Doyle's courage on gun issues recognized

Just in from The Gun Guys:

Governor Doyle Wins “Wings of Justice” Award

Well, it’s not official until tomorrow, but we got an early message from Buzzflash.com that they’ll be giving their “Wings of Justice” award this week to Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle, whose veto of the concealed weapons bill was previously upheld, keeping concealed weapons out of Wisconsin, and Wisconsinites safe. [UPDATE: Here's the official word.]

You shouldn’t have to be a hero for taking action to protect police officers and residents of your state, but Wisconsin Governor Jim Doyle is.

The NRA has been targeting Wisconsin as one of only four states left that don’t allow people to run around packing hidden handguns — and the police in Wisconsin want to keep their state safe from the gun lobby.

With the overwhelming support of the law enforcement community in the Badger State, Democratic Governor Jim Doyle vetoed a carried concealed handgun law passed by legislators under heat from the gun lobby. One sponsor of the gun bill even threatened that the NRA would come in and pour in money to defeat anyone that got in their way. It makes you wonder what the NRA has against our law enforcement officers.

But Governor Doyle doesn’t need a handgun to stand up to the NRA. He just used his veto power — and for the second year in a row the state assembly failed to override his courage.

Here’s what the Governor said when he vetoed the NRA’s bill, a bill that the majority of Wisconsin’s citizens were opposed to.

“The bill does not create a single job, help a single Wisconsin citizen afford health care or improve schools for a single Wisconsin child,” Doyle said in a statement. “The Legislature should spend more time trying to get jobs into our communities instead of more guns.”

And he was exactly right. The police there opposed the bill (loudly and repeatedly), the people opposed it, and Governor Doyle was right to give it the old heave-ho. We join Wings of Justice in thanking him for his part in keeping the men and women of the Wisconsin Police force safe from the tyranny of concealed weapons.