Feeling safer already as new Wyoming concealed carry law goes into effect today

I feel safer already (from the Casper Star-Tribune):

A law that allows Wyomingites to carry concealed weapons without permits goes into effect today. 

-- snip --

During the second of two seminars on the new law sponsored by the Cheyenne Police Department on Wednesday, the instructor, officer Jay Remers, told the group it still is beneficial to get a concealed weapons permit. The firearms training is valuable for gun owners who may be familiar with hunting rifles but not with using handguns, particularly if faced with someone armed with a knife, he said. 

-- snip -- 

Officer Remers, meanwhile, said after the meeting that he expects only minor problems with the new law, like people carrying a concealed weapon into a prohibited area. “I don’t anticipate carnage in the streets, as some predict,” he said, adding that more signs prohibiting firearms have been posted in the capital city recently. 

-- snip -- 

The new law, he said, appeals to citizens who are suspicious of government and don’t want to subject themselves to the scrutiny associated with getting a permit. 

During the seminar, Remers warned of the severe ramifications of shooting or killing someone, even in self-defense. “If you can avoid shooting someone, avoid shooting someone,” he said. 

-- snip -- 

Read the snipped-out parts here.

Are those predator wolves or trophy wolves flying jets over Wyoming?

"Wolves Flying Jets" is a song by Greenhorse. Are these predator wolves or trophy wolves? And can they be hunted while flying jets over Wyoming or Montana or Idaho?

Ask Greenhorse when the group (with Wyoming origins) performs tonight at the WYO Theater in Sheridan.

The song --



Wolves Flying Jets by Greenhorse

Tea Party Slim & Sovereign Jake vs. Liberal Mike

I ran into Tea Party Slim at the downtown Starbucks. “Hey Slim,” I said. “Enjoying that Fair Trade Coffee?”

He peered at his grande coffee cup. "Slim” was printed on its side.

"It's just coffee,” said Slim.

I grabbed a colorful bag of beans from the rack. I read: “By working together and paying the prices that premium coffee deserves, we’re helping improve the lives of those farmers and their communities. Find out about additional ways we are working with farmers to ethnically source our coffee at starbucks.com/sharedplanet.”

Slim frowned. “I may have to go back to the doughnut shop. They have regular American coffee there -- and it doesn't preach at you.”

“Even Dave’s Doughnuts serves coffee made somewhere else," I said. "It’s sold by corporations like Folger’s or Nestle. The corporation gets more of the profit and small growers less.”

“Who’s the know-it-all?” Slim’s friend spoke for the first time. He looked a bit younger than Slim, maybe in his fifties. His hair was streaked with gray as was his bushy beard. He wore a striped western shirt, brown vest, jeans and Sunday-go-to-meeting cowboy boots.

“Meet Liberal Mike,” said Slim, “one of the few registered Democrats in Laramie County.”

“I’m Jake,” said the man. “Freeman."

We shook hands. His grip was firm; his eyes held mine.

"Jake Freeman," I said.

"No, my last name is, well, it's not important," he said. "I meant that I am a Free Man -- sovereign."

I'd heard the terms before and wanted to know more. “Let me get some shade-tree-grown Nicaraguan coffee and a whole wheat organic scone and I’ll join you gents.”

I did just that. I grabbed one of the easy chairs across from Jake. He and Slim stared at me. “Do I have a booger hanging out of my nose?” I swiped my hand across my face.

Slim laughed. “Jake doesn’t know any Liberals.” He turned to Jake. “It’s like going to the zoo, eh Jake? Looking at the strange creatures.”

“I have lots of company,” I said. "In 2008, 3,800 new Democrats registered in Laramie County. Many of them voted. That's how Obama won the majority of votes in this county."

"That was then," said Slim. "Where were they last November?"

"I don't vote," said Jake.

This time, Slim and I stared at Jake.

"Don't vote?"

"Don't need to," he said. "Why should I have to register to vote for a government I don't believe in?"

