AB69 — known as castle doctrine — provides legal protection to those who in cases involving “Use of force in response to unlawful and forcible entry into a dwelling, motor vehicle, or place
of business.”
Similar legislation was shot down by past Governor Jim Doyle in 2005, 2007 and 2009.
The legislation, introduced by Senator Van Wanggaard, passed both the Assembly and Senate along bipartisan lines. There are 30 other states that have some form of the “Castle Doctrine” in place.
“When faced with a threatening intruder, you shouldn’t have to worry about criminal or civil liability concerns. At that point, your only concern should be your safety. There is no place where a person has more of a right to be safe than in their own home,” Wanggaard reportedly said.
The language in the bill was not as strong as it could have been, according to Wisconsin Gun Owners, Inc. (WGO). The state’s only no-compromise gun rights organization had lobbied to change the word “privilege” of self-defense to “right” of self-defense. WGO also did not want to limit the liability protection to the home, motor vehicle or place of business, but to “any place a person may legally be.”
The organization plans to continue pushing for a better law, though they aren’t holding their breath waiting for the institutional gun lobby to take up that torch.
In the meantime, anti-gun lawyers with the State Bar of Wisconsin — a group representing more than 600 criminal defense lawyers, prosecutors, judges, academics and other numbskulls — opposed the bill crying foul that it would enable homeowners to shoot “trick-or-treaters.”
Of course, that scare tactic didn’t work, and the act itself states that force may only be used against an intruder, “after unlawfully and forcibly entering it, the actor was present in the dwelling, motor vehicle, or place of business, and the actor knew or had reason to believe that the person had unlawfully and forcibly entered the dwelling, motor vehicle, or place of business.”
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