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Gun Case Law Change

Wisconsin's Mandatory Keep-Your-Gun-Clean Law Struck Down

Wisconsin Gun Owners

Madison, Wisconsin --(Ammoland.com)- Since 1917, Wisconsin gun owners have been required by state law to transport guns in cases. And leaning a gun up against a vehicle was also a violation.

That changed on November 4, when Governor Scott Walker signed SB228 into law (Act 51), making it legal to transport unloaded long guns without cases. That includes boats as well as automobiles, an important victory for waterfowl hunters.

“The mandatory gun case law was a stupid, overbearing restriction that required gun owners to keep their guns clean,” said Corey Graff, Executive Director of WGO. “It criminalized dirty guns — the ultimate Big Brother example of state control run amok.”

But DNR officials, who oversee regulation of the state’s over 600,000 gun deer hunters, were crying rivers of tears over the law’s demise.

“This is not what we need,” said Dave Zeug of Shell Lake, a retired Wisconsin game warden, it was reported in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “It does nothing to improve the quality of the hunt, and it certainly won’t make things safer.”

The DNR had in the past opposed the bill, but this year took a more neutral tone.

SB228 was fast-tracked after being introduced on October 12 by State Senators Moulton, Holperin, Kedzie, Galloway and Lazich. State Rep. Scott Krug was one of many republican co-sponsors.

In its coverage of the law change, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel cited statistics showing Wisconsin’s firearm incidents of 1.1 to 100,000 hunters as compared to the national average of 3.0 to 100,000, in what appears to gun activists as an attempt to show causation between the mandatory gun case law and the Badger State’s low accident rate.

According to the Journal Sentinel report, “Tim Lawhern, administrator of the DNR’s Enforcement and Science Division, said Wisconsin hunter education courses will continue to recommend firearms be transported unloaded and in cases. “It’s the safest way,” Lawhern claimed. “It also protects your investment.”

Yet, despite Lawhern’s assertion that gun cases are the “safest way,” the 2011 Wisconsin Gun Deer Season was the third fatality-free season on record, since records have been kept. The law change went into effect on Nov. 18 — one day before the gun deer season.

Said Lawhern after the season (where those uncased firearms failed to kill anybody), “Hunters can be proud of a second consecutive firearm-related, fatality-free year and the third fatality free season on record. This is an important milestone and one we hope to see again and again in future seasons.”

Without the State forcing gun owners to lock their guns in cases — whether to protect them from dust or from themselves — it is hard to fathom how hunters managed one of the safest seasons ever.

Is your WGO Membership current? Renew or join online at wisconsingunowners.org!

About:
WGO works for grassroots gun owners, not politicians. While many gun lobbies fight for “reasonable gun control,” WGO sets a higher standard: Defining the terrain of pro-gun political battle. Sure, many groups claim they’re “pro-gun” – all the while they provide cover for anti-gun deals cut by politicians – but only WGO truly informs gun owners, remaining committed to a 100% pro-gun position. We oppose all gun control – regardless of the political party – and work tirelessly to restore the Second Amendment. Visit www.wisconsingunowners.org

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New Arizona Firearms Laws Effective July 20th

Arizona Citizens Defense League

Catalina, AZ --(Ammoland.com)- The 2011 Legislative session started on January 10th and ended on April 20th. With pro-rights majorities in both chambers and a Governor that signed Constitutional Carry into law in 2010, the passage of pro-rights legislation looked encouraging.

Four bills, three in the House and one in the Senate, were filed early that dealt positively with some form of Campus Carry.

However, after an assassination attempt on Congresswoman Giffords at a political gathering in Tucson on January 8th, some alleged “pro-rights” state legislators revealed that they were willing to take any position on any issue for the sake of appearances and political correctness.

The leadership in the House of Representatives, under the direction of the Speaker, Kirk Adams, halted the progress of almost all House initiated firearms bills, including the three Campus Carry bills introduced at the beginning of the session. The majority of the pro-rights bills that were passed this session were initiated in the Senate. Despite the resistance encountered in the House, eight bills that AzCDL requested and/or supported made it through the legislature and to the Governor’s desk.

