Gonzalez – a soft-spoken, 21-year-old, unemployed college graduate – has long
hair, a pencil-thin mustache and a penchant for carrying guns. On May 14, he
walked into a West Milwaukee Menards with a shiny, silver Taurus 9 mm
semiautomatic handgun strapped to his hip.
That didn’t go over well. Gonzalez was stopped by a store assistant manager
and asked to leave. In the parking lot, he was confronted by the police and,
after refusing to answer any questions, arrested for disorderly conduct.
Gonzalez was claiming his rights, having researched the law and concluded
that open carry was legal in Wisconsin, his brother Adan told the police. The
officers scoffed at this, saying Gonzalez was “sorely mistaken.” But was he?
While open carry is illegal in the city of Milwaukee, West Milwaukee has no
specific ordinance barring it. Moreover, the State Statute of Local Regulation
of Firearms (66.0409) says local ordinances cannot be any more “stringent” than
state laws.
And state laws are horribly ambiguous on this point. Section 25 of the First
Amendment of the State Constitution reads, “It logically and necessarily follows
that the individual’s interest in the right to bear arms for purposes of
security will not, as a general matter, be particularly strong outside those two
locations .” Since the issue
has never been addressed by the state’s Supreme Court, the meaning of this
clause is open to interpretation.
The law on carrying a concealed weapon is clear: Wisconsin and
Illinois are the only two states to ban concealed weapons. “If you want to carry
a gun in Wisconsin, wear it on your hip,” Gov. Jim Doyle declared at a March
2006 press conference. Doyle, a former attorney general, apparently interprets
the constitution to allow open carry.
Yet it’s barred by ordinance in Milwaukee. “We don’t need any more guns on
the street,” says Mayor Tom Barrett. “I don’t want this to be the Wild West.”
Milwaukee District Attorney John Chisholm takes a middle ground. There are no
“bright-line rules,” he says. If someone openly carrying at any point conceals
the weapon, that would be illegal. Laws on the safe transport of weapons could
also come into play. Then there’s the catch-all of disorderly conduct. The
police report describes Gonzalez as argumentative, but would they have arrested
him if he had no gun?
People who want to open carry “do so at their own risk,” Chisholm advises.
At the Milwaukee Legislative Reference Bureau, which is called on to explain
city ordinances, manager Barry Zalben has for some time been requesting a
definitive answer on open carry from the city attorney. “We do think there is a
problem with the statute,” Zalben says. “If it’s not enforceable or invalid,
then we ought to repeal it.”
Meanwhile, the Wisconsin Patriots, a secretive gun advocacy group (whose
representatives declined to be interviewed), reportedly have been gathering
signatures on a petition demanding the right to open carry; its Web site claims
the petition has been sent to the state attorney general and various county
officials.
As for Gonzalez, he’s still certain the law backs him and plans to start
packing heat again – once the police give him back his gun.
