Memo to Sen. Holperin and AG Van Hollen: Thanks for nothing (Follow up on Open Carry)

One would think I would know better by now, but it still amazes me how worthless our public officials can sometimes be.

No, this isn't a column about Roland Burris but about state Sen. Jim Holperin of Eagle River and attorney general J.B. Van Hollen. The goofiness of these three stooges is close enough, though, as recent controversies over the open carry of guns so well demonstrates in the case of the latter two.

As this newspaper reports today, Brad Krause of West Allis has been found not guilty after being charged with disorderly conduct for wearing a legal, holstered firearm in his own yard.

We have reported, too, on the travails of Mark Palan of Highland, who was ousted as a hunter education instructor after suggesting that people didn't have to hand over their firearms to DNR wardens for no good reason.

Both cases are related to gun rights but they transcend them, too. At their core, they are about the survival of our civil liberties.

The dynamic tension between government power and individual freedom composes the central narrative of our political history; civil liberties must be protected constantly from encroachment by the natural tendency of government to grow, and to grow absolutely.

In that war, a keen awareness of the threats to liberty is essential; vigilance is freedom's ally.

So, why on these questions - on the most recent threats to civil liberty - are two of our most important elected officials, Sen. Holperin and attorney general Van Hollen, so oblivious, almost to the point of unconsciousness?

Sen. Holperin couldn't fathom this newspaper's "persistence" in reporting these assaults on the constitution. He chastised us for even asking him questions on these matters, like a senator who had to come down from the mountain to tediously tend to the inconsequential concerns of "average people."

Well, persistence pays off. Yes, this newspaper broke both stories - again - and we doggedly pursued them. By the time of Mr. Krause's hearing Tuesday, we had awakened the mainstream media from its own stupor, if not Sen. Holperin from his. CBS, Fox News, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - they were all there.

To be sure, Sen. Holperin was irked because he doesn't think the open-carry issue concerns most people, and thus shouldn't be of much concern to the Legislature. But again, the senator is looking down from his mountaintop, so far away he can see the forest but not the trees. He sees so much from his lofty perch that he sees nothing at all.

Why wouldn't Wisconsin's estimated 1.7 million gun owners be concerned about losing their constitutional right to keep and bear arms? Why wouldn't the state's 5.2 million citizens be concerned about the complete erosion of Bill of Rights' protections?

Why wouldn't Northwoods' residents worry about being unable to protect their family and pets from bears and wolves while walking in the woods?

Of course they're concerned, and they are not the only ones. As judge Paul Murphy pointed out Tuesday, the state's highest court has warned the Legislature to get involved in clarifying gun rights, and that is what makes Sen. Holperin's lack of trepidation so striking.

I repeat the Supreme Court's 2003 words: "The approval of a state constitutional right to keep and bear arms for security, defense, hunting, recreation, and any other lawful purpose will present a continuing dilemma for law enforcement until the legislature acts to clarify the law."

Well, arrogance is one thing, ignorance is another, so let's give the senator the benefit of the doubt. Ignorance can be a creature of isolation. The senator's mountaintop no doubt provides little in the way of dialogue and interaction with other humans, those great incubators of knowledge.

As of Tuesday, however, yet another judge has implored the Legislature to act, and this time the judge used even more vociferous language, warning that legislative torpor was putting police in peril.

Now, senator, ignorance can be no excuse. Now, if you don't care to act, we must simply presume that you are anti-gun rights.

As for J.B. Van Hollen, his refusal to render an opinion on open carry's legality is an egregious negligence of his constitutional responsibilities. It is the attorney general's job to issue legal opinions, one way or another, to help direct the state through the legal mazes of our republican system of government.

What the judge was getting at - and what this newspaper has warned of - is that legislative inaction and the attorney general's political lassitude will lead to ever more court cases, putting both law-abiding citizens and police in legal jeopardy at greater taxpayer expense.

Not only that, but with police storming private property with drawn weapons, the open-carry legal stalemate constitutes nothing less than a tragedy waiting to happen. When it does, the blood shall drip from the hands of the state legislature and attorney general Van Hollen.

So sad they don't care, especially when law enforcement officers like Oneida County sheriff Jeff Hoffman and Minocqua police chief Andy Gee get it, as does state Rep, Dan Meyer.

Yes, Sen. Holperin and attorney general Van Hollen, there are other pressing matters, not least the global economic debacle. Still, the preservation of freedom can never be neglected, no matter what other crises there are.

Democracy's enemies love the distractions of a crisis. As the old saying goes: Freedom doesn't come like a bird on the wing. You have to work for, fight for it, day and night for it, and every generation's got to win it again.

It's about time, Mr. Holperin and Mr. Van Hollen, that you enlisted in the most justifiable war of this and of all other times, the war against individual oppression.

Excellent! So disappointed in Van Hollen. Is he just another politician with no guts and who merely tries to weave right down the squishy middle? It would appear so, and if that's the case he ain't going nowhere.

If you hear the name “Van Hollen”, think Kennedy (and corrupt). It's another family of rich trust fund babies who want socialism for the rest of us since they already got theirs. They are the type who want America to have a Ruling Class or an Aristocracy that they would be members of. And one key to the remaining in the Ruling Class is to take away the guns and the money of the people who are beneath you.

Until reading this article, I did not know that Wisconsin had mountains high enough for State Senators to hide from the 'so called' unwashed citizens.

I live in New Jersey where the Second Amendment has not existed for all practical purposes in a generation or two. We can hunt and target shoot. We can't keep the firearm in our cars when we are traveling within reach and ready to shoot in the event we had a life threatening situation on our hands.

Glad to see that an arm of the 4th estate actually is pursuing this with great enthusiasm in Wisconsin. Gregg Walker would get my vote for higher office were he not a journalist.

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