The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a Milwaukee man with a felony conviction for not paying his child support should not get special dispensation because his crime was not violent.
(The Center Square) – Convicted felons in the state of Wisconsin cannot own guns, even if they didn’t commit a violent crime.
Roundtree argued that not paying child support does not pose a threat to the general public, therefore he should have not be banned from owning a gun,
Justice Ann Walsh-Bradley wrote for the court’s 5-2 majority, asserting Leevan Roundtree’s challenge to the state’s ban on felons owning guns falls short.
Roundtree was arrested while in possession of a stolen gun, and sentenced to prison under a Wisconsin law that bans felons from possessing a firearm.
Walsh-Bradley said the Wisconsin Supreme Court is not going to create a “hierarchy of felonies.”
Justice Brian Hagedorn dissented. He wrote that people who are convicted of violent misdemeanors don’t lose their gun rights, so why should non-violent felons?
Walsh-Bradley wrote there is an argument to be made that a blanket ban on someone’s Second Amendment rights should be reconsidered.
“Felon-dispossession laws may be permissible under this historical protection, but only where the State shows the restriction substantially advances the State’s interest in protecting against gun-related violence,” Hagedorn stated. “Here, however, the State did not carry its burden to show that Wisconsin’s dispossession law satisfies this standard.”
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By Benjamin Yount | The Center Square
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Reposted with permission
