IowaJack said:
My wife and I will be visiting Green Bay next week for the tall ships festival. I noticed on the festival website map it says: Per city ordinance: NO Weapons
This is for Leicht Memorial Park where the festivals will be held. I understand that festivals can ban weapons but I didn't think citys could ban parks?
So is this a festival thing, a city thing or is someone misleading and making people believe weapons are banned (unless a person has a permit). It does also say that bags are subject to search.
Here's where you can search WI statutes by number or keyword:
http://legis.wisconsin.gov/RSB/STATS.HTML
No, the city is not allowed to post the park, while it's a park.
We have preemption, which says that no local unit of gov't can make an ordinance which is stricter than state law w/r/t firearms. See 66.0409
(So if, for example, they banned the possession of firearms in city limits, which some places used to & just haven't cleaned up their ordinances yet, that would be unenforcable.)
29.089(2)
used to say that it was illegal to be in possession of a firearm in a state park or fish hatchery (unless unloaded & encased),
then was changed to OK possession of a pistol in a state park or fish hatchery by a licensee (long guns still U&E),
and as of 01JAN13 it's legal to possess a firearm in a state park as long as the person is otherwise legal to possess the firearm.
Thanks to preemption, it's legal to possess a firearm in any local park as long as the person is otherwise legal.
943.13 deals with trespassing, which is the statute which allows "special events" to prohibit good law-abiding customers from attending. See 943.13 (1m)(c)(3)
943.13 (1e)(h) defines "special event"
"an event that [
sic] is open to the public, is for a duration of not more than 3 weeks, and either has designated entrances to and from the event that [
sic] are locked when the event is closed or requires an admission"
So...
Since that map has a blob saying "purchase tickets here", they apparently require an admission, so as long as it's not over 3 weeks' duration they're allowed to prohibit self-protection at the event.
And no, having a carry license is not a defense to trespassing at a posted event or business.
Most of us just don't go to places like that. (Summerfest, state fair, etc.)
Just for yucks, you could google to find if the city posts its ordinances online, & see how out of date they are. I'm sure we have members who live there who would be happy to write a few letters reminding the city council that they need to straighten up & follow state law.
