Republican legislators want to repeal need for permits, training, carry in school zones and more for all gun owners. We need for some reasonable regulations, says Sen. Taylor.

MADISON – On Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Public Safety held a public hearing on Senate Bill 169 – repeal of permits, training, school zones and more for gun owners. While hundreds of Wisconsinites emailed, called and showed up for the public hearing on the bill that would allow individuals to carry weapons without a permit into school zones, GOP legislators seemed determined to move forward regardless of the will of the people.

Repeatedly in the committee, Sen. Lena Taylor (D-MIlwaukee) asked speaker after speaker if they believed constitutional rights should be unfettered, using freedom of speech and voting rights to expose the hypocrisy of the authors, committee members, and proponents of the bill. Senators Risser and Taylor not only exposed the bill’s elimination of ALL training requirements, the state’s protection of school zones, but also prohibitions at hospitals, and police departments. Taylor insisted:

“The issue is not about anyone being against the right to self-defense, or one’s second amendment rights, but instead about reasonable regulations as our state and nation have always supported,” said Taylor.

In committee, Taylor discussed the regulation balance in our nation, from those created in Colonial Boston, when storage of gun powder was established; to the Supreme Court’s refusal to provide individual’s an unfettered right to bear from 1876 to 1939 four times, to what seemed to be the constant quote of the day, Justice Scalia in the Columbia v. Heller Supreme Court decision, where he said, “we do not read the Second Amendment to protect the right of citizens to carry arms for any sort of confrontation, just as we do not read the First amendment to protect the right of citizens to speak for any purpose.”

Senator Taylor left the hearing to attend the Joint Committee on Finance executive session, but said, “let me make it clear, I STAND WITH THE 91 percent of OUR PEOPLE who support our present training, requirements unlike my Republican colleagues!”