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What's the penalty for open carry and concealed carry in Racine,WI

svfd1995

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Hi. I'm going to be staying in the Racine area for a couple months with family. We live out west where my husband and I carry concealed. We have both lived in Racine in the past and wouldn't feel safe without carrying a gun. However, we are not real sure about carrying openly. What are the ramifications of carrying concealed or open? I've never been to jail and hope to keep it that way!! Thanks for any help you can give.
 

Doug Huffman

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You will go to jail for carrying a concealed weapon if it is discovered. That is explicitly illegal.

You may go to jail for openly carrying a weapon on a charge of Disorderly Conduct with a 'weapons enhancement' perhaps.

Please peruse as many of the threads here on the Wisconsin sub-forum as you can, especially those with relatively many responses.
 

S.E.WI

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Please read the thread: HELP CREATE A LETTER TO GOV. OFFICIALS.

WI has a 130 year old statute that bans CCW with the exception of LE. In 1998 the people of WI passed a State Constitutional amendment for the right to bear arms. Some judge ruled that we didn't know what we were voting for and upheld the statute.

OC will likely get you a DC charge. I haven't seen anyone OCarrying in the area yet. Be very careful of where you go and the routes you take for your safety.

If you read the thread you will find Article VI of the U.S. Constitution and I think you will find LE, judges and legislators are the ones violating the law. Welcome and I hope you enjoy your visit here.
 

Lammie

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I don't wish to open the Disorderly Conduct bag of maggots again but when we talk about disorderly conduct one thing must be clear. Some over zealous police officer may issue a citation and "arrest" a person as disorderly for openly carrying a firearm. He may even take you "downtown" for questioning. A person may be jailed for a short time while the DA considers "charges" but only the District Attorney can actually charge a person for violation of the disorderly conduct statute, and then bring those charges to trial. There is a huge distinction between being arrested for a crime and for being charged with a crime. We must be careful when we tell new members that they may be "charged with disorderly conduct". With all the research I have done I can not find one case where a person was specifically charged and convicted of disorderly conduct for peacefully carrying a visible firearm in public. There are a couple of disorderly conduct convictions where a firearm was involved, but the cases also had other extenuating circumstances. On the other hand there have been a number of convictions for carrying a concealed weapon.

This is not a vote of confidence that says go ahead and open carry in Wisconsin. There are many Law Enforcement agencies that, even though they know you aren't breaking the law, will make your life miserable. The decision to open carry is an individual decision based on the risk a person is willing to take.
 

S.E.WI

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Lammie,

Point taken. I called the Village PD to ask about open carry, this is on the edge of Racine, WI. The LEO was still talking about ordinances and didn't seem to know about preemption. This lack of knowledge, or claim of it, makes for a bad day for OC. We need to educate and get more to participate to get LE to stop bothering us.

I just wanted the visitors to have a fun safe vacation, while defenseless.
 

svfd1995

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Thanks for all the replies!I'm not sure what I will do. It's a tough decision! It's frustrating that I'm a law-abiding citizen and have carried for a few years without a problem and yet in Wisconsin I will be treated as a criminal all because I want to protect myself and my family!
 

WIG19

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Lammie wrote:
I don't wish to open the Disorderly Conduct bag of maggots again but when we talk about disorderly conduct one thing must be clear. Some over zealous police officer may issue a citation and "arrest" a person as disorderly for openly carrying a firearm. He may even take you "downtown" for questioning. A person may be jailed for a short time while the DA considers "charges" but only the District Attorney can actually charge a person for violation of the disorderly conduct statute, and then bring those charges to trial.
Good words, as well as advice to peruse threads herein and understand preemption, that you can even be "arrested" and still released at the scene. If it goes there, you are in many cases (right or wrong) going to say good-bye to your firearm for a time. Owning a spare that's not on you is always worth considering anyway imo.

Welcome to Wisconsin where you have the right to wrestle a 250-lb rapist and suffer a beatdown before an appellate may[/u] rule after the fact that... "Gee, I guess there was reasonable cause for that person to go armed for self-defense purposes."

:X
 

S.E.WI

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svfd1995 wrote:
Thanks for all the replies!I'm not sure what I will do. It's a tough decision! It's frustrating that I'm a law-abiding citizen and have carried for a few years without a problem and yet in Wisconsin I will be treated as a criminal all because I want to protect myself and my family!

We know the feeling all to well. Some nut flips out and all I can do is hope that the next bullet isn't for one of my grandchildren while knowing I am capable of placinga roundbetween his eyes.

Maybe the cops are afraid of criminals so they take the easy route and deny our rights. It's safe to bust someone without a record and a pat on the back for getting a gun off the street. The number of murders should indicate that they can't protect us.

FRUSTRATED TOO :cuss::cuss::cuss::cuss::cuss::cuss: stay safe.
 
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