Senator Kedzie,
Can you please ask Attorney General JB Van Hollen for an official opinion on car carry without a permit? The basic question is whether Act 35 gives us the right to carry as we see fit inside a car.
Here's the rub. Act 35 fixed 167.35 to allow loaded, unencased weapons in cars. However, 941.23, the concealed carry statute only allows concealing with a permit. So.... the precedent outlined in State v Fry 1986, State v Keith 1993 and State v Walls 1994 still apply. Basically, that body of case law states that it a
handgun on the seat of a car that was indiscernible from ordinary observation by a person outside, and within the immediate vicinity, of the vehicle was hidden from view for purposes of determining whether the gun was a concealed weapon under § 941.23
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[FONT=Arial, Times, serif]So.... without a permit, we would have to put our handgun on the dashboard or hang it so that someone can see it from the outside.
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[FONT=Arial, Times, serif]That means, once again without a permit, I could not leave it in my holster because it would not be viewable from outside the vehicle.
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[FONT=Arial, Times, serif]As the chairman of a committee[/FONT][FONT=Arial, Times, serif], 165.015(1) gives you the authority to ask for the opinion and the AG must respond to you. As a private citizen, I cannot ask and as 'just' a Senator, you cannot either, actually, we can ask all we want but he doesn't have to respond.[/FONT]
165.015(1) (1) Give opinion to officers. Give his or her opinion in writing, when required, without fee, upon all questions of law submitted to him or her by the legislature, either house thereof or the senate or assembly committee on organization, or by the head of any department of state government.
Getting a binding opinion before 11/1 would help a lot especially since DOJ won' be issuing permits immediately and people unfamiliar with the intricacies of WI concealed carry statutes can be caught committing a crime without realizing it.
Thanks!