Wisconsin liberals, like an (over) educated uncle at the Thanksgiving dinner table lecturing everyone on the cultural ramifications from the upheaval of the indigenous people, are not a fair representation of our state. For the most part, the Wisconsin residents I know and have lived among my entire life are more common-sensed, calm, rational people willing to discuss facts and engage in spirited debate, respectfully.

At the top of the totem pole of WI liberals reign the professors within the University of Wisconsin System, and in respect to the current gun debate being waged in my beloved Dairy State, it’s no surprise they’ve taken their elitist demagoguery to a whole new level.

University of Wisconsin professor Bill Tracy was quoted at Madison.com that ‘if students could campus carry, faculty would fear getting shot during disputes over grades’ and claims to have overheard a colleague say, “I guess I’ll just give everybody A’s.”

Tracy, an agronomy professor at UW-Madison, says the Republican-lead push to allow concealed carry on Wisconsin campuses has caused “tremendous anxiety” among the faculty.

Even more ridiculous is what one professor is spouting from my own backyard. UW-Green Bay professor Chuck Rybak took to his personal blog last week to talk about his irrational fear of guns, a Twitter exchange with Representative Jim Steineke (R-Kaukauna), and how he is now unable perform his duties, as he is too preoccupied with his obsession of imagining a gun in every backpack.

https://twitter.com/ChuckRybak/status/653714738204024832

@ChuckRybak @SpeakerVos Do you focus well when you're walking around town? Concealed carry legal in public in WI #NotTheWildWest #wiright

— Jim Steineke (@jimsteineke) October 13, 2015

https://twitter.com/ChuckRybak/status/653725548242436096

@ChuckRybak @SpeakerVos How many concealed carry holders in WI have been convicted of gun crimes since we passed CC? Hint: it's a round #

— Jim Steineke (@jimsteineke) October 13, 2015

https://twitter.com/ChuckRybak/status/653726646411857920

@ChuckRybak @SpeakerVos Understood, but it doesn't make you safer. It makes you an easier target.

— Jim Steineke (@jimsteineke) October 13, 2015

https://twitter.com/ChuckRybak/status/653727692978786304

@ChuckRybak Respect your feelings. Do you respect those that wish to protect themselves? Aren't you putting your needs in front of theirs?

— Jim Steineke (@jimsteineke) October 13, 2015

https://twitter.com/ChuckRybak/status/653729223065108480

@ChuckRybak I know you do, and thank you for that

— Jim Steineke (@jimsteineke) October 13, 2015

I reached out to Representative Steineke this morning, and as expected, he could not have been more respectful of Rybek, saying, “I regularly have exchanges with constituents so that I can learn more about their positions and they can learn more about mine. In this case, we have a disagreement because it seems Prof. Rybak believes that his fear of guns trumps his students’ and fellow faculty members’ right to self defense. I disagree. I heard similar fears before we passed the state wide concealed carry law and, unlike some believed initially, Wisconsin hasn’t turned into the ‘Wild West’. What it boils down to for me is the fact that I don’t believe anyone has the right to deny anyone else’s right to defend themselves. I respect Prof. Rybak’s opinion but on this one, we disagree.”

Rybak had a much different view of their Twitter discussion, saying Representative Steineke ‘immediately dehumanized’ or ‘politicized’ the debate by including the hashtag #WIRight in one of his responses. Professor Rybak also claims Steineke implied Rybak and ‘people who object to guns and refuse to carry them or be near those who do’ are ‘defective’, even twisting Steineke’s implied meaning of ‘easier target’.

Rybak’s blog, which begins with the professor admitting “I am afraid of guns.” and claiming he physically moves away from a police officer if the officer stands too close to him, is a long winded attempt to convince his nine subscribers that his view on guns is not being heard or represented here in Wisconsin. This is a wildly false assertion by the professor and one he disproves in his own blog not only by posting the exchange with Representative Steineke in which his concerns were clearly heard, but also by providing a photographic evidence of his meeting with Wisconsin Represeative Robin Vos which took place after Vos accepted Rybak’s invitation to meet over pizza.

Incredibly, he even went as far as posting an outdated picture from downtown Green Bay featuring two proponents of open carry walking past the courthouse. The incident, which occurred in the summer of 2013, was used as a deranged opening for Rybak to rhetorically ask, “I don’t really see anything concealed about the weapons above, so I guess the AR-15 will be welcome into classrooms as well?” (The men were stopped by police and permitted to continue on their way and open carry is legal here in Wisconsin)

The professor then dove into two stories in which he claims to have lost friends to murder from gun violence. Since he declined to provide their names, we can not confirm the stories. However, both examples Rybak shared were incidents in which nothing could have protected the victims (the first cited was a cab driver shot in the back of the head during an armed robbery and the second a woman sitting in a bar in California, hit by a stray bullet from a drive-by) and neither sound like the work of a deranged concealed carry permit holding gun owner.

Returning to the present campus carry debate, Rybak laments, “When I used to see students running on campus, I assumed they were late for class; it used to make me smile. But now—and this happened as recently as yesterday—I see a student running and my body clenches, I look around for other movement. I don’t ask what they are running to, but what they are running from.”

Rep. Jesse Kremer, a sponsor of the bill which would allow concealed carry permit holders to carry guns on Wisconsin campuses, said “The unfortunate reality is that campus gun-free zones merely serve to concentrate populations of vulnerable targets on campus and surrounding areas….We won’t be providing a steady stream of defenseless, unarmed victims around these universities.”

Rybak took aim at Kremer’s assertion that unarmed victims are “defenseless” and his long-winded meandering blog concluded with this statement: “I am a teacher. I am good at my job and want to continue doing that job for the state of Wisconsin. Just because I do not, and will not, carry a weapon does not mean that I am “defenseless.” The best defense I’ve ever had in this world and life is my education, and I’d much rather die with a book in my hand than a gun. I know that sounds stupid to many who might read this, but it’s true, and I’m hardly the exception.”

This is the rationale of the Wisconsin liberal. The 3100+ word blog has so many holes in it, it actually smells like Swiss Cheese. I honestly don’t know if Bearing Arms has the bandwidth to upload my entire response to this ignorant, pontificating, emotionally-charged diatribe, as it is completely void of fact based arguments yet so rife with rhetorical questions, it would almost be impossible to adequately respond to it. Not that he’d read it anyway.

Let me try to break it down in the most simple of terms:

• If Professor Rybak doesn’t want to carry, he doesn’t have to.
• If UW students or faculty wish to carry, they should not be oppressed due to the irrational fears of one person.
• As Rybak admits by sharing stories of murdered friends: bad things happen. Bad people do bad things.
• Therefore, we wish to carry in order to protect ourselves, and those around us, should these bad people show up at our doorstep or on our campus or in our classrooms.

The bottom line in his whole plea to Wisconsin politicians revolves around the very first statement he made in his blog: “I am afraid of guns.” It’s obvious that Rybak honestly believes that his fear usurps everyone else’s right to self defense, and he’s not the only one.

Thus, there are currently two Wisconsins at play in the campus carry debate. One that believes the right to life includes the right to self defense, and one that believes no one should be able to defend themselves. This is one Wisconsin resident that hopes that all sides will be heard, but that our God-given rights, protected by the Constitution, will prevail.