"Give me all of your f*cking money or I'll blow your head off."
Madison cab drivers have heard something to that effect on five occasions since Nov. 3 alone in this city. It is no joke. Most of the death threats have occurred near Allied Drive.
Many cab drivers are deeply concerned. Badger Cab owner Tom Royston remembers an awful incident from 1992, when one of his cab drivers was murdered on the job by taking a gunshot to the back of the head from a robber. When asked if recent events scared him, Royston's shaky voice lamented: "We lost a driver about 13 years ago, so yeah."
Wisconsin, still one of just four states left in the country that does not allow citizens to carry concealed weapons, is expected to thankfully acknowledge the Second Amendment through legislation set to pass very soon. But predictably, the self-proclaimed "lefty's lefty", Ald. Austin King and Ald. Brenda Konkel, are visibly upset.
King went to the blue-collar town of Racine last week to take an unusual stand for fiscal responsibility. The budget hawk told a crowd that included his green party supporters: "There is an irony of having to take police officers off the street and away from protecting us so that we can hire people to stand at building entrances and check for weapons." It's funny, that's also the first time I've ever heard the anti-police state King talk about tough police enforcement.
Ald. Brenda Konkel also showed rare spending constraint by fear mongering about the costs that concealed carry would bring for weapons screening. She even proposed hundreds of thousands of dollars in new spending for the 2006 fiscal budget during City Council debates last week, but later removed the proposal, admitting that it was actually just a symbolic gesture to get a discussion going. In other words, Konkel was just grandstanding and being disingenuous.
Despite FBI statistics which show that states with concealed carry legislation actually see substantial reductions in violent crime and that there really is no Wild West gun battle that emerges, people like King and Konkel will always be happy to fear monger through trite speech and decades-old clichés. It's kind of like when whining children don't get their way. They often lash out with irrational cries. But I digress.
Cab drivers should have the right to defend themselves by carrying a gun. Unlike a pizza delivery guy, cabbies cannot refuse a call in any area of the city because of a quasi city-regulated rule. For instance, if a cabbie gets a call from someone on Allied Drive, he has to go there. If he does not, he will probably be fired. This rule is in place for good reason, in my opinion. As a society, the majority of residents have concluded that to deny someone a cab ride based on a "shady" location is morally wrong. Agree with that or not, that's just the way it is and it's not changing anytime soon.
When we send people into dangerous areas, we usually equip them with a weapon. Police officers, military personnel, and air marshals all have guns to protect themselves for good reason. Cab drivers should at least have that option available to them.
King would have you believe that the only people who support the right to concealed carry are "crazy" right-wing Republicans. That's simply not true. As someone who voted for John Kerry, has never owned a gun, and considers himself an Independent, I can tell you King's notion is beyond ridiculous.
For example, Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold has an impressive record on Second Amendment rights. As a state senator, he was the original author of a 1998 amendment to the Wisconsin state constitution to include the right to bear arms. The amendment was supported by around 70 percent of Wisconsinites. Feingold also wrote his college thesis on the importance of the Second Amendment, and has voted against the Orwellian cosmetically based "Assault Weapons Ban".
The "anti-gun nuts" are always making it seem like concealed carry is going to turn this state into post-Iraq War Fallujah (despite empirical evidence in 46 other states that point to the exact opposite). Under that flawed assumption, we should essentially be a near utopia right now in terms of gun violence! The reality is that criminals always have and always will carry guns. Not having concealed carry punishes law-abiding citizens of the right to carry.
Until Austin King has a gun pointed at his head, he probably won't appreciate that whole nutty "right to protect yourself" idea. I hope that never happens to the lefty's lefty. For the rest of us Wisconsinites, the crazy notion of carrying a gun will soon most likely become a sane reality.
Casey Hoff ([email protected]) is a University of Wisconsin student and host of "New Ground with Casey Hoff," live Monday through Friday, 9-11 a.m., on Madison 1670 The Pulse
