Conceal and Carry

There is a lot of controversy over the newly passed laws over conceal and carry. Mostly people might become afraid that everyone else is carrying a weapon which will cause them to be paranoid and want to carry a concealed weapon for protection against everyone else that might be. This could become a problem for people in or going into the law enforcement field like I’m planning on doing. In the future I’m planning on being part of the DNR (not necessarily for Wisconsin) and it’s a little disconcerting to have the thought that everyone might be carrying a weapon now.

I recently read a newspaper article (can’t remember the name or where it was from) but it was about a police officer that pulled over an elderly woman. The police officer saw that the woman was carrying a concealed weapon and asked if she had a permit for it and the woman said she did, as well as for all the other weapons she was carrying (I think it totaled to like 5 guns AT ONE TIME). If I remember right, the elderly woman simply said that she carried them because she had the right to. That’s just a little strange, but it made me wonder what about all the other people carrying guns just because they had the right to.

I personally believe that everyone has the right to protect themselves, but having concealed weapons could potentially be a very bad idea. I’m worried that eventually someone carrying a concealed weapon will decide that either they are going to be a hero in a situation that could cause more harm than good, or that they will create a situation like that just because they are carrying it, even if unintentionally. There are a few good things about the law that I do approve of though, such as prohibiting the carrying of concealed weapons into places like schools, state buildings, banks and other places where a concealed weapon would cause way too much harm.

I don’t know everything about the law, but there are some things that I would have written in if they aren’t already there (1) extensive background checks for those applying for the permits, (2) having safety classes that have to be passed before people can get the permit, (3) force people to always carry their permits along with their weapon if they decide to carry it and/or (4) possibly something on their driver’s license that could signal an officer that the person could potentially be carrying a weapon. I realize for those that this could be a bit of an invasion of privacy because of the “right” to carry a concealed weapon and if everyone knows that they are carrying it, which defeats the purpose of a concealed weapon. But for me, I would feel a lot better knowing that either no one was carrying one, or that those that did were fairly recognizable.

These are just my feelings on the subject, many others have their own opinions and I’m not trying to bash on them. I realize that carrying a weapon is part of the constitution and I would never try to prevent the rights of people, I’m just worried about the safety of everyone in an area/community.