Wisconsin man sentenced for threatening to shoot lawmakers if they passed a bill to arm teachers

By The Associated Press

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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — A Wisconsin man was convicted and sentenced to time served Monday for threatening to shoot state lawmakers in 2022 if they passed a bill allowing teachers to carry firearms.

James Stearns of Fond du Lac was found guilty of making terrorist threats, a felony, by Judge Anthony Nehls and sentenced to seven days in jail, which he had already served, and fined $500. Stearns’ attorney, Matthew Goldin, did not return an email seeking comment Tuesday.

The 75-year-old Stearns sent two emails in May 2022 threatening to shoot state legislators if they passed a bill allowing for teachers to be armed, according to the criminal complaint. The possibility of arming teachers was discussed by Republican lawmakers days after 19 elementary school students and two teachers were killed in Uvalde, Texas.

One of the emails was sent to a state lawmaker who is not identified in the complaint. Another was sent to a conservative talk radio host in Wisconsin.

In that email, contained in the complaint, Stearns identified himself and said if the bill passed, he “will purchase a gun, the most powerful I can purchase, and go to Madison and shoot as many of the people who vote for this law as I can before someone shoots me.”

In the email sent to the lawmaker, Stearns wrote that he would kill the lawmaker within 60 days of the bill passing.

“People will hunt you down and your family like animals,” Stearns wrote, according to the complaint.

Fond du Lac County District Attorney Eric Toney said in a statement that “threats to murder legislators for doing the work of the people is a threat to democracy and must never be tolerated.”