Wisconsin DNR Agrees To Repeal Unconstitutional Gun Ban Near Water

AmmoLand ^ | July 26, 2024 | Dean Weingarten

[marktwain]

The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty has secured repeal of the unconstitutional law banning possession of firearms near almost all waters in Wisconsin.

In 1999, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) created a rule banning the possession of firearms near “waters, banks or shores that might be used for the purpose of fishing.” The regulation was created with virtually no oversight shortly after Wisconsin passed Section 25, Wisconsin’s constitutional protection for the right to keep and bear arms. The regulation was seldom, if ever, enforced.

Due to a quirk in Wisconsin statutes, no one had to be arrested to challenge the regulation. Wisconsin statutes require a legal challenge to a regulation’s legitimacy to be filed before a person is arrested under the challenged rule. This seems an inversion of ordinary procedure for “standing” under the law. However, the Wisconsin statutory procedure is clear. In this case it facilitated the challenge to the unconstitutional regulation.

On June 6, 2024, the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) filed a lawsuit demanding the Court permanently enjoin enforcement of the offending code, § NR 20.05(2). The Acting Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources had 45 days to respond to the summons created as part of the legal challenge. By this correspondent’s count, the deadline was July 22, 2024.

On July 22, 2024, Acting Secretary Steven Little of the Wisconsin DNR agreed to repeal the regulation as soon as possible. Obviously, negotiations between the Department of Natural Resources and the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty had been ongoing behind the scenes.  From the stipulation and joint motion:

[marktwain]

Victories in the fight to restore rights protected by the Second Amendment are supportive of, and build on one another. This action paves the way for other bureaucrats to justify repealing other regulations which violate the Second Amendment.

[BBQToadRibs2]

That would make water fowl hunting challenging.

[marktwain]

No exception in the regulation for law enforcement, either.

It also made enforcement challenging.

I wonder who the person was who managed to sneak it into the regulatory re-write in 1999.

[Cletus.D.Yokel]

\Any\ restrictive regulation or rule violates the Constitution, Section 1.
Violation of enumerated rights flows from that.
Chevron deference.

[T.B. Yoits]

Sounds like the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is overdue to be dismantled.

[Mr. K]

This issue of ‘standing’ has been greatly abused.

Under the current definition a person has to commit a crime under an unconstitutional law, and be criminally charged, in order to have ‘standing’.

Who wants to go through that in order to fix a known unconstitutional law?? That’s back-asswards...

[Zathras]

Considering WI and MN has water everywhere, it was a virtual firearm ban from WI.

[skinny old man]

Used to fish in Wisc. many years ago.Many Musky fishermen carried a small caliber pistol to subdue a live Musky before
bringing aboard a boat.The mouth of a legal size Musky was
like a Barracuda !

[gunnut]

It took 25 years for this to happen. That is unacceptable.

[marktwain]

The reason it took so long is almost no one knew about it. In an article about the repeal, a milwaukee publication says the rule has not been enforced since 2011.

[Cold Heart]

The Wisconsin DNR started out with over reach and corruption when they first formed half a century ago.