Permitless Concealed Weapons May Be Coming To Wisconsin

MADISON, WI — Wisconsin lawmakers are debating a broad proposal that would allow people to carry firearms without getting training or state permits, result in more guns in schools and on school grounds, and lower penalties for people who illegally carry guns in places where firearms are currently verboten.

The proposal drew heated debate in a hearing Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary and Public Safety Committee, especially from Democrats who said repealing school gun-free-zone legislation would endanger students. A state license to carry a concealed weapon would still be required to bring firearms on school property, unless school officials prohibit them.

School officials and lobbyists vehemently opposed the provision, which supporters said would give legal protections to parents and grandparents who carry concealed weapons, but forget they need to leave them at home when they’re on school property. Under current law, the unauthorized carry of a concealed weapon is a felony, but that would be reduced to a civil fine under the new proposal.

Wisconsin Association of School Boards lobbyist Dan Rossmiller said there are better ways to address those concerns, the Wisconsin State Journal reported. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Madison Patch, or click here to find your local Wisconsin Patch. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

“Simply put, the majority of my members believe that guns and children are not a good mix,” he said.

“You are taking one of the few safe places we have and turning it into a war zone,” Madison school board member Niki Vander Meulen said of Senate Bill 169.

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The proposal to eliminate training requirements also drew fire.

Sen. Lena Taylor, a Milwaukee Democrat, said she voted for the 2011 law that allowed Wisconsin residents to carry concealed weapons, eliminating training requirements crossed “one of those lines in the sand,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

“I think people have a right to carry,” Taylor said, “but I believe that some levels of restriction are appropriate.”

Wisconsin’s right-to-carry law has a low threshold for training, and it’s working well, supporters said. They included Michael Stewart, a firearms dealer and president of the Wisconsin Firearms Owners, Ranges, Clubs, Educators group. He said he’s confident that even if it isn’t required, people who carry concealed weapons will seek training.

Former police officer Sen. Van Wanggaard, a Racine Republican, admitted to carrying a concealed weapon at the hearing. “This bill does not say you can't get training,” Wanggaard, a former police officer, said. “I personally think that if someone is going to carry they should get some training.”

The Wisconsin Department of Justice said 356,660 concealed carry license applications have been approved since the 2011 law was enacted, and 12,403 have been denied.

Photo by George Frey/Getty Images News/Getty News