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Student gun group holds first meeting
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Also by Claire Radomski:
- Speaker stirs up climate debate (April 10, 2008)
- Survey says... students want more food options (April 9, 2008)
- Union considers ways to increase staff unity (April 2, 2008)
Related Stories:
- Students advocate for concealed guns at UW (April 11, 2008)
- Trooper assocation supports concealed carry (December 1, 2005)
- Some state police oppose concealed-carry (December 5, 2005)
- Senate approves concealed-carry amendments (November 12, 2003)
- UW wants exemption from concealed-carry bill (October 21, 2003)
by Claire Radomski
Thursday, April 17, 2008
A new student group began its campaign advocating the allowance of concealed weapons on university campuses Wednesday evening in Memorial Union at University of Wisconsin.
Students for Concealed Carry is a national grassroots organization of more than 27,000 members who “support the right of license holders to carry concealed handguns on campus.”
UW graduate student Bret Bostwick founded the University of Wisconsin chapter three weeks ago. The group has received significant media attention in the wake of the death of UW junior Brittany Zimmermann and the one-year anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings.
The organization aims to “educate and advocate for concealed carry legislation” in Wisconsin supporting the right of individuals over the age of 21 who have completed training and obtained licenses to carry concealed weapons on campus, Bostwick said.
He added they face “a double hurdle in Wisconsin” because legislation must be passed both at the state level and at the local campus level to allow for concealed weapons on UW grounds.
According to Bostwick, the idea of concealed carry in Madison is a “hot-button issue.”
“People find it rare to have such a radical, conservative stance coming from such a liberal campus,” Bostwick said.
Bostwick added concealed carry is legal at 11 U.S. colleges and universities. Nine of these are public schools in Utah, while the others are located in Virginia and Colorado.
When looking to gather support, Bostwick said it was important to “differentiate between hypothesis and real-life hindsight” at these schools.
“No single act of gun violence, theft or accident has occurred at any of these schools,” Bostwick said.
Jeri Bonavia, the head of Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort, said she disagrees with Bostwick.
 ”It’s important to look for viable methods for providing individual and public safety,” she said. “Adding guns is not such a method.”
The idea is “absurd in a campus situation,” she added.
Next week, the national SCC is sponsoring the second National Empty Holster Protest on more than 300 campuses. More than 3,500 students have signed up to participate nationwide.
Students participating will wear empty holsters to “symbolize how college students are left defenseless on campuses,” Bostwick said.
The University of Wisconsin Police Department and UW administration have been notified of the protest, and Bostwick has met individually with officers to describe the nature of the protest.
Last year’s protest at other universities went without any major incident, Bostwick said. This is the first year UW students will be involved in the protest.
This is the only event the group will be sponsoring this year, as they intend to “hit hard with recruiting” this fall, possibly sponsoring debates or speakers on campus, according to Bostwick.
Bonavia said she “understood the fear and desperation” many students feel. Campus, however, with its stress levels and access to alcohol, is not an appropriate place for firearms, she added.
“More guns on campus will not equal more safety,” Bonavia said.
Anonymous (April 17, 2008 @ 6:56am):
Post-pubescent kids with guns. This is really just a very stupid idea.
Anonymous (April 17, 2008 @ 6:58am):
Wearing holsters? It'll go nice with your cub scout unis. Save it for Halloween when you dress up as "cowboy idiot"
Anonymous (April 17, 2008 @ 7:08am):
It's nice that you give the anti-gun folks the last word in an article about a group that supports conceal carry.
Anonymous (April 17, 2008 @ 10:14am):
"More guns on campus will not equal more safety," Bonavia said.
Yeah, you keep saying that, but every other US state (except IL) allows concealed carry, and they are not less safe, and the universities that allow concealed carry are also not less safe. So saying more guns is bad is wrong, and it has been proven consistently. It'd be nice if the reporter would challenge such stupid comments.
Why do you think the muggers target students on campus, and pull a knife or gun on them? Because they know you're not armed. They don't mug people in the ghetto because its much more likely they're carrying.
Anonymous (April 17, 2008 @ 12:50pm):
10:14 1st of all that might be some of the most racist insensitive BS I've ever heard. And you're forgetting to mention the in you "ghetto" theres a ton more crime. The correlation that you've made between "ghettos and guns definitely has something to do with it.
