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A group of Milwaukee County supervisors is objecting to a concealed carry bill pending in the state Legislature that would block local governments from banning guns in most public buildings unless those buildings are equipped with metal detectors and storage lockers. The supervisors say such a requirement would prove costly for the county if it wants to ban guns from its facilities.

Republican state legislators have introduced two bills legalizing concealed carry in Wisconsin. They have roughly the same sponsors – both are led by State Sen. Pam Galloway (R-Wausau) in the state senate and by State Rep. Jeff Mursau (R-Crivitz) in the Assembly.

One bill would establish a permitting process administered by the state Department of Justice, which would issue permits to anyone over the age of 21 who passes a background check. This bill would maintain the state’s existing ban on bringing a firearm into a public building.

The other bill – the one the supervisors are objecting to most strongly – would implement “constitutional carry” in Wisconsin, meaning anyone could carry a concealed weapon in the state (unless the person is legally prohibited from possessing a firearm) except on school grounds or in police stations, jails, prisons, courthouses or beyond security checkpoints at airports. There would be no permitting process.

It’s under this bill that local governments would be prohibited from banning guns in other public buildings without providing “electronic screening for weapons at all public entrances to the building” and “locked storage for weapons on the premises while the person carrying the weapon is in the building.”

The county supervisors – Eyon Biddle, Lee Holloway, Gerry Broderick, Marina Dimitrijevic, Jason Haas, Nikiya Harris and Johnny Thomas – have authored a resolution that will be heard by the county board’s Intergovernmental Relations Committee today. It calls on the legislature to grant the county “unfettered authority to regulate its own facilities for security purposes.”

Biddle says that means continuing the current ban on guns in public buildings.

eyon biddle

Under the constitutional carry bill, guns would not automatically be barred from the Milwaukee County Zoo, the Milwaukee Public Museum, the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, county parks, county buses, the county’s Marcia Coggs Human Services Center, the Behavioral Health Division or all areas of General Mitchell International airport, according to the resolution.

“Allowing individuals to carry weapons into these various locations will have a chilling effect on tourism, costing businesses and local governments millions in lost revenue,” it says.

Biddle says the county has a duty to keep guns out of its facilities. “With rights come responsibilities, and we have the responsibility to ensure public safety,” he says.

Doing that, under the constitutional carry bill, he said, would be “a nightmare, and the costs are astronomical.”

The resolution estimates the cost of each metal detector at $8,000 and the cost of each storage locker unit at $2,000. They would need to be installed at each entrance to each building in which weapons are banned and staffed by one or two security guards at a rate of $10 to $14 an hour.

The legislation would allow weapons up to the security checkpoint at airports. “Guns in an airport? Let’s be serious,” Biddle says.

The bill could also end up costing county cultural institutions – such as the Milwaukee Public Museum, the Charles Allis Art Museum or the Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum – if they want to keep weapons out.

“It’s going to cost a ton of money to do screening and install lockers,” says Broderick. “It’s absolute lunacy.”

The Milwaukee Common Council’s Judiciary and Legislation Committee voted last week to remain neutral on the concealed carry bills while asking for tougher penalties to be included for carrying a concealed weapon without a permit, changes back by local law enforcement, including Police Chief Ed Flynn and County Sheriff David Clarke.

The committee voted to remain neutral after the city’s chief lobbyist, Paul Vornholt, explained that doing so would give the city greater leverage to push for the changes it wants.

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