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Madison - People who shoot intruders in their homes, businesses or vehicles would get powerful new legal protections under a bill scheduled to come before the Assembly on Tuesday.

In the proposal, courts in criminal cases and civil lawsuits would presume in most cases that property owners using deadly force had acted reasonably against anyone unlawfully inside their residence, whether they were armed or threatening or not. The proposal is sometimes known as "castle doctrine" legislation, a reference to the saying that one's home is one's castle.

The Assembly will take up the bill the same day that Wisconsin becomes the 49th state in the country to allow the concealed carry of firearms with the proper permit. The bill could come up in the Senate as quickly as Wednesday and has the support of GOP Gov. Scott Walker, though he has said he'll still review the final wording of the legislation.

Milwaukee County District Attorney John Chisholm said Monday that Wisconsin, like most states, doesn't need a castle doctrine because current law, refined over the last half century, provides more than adequate protection for anyone legitimately acting in self-defense.

"The statute in place right now is actually a very good standard, very workable, functional definition of self-defense," he said.

Chisholm called the current bill a solution in search of a problem, one that "seems to introduce ambiguity that will make it difficult for law enforcement to make fine distinctions."

The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Dean Kaufert (R-Neenah) and Sen. Van Wanggaard (R-Racine) and championed by groups such as the National Rifle Association, is one of a flurry of proposals coming before the Legislature this week as GOP lawmakers push ahead on their agenda ahead of recall efforts against Walker and state senators planned to start by mid-November. Those recall efforts are expected to slow the flow of legislation at the Capitol to a trickle, much like an earlier round of late summer Senate recalls.

Lawmakers in the Assembly also will be taking up a long list of bills, including proposals to allow standardized tests to be used to help determine teacher discipline and firing; to promote hunting; and to overhaul the regulation of nursing homes.

Under current law, a person can't seek to kill or wound someone else unless he or she reasonably believes it's needed to prevent the same type of injury to himself or herself. Kaufert said that people in their homes or businesses don't necessarily have the time to check whether an intruder is trying to hurt them or not

"Citizens have a right to be safe and secure in their own homes and their property. It's a fundamental right. This will strengthen Wisconsin's self-defense" laws, Kaufert said.

A spokeswoman for the state Department of Justice and Republican Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen said Monday that the agency hasn't taken a position on the bill.

Also Monday, the state Senate's leadership committee voted 3-2 along party lines, with all Republicans in favor and both Democrats against, to allow concealed guns on the Senate floor and committee rooms while prohibiting them in the public galleries overlooking the Senate floor. The action follows a decision last week by Walker's administration to open up most state buildings, including the parts of the Capitol under the governor's control, to concealed carry.

Individual lawmakers at the Capitol, including Sen. Bob Jauch (D-Poplar), have begun posting their offices to prohibit the carrying of firearms inside.

The proposed immunity under the castle doctrine legislation wouldn't apply to people who were using their home or other property for crimes such as drug dealing. It also wouldn't shield a shooter who attacked someone who he or she knew or should have known was a police officer.

The proposal also would entitle shooters to recover the costs of defending themselves in any civil suit against them if the court found the shooter was immune to lawsuits under the castle doctrine. Courts would not be able to consider whether the person using deadly force in their home, business or vehicle had the opportunity to flee instead.

Tony Gibart, policy coordinator for the Wisconsin Coalition against Domestic Violence, said his group is concerned about the bill because it protects people from prosecution for some uses of force in their home or car, key places where domestic violence happens.

Gibart didn't have examples from other states with castle doctrine laws, but he questioned whether the proposal's advocates in Wisconsin had examples of why it's needed here.

"We're concerned that the bill might be used in ways that shield domestic abusers and people who perpetrate domestic violence homicide from accountability," Gibart said. "This is really a piece of legislation in search of a problem that doesn't exist."

Chisholm said home invasions by armed intruders or those seeking to harm the occupants of a house are extremely rare. Milwaukee County has had several instances, he said, where someone used deadly force even outside their home and was not charged because their actions were deemed a reasonable, justifiable self-defense.

Chisholm, a Democrat, said he's worried the new law "could decrease public safety, not increase it."

Some states go further than the Wisconsin legislation and extend the right of self-defense to any place a shooter has a right to be, with so-called "stand your ground" legislation. Such laws generally do away with the requirement that someone try to retreat before using deadly force against a perceived threat.

Nik Clark, chairman of the gun-rights group Wisconsin Carry Inc., said his group wants to see the legislation here expanded to include "stand your ground" provisions.

"We think that arguably, in the home is the safest place a person can be and that it's actually more important to have the protections of the castle doctrine law outside the home," Clark said.