MADISON- Legislation introduced by Sen. David Craig (R-Vernon) and Rep. Mary Felzkowski (R-Irma), would, if passed, allow people to carry guns into Wisconsin schools. The bill would also allow people to carry concealed firearms without a permit. Currently the law demands training and licensing to carry a concealed firearm. Public testimony on the bill will occur on Wednesday before the Senate’s Judiciary and Public Safety Committee. This bill is already unpopular with many school districts, who say that allowing guns in schools will make students less safe.
Michelle Liu at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports:
Last week, the Mequon-Thiensville district’s Board of Education passed a resolution denouncing the bill, which it claims would weaken the state’s gun control laws.
The district joins several North Shore districts, including Shorewood and
Fox Point-Bayside, that have spoken out in recent months on the legislation.
“We have concerns that it’s going to make school safety more difficult to implement,” Mequon-Thiensville Superintendent Demond Means said.
The resolution declares firearm-related violence in the country “a persistent societal ill that results in approximately 100,000 victims annually,” citing 222 school shootings in the United States since 2013.
Under the bill, schools would have to individually post signs prohibiting weapons under state trespassing laws in order to ban them from the grounds. Though illegal possession of a weapon in a school is currently a felony under state law, a violation of the trespassing provision in a school building is a class C misdemeanor.
“The strong stance we have taken has been overwhelmingly supported by parents in our community,” said Jon Jacobs, the Mequon-Thiensville board’s legislative committee chairman, in a statement.
Read more at the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
