Lando 
Lando
By Scott De Laruelle The State Assembly is expected to vote today on whether to override Gov. Doyle's veto of Senate Bill 214, which would lift Wisconsin's 130-year ban on carrying concealed weapons. On Jan. 22 the State Senate voted 23-10 to override the veto, leaving the fate of the bill to the Assembly.
A vote in favor of the override would remove the ban. The last time the Wisconsin Legislature overrode a governor's veto was in 1985.
The vote was delayed twice last week, prompting some Democrats to claim the Republican-controlled Assembly is delaying the vote because they lack the necessary 66 votes to override the veto.
Democratic Rep-elect Barbara Toles of Milwaukee will be sworn in Tuesday after a special election last week to fill the Assembly's only vacancy. Assembly Speaker John Gard, R-Peshtigo said the vote was delayed to assure Democrats would not take advantage of any absences.
All but two of 59 Republicans in the Assembly and seven Democrats voted for the bill in November. The bill passed, 64-35, two shy of the 66 votes needed to override the governor. The delay has placed additional pressure on the legislators that bucked party lines in that vote.
Both sides used the days following the postponement to entrench their positions, and launch attacks on their opposition. Doyle issued a written statement after the vote was postponed.
"Republicans did not have enough votes to override my veto," Doyle said. "Unfortunately, they did not have the courage to take this vote on schedule in the full light of day."
In the past weeks, dozens of Assembly members received a variety of threatening e-mails on the issue. One sent to lawmakers who had favored the override suggested their vote "statistically increases the chances of your being assassinated."
Sen. Bob Jauch, D-Poplar, received an e-mail Jan. 22, signed by "A Concerned and Proud Armed Citizen" warning his vote to sustain the veto "has you as a marked man."
The letter continued, "You are an enemy of the state! You are a coward and an enemy to all that is good and just in this world. I for one would let you perish as the opponent of the second amendment you have been."
Arnold Harris of Mount Horeb is an election volunteer coordinator for the National Rifle Association. He said he supports the bill because he would like the personal protection.
"If you can defend your home against and armed burglar, why can you not arm yourself to protect your own body?" Harris said. "This is something affecting the rights of the people."
Even if the veto is upheld, Harris said this issue is not going away any time soon.
"This is going to keep coming back again and again," he said. "I think a lot of valuable time is being eaten up to get something that's lawful in 46 states."
Harris said opposition to the bill is simply misguided.
"There are 46 states with some kind of conceal-and-carry law," Harris said. "And in all of these other states, there are no wild west shoot-outs or dire happenings, nor is it an inconvenience for the law enforcement that issues licenses in the other 46 states."
Robert Wierenga, president of the Wisconsin County Police Association, said sheriffs from about 65 counties and a number of state law enforcement groups are opposed to the bill and concerned with the added responsibilities the law would place on departments.
"This will place a huge burden on the counties, from clerks, judges, and the court system to oversee the bill," Wierenga said. "The responsibility of doing all the processing, background checks, and really tracking to make sure those whose permits are revoked or suspended if they are in violation of the law. It will not be something easily taken care of with the current staffing level."
Sauk County Sheriff Randy Stammen said the bill does not give adequate support to law enforcement agencies tasked to perform background checks and follow-ups on permit-holders.
"I can't do a background investigation in ten minutes," Stammen said. "This is going to put an undue hardship on the county of Sauk."
Wierenga said the bottom line is that the law will put more guns in the hands of more people.
"There are all kinds of statistics to prove a point one way or another," Wierenga said. "But the (law enforcement officers) I've talked to are concerned that people will have access to a weapon at their beckoning. We're all hoping the veto stands, and we can remain the safe state we believe we have, and continue to do our jobs in the way we have done in the past."
If the Assembly overrides the veto, Wisconsinites may find it difficult to get their concealed weapons permit. According to the Wisconsin County Police Association, which supports the veto, the vast majority of sheriff's departments will decline to issue permits for concealed weapons. This will leave relatively few counties to issue and monitor permits for the entire state.
"They will have to go to a county that is willing to issue permits," Wierenga said. "The burden will be on the citizen requisitioning a concealed weapon to drive where the permits are issued."
State Sen. Bob Welch said the vote is a choice for some between their party and the people.
"The personal protection act is very important to a lot of people in the state," Welch said. "I'm a supporter and optimistic even if we don't pass it (Tuesday), ultimately this will become the law in Wisconsin."
State Rep. J.A. "Doc" Hines said Monday that bad weather Tuesday may again postpone the vote.
"I'm very hopeful that we'll have enough votes to override the governor," Hines said. "Our speaker told us he won't have the vote unless everybody's here. If the weather's bad and some people can't get in, it may be postponed."
Hines said criminals have the most to lose if the bill is passed.
"I realize there are a lot of people opposed to this," Hines said. "But I am convinced because of the statistics from other states, it actually reduces violent crime simply because bad guys that could rob and hurt law-abiding citizens are not going to know who is carrying a gun. The only danger would be to the bad guys."
baraboo.scwn.com
The Wisconsin County Police Association does not represent all of the sheriffs' opinions from those 65 counties does it?
If anyone here has a lot of time on their hands, I'd like to see the opinion from each sheriff on this issue.
Lando
Just got home from the vote. It was a long and disappointing day, but everyone on both sides understood that the vote was only a temporary set back.
The anti-CCW's were almost uniformly obnoxious. Those skanks (and if you saw them you would know that I am not exaggerating) were in everyone's face and could not formulate a coherent sentence. At one point, one of them got so upset that she slipped and ended up sprawled on the marble floor. I thought it was going to start a mob brawl but the pro-CCW folks around her who she had been yelling at picked her up and she ran off.
I spent quite a bit of time talking to some of the lobbyists from one of the anti-CCW law enforcement groups. They see CCW as an inevitability in Wisconsin but they believe that the next version proposed will be much more restrictive. They claimed that a for another CCW bill to be introduced this session would require "major changes", and they were hoping these would be stricter issuance and reporting requirements.
These lobbyists also claimed that more than 60 sheriffs had come out against issuing permits and that applicants might only be able to apply in 5 participating counties. This was news to me so please let me know if anyone sees this in print anywhere.
There were rumors floating around before the vote that Sherman was offered a judgeship by Doyle in exchange for his vote. I suspected that there was trouble when Sherman finally came in because he never looked up from his laptop. One of his staffers said that his constituent contacts were running 10 to 1 in favor of CCW so he was clearly bought.