Jake erupted in a diatribe about what it means to be a sovereign. The united states of America (lower care u and s) is a republic based on the Declaration of Independence, the Articles of Confederation and the Constitution. The Magna Carta, too. And the Bible. The United States of America (capitalized) was corrupted following the Civil War. It became a centralized, profit-seeking corporation, its many laws and regulations just ways to keep the people in their place. States, on the other hand, are individual republics and make the only laws worth following.

Our coffee cups were bone-dry by the time Jake fell silent.

"I guess you don't pay taxes," I said, recalling the big check I just wrote to the IRS.

He chuckled. "I'm not a slave to the IRS. I believe in free enterprise. Me and my fellow sovereigns barter our goods and services."

"What's your skill?"

"Paperwork," he said with a grin. "In my previous life, I was a Certified Public Accountant with the State of Wyoming. I know all the tricks. I pay my filing fee and present reams of paperwork that some clerk has to input into the system. Clogs up the bureaucracy. Drives them crazy."

"Guerrilla tactics," said Slim the veteran.

"Same kind of tactics that anti-war activists used during Vietnam -- and right now," I said. "Don't pay taxes for the war machine. Or pay in bags of pennies that you haul down to the IRS office. File loads of paperwork to clog the system."

Jake stared at me. "You Liberals have your own causes," he said. "Mostly you believe in big government. An illegitimate government." He paused. "Our president doesn't even have a birth certificate."

"Now you're talkin'" said Slim.

I replied: "I thought you didn't believe in government. That's who handles birth certificates. Do you want government more involved in tracking our personal lives?"

Jake waved away my criticism. "State and local governments have some legitimacy. For instance, I register my vehicles and pay the fees. My truck needs a license plate."

"So some government is O.K.?"

"State and local. The county sheriff is the law of the land."

"If you're so sovereign, why would you take orders from any law officer."

He nodded. "Slim, your boy here is sharper than he looks."

"He has his moments," said Slim.

"There is one thing that we won't register, right Slim?" He padded his vest, lifting it up so I could see the Glock snug in its holster. Slim, in turn, lifted his jacket and revealed the SIG Sauer pistol he had showed off to me several times.

"No gun registration for these bad boys," said Jake. "It's just a way for the One World Government to track us down, take away our guns and lock us away in re-education camps."

The coffee was long gone, and the conversation had taken a bad turn.

"This government will fall, by peace or by force," said Jake.

I stood. "If you gentlemen will excuse me, I'm off to buy a gun."

"I thought you didn't believe in guns," said Slim.

"Hush, Slim," said Jake. "I think we talked him into joining us."

"No," I answered. "When the time comes, I may need it to protect myself and my family from the likes of you."

NOTE: Much of the information on the sovereign movement was taken from an excellent three-part series by Tom Morton in the Casper Star-Tribune. Joe O'Sullivan also covered some similar issues regarding city zoning laws. For some additional stories, read Tom Morton's blog at http://trib.com/news/opinion/blogs/morton/

Wyoming Sen. Kit Jennings: Guns before people!

Republican Sen. Kit Jennings of Casper on Wyoming Legislature's concealed carry bill: "We kind of drew the line in the sand and said we're going to start here and start working back toward everybody having constitutional rights." He also said that Wyoming citizens and lawmakers sent this message with the passage of the bill: "Quit taking away our constitutional rights."

So why did he vote to strip constitutional rights from Wyoming LGBT citizens? Guns before people? Does he have a list of people he is going to eventually endow with constitutional rights? If so, gays and lesbians and teachers and immigrants must be way down at the bottom.

Check out his contradictory votes at http://legisweb.state.wy.us/

Wyoming: Guns 'R' Us

This e-mail update comes from Brianna Jones of the Wyoming Democratic Party. I'd just share a link but the info isn't up on the web site. So here it is in full:

The past week has seen both ups and downs for Democratic interests. Thank you so much to each of you that has responded to our action alerts over the past week and contacted legislators. It is so important that you are taking the time, even if the outcome is not always the one you would hope.

Your input is critical. Please continue watching for our action alerts and contacting your representatives on some of these important pieces of legislation. You can find email addresses for all legislators here: http://legisweb.state.wy.us.

