Gun group sues over school zone restriction

[shadowrider]

A gun-rights group has sued the state and two cities over enforcement of Wisconsin's law against carrying firearms within 1,000 feet of a school.

The lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court in Milwaukee, claims that "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 calls the law "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."

=====

According to the suit:

Bernson was arrested near his home in May 2008, and though he was released without charge, the city has refused to return a gun that was seized from Bernson's home. Bernson's request for the gun was denied in part because he had allegedly possessed it at a gas station within 1,000 feet of a school.

In September, Hannan Rock was arrested on his front porch in Racine and his gun was confiscated when he refused to identify himself to officers. He was not prosecuted for obstruction but was told that because he lives within 1,000 feet of a school, officers would have probable cause in the future to arrest him if he has a gun and refuses to identify himself.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/wisconsin/81034582.html

[GreenStormCloud]

1. Wishing them well on their lawsuit. 1,000 feet is absurd.

In fact, the entire idea of gun-free zones is really easy-victim zones. If you are not familiar with a place, it is easy not to know that there is a school less than 1,000 feet away. In fact, you could be driving on the interstate and pass within 1,000 feet of a school and not know it.

Yep, just checked Google Earth and there are numerous schools that are directly beside an interstate.

[Tim01]

2. Good. Get rid of the useless law. nt

[SteveM]

3. A stapled-together War-on-Drugs-type law. nt

[krispos42]

4. Area equals pi times radius squared

The no-gun zone around a school is at least 3,141,590 square feet. It could be larger, assuming that the 1,000 feet begins at the border of the school campus, as school campuses are often several acres in size, but for simplicity we'll ignore that for now.

3,141,590 square feet is a bit more than 72 acres. So every grade school, middle school, and high school in the state is 72 acres where guns apparantly can't be.

Every 9 schools makes a full square mile of land a gun-free zone. There are 3,235 public and private schools in Wisconsin, resulting in 350 square miles of largely densely populated terrain were declared gun-free zones.


Nice to see that gun owners are being treated like registered sex offenders.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

5. Gun love is a disease.

"Nice to see that gun owners are being treated like registered sex offenders."

Perhaps it should be treated like one.
(I just wanted to beat some of the locals to the punch - lol)

[krispos42]

9. Well, you can use the same overlays, apparantly.

You heard about that town in Florida where the only place sex offenders can live and NOT be within the prohibited distance of a school, playground, or day-care is under a single highway bridge?

Looks like gun-owners will be joining them. After all, why not do the same thing regarding playgrounds and daycares?

How about McDonald's with PlayPlaces?

[farmout rightarm]

8. That's almost half the area of Rhode Island. I don't know how many schools are in the USA

but it would be interesting to compute the total exclusionary "second amendment zones" if all states had that rule.
:grr:

[krispos42]

10. Wisconsin is 65,500 square miles, so it would seem that 350 mi²

is small potatoes... but it's six times the size of Minneapolis and contains hundreds of thousands, perhaps over a million, people.

[GreenStormCloud]

11. Not when population density is considered.

It is kind of like those red/blue election maps that Repugs use to make it look like the country is mostly Repug. Correct for population density and they look different.

[DissedByBush]

18. How much gun free zone in this?

This map

http://www.yellowpages.com/name/Milwaukee-WI/Milwaukee-Public-Schools/city-Milwaukee/mapall

Of all the schools has a scale on it. 1,000 feet is about 1/5 of a mile.

It makes a bunch of no-gun blobs within the city since many schools are within 2,000 feet of each other.

That makes it very difficult to travel through the area and stay within the law.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

6. 1000 feet is BS. The "unarmed vivtim zone" should not extend beyond school property.

I wonder is the 1000ft school zone applies to buildings like day cares and home schools.

[PavePusher]

17. "unarmed victim zone" should not [include] school property.

There, fixed your typo and word selection. That looks much better. :think:

[Hoopla Phil]

7. I thought those zoning laws were already found unconstitutional under the

interstate commerce clause.

[Euromutt]

12. At the federal level, not the state level

The federal law banning guns near schools was ruled unconstitutional, but there are plenty of states that now have their own laws.

[OneTenthofOnePercent]

13. So if the 2A is incorporated... ??? n/t

[X_Digger]

14. Well, no, not just because of incorporation..

Basically the problem was that this was seen as the federal government overstepping its jurisdiction into a state matter on the thinnest of pretexts (interstate commerce).

However, if McDonald gives us a standard of scrutiny along with incorporation, then there'll be grounds to challenge many laws, depending on what that level of scrutiny ends up as.

[Support The 2nd]

15. A Victory for Gun Rights in Wisconsin

Wisconsin Carry, Inc. awarded judgment against City of Racine and 2 Racine Police Officers

For Immediate Release:

On September 9th, 2009 Wisconsin Carry, Inc. member Frank Hannan-Rock of Racine was unlawfully arrested while open-carrying on the front porch of his home in Racine.

http://www.journaltimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_60ad9e26-9f35-11de-8896-001cc4c002e0.html

On January 8th Wisconsin Carry, Inc. filed a federal lawsuit against the State of Wisconsin, City of Racine, 2 Racine Police officers, The City of Milwaukee and one Milwaukee Police Officer. In this lawsuit we challenge the constitutionality of Wisconsin's Gun-Free-School-Zone Act. In this lawsuit we also brought on 2 Wisconsin Carry, Inc. Members as co-plaintiffs. Frank Hannan-Rock of Racine was one of these co-plaintiffs.

A copy of the lawsuit can be viewed here:

http://www.wisconsincarry.org/pdf/GFSZ_Complaint.pdf

Frank was lawfully open-carrying on his own porch when Racine Police, who were summoned to his neighborhood on an unrelated call, observed and questioned Frank because he was open-carrying. After a few minutes of increasingly aggressive questioning Frank exercised his right to remain silent and was subsequently unlawfully arrested for obstruction of justice for refusing to give his name. In the state of Wisconsin no law allows officers to arrest for obstruction on a person's refusal to give his or her name. "Mere silence is insufficient to constitute obstruction. Henes v. Morrissey, 194 Wis. 2d 339, 533 N.W.2d 802 (1995)"

Details of Frank's encounter can be viewed by going to our website http://www.wisconsincarry.org and clicking on the October 16th blog entry.

Frank was unlawfully arrested and his firearm illegally seized. He was later released without being charged.

Wisconsin Carry, Inc. filed suit on Frank's behalf for his unlawful detainment, arrest, and seizure of his firearm.

Wisconsin Carry, Inc. is pleased to announce that The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin has entered a judgment in the amount of $10,000 in favor of Wisconsin Carry, Inc. and Frank Hannon-Rock and against the City of Racine and two Racine police officers.

We look forward to the precedent that this case will set for other municipalities who's police officers operate outside of their legal authority and unlawfully detain, arrest, and seize property of law-abiding open-carriers.

A copy of this judgment can be viewed here:

http://www.wisconsincarry.org/pdf/JudgmentAgainstRacine.pdf

Visit www.wisconsincarry.org to learn more about advancing your gun rights in Wisconsin.

[X_Digger]

16. Congratulations!! n/t

[spin]

19. Thanks for the update. (n/t)