There's a whiff of gun-totin' vigilantism in the air, thanks to politicians like Waukesha County District Attorney Paul Bucher and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.

They think the answer to crime, and this is the crucial point -- the perception that a crime might occur -- is getting more guns in what they say are the right hands.

In Florida, that soon will include the right to open fire, arguably one of the predictable outcomes of Bucher's goal of what has called "leveling the playing field" between armed criminals and everyone else.

This breakout of macho politicking on behalf of packing heat comes at an odd time, as southeastern Wisconsin and other states have been wracked by especially gruesome gun violence, including:

• The massacre of Brookfield churchgoers at a service in a hotel conference room by a fellow parishioner who killed eight people and wounded four more.

• The suicide in West Allis of the angry litigant who had earlier killed two members of a federal judge's family in Chicago.

• The slaughter at the Red Lake Indian reservation school in Minnesota by a student who also killed his grandfather and the grandfather's companion. The weapons in the shootings included a handgun belonging to the grandfather, who was a longtime police officer.

• The shooting in Texas of a high school football coach by the hothead parent of one of the team's players.

Despite all this spilled blood -- and the routinely under-reported gun suicides, household-shooting accidents and domestic assaults -- some elected officials and the National Rifle Association are more aggressively pushing guns and armed behavior.

Bucher is heading the investigation into the Brookfield mayhem. In that incident, a mild-mannered man named Terry Ratzmann set aside his vegetable gardening and greenhouse tending to shoot up the church service with a handgun apparently purchased legally at a gun shop.

Because he and other Wisconsin district attorneys had earlier spoken out against legalizing the carrying of concealed weapons, Bucher spent a lot of time explaining why he told the Sunday, April 3 New York Times "We need to put more guns in the hands of 'law-abiding citizens,'" and that allowing concealed carry would "level the playing field. If the person you're fighting has a gun and all you have is your fists, you lose."

Level the playing field? Or turn it into a battlefield?

Time will tell.

Bucher denied he implied to The New York Times that concealed carry would have prevented or stemmed the Brookfield shootings. But his remarks set off a firestorm -- and one that was magnified -- because he is an announced Republican candidate for attorney general against the incumbent, Democrat Peg Lautenschlager.

Through a spokesman, Lautenschlager called Bucher's remarks "appalling" and a flip-flop. Another Republican challenger, former U.S. Attorney J.B. Von Hollen, issued a critical press release.

Bucher denied his views on concealed carry were inconsistent, saying he favored concealed carry with state-mandated regulations that protected law enforcement making traffic stops. Wisconsin is one of a handful of states that prohibits concealed carry.

There are three overriding problems with concealed carry, which was vetoed by Gov. Jim Doyle and which he would veto again if concealed carry passes the Legislature again.