A new survey of Wisconsin voters shows the state's concealed carry law is more popular than ever, while opposition continues to crater.
According to the most recent Marquette Law School poll, the vast majority of Wisconsin residents say they back being able to bear arms in self-defense.. with even a majority of Democrats expressing their approval.
About 77% of poll respondents favor concealed carry permits, including large majorities of Republicans and Independents and a modest majority of Democrats.
But those same respondents strongly oppose efforts to do away with the permits entirely, commonly referred to as “constitutional carry,” with a majority saying gun owners should still be required to take a firearms safety class and pay a fee to carry a hidden weapon. About 78% of respondents said they didn’t want to see permitless concealed carry, including 72% of Republicans, 60% of independents and 90% of Democrats.
Just 22% of respondents were opposed to concealed carry; a significant decline since Marquette Law School polled the same question back in 2016. A decade ago 63% of survey respondents supported concealed carry, but about one-third of those polled objected to being able to bear arms.
Keep in mind that Wisconsin was one of the last states in the nation to adopt a concealed carry law. It seems hard to believe, but it wasn't until 2011 that then-Gov. Scott Walker signed a "shall issue" bill into law; three years after the Supreme Court issued its decision in Heller confirming that the right to keep and bear arms is an individual right and not one subject to service in a militia. While there were still about a dozen "may issue" states at that time, only Wisconsin and Illinois had a complete prohibition on bearing arms.
In the first six months of the law's existence, more than 100,000 concealed carry licenses were issued; a number that grew to 300,000 by 2016. Today there are more than 460,000 active concealed carry licenses in the state, accounting for about 10% of the adult population.
The fact that the vast majority of Wisconsites support concealed carry even though most of them are not currently exercising their right to bear arms is significant. Despite predictions of Wild West-style shootouts in parking lots and businesses, concealed carry hasn't led to anarchy or a wave of violence. Wisconsin residents can see for themselves that the law hasn't made the state a more dangerous place, and that helps to explain why even a (small) majority of Democrats now support the law.
What about the majority opposition to permitless carry in the Marquette Law School poll? Honestly, it's a little higher than what we've seen in other states that were debating the issue, but I suspect that if Constitutional Carry became the law of the land in the Badger State today, within five to ten years it too would see majority support. The same doom-and-gloom predictions about permitless carry were used against "shall issue" carry laws, and they're just as unfounded today as they were decades ago.
While the Marquette Law School poll focuses exclusively on Wisconsin, my guess is that similar numbers can be found in almost every state save for those where "shall issue" became the law of the land after the Supreme Court struck down "may issue" laws in 2022. Give it enough time, though, and residents in places like California and Maryland will see that there's nothing to fear from our fundamental right to armed self-defense.
Groups like Everytown for Gun Safety still want to limit the carriage of firearms as much as they can, but an utter prohibition is off the table... and not just because the Supreme Court says so. The gun control lobby lost the legal fight over concealed carry three years ago, but it lost in the court of public opinion long before then.
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