Let's personify our city for a moment, and give it a New Year's resolution. What in one thing you think Milwaukee should change or improve in 2006?

E-mail us at soundoff@staff.onmilwaukee.com and if picked, we'll post your response next Sunday. Only submissions that include your full name and where you live will be considered.

Last week's question: Is it right or wrong to carry a concealed weapon?

Of course it's right for a responsible person to carry a concealed weapon. I'm sure there are places where it would be inappropriate to carry one, but a day care isn't one. You're only there to pick up or drop off, neither the children or the staff should have to see it there. Carrying in a mall is also not a bad idea, there have been incidents of people shooting up malls and other places where the public has gathered. They brought their guns there to do harm, how different would the outcome have been if one of their victims had a gun of their own? As a person whose work has taken me into high crime neighborhoods in the middle of the night, I have, on occasion, carried a gun. I've never had the need to use it, but it's better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it.
Randall Sass
Elm Grove

Anyone with an iota of intelligence realizes that a law to allow concealed weapons is intellectually, ethically, and morally WRONG! An even bigger fallacy is that a law can ban concealed weapons from churches, schools, etc. Unless every building has security screening any moron can go anywhere with a gun.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I thought I lived in a civilized society, not the Wild West. Vigilante justice will be just around the corner if people can concealed weapons. Society is heading in that direction already. No one can convince me otherwise.

Sticks and stones may break my bones but guns can really kill me.
Mary
Milwaukee

It is our constitutional right under the second amendment "to keep and bear arms." No, this law is not just for hunters. I think criminals would think twice about mugging someone if they had to guess whether or not you were armed. Burglars would also be less likely to enter your home if they knew you had a gun. I am not a gun owner but believe the citizens should be allowed to carry a concealed weapon if it makes them feel safer.
Tina Mitchell
Milwaukee

In today's society I believe all law-abiding citizens who have received proper certification should be allowed to conceal carry a firearm. It has been proven that it will cut down crime as the criminals will not know who has a way to protect themselves and thus less people will become victims.

It is also well known that the police are unable to protect us and that it is not in their job description to do so. Each of us should have the ability and tools needed to protect ourselves, our families and our property against criminals who have more rights then we do.
Thomas S. Huffine, Jr.
Kenosha

In reference to the right to carry for the State of Wisconsin, I believe that it is a right of people to carry if they choose to do so. I live in Florida and I have the right there, and do carry. If you remember back over 10 years ago there were shooting of visitors to the state of Florida, that would rent cars while they visited, and at that time rental agencies would put there advertisements on all the cars and criminals knew there is someone who is probably a tourist who will not have a weapon because they are from another state or country and they would be targeted. At some point that issue was taken care of and the crimes of that nature drastically dropped. The reason: the loser criminal didn't know again who was armed and who wasn't.
Dennis Langer
Cape Coral, Fla.

Like it or not, guns are here ... and are here to stay. Since they aren't going away, we need to figure out once and for all how to deal with them in our society. Denial will not work.
Melinda Caughill
Wauwatosa

All I see is a bloodbath.
David Zurawski
Milwaukee

The fact that this is even a question disturbs me greatly. It amazes me that people think we will be safer with more guns on the streets. Do they truly believe that more guns won't result in more gun deaths?
Chris Campbell
Milwaukee

Yes, Wisconsin should have a right to carry law. This does not mean anyone can carry. You have to pass a background check, take a class and pass a written and practical test. Florida started this movement over a decade ago and has very good success with their program.

I do believe that a lawfully armed citizen would have made a difference and saved lives in situations like the church meeting here last year, Columbine High School and 101 California Street to name a few.
Hugh Hvolboll
Waukesha

WRONG, WRONG, WRONG...Are we still living in the Old West? Who are these eejits that feel the need to carry a gun in modern society? I teach foreign nationals and they all think that Wisconsin is daft for even considering such a ludicrous idea! I second that motion! This is the 21st century! What plausible reason could any citizen, who is not a law enforcement officer, give for feeling the need to carry a gun in modern society?
Michael Krull
Milwaukee