide by open carry laws now as they prey on unsuspecting victims.
Both my wife and I have a combined 29-years experience in the military and thousands of hours of firearms training. We are both veterans of several military conflicts and truly attest to the value of firearms without government restrictions. Statistically speaking, cars kill more people than guns annually. Why subject us or honest law abiding citizens to overbearing rules when our 2nd amendment to the constitution already grants us these rights.
Because of Jim Doyle’s distrust of the people, he twice vetoed Right to Carry legislation during his terms in office. Each time, the bills were passed with two-thirds majorities in both houses. This should have been enough to overcome Doyle’s veto pen, but three Assembly members chose partisan politics over personal protection and shamelessly changed their votes from “yes” to “no” during the two override votes in 2004 and 2006.
Past legislative efforts to secure the Right to Carry always assumed that a veto override would be necessary. Attempting to secure two-thirds majorities required the NRA and other proponents to accept amendments during the legislative process that sought to place additional restrictions on the good citizens of Wisconsin and would have impeded their ability to protect themselves. With the makeup of the incoming legislature, these unnecessary concessions should no longer be necessary.
SHALL ISSUE PERMIT SYSTEMS are obsolete. That is the old-school 1990’s appeasement method of procuring your right to carry. Haven’t we in Wisconsin been behind the times long enough.
The facts of what constitutional carry means:
Constitutional Carry means that law-abiding citizens not legally prohibited from owning a firearm do not have to obtain a government permit to legally conceal carry. No expensive permit taxes, no expensive renewal taxes, no government registration, no expensive mandatory training classes, no fingerprinting. 3 states currently respect Constitutional Carry (Arizona, Alaska, and Vermont) with TX and UT soon to follow. With shall-issue being the ‘minimum’ Wisconsin will pass in the next legislative session, Wisconsin Carry, on behalf of our thousands of members statewide is advocating the Wisconsin legislature pass Constitutional Carry for the following reasons:
-A law abiding citizen shouldn’t have to pay hundreds of dollars for permit taxes, and mandatory government training to exercise a fundamental constitutional right. The prohibitive expense will suppress the right to carry of many. -There is no legitimate reason to require mandatory training. Pennsylvania, Washington, Georgia combined have well over 1 million permit holders. None had to get mandatory training. There are NO problems as a result. Florida and Virginia which have only the most basic of training requirements (Hunter Safety certificate from middle school/online video and short test) have almost 1 million permit holders between them. NO problems result from no mandatory training. Most gun owners already have extensive training and experience. Others will surely seek voluntary training. Mandatory training being a necessity for public safety is yet ANOTHER GUN MYTH perpetuated by those who seek to infringe on the right to carry OR those who stand to gain financially by a mandatory government training requirement.In order to bring Constitutional Carry to Wisconsin, there are 3 MAJOR laws that would need to be repealed/revised. Simply repealing or revising these laws would allow all LAW ABIDING citizens who are non-felons and not otherwise prohibited from owning/possessing a gun to conceal carry without a permit, without government registration, and without expensive permit taxes, expensive government mandated training classes, and renewal taxes.
The roadmap ahead in your key constitutional carry vote:
Law #1: Repeal Wisconsin Statute 941.23: This is Wisconsin’s 130+ year old “conceal carry ban”. The legislature need simply repeal this law to allow law abiding citizens to conceal carry without permits and taxes JUST as they can currently open carry without permits and taxes. Thousands of Wisconsinites open carry every day with no permit, no permit taxes, and no government registration required. Why should you have to pay permit taxes, and register with the government just to put a jacket over your sidearm?
Law #2: Repeal or alter Wisconsin Statute 167.31: This is Wisconsin’s “vehicle transport” statute. This law states that in a vehicle, you must transport a gun “unloaded and in a case”. Watching the nightly news, it is CLEAR with car-jackings and other assaults upon people in OR near their vehicle, that one should not have to give up their right to self-defense when they are in their car. Having to load and unload and case your gun EVERY time you exit/enter your vehicle requires you to unnecessarily handle/load/unload your weapon dozens of times a day in parking lots and other public places. The SAFEST place for your loaded gun will ALWAYS be IN A HOLSTER, not being unnecessarily handled. In addition, having to unload and encase when you get in your car makes you an easy target for a criminal and places you in grave danger if, in a life or death situation, you had to take time to get your gun out of its case and load it. This law was originally intended to prevent hunting from a vehicle. At a minimum the law should be altered to exempt “any handgun carried for self-defense” or better yet, just repealed all together.
Law #3: Repeal or alter Wisconsin’s “Gun Free School Zone” statute: This well intentioned, but useless law prohibits possession of a gun within 1000ft of a school premises. This means that when you are within nearly 1⁄4 mile of a school, you may not possess a firearm. Clearly, this law has not prevented criminals from committing crimes within these zones. With hundreds of thousands, perhaps MILLIONS of Wisconsin residents living within 1⁄4 mile of a school, it is unconscionable that they should not be allowed to carry for self-defense when they walk off of their own property and around their neighborhood. Wisconsin Carry, Inc. currently has a FEDERAL lawsuit filed to challenge the constitutionality of this law, but we should not wait for that case to work itself through the court system. AT A MINIMUM the legislature should adjust the “school zone” to SCHOOL PROPERTY only or even better, just repeal the law all together.
Make the informed constitutional carry choice, vote for the constitutional carry and repeal Laws #1 to #3.
Brian Bell
New Berlin, WI
Ps. I voted for you in your last election, going forward will decide my future vote!
