Email Sent to Sheriff Stammen tonight
Sheriff Stammen
On the morning of the open carry picnic September 25th, 2010 an officer ( I don’t know who it was) from your department came out to check on what procedures we had in place to handle the issue of not using the restroom while armed. I told him that we had purchased two gun boxes and we plan on taking the firearm out of the holster and secure it in the gun box, where the person would then lock the gun box and take the key with them to the restroom, then after, just reverse the process.
The sheriff department officer stated he didn’t know if that was legal and called his supervisor. The supervisor said it was not acceptable, to take the firearm out of the holster and required us to leave the firearm in the holster and take the entire holster with firearm inside, off and secure it in the gun box.
Apparently, it was determined by the supervisor on Saturday, September 25th, 2010 that taking the firearm out of the holster and put in a gun box without the holster would be unsafe, and modified our procedures for securing the firearm in the gun box the morning of the picnic.
I have to ask, is there a difference between, allowing a person to take the firearm out of the holster and storing the firearm in a gun box that’s on a table right in front of you, vs. Pulling the firearm out of our holster, while standing outside next to your vehicle and securing it in a gun case.
The answer to the question is there is no difference, everyone, before getting in their vehicle, to drive home the day of the picnic, had to take their firearm out of the holster, while standing outside of the vehicle, encase it and secure the firearm in the vehicle.
Sheriff Stammen, think about the repercussion of your supervisor decision that day meant to those who attended the picnic, whom, most all of them were wisconsincarry.org members and all well versed in the law related to the open carrying of a firearm.
All of them reasoned, as so did I, and discussed it during the picnic, that if it is considered unsafe to take your firearm out of the holster to secure it in a safe, than it should be also considered unsafe to take your firearm out of the holster, while standing next to your car, to secure the firearm in a gun case.
If so, than a citizen could reasonably conclude that the supervisor’s requirement and reasoning he had for not taking a firearm out of the holster for storage, a local ordinance of West Baraboo.
Any member attending the picnic that day could have, when they were leaving from the picnic in their vehicle, felt obligated out of a safety concern, to follow the Sauk County supervisor requirement for securing a firearm, and either, stored their firearm in the vehicle with the firearm still in the holster, (because, I doubt the firearm and holster together would fit in the gun case, when originally, only the firearm was in the case when he or she arrived to the picnic) or he or she could have kept the firearm strapped to their side while getting in the vehicle and then drove away without encasing the firearm, again with concern for safety while taking the firearm out of the holster.
Then, If any attendee to the picnic were to get stopped by Law Enforcement on their way home in Baraboo for any reason, and they were cited for concealed carry, than I would think that they would have a very strong legal argument in defending their concealed carry citation based on the Sauk County Sheriff’s Department supervisor’s policy for securing a firearm and his or her concern for safety in taking the firearm out of the holster.
Based on the argument above, we should not have been required to secure both the holster and firearm together in the gun box, which as I discuss above, is contrary to what the current State Law allows us to do when storing the firearm in our vehicle, State Law allows us to take the firearm out of the holster, while standing next to our vehicle and to secure the firearm in a case.
Additionally, when securing the firearm in the vehicle, there is no State Law restricting the location of the vehicle when we secure our firearm, in otherwords, we could secure our firearm in a crouded Walmart parking lot, so, it isn’t a valid argument that we posed a safety concern for any of the people that were using the park, that were not attending the picnic while we were securing the firearm in the gun box..
I’m sure that whoever attended the picnic secured their firearm in their vehicle in accordance to State Law prior to leaving, just as we followed the Sauk County Sheriff’s office requirements during the open carry picnic.
I do plan on organizing a picnic next year, and I hope that we could open up a dialog withWest Baraboo or you're office to allow us to use the restrooms while armed.
Don