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Legal Issues Concerning Martial Artist
Trading shots - Concealed-carry gun bill draws strong opinions, By Steven Walters
From the Nov. 3, 2005, editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Madison, WI - The first shots in the renewed fight for a concealed weapons law in Wisconsin were fired in the Capitol on Wednesday, with both sides speaking for hours at a public hearing on the emotional issue.
Sponsors and backers, including a Texas lawmaker whose parents were among 23 victims shot to death in a restaurant in 1991, said Wisconsin would be safer if residents 21 and older could carry concealed guns and other weapons.
But opponents, including Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett, a Milwaukee police inspector and a leader of the Wisconsin Police Chiefs Association, said the new version of the bill is unworkable and unneeded.
The concealed weapons companion bills (SB 403 / AB 763) are expected to start moving quickly through the Legislature. The Senate Judiciary, Corrections and Privacy Committee will vote this week, said its chairman, Sen. Dave Zien (R-Eau Claire), a co-sponsor of the measure.
"We all deserve the right to defend ourselves," Zien said. His committee and the Assembly's Criminal Justice and Homeland Security Committee held the joint hearing Wednesday.
"There is no doubt that criminals prefer to prey on the unprepared," said Rep. Scott Gunderson (R-Waterford), the Assembly sponsor of the proposal.
He said that 46 states have some form of concealed weapons laws. The last Wisconsin push for such a law failed in 2004 when legislators could not override the veto of Democratic Gov. Jim Doyle.
Gunderson said safeguards would be built into Wisconsin's system of issuing concealed weapons permits. Those applying "will be our best citizens," he said.
Texas Republican Rep. Suzanna Gratia Hupp said she left the revolver that she carried illegally in her car on the fall day in 1991 when she and her parents ate lunch in a Killeen, Texas, restaurant. A man drove his truck through the restaurant's window, shooting to death 23 customers before killing himself.
Hupp said the law that then prohibited the carrying of concealed weapons in Texas denied her "the right to protect me and my family" because if she would have taken her revolver into the restaurant, "it would have changed the odds." Since then, Texas has legalized the carrying of concealed weapons, including in the Capitol in Austin.
In a statement issued in Milwaukee, Barrett said Wednesday that the measure would put "more guns and violence in our community." He said, "Give us more positive solutions to the violence in our streets, not more guns in the wrong hands."
In the Capitol, Milwaukee police Inspector Anna Ruzinski said her department's position is that a concealed weapons law is not needed because it would "provide ready access to more weapons in the streets of Milwaukee."
"There are no guarantees" that someone with a concealed weapons permit who fired their weapon would hit their assailant, instead of a bystander, Ruzinski said.
Oregon Police Chief Doug Pettit, representing the Wisconsin Police Chiefs Association, criticized the legislation for not requiring ongoing firearms training. Pettit also testified that the proposal would not allow officers to ask whether someone they stop for a traffic violation has a concealed weapons permit.
This week, the state Supreme Court agreed to decide a case that could expand the rights of business owners to carry hidden guns.
The court will rule in the case involving a Black River Falls tavern owner, Scott Fisher, who was arrested in December 2003 for having a gun in the console of his truck.
Fisher argues that he had the right to keep the gun hidden in his truck because it was an extension of his business in that he used the vehicle to take cash from his tavern to a bank.
Jackson County Circuit Judge John Damon agreed, but a special prosecutor appealed. The state Court of Appeals asked the high court to take the case.
Patrick Marley of the Journal Sentinel staff contributed to this report.