Concealed Carry (Personal Protection Act)

About Concealed Carry

CLegislation to allow the concealed carry of weapons in Wisconsin has failed after the Legislature narrowly sustained the Governor’s veto for the second straight session. Both houses of the Legislature easily approved Senate Bill (SB) 403, introduced by Senator Dave Zien (R-Eau Claire) and Representative Scott Gunderson (R-Waterford). Governor Doyle vetoed the bill on January 20, 2006. The Senate voted 23-10 to override the veto (22 votes are needed for an override). The bill then moved back to the Assembly, which came two votes short of the 66 votes necessary for an override after two Democrats who supported the bill when it first passed the Assembly changed their votes to support the Governor. They are Terry Van Akkeren of Sheboygan and John Steinbrink of Pleasant Prairie. Both legislators expressed concerns about statements that the bill's primary sponsor, Senator Dave Zien (R-Eau Claire), made at the time amendments were added to garner more support, in which he said he would attempt to strip those amendments from the law in the future.

Governor Doyle also vetoed a concealed carry bill last session, and although the Senate voted to override the veto, the attempt failed in the Assembly by one vote.

Although the proposal was amended to exempt places of worship from the locations where concealed carry is allowed, the Wisconsin Jewish Conference is strongly opposed to the overall concept of concealed carry and testified against the proposal at the only public hearing held on the matter.

The legislative history of SB 403 is available at http://www.legis.state.wi.us/2005/data/SB403hst.html. An eight-page memo prepared by the nonpartisan Joint Legislative Council staff explains the legislation as amended at http://www.legis.state.wi.us/2005/data/lc_amdt/sb403.pdf.