Proposed law isn't good for Wisconsin hunters A Senate bill now awaiting action in the Assembly would allow hunters to carry uncased firearms in cars, trucks and ATVs during November?s deer season. Patrick Durkin
Deer hunting grew steadily safer over the past 25 years in Wisconsin with help from blaze-orange clothing and our hunter-education program, even while record numbers of hunters went into our woods and forests.
In 2009, for example, with about 640,000 licensed gun-hunters, Wisconsin recorded only seven shooting accidents, its fourth-safest deer season on record. That's 1.1 accidents per 100,000 hunters, far better than the national average of three per 100,000.
We should take pride in that 2009 feat and the quarter-century safety trend. Our efforts dispel stereotypes that deer hunters force all other Wisconsinites underground for the nine-day season. Our 10-year-old hunters didn't shoot anyone and we continually prove rifle bullets are as safe as shotgun slugs.
Even so, most hunters look at our record and say: "Not bad, but let's go for zero accidents."
We take gun safety seriously, after all.
Well, you do unless you're Sen. Russ Decker, D-Weston. He takes it for granted.
Decker seems bent on using his time as state Senate majority leader to try rewriting -- as quietly as possible -- every hunting rule that foils his fun. Besides trying to reinvent our spring turkey and bear-hound training seasons, Decker wants to let hunters ride around in cars, trucks and ATVs with uncased firearms during deer season.
Since 1917 state law requires hunters to keep their guns unloaded and enclosed in a case whenever riding in motor vehicles. But Decker rewrote the 93-year-old law this winter and passed it through the Senate on a voice vote, sparing senators the bother of explaining themselves to voters.
Decker's bill awaits action by the Assembly's Committee on Fish and Wildlife, which scheduled it for a hearing Wednesday, March 31 at 1 p.m.
When passed during World War I, the intent of our current law was to thwart poaching and promote "fair chase" principles. That it also reduced accidental shootings was a huge bonus, which nearby states without such laws continually prove.
For instance, the International Hunter Education Association recently reviewed hunting-related firearms accidents involving motor vehicles from 1998 through 2007 in the Dakotas, Iowa, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Of the 47 shootings between the five states those 10 years, South Dakota had 26 accidents (56 percent); North Dakota had 13 (28 percent); Iowa and Minnesota had three each (6 percent each); and Wisconsin had two (4 percent).
Why such differences? The Dakotas allow uncased firearms in motor vehicles. South Dakota even allows them to be loaded. In contrast, Iowa and Wisconsin have nearly identical gun-casing requirements, as did Minnesota until its Legislature scrapped the law in 2009 to copy North Dakota's uncased/unloaded law.
Remember, too, that Wisconsin's accident rate is 1.1 per 100,000 hunters. The IHEA data show Iowa and Minnesota had similar rates, while North Dakota's rate is about 10 per 100,000 and South Dakota's about 15 per 100,000.
And that's just one troubling part of Decker's bill. Like it or not, more homes and buildings are going up in rural Wisconsin, making it crucial that we control road-hunting statewide. If Decker's bill passes, towns and counties would likely adopt their own bans on uncased firearms, creating a jumble of laws, as well as tension and confusion for citizens, police and sheriff's departments.
We should also note that Sen. Decker is again pushing a one-man agenda without the prodding or blessing of Wisconsin's hunting community. Deer hunters are not demanding they be allowed to cruise the countryside with uncased rifles, shotguns and inline muzzleloaders. This bill neither originated with the Wisconsin Conservation Congress nor went through its public-review process.
Neither is Decker sanctioning a societal norm. By their actions, deer hunters support current laws. Even with an average of 640,000 licensed hunters the past five years, conservation officers issued an annual average of only 109 citations for transporting loaded guns during deer season, and 84 for transporting uncased guns .
The Assembly should zip this bill into an old gun case and stuff it in the darkest corner of its closet, for our sake and that of Sen. Decker.
Contact Patrick Durkin, a free-lance columnist, at patrickdurkin@charter.net or write to him at 721 Wesley St., Waupaca, WI 54981.
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