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    Wisconsin Lawyer
    July 01, 2012

    WebXtra Article: A Brief History of Concealed Weapons in Wisconsin

    At some time in Wisconsin's history, society's perception of weapons and how they were carried changed. A person could go virtually unnoticed walking down Main Street in 1872 with a holstered weapon on his or her hip, but the same cannot be said today. While frontier folks feared concealed weapons, contemporary residents have the same reaction to openly carried weapons.

    Mark R. Hinkston

    pistol in holster gun belt

    That many more than 100,000 concealed-carry permits will be issued in Wisconsin in the first year after the Concealed Carry Law's passage belies the reality that for much of Wisconsin's 176-year history as a territory and state, there was widespread disdain for the practice of carrying concealed weapons. However, as the frontier disappeared, that sentiment surrendered to an incremental acceptance of concealed carry, in part because of modern-day Wisconsinites' widespread discomfort over openly carried firearms.

    Moral Condemnation

    On Nov. 9, 1836, just two weeks into the newly formed Wisconsin Territory's first legislative session, the newspaper of the first capital (Belmont) commented:

    Mark R. Hinkston Mark R. Hinkston, Creighton 1988 cum laude, practices as Hinkston Law Office S.C. and is of counsel to Knuteson, Powers & Quinn S.C., Racine. His practice is primarily devoted to business and construction litigation. He can be reached at mhinkston@sbcglobal.net.

    "The practice of carrying Knives and Pistols in our peaceable community, prevails to an alarming extent, and should be expressly prohibited by an act of the legislature as unlawful weapons.... A man armed at all points with deadly weapons is more apt to get into broils and difficulties than he who is unarmed, for he feels confident in his own strength, and in a sudden ebullition of passion, the dagger or pistol may be fatally used. They should be abolished by Statute;..."1

    Other mid-19th century periodicals morally condemned the concealed-carry practice as, among other things, "dangerous,"2 "cowardly,"3 "detestable and heathenish,"4 and "provocative of violence and murder."5

    People carrying concealed weapons were considered cowards because most frontier settlers believed it honorable to give foes "fair warning."6 Openly carried weapons were the accepted norm, with a holstered pistol being the recommended accoutrement for those bearing arms. Moreover, concealed weapons were perceived to perpetuate crime, "because persons becoming suddenly angered and having such a weapon in their pocket, would be likely to use it, which in their sober moments they would not have done, and which could not have been done had not the weapon been upon their person."7

    It is not surprising that early pleas for the prohibition of concealed weapons initially fell on deaf ears, perhaps partly as a result of the affection that some early leaders had for hidden weapons. Most notable in this respect was the territory's first governor, Henry Dodge. Renowned for his frontier bravery, he was a gun and bowie knife aficionado and not a stranger to the now-antiquated "sport" of dueling. (Indeed, one newspaper of the day labeled him "the leader of the Bowie Knife and Pistol party in the Territory"8).

    The most horrific concealed-weapons incident in Wisconsin's early history took place on Feb. 11, 1842. During a heated argument in the legislative chamber, legislator James Vineyard pulled a concealed pistol from his coat pocket and shot colleague (and friend) Charles Arndt to death.9 Fellow council members denounced "the practice, hitherto unknown and unsuspected, of entering the legislative halls of our Territory with deadly weapons concealed about the person" and expressed "horror and indignation" over the incident.10 Widespread public condemnation of concealed weapons followed, with one paper pronouncing that "[n]o event has ever transpired in the West, which has been productive of such deep felt mortification to the people, as the recent act of violence in the Capitol of this Territory."11 Vineyard subsequently was acquitted of manslaughter by a jury and elected to the State Assembly in 1849. No doubt buoyed by such good fortune, he ultimately joined the Gold Rush in California, where he remained until his death in 1863.

    Following the Arndt shooting, there was growing sentiment that the territorial legislature should pass an act prohibiting concealed weapons.12 But a legislative response was slow in coming, perhaps a result of the impending obligations attendant to Wisconsin's 1848 transition to statehood, the persistent belief of some people that "moral condemnation alone" could ultimately eviscerate the practice of concealed carry,13 and the fact that some of the period's prominent leaders were still themselves enamored with pistols and bowie knives.

