Two Germantown parents who filed a lawsuit saying their right to bear arms was violated by becoming foster parents have scored an appeals court victory.
Prior to the July 31 ruling, Wisconsin foster parents were required to store their firearms unloaded, according to John Monroe, the Georgia-based attorney specializing in gun laws who represented the couple. Foster parents had to provide to the state and county the makes and the models of all their firearms in order to be foster parents.
With the ruling, that’s no longer the case — which Monroe said will put the foster parents on the same footing as other parents. “This will better protect the foster children from unlawful attacks,” he said.
Monroe said he thinks Brian and Kate Lafferty, who filed their complaint in 2020, are “very pleased.”
The Laffertys had argued the county and state violated their Second Amendment with the regulations that “no loaded firearm may be kept in a foster home” and “no unloaded firearm or other dangerous weapon may be kept in a foster home unless stored and locked in an area not readily accessible by foster children.”
Foster parents were also required to store ammunition and firearms in separate locked areas not accessible to their foster children, and had to list every kind of firearm in their possession and where it was stored.
The defendants in the case were Jeff Pertl of the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families and Julie Driscoll, director of Washington County’s Health & Human Services Department.
After the ruling, the Wisconsin’s Department of Children and Families said in a statement to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the decision and its potential impacts are still being reviewed.
“It was a long decision that even the court was not unanimous in that regard,” said Ronald Stadler, one of Driscoll’s attorneys.
Foster children and the right of having firearms are complex issues, Stadler said.
Cathy Kozlowicz can be reached at 262-361-9132 or cathy.kozlowicz@jrn.com. Follow her on X at @kozlowicz_cathy.
This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin foster parents no longer have to follow stricter gun rules
Reporting by Cathy Kozlowicz, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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By Cathy Kozlowicz, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel | USA TODAY Network
