Wisconsin’s Court of Appeals District III (CAD III) countered Washington County’s gun control rules for foster parents, rebuking the county for some of the controls and completely erasing others.
The ruling, issued in Lafferty v. Pertl, was handed down July 31, 2026. The case centers on Brian and Katie Lafferty and their fight to retain their Second Amendment rights while serving as foster parents.
The appeal to CAD III was made after a circuit court granted summary judgement against the Laffertys procedurally.
CAD III noted:
The Laffertys have been seeking to exercise their state and federal constitutional rights for five years while the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF) and Washington County Human Services Department (the County) have dithered, moved the goal posts, and changed the rules of the game every step along the way.
CAD III then observed that while some of the gun controls have been amended and done away with, the mandate that “foster parents’ firearms be stored unloaded as a condition of obtaining a foster parent license” still exists and “violates both the federal and state constitution.”
Moreover, The Washington Times pointed out that CAD III was not pleased with the way Washington County had been tardy in informing the appeals court it had removed some of its gun control and CAD III subsequently “scolded the county for playing games with the courts over the changes.”
AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio and the director of global marketing for Lone Star Hunts. He holds a PhD in Military History with a focus on the Vietnam War (brown water navy), U.S. Navy since Inception, the Civil War, and Early Modern Europe. He enjoys reading Philosophy and novels by Jack Carr and Nelson DeMille. He is a lever action man in an AR-15 world. Follow him on X: @awrhawkins. You can sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.