Posted on 11/22/2005 4:41:17 PM PST by SJackson
“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 (choff@badgerherald.com) 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
Until Austin King has a gun pointed at his head, he probably won’t appreciate that whole nutty “right to protect yourself” idea.Is that ever the truth.
Finally, something right of center (For Madison Standards)!
Correction - the state should allow *every law-abiding citizen* to carry guns.
A gun pointed at the back of your head is hard to trump. Better to give up the money and live then play cowboy.
That's what we do in Texas, now. Thanks to this year's congress.
You summed it up better than me!!
My first thought too. But that lone-American-citizen cabbie drives in Denver, and he's quite the conversationalist too. The rest don't bath regularly.
I live in Texas, so I know about that. I like it a lot. :)
We actually have Americans driving cabs in Dallas. Something about INS/ICE getting suspicious when applicants were arriving at their office and getting out of cabs driven by illegal family memebers...
Carry in a shoulder holster and shoot through the seat - saw that done once by a Ft. Worth cabby. In Texas, you are also allowed to shoot the fleeing robber, so you can give him your money, let him start running, then send a lead messenger after him.
"Look, live game!"
Does anyone know Feingold's voting record on the
AWB?
He voted against the extension last year. I believe he voted for it in 1994. Supported it before he opposed it.
Better late than never I suppose...
Not worth your life for a few bucks....
However, once he's clear of the cab one should have the ability to light his ass up or even better, pancake the SOB.
The cabbie in question had a legal short-barrel shotgun. With the diffusion that that thing had, you'd shred anyone in the back seat behind the driver. But yes, one should be able to stop the fleeing felon.
However, I advise you to NOT use your vehicle as a weapon unless nothing else presents itself. Do you have *any* idea how hard it is to get blood out of modern paint? And blood is horribly corrosive to chrome and metal. You *know* the cops won't let you wash your car until after the stuff has dried, too.
Yeah, but the hair and other body matter embedded in the grill will keep other pedestrians out of the way which leads to faster trips, larget tips and more total trips.
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