Alarms should be sounding in every business in Wisconsin. If a bill to legalize the carrying of concealed weapons (CCW) becomes law, every business executive, owner, and employer will be exposed to new and potentially devastating risks and costs. Distressingly, just such a bill has already been introduced in the legislature. For more than 130 years, the state of Wisconsin has prohibited citizens from carrying concealed weapons in public. Nearly 70 percent of people support our current law, yet, at the behest of the pro gun lobby, some Madison lawmakers are attempting to overturn the prohibition, thus legalizing the carrying of concealed weapons.

Wisconsin is not unique. Since 1987, state-level CCW laws have been a top priority of the national gun lobby. Having discovered that CCW laws created an “economic windfall in both gun sales and in classes required to obtain CCW permits,” the gun lobby became relentless in its efforts to get CCW laws in every state, even though evidence continued to mount, proving that CCW laws were irresponsible and dangerous.

What has also grown throughout the years is evidence that businesses will suffer as a direct result of a CCW law. Years ago, a business executive could institute a no-weapons policy in response to the passage of such a law and confidently assume the law would have no further impact. That is no longer true. Now, the passage of a CCW law guarantees that every executive, owner or employer will be forced directly between a rock and a hard place and that the viability of every business will be at risk.

For more info, read WAVE’s informative report. [PDF]

Posted on Tuesday, August 15th, 2006 at 3:49 pm and filed under Policy, Concealed Weapons.