Wisconsin Judges Torch County After Bureaucrats Try Stripping Foster Couple Of Their Guns

Wisconsin bureaucrats spent five years trying to disarm foster parents Brian and Katie Lafferty.

Washington County kept changing the rules every time the Laffertys got close to winning.

Now three appeals judges have ended the county's five-year campaign for one simple reason.

Judges Say Foster Parents Never Surrendered Their Gun Rights

Brian and Katie Lafferty just won a fight most Americans never knew was happening.

Wisconsin's Department of Children and Families and Washington County Human Services Director Julie Driscoll told the couple they had to give up basic gun rights to keep fostering children.

The Court of Appeals District III said no.

Judge Maria Lazar wrote that foster parents "did not waive their constitutional rights by volunteering to serve as foster parents."

That single line torched years of bureaucratic bullying.

The county had demanded the Laffertys keep every firearm unloaded inside their own home as a condition of their foster license.

Judges struck that rule down cold, ruling it violates both the U.S. Constitution and Wisconsin's own constitution.

Government officials tried to argue an old law about gunpowder storage justified locking down modern ammunition.

The court wasn't buying it.

Judge Lazar said the comparison didn't hold up against how ammunition is actually used today.

The ruling itself runs 119 pages.

That page count shows exactly how hard Washington County fought to keep control over one family's guns.

The DCF secretary defending those rules in court is Jeff Pertl, an appointee of Democrat Gov. Tony Evers.

County Accused Of Playing Games With The Courts

This case dragged on because Washington County refused to play it straight.

The court itself said the county "moved the goal posts" throughout the fight.

Officials quietly rewrote the foster parent gun policy mid-lawsuit, then argued the changes made the case disappear.

Judges weren't fooled by the timing.

The Washington Times reported the appeals court scolded the county for being slow to even tell the court it had dropped some restrictions.

That kind of stalling isn't an accident.

It's what happens when a government agency gets caught overreaching and tries to dodge accountability instead of admitting it.

Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, said the win means the rights of law-abiding citizens who are also foster parents are strengthened.

Wisconsin isn't the only state where bureaucrats have tried this play.

Missouri foster parents James and Julie Attaway sued after the state required them to lock away their guns whenever their foster son was home.

Illinois is fighting a nearly identical battle right now, though a federal judge there just sided with the state's gun restrictions instead.

Every one of these fights traces back to the same Supreme Court standard.

The Supreme Court's 2022 Bruen ruling told judges to quit letting bureaucrats talk their way around the Second Amendment with vague claims about "safety."

Now the burden is on the government to prove a gun rule actually existed in America's history, not just that some official thought it sounded reasonable.

Washington County searched its history books and came up empty.

What Pertl And Driscoll's Loss Really Means

This is what happens when a Tony Evers appointee and a county bureaucrat decide they get veto power over the Bill of Rights.

Foster parents open their homes to vulnerable kids, and Jeff Pertl and Julie Driscoll's thank you was demanding they disarm themselves in their own living room.

Bruen changed the entire game, and agencies like Washington County's are only now finding out the old rules of quiet compliance don't work anymore.

Every parent who has ever been told to sign away rights just to keep fostering kids now has a roadmap for fighting back.

Expect more of these lawsuits in Illinois, Missouri and beyond as families realize the courts are finally on their side.

Washington County kept fighting to defend a rule that never had a constitutional leg to stand on.

That's the cost of bureaucratic stubbornness, and Washington County families paid the price in years of uncertainty.

Sources:

• AWR Hawkins, "Wisconsin Court Counters County: Upholds Foster Parents' 2A Rights," Breitbart, August 4, 2026.
• Alex Swoyer, "Foster parents don't lose gun rights, court rules," The Washington Times, August 4, 2026.
• Tom Knighton, "Wisconsin Court Rules Foster Parents Don't Forfeit Gun Rights," Bearing Arms, August 5, 2026.
• Wisconsin Court of Appeals District III, Lafferty v. Pertl, Opinion, July 31, 2026.