Grant County Sheriff Keith Govier.
We just received a friendly e-mail from Grant County Sheriff Keith Govier. In part, Govier expressed concern about concealed carry becoming burdensome to departments. Given tightening budgets and staffing challenges in the wake of the economic meltdown, that’s an understandable concern. He wrote:
In the past the legislation that was introduced was not friendly to sheriff’s and eventually opposed the legislation. There are many sheriff’s who will be supporting CCW if it is reasonably crafted legislation that is not burdensome on sheriffs.
My response:
Constitutional Carry, by definition, wouldn’t require any permit process or background checks – so there wouldn’t be any involvement from sheriffs or other law enforcement agencies experiencing budget or staffing challenges. It’s simply a return to an inalienable right, such as free speech or freedom of religion.
Everyday we hear new stories of cities and municipalities teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, and the cutting back of police forces because the money simply isn’t there. Can you imagine how quickly this deterioration of public services would accelerate if the police were tasked with administering permits for speech, religion, press, etc.? Add to the mix a new burden of having them issue permits and conduct background checks for bearing arms — concealed carry is also an inalienable right — and my guess is you’d see even more sheriff’s departments run out of cash.
Let’s support our sheriff’s departments by letting them go after the bad guys and leave the business of bearing arms in its proper place to be decided upon and exercised by the individual.
A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. — Amendment II, Bill of Rights
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Tags: Concealed Carry, County Sheriffs, May Carry, Second Amendment, Shall-Issue Carry, Vermont-Style Carry, Wisconsin Gun Rights
Category: Blog, WGO Blog
wait a darn minute here, in most states (like Michigan)that allow concealed carry, the cost doing the back ground checks and the issuing of the permits is much less then being charged. in layman’s terms the county makes money, not lose money on the deal. yes the county may have to hire or rehire staff to handle the extra work, and the sheriff will have less money to line his pockets with, but it is still a win/win for the state of Wisconsin.
I agree with Corey Graff. The police “it will cost us money, and will lead to officer problems in not knowing if a person is carrying” is easily solved. Constitutional carry would not burden police forces because they wouldn’t have to fill out permits, do background checks or anything like that. As for duty officer’s insecurities, I think the police mindset from training on is to treat every encounter as if the person has the potential to be armed. Maybe go even a little fuether and introduce safe gun handling mantras: Every gun is loaded until verified that it is unloaded. So, everyone is assumed to be carrying until it has been verified that they are NOT carrying. Get the person out of the car away from arms reach of a weapon, do their business, and leave. Nobody carrying a concealed weapon for personal defense is going to go wild and shoot the police officer. That is what a criminal would do in desperation. And they would not answer Yes I have a weapon if questioned. So the officer has no reason to fear the armed law abiding citizen, only the criminal element.