In regards to CCW, and what it might look like in Wisconsin, go here:
http://www.wisconsinconcealedcarry.c...gislation.html
These are last year's bills, which made it out of the Assembly, but not out of the Senate. (Killed by the Dems when they had control.)
I really don't want to read through them again, but from what I remember, the permits would have been available to anyone who wanted on but:
-There was a small (around $30) fee.
-A fair amount of "logged" training was required. Somewhere on the order of 8 to 24 hours.
The idea was to not make the bar too high, but to limit the permit to the people who really wanted one, or shot on a regular basis.
The benefit to having higher restrictions is that other states are then more likely to grant reciprocity.