With just a few weeks until the politicians come back for the regular fall legislative session, the buzz over Constitutional Carry is heating up!
Just like we’ve seen with every major gun rights expansion in the last two decades, anti-gunners are tossing around all manner of lies and distortions about the impact of Constitutional Carry law.
To prepare you for dealing with anti-gun legislators, Bloomberg-funded activists at the Statehouse, or even your naïve brother-in-law — we’re going to review some of these objections here.
Here’s some of the lies you can expect to hear.
>>> “Allowing people to carry without having to obtain government permission (and the accompanying background check), Constitutional Carry will lead to blood in the streets.”
This claim is absolutely baseless, and here’s four reasons why:
1. We heard the EXACT same arguments when “Shall Issue” was enacted in 2011, and by any objective standard, those concerns have been proven to be false. That’s because law-abiding gun owners are not the problem!
2. If Constitutional Carry did cause mass violence, why hasn’t it shown up in the other thirteen states that have Constitutional Carry laws on the books? It hasn’t because the notion is absurd.
3. The assumption that enacting Constitutional Carry will lead to more armed crimes is based on the silly construct that violent criminals are arming themselves in a legal manner to begin with.
We all know that’s a lie. Criminals steal guns or buy them from fellow criminals — they aren’t waiting around to buy their first gun once we pass Constitutional Carry!
4. All of the paperwork, background checks, fees, and fingerprints do nothing to stop committed criminals who are bent on murder.
Look at the Orlando nightclub shooting from last year.
The shooter passed a background check to be an armed security guard, another to obtain a concealed carry license, abided by a 5-day waiting period to pick up his handgun, was interviewed multiple times by the FBI -– and still shot over 100 people!
Bottom line, there are nearly three hundred thousand Wisconsinites who possess a concealed handgun license and, statistically, we’ve seen no increase in armed crime here in Wisconsin.
That’s because law abiding gun owners in Wisconsin are not the problem.
They weren’t the problem under our old laws, they aren’t the problem under our current concealed carry laws, and they won’t be the problem under a ‘Constitutional Carry’ law.
>>> “Constitutional Carry will invalidate my ability to travel across state lines as my permit will cease to exist.”
This one is easy to put to rest, as nothing about the current CCW process will change under a Constitutional Carry provision as it simply makes the permit optional.
So nothing changes for those who have a permit. For example:
1. If you want to obtain a permit –- you could still do so.
2. If you want to hang onto your existing permit — you would be able to do so.
3. If you want to travel across state lines — you could still do so with your Wisconsin CWP.
>>> “People will be walking around armed to the teeth with no training and will kill each other if they ever have to fire their weapon.”
There are so many things wrong with this logic it’s hard to know where to start. Here are a few things to consider:
1. Wisconsin gun owners love training, and we wholeheartedly endorse it. That’s why we routinely take classes from some of the best trainers in America like Massad Ayoob.
Training is important, but it’s not constitutionally mandated as a condition to ‘keep and bear arms.’ Many states have no requirement to seek training before carrying for self-defense.
2. Understand that a lot of people who trot out this line of attack are getting paid to offer training classes themselves, and are needlessly scared of losing income.
In the years since Wisconsin passed “Shall Issue” legislation, MILLIONS of dollars have been collected from Wisconsinites on mandated ‘training fees!’
That means our opponents have MILLIONS of reasons to oppose Constitutional Carry!
As an example, a story came out in the gun-rights community in July about two deputies over in Iowa which has a similar CWP process to ours) where two county deputies had made over $128,000 teaching classes in just one rural Iowa county!
3. But it isn’t even true. When Idaho enacted Constitutional Carry in 2016, the state reported an INCREASE in the number of citizens who obtained concealed carry permits in the 6-month period that followed enactment.
It’s no surprise. Gun owners are reasonable and responsible people who take owning — much less carrying — a handgun very seriously and routinely seek out the best training they can afford.
4. This hasn’t manifested itself in the other thirteen states that have already passed Constitutional Carry into law.
Wisconsin has been slow in the advancement of Second Amendment freedom for a long time by anti-gun legislators in BOTH parties and in both chambers of our state legislature.
But gun owners have been steadily removing and replacing anti-gun incumbents from office for years, and we’ve got the largest “pro-gun majority” in Wisconsin history.
Now is the time to advance the Second Amendment agenda as far as we possibly can, as we never know when the political pendulum will swing back the other direction.
The media, Big Gun Control groups and anti-gun legislators all-but foamed at the mouth about the dreadful impact that “Shall Issue” would have on Wisconsin — and they have been proved wrong.
The fight over Constitutional Carry will be no different.
Hopefully, by reading some of the objections or lies listed above, you’ll be able to advocate even better for your gun rights when talking to legislators!
And, if you aren’t one already, make sure you get a membership in Wisconsin Firearms right away as no organization fights harder in Madison for your gun rights.
Finally, if you know of anyone else who is on the fence about Constitutional Carry, please make sure you forward this on to them!
For Freedom,
Greg Pruett
Political Director
Wisconsin Firearms Coalition
P.S. With just weeks until the start of the regular fall legislative session in Madison, the fight over Constitutional Carry is already starting to heat up!
In the email above we disprove the most common objections to this common-sense law. So make sure and read this, and forward it to your friends.
And if you aren’t one already, please become a member of the Wisconsin Firearms Coalition TODAY as we need all hands on deck for what will be a major political fight!
