[img_assist|nid=79561|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=200|height=133]So what's Wisconsin going to be like when the new Republican-enabled concealed-carry gun law takes hold? Well, it may be a lot like Arizona. That's a state with an insanely laissez-faire concealed-carry law. Hendrik Hertzberg, political writer for the New Yorker magazine, reported on a recent incident there where an entire military base went to Condition Red over a reported gun sighting. "The base was locked down, emergency vehicles were summoned, and automated alert messages went out, advising people to stay indoors, away from windows," Hertzberg wrote.
Wisconsin's concealed-carry law, as written, isn't quite so reckless as Arizona's. However, if the National Rifle Association manages to bully Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen into devising useless, Arizona-type gun licensing standards, as reported in today's news dispatches, then something like life in Arizona could approach the new normal here in the badger state. The Arizona situation has made US military officials there extremely nervous, probably to the joy of wingnut, anti-government agitators. Again, Hertzberg:
The theory behind Arizona’s gun regime is that we’re all better off if as many people as possible are carrying unlicensed guns, concealed or unconcealed. That way, if there’s trouble, the good guys will shoot the bad guys. As an earlier Tuscon-area incident (six dead, thirteen wounded) suggests, this theory is flawed.
At Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, where Arizona law does not reign supreme, they have a different theory. Their theory is that only authorized, trained, thoroughly vetted people have any business carrying guns. If some random Tom, Dick, or Harry is thought to be packing heat on base, the proper response is not to assume that good guys usually win gunfights. The proper response is to go instantly to Condition Red. Davis-Monthan is a government installation consisting of government buildings and administered by a government agency, the Department of Defense. But what do they know about guns?