There are enough kids in the foster system, many of whom end up in truly dangerous situations with predatory individuals, that it would seem no one should be trying to make it harder for good, decent people to take in children. Unfortunately, there’s long been an effort to keep gun owners from being able to foster these kids. As Cam wrote about on Tuesday, a federal judge in Illinois has upheld some pretty awful restrictions on gun owners who want to be foster parents.
In Wisconsin, though, a court just smacked similar laws down.
Parents who sign up to be foster families don’t cede their Second Amendment rights, a Wisconsin appeals court has ruled.
The case involved Brian and Katie Lafferty, who clashed with Wisconsin’s Department of Children and Families and a local county human services department. The officials had argued the parents signed away their gun rights when they applied to foster youths.
The three-judge panel said that was wrong.
“We conclude the Laffertys did not waive their constitutional rights by volunteering to serve as foster parents,” wrote Judge Maria Lazar.
The county had initially imposed demands that those seeking to be licensed as foster families with concealed-carry permits could not carry their guns when in the presence of foster children; must store their guns behind two locks, with ammunition kept in a separate place; and must disclose all of their firearms and their locations to the county.
In the years since the court battle began, the county had tried to retreat on some of those rules, including the restrictions on carrying firearms in the presence of foster children. The county also retreated on the two-lock rule.
The latest iteration required that firearms be stored unloaded and locked away from foster children, and that ammunition be in a separate location altogether.
The appeals court scolded the county for playing games with the courts over the changes, moving the goalposts for the judges.
Some judges felt that it was appropriate to require foster parents to keep guns locked up and ammunition stored separately, in part because foster kids are among the most vulnerable and were more likely to not just plunder for a gun, but to injure or kill themselves with it, either by accident or intentionally.
Now, I’m sympathetic to the plight of foster kids. A friend of my wife’s took a kid in, and we put together a little welcome package for him. The kid damn near cried because the first thing he opened, a robe, was the first thing he’d ever had that was actually his. That’s just heartbreaking, since he was nearly a teenager. I don’t like the possibility of this kid hurting himself.
But, as the judges ruled, you don’t give up your gun rights when you agree to foster a child. Part of those rights is the ability to quickly access your firearms for self-defense. Two-lock rules, requirements that you keep the gun unloaded and the ammo stored somewhere else, and all of these variations of the same theme inhibit that.
“We’re happy that Judge Lazar noted how Washington Count [sic] has repealed its old administrative rule regarding lawful concealed carry by foster parents,” Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms Chairman Alan Gottlieb noted, “and that several storage requirements are now moot. Nobody should be expected to essentially surrender their Second Amendment rights in order to be a foster parent, providing a stable and safe environment for youngsters under their care.
“The Court also recognized that ‘the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF) and Washington County Human Services Department (the County) have dithered, moved the goal posts, and changed the rules of the game every step along the way,” Gottlieb observed. “We have seen bureaucracies stubbornly try to defend policies which are indefensible. This time, the Appeals Court put the brakes on such conduct, and we’re proud of the Laffertys for fighting this battle for as long as they did.”
I’m proud of them, too.
I’m disgusted that county officials would wage such a war in the first place, and their shenanigans with shifting the rules not because they felt them to be wrong, but to try and play games with the court is particularly gross.
The Laffertys won, as they should have.
Editor’s Note: The radical Left will stop at nothing to enact their radical gun control agenda and strip us of our Second Amendment rights.
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