However even the Governor succumbed to the wave of political correctness that washed over the Capitol. She vetoed the remaining, Senate initiated, Campus Carry bill along with an AzCDL-requested bill that would have made it safer for law-abiding citizens entering government offices.

However, when the session ended, we still experienced a net gain in the restoration and protection of your Right to Bear Arms in Arizona. The following is a summary of the new laws that became effective on July 20, 2011.

Justification of the Use of Force
The elements of justification for the use of force were broadened and strengthened in certain situations. Highlights of the new law include:

• Removal, as an element for justification in defense of another, of whether a reasonable person would believe that their intervention is immediately necessary .
• Redefining “acting reasonably” as it applies to crime prevention, as acting to prevent what one would reasonably believe is the imminent or actual commission of an offense.
• Redefining the presumption for the defense of a home or occupied vehicle to encompass a situation in which a person reasonably believes that the threat or use of deadly force is immediately necessary.
• Establishing a presumption that a person who is unlawfully or forcefully entering your occupied home or occupied vehicle is posing an imminent threat.

Certain exceptions
An AzCDL-requested proposed Constitutional Amendment that would protect crime victims from law suits by those who harmed them, passed out of the Legislature on April 14th and was sent to the Secretary of State where it will be placed on the 2012 ballot.

Currently, Article 2, Section 31 of the Arizona State Constitution prohibits any law from limiting the amount of damages that can be recovered for causing the death or injury of someone. Article 18, Section 6 mandates that the right of action to recover damages for injuries cannot be stopped and the amount recovered cannot be limited.

The Legislature attempted to protect crime victims from being sued via legislative means (ARS 12-716) but the courts determined portions of the law to be in violation of the state Constitution. The only remedy is a Constitutional Amendment.

CCW Training Reform The burden on the Department of Public Safety (DPS) to approve CCW training courses, training organizations, and instructors has been removed. In a nutshell, Arizona law now mirrors Florida¡¦s when it comes to qualifying for a CCW permit.

With the new changes to ARS 13-3112, ways to qualify for an Arizona CCW permit include:

• Completion of courses, offered by a law enforcement agency, college, or a private or public institution, academy, organization or firearms training school that uses NRA instructors or is approved by DPS.
• Completion of hunter education courses approved by Arizona Game and Fish or a similar agency of another state.
• Completion of an NRA firearms safety or training course.
• Completion of law enforcement or security guard training approved by DPS.
• Proof of current military service or an honorable discharge or general discharge under honorable conditions. „hƒn A valid current or expired CCW permit issued by another state that has a training or testing requirement for initial issuance.
• Completion of any governmental police agency firearms training course and qualification to carry a firearm in the course of normal police duties.
• Completion of any other firearms safety or training course that is conducted by an NRA instructor or approved by DPS.

Restoration of Rights
ARS 12-2101 has been amended to allow a person, who has been deemed to be a prohibited possessor because of mental illness, to petition to have their rights restored via court proceedings.

Right to Carry
ARS 17-305, which prohibited the carrying of firearms in games refuges, has been repealed.

Hunting Preemption
ARS 13-3107 and 3108 have been amended to prohibit political subdivisions (counties, cities, etc.) from enacting any ordinance or regulation limiting the lawful taking of wildlife during an open season unless the ordinance, rule or regulation is consistent with the state’s hunting laws and Game and Fish Commission rules and orders.

State Firearm
With the addition of ARS 41-860.02, the Colt Single Action Army Revolver is the official state firearm of Arizona.

Be Vigilant
Renew your AzCDL membership today! Not a member? Join!

About:
AzCDL believes that the emphasis of gun laws should be on criminal misuse and that law-abiding citizens should be able to own and carry firearms unaffected by unnecessary laws or regulations. AzCDL was founded by a group of local activists who recognized that a sustained, coordinated, statewide effort was critical to protecting and expanding the rights of law-abiding gun owners. As a like-minded coalition of activists, the AzCDL founders were instrumental in the successful passage of the first major improvement to Arizona’s CCW (concealed carry) laws since they were instituted in 1994. Visit: www.azcdl.org

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