Attempt To Expand Disorderly Conduct Fine, Ban Bump Stocks Before RNC Fails

A bump stock on the back of a rifle. WASR, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons

A proposal to add an enhanced fine for possession of a gun to a disorderly conduct charge won’t be adopted in time for the Republican National Convention. Nor will be a ban on bump stocks.

Alderman Scott Spiker sought to have the disorderly conduct proposal quickly adopted during a special meeting Thursday of the Common Council. But a majority of the council voted to hold the proposal, which would increase the maximum fine from $500 to $5,000, to allow more time for debate.

The bump stock ban was rejected by the City Attorney’s Office because it is believed to supersede state law.

“You don’t make laws for two weeks,” said Spiker during the special meeting. But he said he wanted to take action where the legislature hadn’t to be responsive to the safety concerns of citizens.

“I see it is as a good policy we want to adopt as a city as a whole,” said Spiker of the disorderly conduct enhancement. But council members Mark Chambers, Jr. and Milele A. Coggs said there were likely unintended consequences to the legislation.

Spiker’s proposal is designed to mirror a state law, granting an enhancer for disorderly conduct while “possessing, using or threatening to use a dangerous weapon,” but at the municipal level. It would be a lessor civil forfeiture versus a state criminal case.

“I think it is important that the Milwaukee Police Department has this tool available for the RNC,” said Ald. Robert Bauman. “In a way, it is a reform measure because we are giving the police a non-incarceration choice.”

But Coggs said their was a “little hypocritical” to her. “If anyone has a gun during the RNC or outside of the RNC, and they make threats… I hope the police want to put them in jail,” she said.

Ald. Russell W. Stamper, II proposed sunsetting the proposal after the RNC, in advance of a more substantial debate. But Chambers refused to withdraw a motion to hold the proposal, which took precedence.

Only Spiker, Bauman, JoCasta Zamarripa, Peter Burgelis, Marina Dimitrijevic and Council President José G. Pérez voted to reject the hold. It passed on an 8-6-1 vote, with Larresa Taylor excused.

Chambers said he was concerned about the unintended consequences of the enhanced fine. He said it could be used by police during an unclear situation where someone believed they acted in self defense when someone was otherwise lawfully possessing a weapon and had kept it holstered. “That’s too open for me,” he said.

The proposal, said Spiker, was spurred by Bauman’s earlier attempt to have the city ban guns from the “soft zone” of the RNC security perimeter. State law prevents the city from restricting weapons in specific areas not already provided, but Bauman encouraged his colleagues, unsuccessfully, to pass a prohibition. His intent was to remove weapons from a perceived conflict zone where protesters and convention attendees, headed to the federally-controlled “hard zone,” might meet.

The bump stock proposal comes after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling struck down a federal administrative ban. The Wisconsin State Legislature did not act to ban them at the city’s request and deputy city attorney Robin A. Pederson said the City Attorney’s Office determined a bump stock, which can be used to make a weapon fire much faster, is part of a weapon and therefore unable to be regulated by the city.

“It’s a bad law. That’s why we’re in the situation we’re in,” said Spiker.

There is technically a procedural option available for a series of special public meetings Friday where the council could pass the bump stock ban. But it would be overriding the determination of the City Attorney and still require a signature from Mayor Cavalier Johnson, which many in City Hall view as unlikely. Even if all those pieces were to fall into place, the city would have to publish the notice of the ordinance change and wait until the next day for it to go into effect. And then survive a legal challenge.

You can bring your rifles and bump stocks to the “soft zone” around the RNC, just not tennis balls or cans of soup.

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Related Legislation: File 240435, File 240403