Wisconsin Carry Promotes Second Amendment Door to Door

Gun Watch ^ | 31 March, 2014 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

In a brilliant bit of second amendment promotion, members of Wisconsin Carry went door to door in a bad part of Milwaukee, offering free training required to obtain the Wisconsin concealed carry license.  The south side of town does not have a good reputation, and it has a high crime rate.   Milwaukee has 10 percent of Wisconsin residents and 60 percent of Wisconsin murders.

Wisconsin Carry has been giving free classes so that people can obtain the Wisconsin permit since 2009.   The Wisconsin shall issue law went into effect in November of 2011.  Wisconsin exceeded 200,000 permit holders in September of 2013.   From jsonline.com:

Sonia, a mother of two on Milwaukee's south side, doesn't want guns in her house. 

But with a pair of convicted sex offenders nearby who have just been granted allowance to leave their home unsupervised, Sonia has begun to think about some form of protection, perhaps pepper spray or a Taser. 

When gun rights activists fanned out in her neighborhood Saturday afternoon, handing out fliers promoting free classes for training on carrying firearms, Sonia was one of the first to sign up — since Wisconsin residents need similar training to legally carry a Taser.

Scholar John Lott has found that the demographic group who benefit the most from concealed carry permits are urban minority women. As an instructor, I have found that women are very receptive to self protection when they obtain serious information on the subject, instead of emotional appeals.

It is legal to openly carry in Wisconsin, though that right had to be fought for and defended in court before the Wisconsin legislature corrected police abuses by with a specific declaration that open carry was not "disorderly conduct". Utah recent followed Wisconsin's lead.

While the comments at the jsonline article show numerous anti-second amendment individuals fearful of allowing people to exercise their second amendment rights, Sonia, who does not want a gun in her house, did not have any problem with approaching the pair of open carriers who were handing out fliers:

"Are you from Wisconsin Carry?" Sonia asked, running out of her house on a chilly afternoon. She had heard the group would be in her neighborhood and wanted a copy of the group's flier, which advertises the next free training session for carrying a weapon.

Sonia went back inside her house and immediately registered for the free class, to be held April 19.

Another program designed to address the defensive needs of inner city dwellers, The Armed Citizen Project, is planning to distribute free shotguns and training in nearby Indiana.

The number of women gun owners is growing rapidly. I suspect that as Sonia becomes educated, she will join that cohort.

©2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.

Link to Gun Watch

[marktwain]

Most people, even in bad neighborhoods, try to lead ethical lives. Only a tiny minority are violent criminals. The big problem is that people do not trust the police or have faith that the justice system will work. When their is no faith in the justice system, people turn to vendettas and personal retribution.

Showing inner city people that they can legally be armed and that the police will respect their right to be armed goes a long way toward stating to develop trust in the police and the justice system.

[marktwain]

“toward stating” should be “toward starting”

[Carriage Hill]

“...the justice system...”

It’s a legal system; hasn’t been a “justice system” in a long, long time, if ever.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

I like the idea of a fund to buy guns in such neighborhoods. Figuring that maybe 1 in 4 homes would be able to legally have a gun, as well as want one, a wholesale purchase of .22 pistols, each with a $10 box of ammo, could work out to perhaps $140 total, including tax.

Then each gun could be engraved “Property of Wisconsin Carry. If found call (phone)”, for $10 more. This would make them worthless for resale, and easy to pinpoint if stolen but not reported.

In practice, if those Wisconsin Carry people going door to door spotted someone they thought really needed a gun but couldn’t afford one, they could give them a coupon to get a gun and ammo set at a local gun store.

If they could raise or get a gift of just $10,000, they could get about 65 of those gun and ammo kits. At 1 house in 4, coverage of about 260 homes, that one shot cost would be cheaper than the pay of hiring a new police officer for just one year to police that neighborhood.

[KeyLargo]

1st Chicago CCW permit holder arrested, idiot As predicted http://secondcitycop.blogspot.com/

[ansel12]

This is something that I have talked about for decades, arming the husband/dads, and veterans, and good guys and moms of the black neighborhoods, rather than force them to watch as the teens and bad guys control territory that the adults should be controlling and protecting.

[Cboldt]

-- The big problem is that people do not trust the police or have faith that the justice system will work. --

I think a fear of retribution is a bigger driver. The justice system is not designed, and should not be designed, to provide personal protection. The government has no obligation to defend ANYBODY on an individual basis. The legal system comes into play only after a crime has been committed or an injury has been caused.

It would be a mistake to rely on the government for protection, and the bad guys WILL attempt to hurt anybody they suspect of snitching.

As far as seeking justice goes, the revolving door criminal justice system invites the public to supplement what the law dishes out for punishment.