Assembly votes to expand gun background checks.
It also approves school safety plan, tax rebate
MADISON – The Wisconsin Assembly voted Thursday to apply a state background check system for certain handgun sales to similar purchases of rifles and shotguns, but the measure’s fate in the state Senate was uncertain.
The voice vote came as the Assembly approved a separate, $100 million school safety plan and other major parts of Gov. Scott Walker’s re-election agenda.
Currently, there are federal background checks on gun purchases made from federally licensed dealers and state checks on handgun sales at those same dealers, Rep. Mary Felzkowski (R-Irma) said.
The federal government is in the process of improving its background check system, but in the meantime Felzkowski said it’s worth running the state checks on all gun purchases to make sure the federal checks aren’t missing prohibited buyers.
“We are doing this to prevent criminals from getting guns,” she said.
Also Thursday, the Assembly approved, 59-31, a $100-per-child tax rebate and a sales tax holiday for back-toschool shoppers. The Assembly also unanimously passed a broad overhaul of the state’s juvenile justice system that will close the troubled Lincoln Hills School for Boys.
The bills on closing Lincoln Hills, providing the tax cut and giving schools $100 million go to Walker for his signature.
The state background checks do not apply now and would not apply in the future to gun sales made by non-licensed private sellers, including certain gun show sales and some sales set up through internet sites similar to Craigslist. That left Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh) saying that Republicans had put out a “fake bill” that doesn’t go far enough.
“There will not be a single new background check on anybody,” Hintz said.
Problems have been pointed out with the National Instant Check System for firearms purchases, including a Nov. 5 incident in which a gunman killed 26 people at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs, Texas, with a rifle he shouldn’t have been allowed to buy. Congress this week is considering changes to improve that federal system.
Assembly Speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said the bill on background checks was meant to be a bridge until the federal system is improved.
Walker spokeswoman Amy Hasenberg wouldn’t say if he supported the background check plan. Neither would Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau).
“I’m going to come in tomorrow and assess what they do,” he said of the Assembly.
There may be little incentive for GOP senators to return after supposedly holding their last session Tuesday.
The background checks were added to Assembly Bill 1031, which includes protections against bullying that GOP senators have already rejected. If the Senate does nothing, the bulk of Walker’s plan will land on the governor’s desk while the expanded checks will not.
Students and Democrats have criticized Walker’s school safety plan for not including any gun-control measures when the nation is wrestling with school shootings.