Posted on 12/19/2011 10:00:47 AM PST by rellimpank
Wisconsin Department of Justice struggles to meet deadlines
Madison - In less than six weeks, 56,000 people applied for a permit under Wisconsin's new concealed carry law and thousands more bought handguns, swamping the state agency handling the required background checks.
The applicants so far amount to about 1% of the state's population, and very few of them have been rejected for a permit. The number of state background checks for handgun purchases is also up more than 50% for the year - another sign of the large numbers of people taking advantage of the new concealed carry law.
The state Department of Justice has been able to process all the applications and background checks within the deadlines set in state law, but that task will grow more difficult in the coming days as the time frame for handling concealed carry permits tightens.
"People are working weekends. People are working long hours," DOJ spokeswoman Dana Brueck said. "They're doing everything they can to meet those deadlines."
On Nov. 1, Wisconsin became the 49th state in the country to allow the concealed carry of weapons, prompting a rush from people who have long wanted a permit. The law allows people 21 and older to qualify for weapons permits if they are trained and can pass a background check that shows they're not felons or otherwise barred from carrying guns.
As of Dec. 11, a total of 24,821 people had had permits approved by the state and only a small number - 296 people - have been denied, according to new DOJ statistics.
Among those denied, an even smaller number - "fewer than two dozen" - have been rejected because of serious reasons such as their criminal records or mental health history, Brueck said.
(Excerpt) Read more at jsonline.com ...
I wonder how many of these people are union thugs that hate Scott Walker...
Anybody know which is the one state that does not allow concealed carry?
ILLiNoize.
Wal-mart and Target can seem to plan ahead for busier than normal times, but it confounds the likes of gubmint.
Well, now, state employees have some work to do other than calling, mailing, and generally harassing people for various filings from 10 years ago to extract every penny out of us.
Ah. That makes sense.
--permits may theoretically available but the average person won't jump through the legal hoops---
I can feel the state crime rate in Wisconsin falling as we speak.
On Wisconsin! On Wisconsin!
The horror! The horror! There’ll be blood running in the streets!
(Of course, it’ll be the blood of the “slow learners” amongst the criminal class.)
My buddy, a Master Training Counselor (the highest instructor-trainer rating without being an NRA employee) had 15 instructor candidates in his last Wisconsin class.
Let’s hope there are not too many “Uncle Fred” instructor-trainers willing to pencil whip the new guys. There are far too many half-a$$ed numbs out there.
Experienced Wisconsin shooters: If you see newbees at the range - welcome them, help them out!
Thanks
(From a police instructor / Senior Training Counselor)
Yup. It will be like the wild west.
I’ll tell you one reason so many permits are being requested. Twenty years ago you could walk the woods of central Wisconsin alone without fear of anything more than a dead tree limb crashing down on you, or tumbling into a gully and breaking your own limbs.
Today, bow hunters sit in their tree stands wondering if an arrow will stop a black bear climbing their tree. Hunters with dogs wonder if the gray wolves staring them down will go after their dog or themselves. The occasional cougar sightings also have people on edge, though these are very rare, but likely to increase.
The days are gone when all you had to worry about someone finding you if you somehow became incapacitated in the woods. Now there are serious threats present, and the threats are growing. The wolf population continues to expand in size and territory, as does the black bear population.
As a result, a lot more people are considering holstering a pistol when they’re in the woods, even if they’re just picking blackberries (maybe especially if they’re picking berries, given the black bear’s interest in them.)
And, if I’m going to carry a holstered pistol, I might as well carry a concealed one if I’m going to go to the trouble to buy one and learn to use it properly.
I haven’t done so yet, but it’s moving up the priority list fairly quickly. Personal security isn’t the big issue around here...most people have a shotgun handy in case of a break in, and the potential thieves know it. The typical burglary usually consists of either a rash of break-ins of unoccupied hunting cabins, theft from relatives, or from their employers, not breaking into occupied, and usually armed, households.
So Obama isn’t the prime motivating factor for carry permits or gun sales in the land of cheese?
To: rellimpank
My buddy, a Master Training Counselor (the highest instructor-trainer rating without being an NRA employee) had 15 instructor candidates in his last Wisconsin class.....
My son, also a Master Training Counselor had 25 students in his initial training class (including my wife and myself). He has since organized 3 additional classes of 25 students each with more people calling for class availibility.
Following the completion of the pending courses, he plans to begin “advanced training” in other aspects of gun ownership and firearms use training. It is safe to say there is HIGH INTEREST in this topic with the residents of Wisconsin. (My wife and I are both waiting for our CCW permits as I write this.)
Wisconsin CC ping!
I’m caring for the Wisconsin ping list for Diana in Wisconsin. If you want to be added to this list, or subtracted to this list, or to send a ping to Wisconsin readers, please send me a request by FReep mail. Thanks.
You are correct. I always carry when I am in the woods in Northern Wisconsin. My father saw a wolverine track in the snow a few years ago. It was likely just passing through, because he only saw it once.
When I was growing up there 50 years ago, bears were relatively rare. A few would be shot during deer season. I saw maybe one in the woods (not at a dump) over a dozen years of active woodsrunning.
Now I have been up in the summer for two weeks and have seen as many as six. The combination of strong forest management, a huge deer population, and much increased bear hunting (removes the huge boar bears that routinely killed off cubs to bring sows into heat) has resulted in a very large bear population. Wolves are nearly common, and cougars, as you say, are being sighted.
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