Wisconsin Carry Calls on State Legislature to Fix Wisconsin's Gun-Free-School-Zone law
For immediate release:
A law-abiding 34 year old Oconomowoc woman with a permit to conceal carry is facing potential felony charges for an honest mistake that 1,000's of Wisconsinites likely make every day.
With nearly 250,000 concealed carry license holders in Wisconsin, thousands of mothers, fathers, relatives, guardians, and other law abiding citizens are committing a felony if they so much as pull on to a school parking lot to drop their kids off at school, while armed.
Wisconsin's Gun-Free-School-Zone law 948.605 was modeled after the Federal GFSZ law. However when Wisconsin's GFSZ law was passed in the 1990's, Wisconsin did not have concealed carry. The FEDERAL GFSZ law makes it a felony to carry on school grounds BUT it has an exception to allow concealed carry license holders to carry on school grounds. Since Wisconsin didn't have concealed carry at the time, there was no reason to adopt the exemption for concealed carry license holders. Now that concealed carry is the law here in Wisconsin, this oversight sets a dangerous felony trap for otherwise innocent law-abiding citizens.
Wisconsin Carry calls on the Wisconsin legislature to correct this discrepancy in Wisconsin law. Wisconsin should mirror the federal GFSZ statute and allow concealed carry license holders the right to carry on school grounds. 18 other states have already adopted this language.
Current Wisconsin law would require individuals to stop on public streets off of school property, unholster, unload, and place their gun in a case before driving onto school property. Parents and guardians who walk their kids to school would have to unholster, unload, and place their gun in a case while standing across the street from a school before stepping on to school property. We don't think having citizens unnecessarily unholster their sidearm in public in order to comply with an oversight in state law is good policy for anyone.
- Wisconsin's GFSZ law: http://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/statutes/statutes/948/605
- Federal GFSZ statute: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/922
Citation of exemption for concealed carry license holders:
(ii) if the individual possessing the firearm is licensed to do so by the State in which the school zone is located or a political subdivision of the State, and the law of the State or political subdivision requires that, before an individual obtains such a license, the law enforcement authorities of the State or political subdivision verify that the individual is qualified under law to receive the license;
Wisconsin Carry calls on our membership to contact their legislators and ask them to support the adoption of the language of the Federal Gun-Free-School-Zone law to allow CCL holders to carry on school grounds.
Find your legislators using the following link: http://maps.legis.wisconsin.gov/