Crime Fighter wants gun law revisions
By Steven Dale Greenlee
2-2-04
WISCONSIN DELLS -- Crime fighter John Walsh of the television show "Most Wanted" calls the Wisconsin conceal and carry weapons law a bad idea that should be rejected.
"I think it's a poorly written law," Walsh said during a press conference at the Sheriff's and Deputies Association conference that got underway Sunday in Wisconsin Dells.
He urged Wisconsinites to contact their legislators and insist that the bill be rewritten before it goes into law. Walsh said that people should "get past all that NRA bulls---" and put aside all the emotion that has been generated with the cry that 2nd Amendment rights are being violated.
"No one can take away your right to bear arms," he said.
Two dozen law enforcement officials attending the press conference at the Wisconsin Dells Howard Johnson erupted in applause and shouts of agreement. Among Walsh's concern was that the law was put together in a "hodge-podge" fashion and contains loopholes that may let people get a permit who shouldn't carry a gun.
To better protect the public, county sheriffs should try to forge alliances with television stations to create local "Most Wanted" shows that profile fugitives and encourages the public to call in with tips, Walsh said. A similar "Crime Stopper" show in Tacoma, Wash. helped capture 300 fugitives last year.
He also talked up the Amber Alert system that took Walsh six years to get passed on a federal level. He criticized the television media for being "resistant" to the idea of interrupting programming to issue Amber Alert bulletins until it was mandated by federal law.
Police issued an Amber Alert in the area Saturday for two missing children who had been abducted by their father. He was later captured in Illinois, but the alert warned he may be headed for Wisconsin Dells or Milwaukee.
While urban area crimes seem to get the most media attention, Walsh reminded rural Wisconsin and small towns like Wisconsin Dells that child molesters often target these areas.
Rural residents' "belief that they can be isolated from crime is wrong," he said.
"Anyone can be a crime victim," he said. "Every week I turn down a 100 cases from rural, small communities. Lots of pedophiles know that it is much easier to kidnap a kid in rural community... because that type of a crime because the police are so stretched out and the kids are much more naive."
Rapists and molesters most often "operate" in rural areas, not big cities, warned Walsh, whose own six-year old son Adam was raped and murdered 22 years ago.
Walsh gave a keynote address to over 350 sheriffs and deputies, and representatives from other law enforcement organizations such as the U.S. Marshal's Service, State Patrol and the Criminal Investigation Division. He said afterward that he urged them all to work cooperatively in preventing crime as well as catching criminals.
Sauk County Sheriff Randy Stammen said Walsh was asked to motivate and energize the law officers and "he did just that."
One issue the Sheriffs Association is focusing on is sharing information among departments better, he said.
While the fiscal environment is better than in years past, the sheriff said it was still a challenge to police Sauk County and in particular Wisconsin Dells with its heavy influx of tourists in the summer. It is especially taxing for the police departments of Lake Delton and Wisconsin Dells, he said.
"I don't how they survive the summer," he said.
Walsh, whose TV show "Most Wanted" has been on air for 16 years, said it is hard to capture terrorists, but no less difficult than to navigate the politics of Capitol Hill.
It took years to get the Amber Alert law passed "when it should have took less than one," and he has other pieces of legislation he has wanted to get passed for more than 20 years.
His latest effort is to get a constitutional victim's rights amendment through Congress.
"(It) would give victims the same rights as criminals," Walsh said.
http://baraboo.scwn.com/articles/2004/02/02/news/news3.txt
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