Shotgun
Wisconsin Carry, Inc.
Nobody campaigned harder for passage of the ill fated Personal Protection Act than Gene German. He and I as well as Dick Baker and I exchanged a number of emails on the subjects of open vs concealed carry, training requirements, cost of training as well as other issues. Now he wants to disavow his participation by passing the ball to Dick Baker. Gene was just as intent in getting SB-214(2003) and SB-403 (2005) passed as anyone involved. Dick Baker as lead of WCCA was very involved and dedicated to conceal carry. As a result of all the emails I exchanged with him I got to respect his honesty and opinions even though I disagreed with his ideas. He, German, Rep Gunderson, Sen Zien, NRA and Mike Bruhn all poo-pooed my idea that Hamdan gave us the right to open carry and that the Personal Protection Act was not needed. Now Gene wants to take credit for the open carry movement? We all know that the credit belongs to nik, Hubert, Jesus, Brad, As well as many other proactive members of OCDO, those that said and say "This is my constitutional right. Get out of my face". As ccwinstructor German has been posting as a profound supporter of open carry and I applaud him for that but my recollection of things gone by don't co-incide with his words of today. If he wants to join the "movement" as an active supporter of WCI and give credit where credit is due, welcome aboard. If he wants to take the credit for the open carry movement then "get off the wagon". I still have those emails.
My recollection, and I may still have old emails too-- I proposed using open carry as leverage to get CC years ago, before the PPA was stopped in its tracks, and Dick and the PPA movement guys resisted the idea. They seemed to believe it would backfire as a political tactic.