Sunday, January 10, 2010

Will be watching with much interest.

Wisconsin Carry, Inc. files federal lawsuit challenging Wisconsin's (GFSZA)

On January 8th 2010 Wisconsin Carry, Inc. filed a lawsuit in Federal Court to challenge the constitutionality of Wisconsin's onerous Gun Free School Zone Act.

Wisconsin's Gun Free School Zone Act (GFSZA), which was modeled on the federal Gun-Free School Zone Act of 1990, prohibits the possession or shooting of a firearm within a school zone. It defines a school zone as in the school building, the school grounds, and the area within 1000 feet of the school grounds. The Federal GFSZA was struck down as unconstitutional in 1995. Wisconsin's GFSZA remains.

In 1998 79% of the voters in the great state of Wisconsin voted Article 1 Section 25 into our state constitution. "The people have the right to keep and bear arms for security, defense, hunting, recreation or any other lawful purpose". The Constitutions of the United States and Wisconsin guarantee the right of individuals to keep and bear arms; and as the United States Supreme Court held in the DC gun ban case, DC v. Heller, "bear" means "carry." Wisconsin’s Gun Free School Zone Act covers such a broad area that it practically forecloses a meaningful right to keep and bear arms in large parts of the state. It is an onerous restriction that has the potential to ensnare thousands of law-abiding citizens exercising their constitutionally guaranteed rights and expose them to felony charges. Wisconsin's GFSZ Act places someone who was innocently walking their dog around their subdivision at night while armed in danger of felony charges if they should happen to cross these invisible school zones which extend nearly a quarter mile out from the edge of school property and many properties that are not identified as schools!

More than 2000 people have signed our online petition calling on the Governor and Legislature to repeal this law.

Wisconsin Carry is a non-profit corporation dedicated to the preservation and reclamation of the basic rights critical to a free society. Our membership believes in the founding principles of our country and our constitution: That all are created equal, that governments exist to protect the rights of individuals, and that governments derive their power from the consent of the governed. Our mission is to preserve, advance and expand these basic rights which law-abiding citizens are entitled to have a practical ability to exercise.

A copy of the Federal Lawsuit can be viewed here
Wisconsin Carry, Inc.'s Website is www.wisconsincarry.org


I've posted the link to the petition here before. Glad to see it's making some progress. Hopefully this is one of the first steps to becoming a 2nd Amendment friendly state.

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