2nd of all every other country that has outlawed the ownership of hand guns has a ton fewer murders because of it. Yet being stubborn americans we refuse to look at the positive examples of the rest of the world. If we were to eliminate the sale of handguns all together none of this would be a problem. If you take guns out of peoples hands we will live in a safe society, if you put them into peoples hands we won't. thats simple logic.
With the amount of drinking that goes on at this university, your pro-gun argument becomes even stupider. Bar fights becoming homicides is really going to make the campus a safer place.
Get your right wing mind out of the gutter and look at the world we live in. Guns kill people, we shouldn't encourage the distribution of deadly fire arms, that might be the dumbest thing i've heard.
Anonymous (April 17, 2008 @ 1:05pm):
Concealed Carry is just stupid. If someone were to pull a gun on me i wouldn't have time to pull my own; how does having a gun make my life any MORE safe. I would definately feel less safe knowing that any confrontation in a bar could result in everyone in the room whipping out their concealed weapon. Or if one of the 28 percent of Americans that have experienced psychotic symptoms at some point in their lives decided that the voices in their head were telling him/her I was a viable threat.
This group that formed 3 weeks ago can just go fall off of a cliff already. Don't turn these tragedies into some springboard for legislation that we'll all regret in a couple of years.
Anonymous (April 17, 2008 @ 2:42pm):
Have you ever, and I'm assuming you all have, walked down state street around 1:30 am Thursday, Friday, or Saturday? I don't understand how putting guns into the hands of drunks would ever equal more safety for this campus. I know I would feel less safe walking down State Street at night knowing that anyone I walked by could be carrying a gun and who, in a second of bad judgment, impaired further by being intoxicated, could playfully threaten another individual with their gun that could easily enough discharge. Also, I’ve seen enough pointless brawls exacerbated by alcohol that end in fist fights. However, in that impaired moment of rage, I don’t know if one’s morals would be enough to stop them from reaching for their concealed weapon which endangers not only the two involved in the dispute, but all those in surrounded area.
Anonymous (April 17, 2008 @ 3:08pm):
America's who enjoy their constitutional rights lost a great man last week when Charlton Heston died. I am going to start an active boycott of the Badger Herald due to its biased reporting. Give me a break, you really wasted all of the groups time to interview and write a story about them to only provide propaganda against them. How dumb do you think we are? Obviously we are smarter than you, because your paper is garbage and we can see through it, even though most people on this God-forsaken campus are jammed so far up the liberal ass crack that anal tearing has occurred. Talk about an interesting trip to the ER...
Dale Lamminen (April 18, 2008 @ 7:16am):
As Governor Doyle himself said "If you want to wear a gun, wear it on your hip"
Open carry of firearms is not unlawful in Wisconsin. In fact the State Supreme Court has said that under Article I section 25 of our State Constitution that the people have the constitutional authority to visibly carry firearms because the State has a strict prohibition against concealed carry. It warned the State that the State must provide for some manner of carry or yield to the constitution. Therefore if the people's right to open carry and the people's right to conceal carry are enforced then the people''s constitutional rights are infringed.
Article I section 25 of Wisconsin constitution.
The people have the right to keep and bear arms for security, defense, hunting, recreation or any other lawful purpose.
Even the school zone statute 948.605 doesn't apply to colleges and universities. It only applies to schools that teach grades 1 through 12. It doesn't even apply to schools that teach only pre-school and/or kindergarten.
So what would people prefer to see? Students carrying open firearms within their constitutional authority or students carrying firearms "out of sight"?
These are my opinions.
Anonymous (April 18, 2008 @ 10:32am):
Dale Lamminen - Thumbs Up
The point of conceal is so NO ONE knows you're carrying. Also in Wisconsin if you carry illegally but use your weapon in self-defense its lawful, look at the Pizza Delivery guy in Milwaukee and the guy on State St who shot a frat fool. They both have not been convicted of carrying a weapon.
Plus in Minn it costs about $400 to get permit/training plus 5-8 hours of your time.
Hey, more jobs and state income...
Anonymous (April 18, 2008 @ 10:34am):
Wow you can't carry in a bar or be drunk to carry a gun in all CC states. In fact it cost alot of money to obtain that right in those states. And I would imagine those citizens to take the time and money to do so are the most lawful citizens around.
Minnesota has conceal and carry, they don't cry like Madison about it.
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