Earlier today Democratic State Senator Lena Taylor voted with every single Republican in the State Senate in favor of the Republican-promoted concealed weapons legislation that was passed today in the State Senate. Sen. Taylor’s vote was not completely unexpected, as she telegraphed her support for concealed carry in a statement issued by her office last week.
While Sen. Taylor supports concealed carry, her fellow Democratic State Senator Spencer Coggs, who also represents portions of the City of Milwaukee, said the way to deal with violence in cities wasn’t to encourage people to carry hidden weapons.
“The solution is less guns, not more guns,” Coggs said.
Apparently Sen. Lena Taylor disagrees.
UPDATE: Sen. Taylor has taken to Twitter to explain her vote, writing, “WI eye has my speech on conceal carry. I have constituents on both sides of this constitutional issue. We won’t always agree and that’s ok.”
Sen. Taylor is simply and utterly wrong on this issue and frankly I’m just as shocked as Zach. Senator Coggs is right on the money, more guns isn’t the solution to violent crime it simply makes white suburbanites feel safe coming into the city. The fact is that white suburbanites aren’t the victims of violent crime in the first place so this law will ultimately mean more guns on our streets. For me, a man who will not be caring a gun, this makes me feel less safe.
And I’ll bang on this drum every time I can…Imagine in our city streets a combination of conceal carry and bounty hunters. It makes me feel like I live south of the Mason Dixon line, all of a sudden.
As I wrote, this wasn’t completely unexpected, because Sen. Taylor did issue a press release setting the stage for her vote, but it’s still disappointing.
Well Zach, apparently six of the eight Democrats in the Wisconsin State Senate disagree with state senator Spencer Coggs about concealed carry. You can’t get much more bipartisan than that. If you want to get firearms training designed specifically for concealed carry licensees, the Gander Mountain chain of sporting goods stores have an excellent program at a number of their stores around Wisconsin.
Rooster, the state of Vermont allows anybody to carry a firearm at any time, anywhere, for any legitimate purpose, concealed or open. Insofar as I know of, Vermont not only is north of the Mason Dixon line, but supplied a large fighting force on the side of Abraham Lincoln’s Union armies in the Civil War. I think that if you visited there, you would learn that everyone gets along quite nicely. You can bang on your drum as long as you wish. But the symphony is just about over, and the audience shortly will be walking out through the exits. Meaning that, nobody will hear you.
Arnold Harris
Mount Horeb WI
First, let’s just clear something up; there are 14 Democrats in the Wisconsin State Senate, not 8.
Now that we’ve cleared up that basic bit of fact, I fully expected Senators like Julie Lassa and Jim Holperin to vote in favor of concealed carry. They’re “Northwoods Democrats,” which means they’re far more pro-gun than most Democrats. My issue here is Sen. Taylor’s vote, not the vote of anyone else in the Wisconsin State Senate.
Some results from a May poll by the Wisconsin Anti-Violence Effort (WAVE):
By nearly a two to one margin (60% to 32%) , voters oppose changing the law to allow private citizens to carry concealed, loaded handguns in public.
By an almost 3 to 1 margin (60% to 21%), people believe loaded, concealed guns in public would make them feel less safe.
Voters are prepared to vote against a candidate for the legislature who favors this change in the law . More than twice as many voters (48%) indicate they would be less likely to support a candidate who favors this law than say they would be more inclined to support that office seeker (23%).
The numbers in Milwaukee County were even more lopsided. Lena may have constituents on both sides of the issue, but in nothing like equal numbers. Shame on her.
xoff, thanks for the information. It’s disappointing that a Democrat representing Milwaukee would cast a vote in favor of putting more guns onto the city’s streets.
Big frickin’ rip. What a bogus poll, and by a bogus group. If you don’t want to carry a gun, then don’t. Funny how the “progressives” who have no idea what it means to live, or run a business, in the inner city, won’t allow people to protect themselves.
mark, if the poll is to be believed (again, questionable), it’s us people in the city that oppose it the most!
Do you live in the city?
Do you have a link to the poll with internals? Certainly not willing to take at face value, considering it’s obv. a biased source. Sample size, sample makeup, weighting, question wording all matter. I’d love it if those numbers were true, though.
Zach, Lena Taylor’s support for concealed carry makes a lot more sense if she is thinking about running for a statewide office (like U.S. Senator) next year. She already has the Democratic base lined up in the general election, but she needs support from independents, and she needs to pick up at least a few redneck votes. Look for her to cross the aisle on other issues this year.
Good point. Especially since she’s become one of the heroes of the protesters. Although I haven’t heard even any rumors about her considering a run for that seat. Many other possibilities, though…AG? She does have the law degree and legal background.
“She does have the law degree and legal background.”
And she’s certainly not shy about letting you know that she has a law degree.
Lena Taylor won’t be a credible or viable statewide candidate…one needs only look at the campaign she ran for County Executive against Scott Walker as proof of that. Lena ran a terrible campaign against a very beatable candidate, and what’s more, it appeared to me (and lots of other folks) that she didn’t really want to do the hard work it would take to win that election.
This vote may win her a small amount of support from folks outstate, but not enough to overcome her very obvious flaws as a candidate.
linky
On the dubious side:
-conducted by Third Eye Strategies, whose lead Principal is a Dem pollster
-small sample size with a relatively high MOE
On the validadting side:
-age breakdown underrepresents 49 and unders and overrepresents 50 and overs, both by about 5% +/- vs exit polls, which should give the poll some conservative bias
-education demos match exit polls almost exactly
-overreps both liberals and conservatives by about 10% each and underreps moderates by 20% vs exit polls. about a wash, and makes sense given the highly polarized state we’ve become the last few months.
-underreps dems by about 10% and overreps inies by about 7%, for if anything a bias to the conservative side.
-Walker fav/unfavs closely resemble the hordes of other polling done in the state over the last couple months
-question ordering is solid…asking the politician approvals BEFORE asking the issue questions
So all in all, this poll looks pretty reliable from a scientific perspective. Being conducted by a Dem pollster for a liberal interest group does indeed raise a red flag, but that doesn’t always automaticlly mean a poll is biased. Process and methodology matters, and this one’s process and methodology seem up to par. Releasing the crosstabs also counts big-time toward credibility.