Former Mayor Dave suggests concealed carry didn’t make WI safer (he’s right, too)

Evidence shows violent crime went up under years of concealed carry

Earlier this week former Mayor Dave Cieslewicz came out strongly against concealed carry -- going so far as to suggest we should repeal Wisconsin’s relatively new law passed in 2011:

As we move around our neighborhoods in Wisconsin or really anywhere in America these days, we have no idea who might be carrying a loaded weapon. I have no confidence that anyone who is paranoid enough to believe that doing so actually makes them safer would have the prudence and judgment to use that weapon in the extremely rare case where some threat actually exists. It's much more likely that a loaded gun in a crowded store will be used to the kind of tragic end that occurred in Idaho.

I know it won't happen any time soon, but let's start a movement to repeal these dangerous laws allowing people to carry concealed weapons.

Last December I took a look at the evidence on concealed carry since it was passed, demonstrating through in-depth statistical evidence that the law, contrary to what Gov. Scott Walker promised when he signed it, has not made us safer.

Oddly enough, violent crime did go down in Wisconsin during the ten years of the federal assault weapons ban, suggesting that the ban was successful in curtailing violence in the state.

The average crime rate of the two years that Wisconsin has had concealed carry on the books saw a significantly higher rate of violent crime than the average seen during the ten years of the assault weapons ban.

Citizen Dave is absolutely right in his assessment: we aren’t safer because of laws like concealed carry, and a movement to curtail, limit or even repeal these laws is desperately needed.