MADISON, Wis. (WSAU) — Wisconsin’s new Attorney General is joining the battle to preserve gun owner’s rights. Brad Schimel signed on, along with several other Republican and Democratic Attorneys General, to a Nebraska challenge to an appeals court ruling that allows criminal penalties for not locking up guns inside of your own home. “There are a total now of 26 states that signed on to this petition to get the U.S. Supreme Court to review a 9th Circuit Federal Court of Appeals decision that literally stands in contradiction to U.S. Supreme Court precedent.”
Shimel says the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals decision was wrong, and if allowed to stand as a precedent, could impact gun owners everywhere. “The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has approved a local ordinance that created criminal penalties to punish you if you don’t have your gun locked in a lock box, or with a trigger lock in the privacy of your own home. They built in an exception that says you don’t have to follow that rule if you’re carrying it on your person, so they’ve gone so far as to restrict your freedom within your own home.” He adds, “We do not want this precedent to stand and create a problem for law abiding gun owners in other states.”
Shimel says the high court has a few options. They could decline to hear the case. He hopes for one of the other two choices. “Well, the hope is that the U.S. Supreme Court will take the petition to review, or petition for certiorari. If they take it, then they’ll hear the case, and there may be briefs submitted by the parties. There’s also a possibility that they may just issue a summary decision and vacate the 9th Circuit decision. We don’t know what direction they may go.”
The 26 Attorneys General believe having a locked storage requirement for handguns violates the people’s right to keep and bear arms protected by the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution.