    Eventually, on Feb. 14, 1872, legislators enacted Wisconsin's first law banning the concealed carry of weapons. There was meager mention of the law when it passed in 1872, save a legal notice or two, and a dearth of records chronicling lawmakers' motives. Today we presume that the law was passed to preserve life by putting others on notice of dangerous weapons and reduce the occurrence of impulsive and emotionally provoked tragedies allegedly inherent when a person is allowed to have a hidden weapon at the ready.14

    Perhaps because of the somewhat misleading "Wild West" allegory that has crept into modern conceptualization of the 19th-century frontier (especially with respect to weapons and crime),15 one might assume that a spike in violence must have precipitated the law. In actuality, violent crime had been on the decline, leading then Gov. Cadwallader C. Washburn to announce that "[h]appiness and peace have been found throughout all our borders. The state was never more free from crime."16 (He in fact boasted that "no State in this Union can boast greater exemption from crime than Wisconsin."17)

    Washburn attributed this to a "high toned public sentiment, which causes the violated laws to be promptly vindicated."18 As such, the law was more a moral edict against the then-perceived evils of concealed carry and less a measure to tangibly fight violent crime.

    20th Century Crime Increase: The Modern Dilemma

    The law against concealed weapons did not ipso facto result in an immediate or precipitous decline in the practice of carrying concealed weapons or related crime. (In 1877, five years after the law's passage, an Eau Claire newspaper noted: "The custom of carrying firearms and other concealed weapons is one that is becoming alarmingly common in society, and it is not confined to those classes who may justly be styled criminals").19

    The freedom from crime of which Gov. Washburn boasted did not last. With a surge in crime during the ensuing decades, the "high toned public sentiment" he and others bragged about20 gave way to a more pragmatic, less rhetorical attitude toward crime. Perhaps realizing that moral gumption (and bare knuckles) alone could not stem the modern crime wave, citizens increasingly signaled the need for self-defense.21 Modern criminals proved to be far more numerous, brazen, and ingenious than their frontier predecessors.22 Their cache was not limited to concealed weapons; the rudimentary pistols and bowie knives of yore were replaced by, among others, readily available revolvers and semi-automatic weapons, with often far more devastating consequences.

    In 1915, common councils of Wisconsin cities were given authority "to regulate or prohibit carrying" of dangerous weapons.23 Thereafter, and in contradiction to today's common belief that the state had a continuous 139-year ban on concealed weapons, various communities passed ordinances giving their local police chiefs authority to issue concealed-carry permits to individuals, such as couriers or bank messengers, who had a need to carry a concealed weapon for self-defense.24 Although the law allowing municipal-gun-permit issuance was repealed in 1921, several communities continued to allow the discretionary issuance of concealed-carry permits for several years thereafter.25 However, by the 1950s, most communities had ended the practice, many believing that the ever-growing strength and efficacy of modern law enforcement could minimize any increased need for self-defense.

    The decades preceding the ultimate approval of carrying concealed weapons (with license) were marked by a steady erosion of the moral disdain of the practice and a recognition that society's perception of weapons and how they were carried was one of innumerable things that have changed over the years. While a person could go virtually unnoticed walking down Main Street in 1872 with a holstered weapon on his or her hip, the same cannot be said 140 years later. The same fear that Wisconsin's frontier citizens had of concealed weapons is exhibited by contemporary residents when they see openly carried weapons. At some indeterminable time in Wisconsin's history, there was a change, and citizens began to fear openly carried weapons more than concealed weapons. This in part paved the way for passage of the new Concealed Carry Law.

    Endnotes

    1 Belmont Gazette, Nov. 9, 1836.

    2Deadly Weapons, Wis. Argus, Sept. 23, 1845, at 2.

    3Carrying Weapons, Lancaster Wis. Herald, Dec. 11, 1845, at 2.

    4 Green Bay Republican, Feb. 26, 1842.

    5A Wicked Practice, Galesville Transcript, May 11, 1860, at 5.

    6Carrying Concealed Weapons, Eau Claire Daily Free Press, May 24, 1877 ("The frontiersman who holds his life in his hands carries his weapon openly and gives fair warning to his enemy that he is prepared for attack.").

    7State v. Chippey, 33 A. 438 (Del. 1892). See also State v. Walls, 190 Wis. 2d 65, 71, 526 N.W.2d 765 (Ct. App. 1994).

    8Henry Dodge, Sentinel & Farmer, Feb. 26, 1842, at 2.

    9 For an excellent account of the tragic incident, see M.M. Quaife, Wisconsin's Saddest Tragedy, Wis. Mag. of Hist., vol. V, no. 1, 264-83 (Sept. 1921).

    10 Wis. Enquirer, Feb. 23, 1842, at 1.

    11The Blood Stained Capitol of Wisconsin, S. Port Telegraph, Feb. 22, 1842, at 2.

