From UW-Madison to presidential campaigns, guns are appearing as a leading issue in 2008, according to political observers.
Eric Thompson, president of the gun supplier TGSCOM Inc., said he would donate hundreds of gun holsters to colleges around the country next week.
The holsters will be used by Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, including the UW-Madison chapter, for events protesting a state ban on concealed weapons.
Thompson, whose online stores sold weapons to the attackers in the shootings at Virginia Tech and Northern Illinois University, said trained students with guns might have prevented the tragedies.
He said support for concealed carry bills is increasing, though they would unlikely be signed by Gov. Jim Doyle. The governor vetoed concealed carry bills in 2003 and 2006, with Wisconsin as one of two states in the country with laws banning it.
Several other prominent politicians also recently stated their opposition to loosening gun laws.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said in his inaugural address Tuesday that state lawmakers must work harder to toughen laws on the sales of illegal guns.
Eileen Force, a spokesperson for Barrett, said the mayor is not concerned with recreational gun owners or sportsmen, but views it as a violent crime issue.
“In the last two weeks we’ve probably had three police officers shot at with what are probably illegal guns,” Force said.
She said Barrett is opposed to concealed carry and fewer guns would make Milwaukee safer.
However, recent comments by presidential candidates show guns remain a politically volatile issue, according to campaign onlookers.
U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., has been criticized for stating rural voters in Pennsylvania are “bitter” and “cling” to issues like guns or religion in difficult economic times.
Ken Goldstein, UW-Madison political science professor, said guns are now being focused because U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., wants to appeal to more moderate or rural voters in the upcoming Pennsylvania primary.
He said Clinton was making this effort despite “not a dime’s worth of difference” between her and Obama’s voting records on guns.
The Supreme Court currently debating second amendment rights is also likely to bring more attention on guns, according to UW-Madison political science professor Ken Mayer, but the Democratic presidential candidates might want to avoid the issue.
“Both candidates recognize that for the Democrats the gun control issue is largely a loser,” Mayer said.
