by WorldTribune Staff / 247 Real News July 30, 2024
Since 1999, it has been illegal to carry a gun while fishing in Wisconsin.
After facing a legal challenge, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) agreed last week to end the ban on anglers carrying firearms.
The Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty (WILL) made the successful push to restore anglers’ gun rights, suing on the grounds that it violated the Second Amendment.
The legal group sued Acting DNR Secretary Steven Little last month over the 25-year-old rule that banned firearms on waters and shores used for fishing.
“There is a constitutional right under both the state and federal Constitution to protect yourself using firearms,” Croy said. “That right doesn’t disappear just because you’re in the great outdoors,” Skylar Croy, associate counsel for WILL, said.
Using a firearm to harvest fish remains patently illegal.
Croy noted that anglers commonly shot muskies with a small-caliber pistol until 1966 because muskies have sharp teeth that could do a lot of damage. As a result, they would shoot the fish while it was on the line before reeling it all the way in.
A regulation was adopted after shooting muskies was deemed unsportsmanlike.
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