WI: governor vetoes CCW bill

[Monkeyleg]

As expected, Governor Doyle today vetoed SB214, the Personal Protection Act concealed carry bill. In two staged events reminiscent of Bill Clinton, he surrounded himself with sheriffs and police chiefs as he claimed that allowing citizens to carry concealed weapons would be dangerous for Wisconsin.

Absent from his speech was a statement saying he thought Wisconsinites are stupid, unstable and untrustworthy, which is what he must believe, since permit holders in 45 other states haven't shown themselves to be a problem.

Our next step is a veto override session in the senate, which will happen in just a few weeks. The bill passed the senate on October 24th by a margin of 24 to 8 votes. We need 22 to override Doyle's veto, which means that we need to keep at least four of the six Democrat senators who voted for the bill on our side. We need to put pressure on them to make sure that they don't fall prey to Doyle's arm-twisting.

Those six Democrat senators, their districts, and their phone numbers are:

SENATOR ROGER BRESKE, from Vilas, Oneida, Lincoln, Langlade, Menominee, Florence, Marinette, Forest counties (800)-334-8773

SENATOR ROBERT WIRCH, from Kenosha county (888)-769-4724

SENATOR JULIE LASSA, from Wood, Portage, Adams counties (608)-266-3123

SENATOR RUSS DECKER, from Price, Rusk, Taylor, Marathon counties
(608)-266-2502

SENATOR MARK MEYER, from La Crosse, Trempeleau, Vernon, Crawford, Jackson counties (608)-266-5490

SENATOR JEFF PLALE, from southern Milwaukee county (608)-266-7505

Of course, we need to continue to pressure our representatives as well. To find out who your representatives in the assembly are, go to http://www.legis.state.wi.us/waml and enter your address. Your friends who don't have internet access can call 1-800-362-9472 and they'll be transferred to their representative's office.

We're nearing the end of a fight that began ten years ago. With the continued phone calls and letters to legislators from you and your friends, we can win.

 

[foghornl]

Gov. Boyle (as in staph-infected zit) didn't get the memo from Missourri, did he?

Hey, Boyle....your veto CAN be over-ridden....and probably will, you thundering dolt.

 

[Henry Bowman]

Ohio is pulling for you!

 

[AJ Dual]

No suprise there.

There were some intial indictions that Doyle "refused to sign" CCW, indicating he may just let it pass by default, but use the "refusal" to try and have his political cake and eat it too.

But he is just too stubborn for that. I suspect Plale will probably hold fast on his override vote for once though. He probably feels he needs to throw his district's predominantly conservative southeren residents a bone after he betrayed the entire state on the tax freeze.

 

[HankB]

Is Doyle a Democrat or a RINO?

Just curious, as I used to live next door in MN.

 

[AJ Dual]

Doyle is Uber-left Democrat.

He was our State AG for several terms before swooping in on the weak Republican McCallum who took over from Lt. Gov. when Thompson departed to staff Health & Humans Svcs. in Bush's cabinet.

Fortunately, the Republicans took control in both houses in that election and have kept Doyle mostly in check, although they're usually on the bleeding edge when it comes to veto overrides.

Doyle never reached out to the Democrats when AG, so he dosen't have many friends, especially among the more northeren, western, and rural center-conservative Dems in the legislature.

Doyle has also submitted bills a few years back when AG that would have banned all handguns, pumpguns, and bolt-actions over 3 rounds in WI, fortunately all were treated as DOA.

 

[sturmruger]

Ah #%@@(!

We all thought it would come to this, but I kept holding out some hope that he would just let it become law without his blessing.

Thanks Monkeyleg for posting who we need to contact in the Senate. It would be helpful to know who the swing votes are going to be in the Assembly. Post those when you can.

 

[alan]

So now we shall see how strongly gun owners in Wisconsin fel about their right to carry concealed arms, vis-a-vis how much "contact" with members of the legislature there is.

Also, it might be interesting to see whether or not the legislature tells the governor where to get off.

 

[AJ Dual]

Well, most of us here from WI on THR have "contacted our arms off" when it's come to the gov and the legislature.

It's all the other gun owners out there. If even 1/4th of them could be bothered to write or all, or even just 1/4th of WI NRA members, the capitol would be overwhelmed.

Working a few WI gun shows for the WCCA was an eye-opener. When working the table to get people to take 5 minutes to fill out a postage-paid card I'd hook them by asking, "Hello, do you support Concealed Carry in Wisconsin?"

I'd get shooters who walked right by without a word.

I'd get shooters who won't put there name on anything because they are afraid of being "on the list". (we need a tinfoil hat smiley)

I'd get shooters who answer yes, and then hastily make up excuses as to why they didn't have time when they realized I wanted them to fill out a card. Some of them spent more time dodging me than it would have taken to fill out the card.

I'd get shooters who'd try to fill out the e-mail contact sheet for the WCCA thinking it was a petition, then slump visibly when they realized they had to address the front and write to support the bills on the back of the blank card. (All hand written cards count for more than pre-printed NRA style cards)

I'd get guys who lie, (badly) and say they "already had a permit" and walk off. There are no permits for anybody in WI, even if you're rich, a retired LEO, or being stalked, BTW . Even if you somehow did, why wouldn't you help out the rest of us?

I'd get the old man looking for a deer rifle brush me off with a grumpy, "there's too many nuts out there". As if "nuts" have something to do with people who passed the background check?

While I gripe, I actually had very good responses, well more than half the people I engaged would fill out a card, but that every last person at a FREAKING GUN SHOW didn't is still discouraging...

 

[Sven]

This sucks.

 

[antsi]

Monkeyleg, how do you-all stand in the other house of the legislature?

Good luck!

 

[AJ Dual]

For the past several weeks Doyle's veto was assumed to be a given. And it was allways known it was the most likely outcome. There was just hope that the override in MO, and other pressure might just convince Doyle to give in. Pro CCW forces have been gearing up for this a likely override fight since Doyle was elected however.

CCW did not pass both houses veto proof. Overturning Doyle's veto would require 22 votes in the Senate and 66 votes in the Assembly. The assembly voted 64 - 35, and the senate voted 24 - 8 The senate had two more votes than needed, so we can have no more than two senators change thier minds when the override session comes.

However in the assembly, two Republicans who voted against CCW have indicated they'll might switch to override the govenors veto, as even though they were against it for one reason or another, they won't stand in the way of recognizing a mjaority vote, and presumably sticking it to Doyle.

It's very, very close, but our odds are better than they ever have been.

 

[Monkeyleg]

Sturmruger, antsi: We had seven assembly Democrats vote for the bill back on November 6th. They were Representatives Gronemus, Schneider, Sherman, Steinbrink, Van Akkeren, Vruwink, and Wayne Wood. We also had Republican Representatives Olsen and Townsend vote against the bill, but they've now indicated that they will vote to override.

So, we have exactly 66 in the assembly. We can't afford to lose even one Democrat. Representatives Schneider and Sherman are co-sponsors of the bill, and Wayne Wood has been a very pro-gun Democrat for the decades that he's been in office.

As Andrew said, if we can just get 1/4th of the gunowners to call, we should be able to get this veto overriden. It's going to be very, very close.

 

[Monkeyleg]

For those of you with strong stomachs, here's the gloating bloated guv in his gory glory today:

 

[Standing Wolf]

Wisconsin needs to fire its governor.

California did. Wisconsin can.