The following is legislation that saw action this week:

Co-employee immunity (SF 61): As sponsored by Sen. Eli Bebout (R-Riverton) and Rep. Tim Stubson (R-Casper) the bill would raise the bar for suing a co-employee (usually a supervisor) for injuries in the workplace. Currently the standard is "willful and wanton" and the standard this would put in place is "with the intent." The AFL-CIO and Wyoming Trial Lawyers Association, and the Wyoming Building and Construction Council all spoke out strongly against this legislation. It failed the Senate on first reading by a vote of 13-17.


Very rare and uncommon area designations (HB 152): This legislation as sponsored by Rep. Semlek (R-Moorcroft) would abolish the rare and uncommon designation and would "retain the authority" to remove protections. Adobe Town is currently designated as rare and uncommon. The Wyoming Conservation Voters and Wyoming Outdoor Council are opposing this legislation.

Health Care Choice and Protection Act (HB 35): Legislation sponsored by Rep. Bob Brechtel (R-Casper) passed first reading in the House today with 35 members voting in favor. This bill would make it a crime to implement the affordable care act in Wyoming. Please write your representatives and ask them to oppose this legislation.


Defense of Marriage Act (SJ 5): This legislation which was defeated in 2009, would put a constitutional amendment on the ballot to only recognize marriages that are between one man and one woman. The proposal narrowly passed the Senate on a vote of 20-10, with 11 needed to defeat the measure.

DUI-elimination of right to refuse test (HB 29): Legislation sponsored by Rep. Gingery (R-Jackson) would remove the right to refuse a BAC test when there is reasonable suspicion of driving under the influence. It passed the house 35-23.

Civil Unions (HB 150): Rep. Cathy Connolly (D-Laramie) introduced legislation, which would create a system for civil unions in the state of Wyoming. The bill was heard by the House Judiciary Committee on Friday morning and narrowly failed on a vote of 4-5. Reps. Throne (D-Cheyenne), Barburto (D-Rock Springs), Greene (R-Laramie), and Brown (R-Laramie) voted in favor. Reps. Cannady (R-Glenrock), Peasley (R-Douglas), Nicholas (R-Laramie), Krone (R-Cody), and Brechtel (R-Casper) voted against.


Illegal Immigration (HB 94): This is a proposal mimicking Arizona-style SB1070 legislation targeting illegal immigrants. It was brought by Rep. Pete Illoway (R-Cheyenne) and heard in the house minerals committee. There was no motion to move the bill and it died in committee.

Marital Counseling (HB 65): Legislation as introduced by Rep. Bob Brechtel (R-Casper) was heard in the House Labor Committee. It would require three hours of counseling before a marriage or a divorce. The committee significantly amended the bill, but it ultimately died in committee.

Health Care Freedom (SJ 02): This legislation proposes a constitutional amendment guaranteeing so-called "health freedom." It was written in direct response to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). It was amended significantly on the Senate floor during first reading and passed. The sponsor of the bill, Sen. Leslie Nutting (R-Cheyenne), voted against the bill following amendments.

Abortion - available information for decision (HB 118): This bill sponsored by Rep. Bob Brechtel (R-Casper) would require women who are considering abortion to be given government-scripted information and then wait 24 hours before having the procedure. It failed on general file on a vote of 23-32. 


Concealed Weapons (SF 47): This proposal, sponsored by Sen. Kit Jennings (R-Casper), was defeated last session, would all residents to carry a concealed weapon without a permit. It passed the Senate and will now go to the House.

Sen. Chris Rothfuss will talk about the concealed weapons bill at Monday's meeting of the Laramie County Democrats (see previous post). This is another in a long line of ridiculous bills considered by this legislature. Most handgun violence in Wyoming comes in the form of domestic dust-ups, drunken brawls, and in suicide, either attempted or successful. It's entirely possible that Wyoming's preponderance of guns keeps the violent crime rate down. I'm willing to give that notion some credence. But carjackings and armed robberies and drive-by shootings are still relatively rare in the state. So why does everyone need to carry around a concealed weapon? Is this another N.R.A. inspired and written one-size-fits-all legislation? Or another Tea Party-inspired be-afraid-be-very-afraid bills?

