WAVE Quoted in Capital Times Editorial
Editorial: Fighting fires with gasoline
October 9, 2006
The recent outbreaks of gun violence - including the shooting of a school principal in Wisconsin - have been so horrific that everyone is looking for solutions.
Everyone, that is, except state Rep. Frank Lasee.
The Bellevue Republican is looking for ways to make things worse. And he has found one. Lasee wants to put more guns in the schools.
Lasee’s approach is a little like that of the village idiot who came upon a house that was on fire and tried to douse it with the only liquid he could find: gasoline.
In fairness to village idiots, however, at least there is a slim measure of logic in the gasoline gambit. In Lasee’s scheme, there is no logic at all - just danger.
It is a measure of the seriousness with which Wisconsin takes the issue of school violence that the response to Lasee’s legislation has been one of revulsion.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Elizabeth Burmaster spoke for educators and parents when she declared, “It is simply wrong to legislate concealed weapons into our schools. Our students are safest when the only guns in their schools are carried by law enforcement professionals: our local partners.”
Law enforcement officials and public safety advocates were equally blunt in their assessments. “We’ve heard these same arguments before. Almost every time there is a terrible tragedy involving gun violence, one of the gun lobby’s favorite legislators comes out clamoring about the need for more guns,” grumbled Jeri Bonavia, the executive director of the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort. “The fact is putting guns in our schools isn’t the answer. The day of the Columbine massacre there was an armed guard present, and that didn’t deter the shooters, nor did it stop the worst school shooting in American history. It is absolutely perverse for a state lawmaker to exploit the recent school shootings in Pennsylvania, Colorado, and right here in Cazenovia, Wisconsin, in order to push forward an extremist agenda to allow hidden, loaded handguns inside our schools.”
Candidates for statewide office, including Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle and his Republican challenger, U.S. Rep. Mark Green, denounced the proposal. Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, the Democratic nominee for attorney general, quickly dubbed the proposal “an extremely bad idea” that “would decrease public safety, not improve it.” On that, Falk got no debate from her Republican opponent, J.B. Van Hollen. Though he has been running as something of a pro-gun candidate, Van Hollen went out of his way to make it known that “I do not support the new bill suggested by Representative Lasee.”
The most comforting response of all came from Frank Lasee’s cousin, state Senate President Alan Lasee, R-De Pere. “I have spoken to a number of concerned constituents in the past 24 hours who are confused by our shared last name. Let me be perfectly clear, as long as I am the Senate president, this proposal will not see the light of day in the state Senate,” said Alan Lasee, who added, “I want everyone to know I am opposed to this proposal. This proposal is nothing more than a poorly thought-out, knee-jerk reaction to the tragic events of the last few weeks.”
Alan Lasee is right to be embarrassed to have his family name associated with the legislation that he describes as “goofy.” More important, his opposition to that legislation suggests that Wisconsin will be spared the embarrassment of an extended discussion on a spray-the-fire-with-gasoline plan that no responsible legislator would ever have imagined - let alone proposed.