No conclusion in ongoing gun debate, just as intended

Does the right of citizens to carry guns fuel crime or help stop it?

That’s the ongoing debate surrounding so-called concealed carry legislation around the country and it’s not likely to be settled anytime soon because in many states, the law makes it difficult to analyze data.

In Wisconsin, for example, a third of the gun permits issued revoked last year were revoked because of criminal activity, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel today. And some police departments are objecting to a provision in that state’s law that prohibits police from sorting crime data by whether the criminal had a gun permit.

“The law directly contradicts efforts to be data-driven: it expressly prohibits police agencies and the State of Wisconsin from describing the impact — both good and bad — of our concealed carry law,” the Milwaukee police department said in a statement.

The police union there isn’t so sure.

Both sides in the debate have plenty of anecdotal data to prove their position, the paper says.

The situation is as murky on occasion in Minnesota. When reporters inquired whether a man who carried out a 2012 Minneapolis workplace rampage that killed five people had obtained his gun legally, the police department there claimed the law prevented it from saying.