Wisconsin Carry Challenges School Zone Law

[CalicoJack10]

This should heat up this discussion some.

The Wisconsin Constitution says clearly:

[As created Nov. 1998] "The people have the right to keep and bear arms for security, defense, hunting, recreation or any other lawful purpose." [1995 J.R. 27, 1997 J.R. 21, vote November 1998]

This section in no way refers to a place, time, mode of transport, or any other regulatory laws. This is what defines what is legal. In present, this means that the only restrictions on bearing (keeping arms on your person) are laid out in other laws. And that is where things get sticky.

There are both state and federal laws that do at present restrict things like the transport, concealment, and use of those arms in certain areas. The Federal School Zone Laws can only hold water if there is no legal mode of transportation. So if I went to pick up my kids from school with a gun on my hip I would violate the transport laws and there for would be subject to persecution under the federal laws.

Lawful transport is defined as "Unloaded and in a carrying case", but this refers to a motor vehicle, aircraft, or boat.

This federal law is designed to augment state and local laws, and is not intended as a stand alone law. Though I suppose in extreme circumstances it could be used that way, there would still have to be a local violation according to the way the federal law is written.

Read up on this a little:

http://legis.wisconsin.gov/lrb/pubs/wb/00wb11.pdf

[nogods]

I see what you are saying, but in order for this lawsuit to have far-reaching effect at the federal level, it would have to make it to the US Supreme Court. It is possible but unlikely that will occur in this case. We need to keep working toward a Congressional amendment of the Federal Gun Free School Zones Act of 1995 until the day comes when the US Supreme Court does rule Gun Free School Zones illegal on 2nd Amendment grounds. A ruling they are unlikely to make given their statement in Heller that the long-standing prohibition of guns in "secure places such as schools and federal buildings" are legal.

I agree that the real solution is a legislative fix. Much better not to have an unconstitutional law, then to have to rely on the courts to invalidate an unconstitutional law.

The Wisconsin case is worthy of our support, and hopefully it will be a favorable decision that carries over to the federal law, but it should not be considered a substitute for getting the inane federal law revoked.

The problem is the buzzwords "schools and guns" - that's like going to a vegetarian convention and saying "surf and turf." Anyone who votes to fix the law will be deemed a promoter of "guns in the halls of our elementary schools."

[Eagle2009]

This federal law is designed to augment state and local laws, and is not intended as a stand alone law. Though I suppose in extreme circumstances it could be used that way, there would still have to be a local violation according to the way the federal law is written.

The Federal Gun Free School Zones Act of 1995, Title 18 U.S.C. Part 922(q), does not require that any local/State law be broken as a "trigger" to the Federal Law. If the law was intended to "augment" State law, the United States Congress would have included such a "trigger," which they did not.


Concealed Carry Reciprocity is CURRENTLY banned under Federal Law. (Important)