Doug Huffman
Banned
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http://www.waow.com/Global/story.asp?S=11402816
Video link on the page.
by Meg Bonacorsi
WAUASU (WAOW) -- Earlier this month, we told you about a group of students who found a loaded handgun in an alley near Lincoln Elementary School in Wausau.
The students told their school principal, then police started an investigation.
Investigators found that the gun is registered to a Waukesha man, but he says he sold it a few years back and doesn't know who the current owner is.
Now this situation left us with questions about gun registration and how it impacts police investigations.
police say the issue of gun registration can be tough because they support people's second amendment rights, but they still have to do their jobs too.
By law, guns only need to be registered when they're purchased through a licensed dealer. If you give them away or sell them privately or at a gun show registration isn't required.
Deputy Chief Brian Hilts with the Wausau Police Department says, "It can make the source of a firearm difficult to track down."
Marathon County Sheriff's Lt. Dale Wisnewski says, "It can be frustrating because sometimes the lead that we want, the information we need is, who is the registered owner, who's the last owner of the weapon."
But there's a reason for current registration laws.
Wisnewski says, "You have a group of people that believe that that's a good thing that they don't want to have their name on a list for protectional privacy and to protect their second amendment rights."
And police respect that too.
Wisnewski says, "It's something that we constantly deal with and we understand both sides of it. And we're not going to push for one way or another because both have valid arguments."
Even if laws were different, police don't think it would make it much easier for them to solve crimes because, "Crimes are committed with guns that are obtained illegally and so of course there wouldn't be any ownership registration there no matter what kind of restrictions the laws put in place," Hilts says.
http://www.waow.com/Global/story.asp?S=11402816
Video link on the page.
by Meg Bonacorsi
WAUASU (WAOW) -- Earlier this month, we told you about a group of students who found a loaded handgun in an alley near Lincoln Elementary School in Wausau.
The students told their school principal, then police started an investigation.
Investigators found that the gun is registered to a Waukesha man, but he says he sold it a few years back and doesn't know who the current owner is.
Now this situation left us with questions about gun registration and how it impacts police investigations.
police say the issue of gun registration can be tough because they support people's second amendment rights, but they still have to do their jobs too.
By law, guns only need to be registered when they're purchased through a licensed dealer. If you give them away or sell them privately or at a gun show registration isn't required.
Deputy Chief Brian Hilts with the Wausau Police Department says, "It can make the source of a firearm difficult to track down."
Marathon County Sheriff's Lt. Dale Wisnewski says, "It can be frustrating because sometimes the lead that we want, the information we need is, who is the registered owner, who's the last owner of the weapon."
But there's a reason for current registration laws.
Wisnewski says, "You have a group of people that believe that that's a good thing that they don't want to have their name on a list for protectional privacy and to protect their second amendment rights."
And police respect that too.
Wisnewski says, "It's something that we constantly deal with and we understand both sides of it. And we're not going to push for one way or another because both have valid arguments."
Even if laws were different, police don't think it would make it much easier for them to solve crimes because, "Crimes are committed with guns that are obtained illegally and so of course there wouldn't be any ownership registration there no matter what kind of restrictions the laws put in place," Hilts says.
