BELLEVUE, WA – Anti-gun Wisconsin Gov. Jim Doyle and Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett should financially reimburse armed robbery victims who have been left unable to defend themselves, thanks to the policies of these two politicians, the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms said today.

CCRKBA Executive Director Joe Waldron said two reports in recent days, one involving the robbery of a man by two armed men claiming to be undercover police officers, prove beyond doubt that Doyle’s veto of concealed carry legislation this year has given thugs a risk free working environment. Barrett opposed concealed carry.

“When armed outlaws are not afraid to impersonate police officers,” Waldron observed, “and can simply stop someone at gunpoint on a public street to take their money, you know the philosophy that created this mess is morally bankrupt to its core. And that moral bankruptcy rests in the offices of Mayor Barrett and Gov. Doyle.”

The other robbery, involving two apparent juveniles who drew handguns on the clerk at a Radio Shack last week, was just as brazen, Waldron said.

“Teenage thugs and bogus cops can carry guns,” Waldron said, “but not the law-abiding citizens of Wisconsin, and we can thank Jim Doyle and Tom Barrett for that. If rank-and-file Democrats truly support the right of self-defense and the right to bear arms as affirmed in the Wisconsin constitution, they should repudiate both of these men for opposing a sensible concealed carry law that would put honest people on an even footing with the criminals. As it stands now, lawbreakers have free rein to commit any outrage they please, and they know it.

“If and when the criminals who committed these crimes are apprehended,” Waldron said, “we should ask who they voted for in the last election.”

“The blame for this kind of crime lies in the governor’s office, and among the ranks of Democrats in the House and Senate who failed their responsibility to public safety by not overturning Doyle’s veto,” Waldron said. “And because we know who to blame, we know who should be held financially liable for every penny that is stolen from every shopkeeper and every citizen in Wisconsin. It’s time for Doyle and Barrett to dig into their pockets and put their money where their mouths were.”