Ask Kit Jennings. Since 2008, Sen. Jennings has been a member of Don't Touch Us, the Domestic Violence Protection Group. This group was formed in Casper after a rash of 2007 domestic incidents ended in shootings. One involved a woman who shot to death her male partner. Will concealed weapons be handy prevention tools for battered women living under the thumbs of violent and well-armed men?

Here's info from a Dec. 22, 2010, press release from the Violence Policy Center, which addresses gun violence as a "public health issue:"

Since May 2007, concealed handgun permit holders have killed at least 282 individuals--including nine law enforcement officers--in 193 incidents in 28 states. In more than two-thirds of the incidents (134) the concealed handgun permit holder has already been convicted, committed suicide, or was killed in the incident. Of the 59 cases still pending, the vast majority (47) of concealed handgun permit holders have been charged with criminal homicide, two were deemed incompetent to stand trial, two incidents were unintentional shootings, and eight incidents are still under investigation. Of the 193 incidents, 17 were mass shootings where concealed handgun permit holders claimed the lives of 73 victims.

Here's another one from Sept. 30, 2010:

Concealed handgun permit holders have killed at least 202 individuals since May 2007 with 34 percent of the killings involving family violence according to the September update of Concealed Carry Killers, a Violence Policy Center (VPC) on-line resource that tallies news reports of killings by concealed handgun permit holders. The update comes one day before the beginning of Domestic Violence Awareness Month in October.

Forty-two of the 122 incidents involved family violence. Of these, 29 involved intimate partner violence. Fifteen of the 42 family violence incidents ended in murder-suicide, accounting for 65 percent (15 of 23) of all the murder-suicides committed by concealed handgun permit holders tallied by the VPC to date.

Violence Policy Center Legislative Director Kristen Rand states, “A permit to carry a concealed handgun has become one more weapon in the arsenal of domestic abusers who ultimately kill their intimate partner or other family member. Contrary to the false assurances of concealed carry proponents, too many of those with valid permits kill in anger, not self-defense.”

And these are permitted gun owners. What happens when anybody can carry a concealed weapon? People such as the mentally ill Tucson shooter? Makes you think...

Concealed weapons law hot topic at Jan. 31 meeting of Laramie County Democrats

The Laramie County Democratic Party and Grassroots Coalition will have a joint meeting on Monday, Jan. 31, 7 p.m. at the IBEW Union Hall, 810 Fremont Street, Cheyenne.  The topic for the meeting will be the current concealed weapon law going through the Legislature.  Sen. Chris Rothfuss, Dem from Albany County, will be a guest speaker.  So many topics to be discussed. Sen. Rothfuss had some success this  week adding amendments to the Republicans' idiotic bill that would end  job protections for teachers.  FMI: www.laramiecountydemocrats.org  FMI: http://legisweb.state.wy.us/lsoweb/session/sessionhome.aspx

Searching for Arizona's soul

While watching crusty and opinionated Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik on TV over the weekend, I thought, "I'm glad this man is watching over my boy."

My boy is Kevin. He's no longer a boy but a man. A resident of Tucson, and a student at Pima Community College. Kevin probably doesn't give it much thought but it's good to have a sensible and sensitive human as the county's chief law enforcement officer.

I've spoken to Kevin several times since Saturday's shootings. Yes, everyone in Tucson is talking about it -- and we're all upset. No, he's never seen the shooter around campus. But there are five PCC campuses and thousands of students. I haven't had a chance to talk to him since this evening's memorial service at the University of Arizona Arena. Attendance was 26,000. I wanted to be there.

Tucson is a fine city. My most recent trip to Arizona was in January 2009. Call me a genius but January in Tucson is much more temperate than July in Tucson. My wife Chris and daughter Annie and I drove to Arizona in July of 2007. Long Fourth of July weekend and we had a week off. The evening of July 3, we stopped in Bernalillo north of Albuquerque and watched fireworks with a bunch of teenagers sitting on the hoods of their cars. The next night, we ventured out of the AC to watch the holiday fireworks from Tucson's A Mountain.

