imported post
Not to take the thread's topic too far astray, but I became very much aware of statute 941.235 years ago when I made my yearly trip into the Madison/Dane County "City-County Building" to pay property taxes. The entrances have stenciled notices that say something like "Firearms and other weapons prohibited" and it cited 941.235 and another statute that was completely irrelevant because it has something to do with "interfering with firefighters" or similar. After the county coroner and another worker were shot dead by a lunatic, the city and county placed metal detectors and private security personnel at the entrances. (Which were removed and placed in the new county courthouse building after the courts moved out of the building.) Of course every time I had reason to enter the building I made it a point of carrying as much metal material on me as I could. I'd have batteries, a knife, some loose ammo, paperclips, and plenty of change stuffed in my pockets. Despite the fact that the statute covered firearms specifically, and there are no Madison or Dane County ordinances regarding carrying knives, they of course never allowed me to take my knife inside. Nor the ammo, which of course they cannot prohibit legally due to the state preemption law. (However they did miss .44 magnum ammo that I put into the tray once and back into my pocket with a smile as the guard was bragging to me about the sensitivity of his hand held metal detector.) One day I placed a loaded magazine into the tray, which of course they DID notice and did not hand back to me, but instead gave me a receipt for it and my pocket knife. When I was leaving the building and asked to retrieve my items, they said a police officer was coming to talk with me and to have a seat. They said they needed to report whenever a gun came into the building--- I replied I didn't bring a GUN. The Madison officer arrived a few minutes later picked up my items and handed them to me. He took out a little note pad and said something like "For the sake of those bozos I'm going to pretend like I give a shit." He said "name?". I said "my real name?" He shrugged and said "I don't care." He asked where my gun was, and I told him it was in my car. He said "That's fine" and wished me a good day.
In any event the moral of the story, the poorly trained security guards who once manned the entrances to the Madison/Dane County city-county building, and who are now at the courthouse, will try to use 941.235 to prohibit items beyond the scope of that statute and which currently are not, or in the example of ammunition cannot be, prohibited locally.
