Turner has unique perspective on conceal-carry debate

By Tom Sheehan

Monday, November 7, 2005 2:03 AM CST

It was bound to be a conversation killer, but I had to ask Bob Turner whether he'd ever shot someone.

After hemming and hawing a bit, I nervously got the words out. I knew also that the answer wouldn't be easy for Turner, a Democratic state representative from Racine. I had just spent about an hour talking with Turner, mostly about guns.

Turner, who serves on the Assembly Committee on Justice and Homeland Security, had taken a break from a state Capitol hearing on a bill that would lift Wisconsin's 133-year-old ban on concealed weapons.

Turner ducked out after several hours and hearing stories from `'real people'' who testified. He said he's already heard most of the "experts'' and pro-con arguments on the bill, which has been introduced repeatedly for more than a decade.

It's safe to say Turner likes guns.

As a U.S. Air Force military police officer in Vietnam, he carried a .38-caliber handgun and an M-16 rifle. When he returned home from the service, he carried a concealed gun at times on the streets of Racine. Back in the 1970s, it was legal for an alderman from a city of the second class, such as Racine, to carry with permission from the police chief, Turner said.

Turner said he packed heat back home because he felt naked without a sidearm. And as a former NRA member, one of his favorite benefits of membership was browsing weapons in the periodicals he received, Turner said.

But he doesn't think arming more people on the street is a good idea, and he'll vote against the bill when it gets to the Assembly floor. The majority of his constituents don't support it, and more guns will likely lead to more violence, he said.

Criminals will be more violent, not knowing whether a potential victim or witness is armed. People who are armed also are less likely to back down from a routine conflict, such as a road rage incident, Turner said.

Turner also doesn't like the idea of people carrying guns in public places, especially where heated debate is likely to occur, such as local- or state-government meetings.

Of course, those are all logic-based arguments, and supporters of the bill contend otherwise. But the issue clearly goes deeper than logic for Turner.

Some of the stories he heard at the hearing about young people dying from gunshots reminded him of friends he lost in Vietnam - part of the reason he said he needed a break from the hearing.

Out of his class of about 400 MPs, only about half returned home, he said. That's not a good statistic for a group never intended to head into field combat. He said he has only been able to talk about his Vietnam experience during the past five years, and he winced and turned away during an interview so tears wouldn't show.

The connection between his war experience and the concealed carry proposal may not be clear to some people. But to Turner, bullets hits everyone about the same way, resulting in similar physical and emotional trauma.

When he casts his vote on concealed carry, Turner will be among a few legislators who have experienced the aftermath of shootings from either side of a gun.

Turner said he's never shot anyone up close, but he "probably'' killed people while serving in Vietnam. Of course, it's difficult assessing who shot whom in battle, Turner said. Sometimes he thought he could see the action-reaction relationship from firing his M-16 at the enemy, but the evidence wasn't clear.

"You start blasting, but you can't see because of the bushes and stuff, so you just create a fire zone,'' Turner said.

Contact Tom Sheehan at: tsheehan@madison.com

or by phone at (608) 252-6198.

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