Wisconsin lawmakers debate Second Amendment Sanctuary proposal

(The Center Square) – The Wisconsin Assembly’s Committee on State Affairs on Tuesday heard testimony on a proposal that would stop the federal government from seizing guns in the state and would limit how new federal gun laws could be enforced.

But while the bill has significant support from lawmakers in the Republican-controlled Legislature, it’s seen as unlikely to gain the signature of Democratic Gov. Tony Evers.

“In recent months and years our politicians and elites have decided we should no longer be able to defend ourselves,” Rep. Treig Pronschinske, R-Mondovi, said Tuesday, arguing that the Second Amendment is under attack. “With statements such as ‘Hell yes, we are going to take your AR-15,’ from former Congressman Beto O’Rourke, to [former] President [Barack] Obama saying ‘I don’t believe people should be able to own guns.’”

Pronschinske’s plan would “prohibit a person from enforcing a federal act, law, statute, rule, regulation, treaty, or order that takes effect on or after January 1, 2021, if it bans or restricts semi-automatic firearms, assault weapons, or magazines.”

It also would ban firearm registration and any regulations on the number of guns or bullets that someone can own.

“[The plan] protects Wisconsinites from a tyrannical and overreaching federal government that has talked about seizing legally-owned firearms,” Pronschinske added.

Most other Republicans on the committee agreed with Pronschinske’s idea about protecting Second Amendment rights. As did Democratic Rep. Tod Ohnstad, D-Kenosha, though he said Pronschinske’s legislation was unnecessary and likely unconstitutional.

“I believe in the Second Amendment. I have my concealed carry card in my wallet,” Ohnstad said. “But I believe that is protected by the Second Amendment, not this bill. Which I believe restricts commerce.”

Democrats at the Capitol said there are interstate commerce clause concerns, as well as worries about trying to override federal law with the plan.

Pronschinske countered by saying his plan is not just about guns and state lines.

“Could you imagine if we, as politicians, were to tell people that they no longer had freedom of speech? They could no longer exercise their religion, or protest,” Pronschinske said. “Both sides of the aisle would immediately recognize that is wrong.”

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