In a somewhat controversial move, a Legislative committee voted late last week to eliminate the four-hour training requirement that accompanied the approval of concealed carry permits.
According to a statement released by Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen, the Joint Committee for the Review of Administrative Rules voted 7-3 on Monday to suspend a section of the Department of Justice’s rule that required four hours of instruction to carry a concealed weapon.
Committee clerk Jason Rostan said training is still required to receive a permit to carry a concealed weapon, but the requirement no longer specifies how many hours the training must encompass.
“We left a lot of power in the hands of instructors to decide if an individual is prepared well enough,” Rostan said. “There are a lot of people that think by eliminating the four hours, you’ll have people that will sign off on classes after 10 minutes. What they don’t understand is we have control over who we certify as instructors, and we’re not certifying instructors that are going to do that.”
According to Rostan, instructors can be approved and certified by the DOJ, the National Rifle Association and law enforcement.
Rostan said the committee did not want to include a specific time requirement in the training guidelines because it would lead citizens to believe four hours would be sufficient for everyone.
“The biggest issue [is regarding] who knows better how much training an individual needs. Is it the DOJ or the individual and trainer”? Rostan said. “They’re in a better situation to figure out just how much training that individual needs, and the Legislature came to that same conclusion.”
Rep. Chris Taylor, D-Madison, said the rule is subjective and hard to enforce without the four-hour requirement.
Taylor said the requirement is more lenient than other states that require individuals to take a specific course to carry a concealed weapon.
“I think it’s amazing that you have a Republican attorney general that’s saying his agency directed a rule that poses a minimal burden on training, and even with that burden, 20,000 people have applied to carry a concealed weapon,” Taylor said. “Obviously 20,000 people don’t see that as a burden. They understand that part of having the right to carry a gun requires that you need to know how to use it.”
Jeff Nass, president of Wi-Force Wisconsin, an NRA-chartered organization, said the committee’s decision reflects how the concealed carry law should be read.
Nass also said Van Hollen wanted training requirements to be spelled out specifically, and that was not the intent of the law.
“One of the things we strive to do is to allow individuals to choose what fits their needs the best, and that seems to be a hard concept for the attorney general,” Nass said. “He requested several times that the legislators come up with very specific restrictions. People like the attorney general don’t seem to be able to use common sense to reasonably look at something and make a decision.”
According to Taylor, the committee also voted to remove portions of the rule that required firearm safety instructors to have eight hours of instruction training.
