PARK FALLS, Wis. – The topic of gun control has been hard to ignore for lawmakers on both sides of the aisle in Wisconsin.
Democrats and Republicans have ideas about laws they would like to pass, but many of the proposals are at odds with one another.
Guns have been a part of Chuck Lovelaces's life for as long as he can remember.
“Having those different exposures young, you know it taught me to respect firearms, and it taught me to respect what they were capable of,” Lovelace said.
Business has been booming ever since he and his wife decided to pick up their gun shop in Mt. Horeb and move it to Park Falls.
“Our sales have boosted up significantly,” Lovelace said. “Now, our sales would have boosted up just as much down there, and it all really kind of ties back to the start of COVID.”
As you would expect, some of that has to do with panic buying, but there is more to the story.
“It's also been a combination of people wanting to get involved in the sport, and those that are already established in the sport being able to maintain their current activities and be prepared if there is a shortage,” Lovelace said.
Lovelace's gun shop in Park Falls isn't the only one that has been busy. According to data from the state Department of Justice, gun sales have been up all across Wisconsin.
Background checks for handgun purchases saw an almost 75% increase from 2019 to 2020 in Wisconsin.
Permits requests for concealed carry saw a spike too, nearly doubling between 2019 and 2020.
“Violence will happen regardless of how many laws you put on the books,” Lovelace said. “Education is key because we'll have people walk in all the time and have no clue what they want to buy. They just want to buy a gun because everybody else is buying them and they're not quite sure what they need to get.
Recent mass shootings have renewed calls for gun reform both at the national level and state level.
Earlier this month, President Joe Biden called gun violence in America an “epidemic” and a “public health crisis” during an announcement of six immediate actions the federal government is taking.
State Sen. LaTonya Johnson (D-Milwaukee) would like to see progress on universal background checks.
“I think you would start to see a lot of the guns that are illegally on the streets not exist anymore,” Johnson said. “I mean a city like Milwaukee confiscated over 3,000 guns.”
Democrats have also pushed for “red flag” laws as President Biden has, but Lovelace said allowing people to ask for guns to be temporarily taken away from someone because they think they could be harmful is a slippery slope.
“Having a health care professional involved in deeming if someone is mentally unstable, that would be appropriate,” Lovelace said.
State Sen. Mary Felzkowski (R-Irma) also worries about people's rights, so much so she introduced a bill to make Wisconsin a Second Amendment sanctuary state.
“There's a lot of fear over what the federal government and the Biden administration is doing, so what we did is we put the sanctuary bill out there and what it does is it prevents state resources, exactly what you said, from confiscating legal gun owners' weapons,” Felzkowski said.
A firm believer in states' rights, Lovelace likes that idea instead of some sort of national mandate. He points to what Wisconsin's neighboring states have done on their own without federal regulations.
“In Illinois, they have the firearms owner identification card," Lovelace said. "That means that when you're in Illinois if you choose to purchase ammunition, firearms anything, you have to show the card that you've had some education. That's important.”
When looking to the future, Lovelace often thinks about the past. He said crackdown reforms never go over.
“It didn't work for prohibition,” Lovelace said. “It just made those that decided to make bootleg liquor felons again.”
Regardless of the reform, change usually doesn't come easy.
“Unfortunately, there's not going to be any quick, easy rubber stamp way to change things,” Lovelace said. “They've gotta start changing the culture versus trying to get the quick fix.”
However, at least talk of some reform does keep open the door for a chance of compromise among lawmakers.