By Laurel Walker of the Journal Sentinel
Waukesha - The Waukesha County Board unanimously voted to ban guns from more county buildings in the wake of the new state law allowing concealed carry.
On a 21-0 vote Tuesday, the board approved an ordinance that prohibits carrying concealed weapons in the Human Services Center, the Public Health Center, the Mental Health Center, the Juvenile Center and the Waukesha County Communications Center.
Weapons are already banned at the courthouse and Administration Center, where visitors must pass through a security checkpoint staffed by deputies and a metal detector before entering. No security checks are planned in the other buildings.
Waukesha County parks and golf courses would be open to those lawfully carrying concealed weapons, although anyone renting a county facility could impose their own rules.
About Laurel Walker
Laurel Walker covered local, school and county government for 20 years -- the last half of that at the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel -- before she was named Waukesha County columnist in 1997. Today she writes about the people, places and events around metropolitan Milwaukee with a broad suburban focus.
She was the youngest of nine children raised on a central Wisconsin farm before leaving the nest for journalism studies at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and a masters degree at the University of Oregon.
She has spent the last half of her life in Waukesha County, where she and her husband raised two sons. Though she has a fondness for life in Waukesha, she eagerly partakes in the culture of the big city to the east and the recreation of the forests to the west. With sons in the arts, she has a special fondness for symphonic music concerts and art museums. She finds peace in a good book at a Northwoods getaway weekend, adventure in family visits to the east and west coasts, and satisfaction in a column well-written that reaches readers.
