Lock and Load

Here in Madison, we're wondering whether people will be able to bring their concealed weapons to various digs around town once the new law goes into effect. Can I pack heat in the Capitol? Will I be able to take my sawed off blunderbuss into the Co-op? After talking with a couple stateys and a Capitol Police officer over the past few months about this issue, I am convinced that the Republicans who drew up this legislation are a bunch of fucking nimrods who don't have enough sense to pour piss out of a boot if the directions were written on the heel. None of them could tell me who would be able to carry in various buildings. Plus there are all the exceptions. You can't CC on bus, but you can carry on the UW campus, just not inside facilities. But that excludes faculty.

The legislation was apparently not a model of clarity.

One thing I learned a couple weeks ago is that it's not just people in Madison who don't want to go shopping with Bill Hickok or wait for hours at the DMV with Ike Clanton. I stopped at a gas station a little east of Fond du Lac and lo and behold there was a sign on the door saying no handguns allowed in the store. When you walk inside, there's a little ledge with newspapers and such. Well, there was a handbill for a venison processing plant so we're talking about an area where people own and use guns. This was rural Wisconsin, after all. It makes me think that, when the Dems regain control of Wisconsin state government, it might not be that hard to repeal the CC law, pressure from the NRA not withstanding.

I now read that the Willy Street Co-op is going to ban guns in their stores. While a taste for organic food and the proclivity to carry a pistol are not mutually exclusive, I highly doubt this policy will be problematic. Still, I really want to see one of the hippies there confront a shopper packing heat, especially a shopper that drives an SUV and uses the Jenifer Street driveway for in- and egress.