After a shooting last Saturday at a Wisconsin mall, a state representative has said citizens holding concealed carry gun permits could “clean our society of these scumbags” by taking “careful aim”.
“Wisconsin does not have a death penalty law, but with significant practice and careful aim, law-abiding citizens can help clean our society of these scumbags,” Republican state representative Bob Gannon wrote in a Monday news release.
The release was first posted on the Wheeler Report, a clearinghouse for Wisconsin political news.
Gannon’s office published the statement in response to a shooting that occurred over the weekend at East Town Mall when two groups of male teenagers started arguing. One of the teenagers shot a gun during the dispute, but no one was killed.
Gannon, who has a concealed carry permit, said he has never been to the mall because he will not shop anywhere that bans guns.
“Criminals no longer have any fear of our courts or our prisons, so it’s time that the citizens of this fine state stand up and fight back,” Gannon said. “A gang banger in the mall with a gun is going to think twice if there could be a law-abiding CCW holder standing behind them fully prepared to shoot center mass, as this is how you’re trained to eliminate the threat these creeps pose to you, your family, and all law-abiding citizens unwillingly dragged into their public crime spree.”
When asked whether his comments went too far, Gannon told reporters that he was not calling for vigilantism, but “self-defense”.
His Democratic colleagues quickly struck down his remarks. “Representative Gannon is living in a James Bond dream world,” said state representative Chris Taylor. “It’s simply a terrible idea,” said state representative Jonathan Brostoff.
Gannon said the mall shooting is an example of why the state legislature should pass AB 363 – which would allow students and faculty to carry concealed weapons inside public universities, where guns are currently allowed on campus, but not inside buildings.
But studies have shown that defensive gun use does not usually make people safer. Some sociologists have attributed the rush to buy guns after a shooting to masculinity issues in the US.
Social worker and researcher, Alankaar Sharma, told Quartz that the patriarchal system provides men with “a clear and justifiable reason to own guns”.
