Posted on 06/04/2014 3:05:32 AM PDT by marktwain
In early May of this year, TMJ4, a Milwaukee television station, set off a flurry of interest in Oconomowoc and Wisconsin open carry laws. A Wisconsin mother was in the park, took the above picture, posted it on Facebook, and asked if open carry was a legal practice. TMJ4 talked to Oconomowoc officials who told them that a local ordinance made it illegal. TMJ4 broadcast that information to hundreds of thousands of Milwaukee homes.
Local Second Amendment supporters were outraged. Nick Clark, President of Wisconsin Carry, contacted the television station and reporter, and informed them that they had received bad information. He cited the Wisconsin statutes involved, which made clear that any local Oconomowoc ordinance as described, would not be valid and not be enforceable. An online debate occurred in the comments where, as usual, Second Amendment supporters cited the law and the facts, and clearly triumphed.
Oconomowoc Police Chief Beguhn checked the facts, and graciously contacted Nic Clark. Chief Beguhn told him that he realized that the ordinance was unenforceable. He said that he would ask the city council to remove it.
City Administrator Diane Gard refused to admit to any error, only switching her position to say that the law was "under review". TMJ4 titled their semi-retraction/correction "City suspends enforcement of 'open carry' law".
While covering a gun turn in event in Milwaukee, a private buyer informed me that a victory open carry picnic was planned in Oconomowoc that afternoon. By luck and circumstance, I was able to attend. I had wondered if such a picnic would be organized. Below is a picture of the Second Amendment supporters in the same location as the original photograph above.
At the picnic, everyone was having a good time. I was able to interview Krysta Sutterfield, who is working to appeal the outrageous 7th Circuit decision against her lawsuit to the Supreme Court. That is for another article.
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| Open Carry at the Picnic |
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| The difference between toys and real guns is learned at an early age |
It is strong political speech.
It says: There are limits to government power. The Constitution means something. I am a free citizen.
All the local media were informed. None attended.
I am all in for the 2nd amendment. Some of the supporters are acting like children.
Not according to Obama............
Of course not. You can't have people doing everyday stuff carrying guns and nothing happens. Wouldn't fit their template.
“I am all in for the 2nd amendment. Some of the supporters are acting like children.”
I agree. The NRA jumping on the Moms Demand Action bandwagon, trying to curry favor with the media bullies, is childish.
Open Carry in spotlight in Oconomowoc
FReep Mail me if you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list.
The NRA has issued a retraction for its unwarranted attack on open carriers:
http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2014/06/unnamed-nra-writer-pulls-zumbo.html
Retraction at the end, on an update.
Gotta love those names...
Oconomowoc
Chequamegon
Lake Butte des Morts
Delavan
Kaukauna
Outagamie
Manitowoc
Shawano
Ozaukee
Wauwatosa
Weyauwega
Texans trying to pronounce WI city names
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGcQCtFlENA
It says even more, subtly, and reverses a trend that has infected government and our culture for some years.
I see the problem as a combination of negative character traits:
“Offensensitivity”. People who are offended easily, and demand that others change their behavior to accommodate them. With the force of law.
“The Cult of Nice”. People who try to eliminate everything they think is “not nice” from the their surroundings. Most seen in efforts to force equality of outcome, pastel colors, rounded edges, Musak, and the sterilization of reality. Often their children are so traumatized by their parents’ efforts that they become morbidly obsessive. They know reality is there, but are terrified, yet desperate to know of it.
“Communality”. The human equivalent of the herd instinct, which is strongly opposed to individuality in any form. If the herd stampedes off a cliff, they will join them rather than face a life of liberty.
The truly neurotic. Perhaps those who deserve least blame, because they have a form of mental illness and suffer from agonizing panic attacks at even the sight of a gun, or the sound of its report.
Confronting all of this head on, a person exercising their civil right of gun liberty *cannot* care if someone is “offended” by the exercise of their rights; they *cannot* care that guns are “not nice”, because they know that reality is “not nice”, either; they *cannot* care that guns set them apart from the herd, because their occasion is to be sheep hounds, not sheep; and they *cannot* go out of their way to entertain the mentally ill by disarming themselves, though they might feel sympathy for the sickness of mind, it is not their problem.
Amazing what gun liberty can do to a nation.
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