Wisconsin was one of the last states to create a permit system for legal concealed carry of weapons. Permits were first issued in November, 2011. Five years later, 319,069 Wisconsin residents had permits.
To obtain a permit, the applicant had to be 21 years old or older, a legal Wisconsin resident, and not convicted of any felonies or misdemeanor acts of domestic violence.
People who go to the trouble to obtain a permit are serious about their Second Amendment rights. In Wisconsin, probably half are Democrats and Independents. CCW permit holders are, as a group, some of the most law abiding people in America.
My experience as a concealed carry instructor showed me that these people are ultra responsible. They show up early. They offer to help out. They offer to clean up. I never had a problem with bad checks, in fifteen years.
My experience was that most are not NRA members. Most are not hunters. Most are gun owners. A significant number are veterans or have experience with law enforcement. They tend to be older, experienced, people. About 20 percent are women.
These people are voters, and they vote. I believe they vote in very large numbers, probably in excess of 80 percent.
The 2016 general election in Wisconsin was down a bit from 2012. There were 3.068 million votes cast for presidential candidates in 2012. The 2016 election had 2.944 million votes cast, down about four percent.
The difference between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin was 27,257 votes. That is less than 9% of the concealed carry permit holders in the state. In 2016, Donald Trump actively courted Second Amendment supporters. He actively courted concealed carry permit holders. He bragged about having a concealed carry permit. He promised that a priority of his administration would be to pass national concealed carry reciprocity, something desired by the vast majority of CCW permit holders.
In contrast, Hillary Clinton made "common sense" gun control a major plank in her platform. Her euphemism might have gotten a pass from a majority of people who do not own guns. It would not have gotten a pass with informed gun owners, which, includes, almost be definition, people who have a concealed carry permit.
Support for the Second Amendment was not a pivotal issue in the 2012 election. Most Second Amendment supporters were not enthusiastic about Mitt Romney. President Obama did not push for more gun control with any enthusiasm, until after the election.
Wisconsin only had one year of its shall issue concealed carry program in effect by election night, 2012. By election night 2016, it had over 319,000 concealed carry permit holders.
They made a difference. Was it enough to swing the election? It is impossible to know. But when Democrats explicitly endorse gun control, they lose, and they lose bigly (big league).
Donald Trump pulled off the biggest upset of presidential politics since Truman. Part of his campaign was to actively pursue Second Amendment supporters.
©2016 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included.
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2 comments:
One thing happening that is not going to float. Trump needs to remember what issues got him elected. It appears he is listening to the wrong people or that he played us. Hilary is not a trump issue she is a national issue and needs to be prosecuted. He doesn't want to hurt Clinton? what about the many dead people she hurt and their families. The land slide was this nation demanding he prosecute Clinton and many others. You can not drain the swamp by filling it with life preservers. If he wants 8 years he had better do what he campaigned on. stop filling his ranks with back stabbing liberals and wake up to the treachery in our government. He was not elected because of his hair or wife or money he was elected to drain the swamp and he had better pull through. I campaigned for him and it had better pay off. I can campaign just as hard against him.
Wisconsin - with the leadership of an embattled governor - decided to look at the writing ont he wall when CONFRONTED with some very courageous open carriers. They had the guts to take it to their government - withOUT the NRA approval or participation. In response, when nailed by pathetic "disorderly conduct" civil awards/settlements, the governor decided to take guns off the table as a political issue.
Here is what his party did. They looked at Heller and its fallout. Yes, Heller literally nuked almost all modern day gun control. They hedged a bit, but all in all looked at current and short term future precedent. They crafted a law that would remove the fight, well most of it, for a decade at least.
They left OPEN CARRY won by those courageous fellas alone. They created a permit structure to avoid state to state drama and make the Mad-Istan liberal happy, bait I would say. THey avoided further suit in the 7th as a result and made the lefties do battle on the political field without being able to play gun emotion politics.
And they LOST because of it. Over and over again they lost.
Wisconsin went from NO carry at all to full on open carry absent a permit and very wide open concealed carry - a HUGE LEAP - which slams the piss out of the incrementalist whiners, the Fudds, at the NRA.
And what did they present by doing so? Well, the absolute IDIOCY of permit structures! The idiocy of "training requirements" somehow needed and required and and and just gotta have it, for concealed carry, but nothing at all for open carry? Really? How frggin stupid IS that? Soon, as is already happening, the grabbers are wishing it was the other way round! They are wishing people would put them away, out of sight! Eeewwwwww icky guns, I can see em I can see em! Put em away, put em away.
See it? The cheese heads set up the perfect table for ThanksGiving Dinner. The Grabbers are now going to start begging US to PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE conceal your weapons....ppppllllleeeeeaaaassssssseeee. Well Partners, yall gonna have to eliminate them thar permit thingies for us ta do that. Ahem.
Give it up for the cheesheads folks, and especially to that honorable group of fellas who just went out to dinner one night and dared exercise their rights as they did so. That really is all it took to bring the dam down. Many in the gun community do not realize this, and some still refuse to admit it, but that really is what happened. Maybe a flashback article GIVING THANKS to those fellas is in order, eh? It might encourage others to do their homework and do the same thing!
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