Skittish about letting retired police carrying guns in Wisconsin

State Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen issues his first permit. I guess that I am amazed that there is this fear about letting even police officers with 10 years experience carry concealed handguns. Sure it is possible that things can go wrong, but the odds seem so low (after all, they do let these guys carry guns when they are on duty, right?). Here you get people with law enforcement training being willing to help protect others for FREE.

Madison - Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen for the first time issued a state permit Wednesday allowing a retired investigator to carry a concealed firearm.

Van Hollen's decision lays bare the differing opinions among law enforcement agencies about whether they should - or even can - issue permits to retired officers in one of only two states that ban the general population from carrying concealed weapons.

Some local police departments have been issuing permits to carry concealed weapons for the past four years under a federal law allowing them to do so. But a host of other state and local agencies have been skittish about doing so because the Legislature has not guaranteed they would be immune from liability in a shooting or spelled out how to implement the federal law.

Among those declining to issue the permits are the Capitol Police, State Patrol, Department of Natural Resources' Law Enforcement Bureau and University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department. . . . .