    12Public Meeting at Green Bay, S. Port Telegraph, March 22, 1842, at 2 (resolving in part "[t]hat the Legislature be requested at its next session, to pass an act containing adequate penalties and prohibiting a practice the existence of which is at once an evidence of a loose state of morals, acts as an incentive to the commission of crime, and is in every way degrading and disgraceful to a civilized and free people").

    13 Galesville Transcript, supra note 5 ("If society would but place its unfailing and irremovable ban upon all who use or carry concealed weapons, they would soon be abandoned. It is moral condemnation alone that can extinguish this wicked practice.").

    14See State v. Hamdan, 2003 WI 113, ¶¶ 55-56, 264 Wis. 2d 433, 665 N.W.2d 785 (noting that "perhaps the most significant inspiration for CCW laws" is "to put people on notice when they are dealing with an individual who is carrying a dangerous weapon"; other rationales are that concealed weapons facilitate crime by catching people off guard, and CCW laws "stigmatize socially malfeasant behavior").

    15 This is no doubt attributable in part to Hollywood's exaggerated portrayal of the American West in popular 1950s television shows and movies as an unlawful frontier where the "black hats" (gunslingers, gamblers, and criminals) and "white hats" (lawmen) perpetually clashed. In reality, as noted by historian William Eugene Hollon, "the Western frontier was a far more civilized, more peaceful, and safer place than American society today." Frontier Violence: Another Look, at x (1974).

    16 Second Annual Message of Cadwallader C. Washburn, Governor of Wisconsin, Delivered at the Twenty-sixty Annual Session of the Legislature of the State of Wisconsin, Assembled in Joint Convention, Jan. 9, 1873, at 1.

    17Id. at 16.

    18Id.

    19See Eau Claire Daily Free Press, supra note 6.

    20See, e.g., T.W. Phelps, The Value of Good Manners, 11 J. of Ed. 492 (1881) ("Proclamations of mayors of cities or even stringent laws against carrying concealed weapons will have no effect in suppressing the evil.").

    21See, e.g., Racine Daily J., July 10, 1900, at 4 ("Why should one class of laboring men be fined for carrying concealed weapons and another class go unmolested? When men are unsafe they are certainly entitled to protect themselves."); Racine Daily J., July 18, 1905, at 12 ("It is generally the men of the worst character who carry concealed weapons. The peaceable, law-abiding citizen as a rule has to rely upon the defense that nature gave him if it comes to a matter of blows, but the tough citizen always has a knife or pistol ready to pull whether the provocation be great or small.").

    22See Arming for Criminals, Oshkosh Daily Northwestern, March 21, 1929, at 10 ("When the frontier disappeared and people congregated in large numbers in industrial centers the gun was taken with them. Police officers, realizing that guns were available to criminals, armed themselves. Criminals, willing to outdo police officers in armament, adopted the machine gun as well as the sawed-off shotgun, rifle, pistol and bombs. Now the police squads are similarly armed and the lives of policemen are constantly menaced as they strive to maintain order and bring to justice those who have committed crimes.").

    23Governor Signs Measures, Grand Rapids Daily Leader, May 3, 1915, at 3 ("Among bills signed by the governor were the Weissleder bill conferring authority upon common councils of cities to regulate or prohibit carrying of any pistol, revolver, bowie knife, dagger or other dangerous weapons"). The law (Wis.Stat. § 959-70g) provided: "The council of any city however organized is authorized and empowered to regulate or prohibit the carrying or wearing by any person, under his or her clothes, or concealed about his or her person, of any pistol or revolver, or slung shot, or cross knuckles, or knuckles of lead, brass or other metal, or bowie knife, dirk knife, or dirk or dagger, or any other dangerous or deadly weapon, and to provide for the confiscation or sale of such confiscated weapons, and to provide for the punishment by imprisonment of persons who shall carry any such weapons."

    24If You Want to Carry Revolver Get Permit, Racine J.-News, March 7, 1916; Citizens May Be Permitted to Carry Weapons, Racine J.-News, Feb. 2, 1916 ("In the past, employees of large factories who are obliged to call at banks for large sums of money, especially on pay days, have applied to the chief of police for permits to carry a revolver, and while some times permission was given, it was unlawful and the ordinance will cover this important matter."

    25See, e.g., Gun Toters Discouraged Here; Only 2 Permits in 8 Years, Racine J.-Times, Feb. 6, 1946, at 5.


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