A few days later Kevin and I ventured out in the midday sun to visit the University of Arizona Poetry Center. U of A has since built a new poetry center, which was mentioned by University President Robert Shelton in tonight's closing remarks. He read a poem by W.S. Merwin, who lives in Hawaii but has spent a lot of time at the center, according to Shelton. Interesting how poetry and music are needed in times of woe.

Since Saturday, I've spent many hours online reading commentary about the Tucson shootings. I tended to gravitate to those pieces that talked about Arizona's culture.

One of the best is by Aurelie Sheehan. She's the director of the U of A creative writing program. She's a friend and a one-time Wyomingite. She wrote this:

Saturday night we had signed on to go to a benefit concert for a small organization that develops music programs for at-risk children in the Southwest. It was organized by a talented 12-year-old boy who took guitar lessons alongside our daughter, and we had been looking forward to it. Now no one really wanted to go — we were all too beaten down by the day. But we went anyway, to support the young guitarist and the nonprofit group.

We sat down in the school auditorium, restless, a little ill at ease, scattered in our thoughts. About 200 people were there. The lights went down and, after a weirdly protracted pause, Brad Richter, the nonprofit’s co-founder, took the stage. 

We talked quietly about what had happened that morning. He had played guitar at Gabrielle Giffords’s wedding, in 2007. And that evening he played an original composition for us, something she had requested he play then: “Elation,” the song was called. The feeling of community in the room was palpable, and if elation was beyond our reach, we were at least consoled.

Aurelie is such a great writer. I've also worked with Brad and know his soulful music. Again, here are the arts helping us to make sense of tragedy.

A harsher critique of Arizona appeared on Media Matters. It's by Will Bunch and is entitled "Arizona is where the American dream goes to die." Here's an excerpt:

The real factors behind this Arizona Nightmare -- venal banks, too much borrowing, too much outsourcing of jobs that, unlike home construction, would have been permanent and stable -- were too abstract, especially for the toxic soup of talk radio. It is tragic how a state that once prided itself on Barry Goldwater-style can-do self-reliant libertarianism devolved into blaming The Other the minute that things went south here. Virulent anti-immigrant nativism -- occasionally sprinkled with things like neo-Nazism -- grew into the desert, as did fear of Muslims, to the point where an architecturally unusual new Christian church in Phoenix had to declare in a giant banner that it was not Islamic. Political heroes were now those like Arpaio who didn't just pursue reactionary policies but actually heaped humiliation and degradation on The Other, in sweltering outdoor prison camps. Ditto with members of Congress suddenly out of step with the new zeitgeist -- moderate Democrats like Harry Mitchell and Gabrielle Giffords were not just to be disagreed with but to be physically threatened with vandalism or worse. Meanwhile, guns became a statewide obsession, as lawmakers competed to see just how lax an environment they could create, where it was legal to bring concealed firearms just about anywhere. This was the world that surrounded and buffeted a disturbed young man in Tucson named Jared Lee Loughner.

I've seen that part of Arizona. I've seen it in Wyoming, too. The anger of people who are well-to-do but who feel a strange resentment towards The Other. Those people who are wildly indignant about nearly everything because, well, because...

O.K., calm down, self. No name calling tonight.

Will Bunch does that pretty well. Although he wraps up with this hopeful note:

...maybe Arizona can dust itself off, gaze into the splendor of its big sky and see what an outsider sees, and remember what it was that brought them all to this scenic corner of America in the first place.

The promise of paradise.

Timothy Egan wrote "Tombstone Politics" for the New York Times op-ed pages. He wrote that great book on the Dust Bowl. To read his column, go here: 

Tombstone, the town, is in Giffords’s southern Arizona district, an Old West burg where shootouts are staged, bodies fall into the street, and then everybody applauds and laughs it off. Tombstone politics is the place we’ve been living in for some time now, and our guns are loaded.

We're living in a mythic cowboy West and our guns are really loaded, unlike those on "Tombstone Territory" and "Wyatt Earp" or "Gunsmoke." All Hollywood versions of Wild West shoot-em-up towns. But a fake Tombstone is one thing. A very real Tucson where deranged people fire guns at politicans?  We can't afford that.


For full text of Pres. Obama's speech, and other coverage of today's Tucson events, go here.