Contact: Rep. Chris Taylor, 608-266-5342
MADISON – Today, Republican legislators circulated a bill that allows people to carry concealed guns in public without a permit or any training, expands the ability of people to carry guns in schools, and removes age restrictions for carrying a concealed weapon. In response, Rep. Chris Taylor (D-Madison) issued the following statement:
“I wish I could say I’m surprised that following the tragedy in Wausau last week, Republicans are, once again, willing to expand access to firearms. We know that where there are less gun safety measures and more guns, more dangerous individuals get access to guns and more women die. We know that where there are less gun safety measures and more guns, more dangerous people get access to guns and more police officers die. And yet, here we are, making it easier for dangerous people to carry concealed weapons.
“While it is indeed possible to keep our communities safe while respecting the rights of law-abiding gun owners, permitless carry is not the way to do it. Even the late Justice Antonin Scalia acknowledged that “[i]t is not a right to keep and carry any weapon whatsoever in any manner whatsoever and for whatever purpose.” If more guns made us safer, we would be the safest country in the world. Instead we are the deadliest industrialized nation with the highest gun homicide rate. Clearly, we must do more, not less, to keep dangerous individuals from getting guns.”
Republicans can’t change these alarming facts:
- ‘“[R]ight-to-carry laws are associated with substantially higher rates’ of aggravated assault, robbery, rape and murder” (Aneja, Donohue and Zhang 2014).
- There is “no support to the hypothesis that shall-issue laws have beneficial effects in reducing murder rates” (Grambsch, 2012).
- “[C]hanges in gun ownership are significantly positively related to changes in the homicide rate” (Ludwig, 2002).
