Wisconsin gun law to be tested in court

Trucker arrested for having loaded gun in vehicle

A test of Wisconsin gun laws in the courts could change what is considered concealed carry in the state.

The case involves a trucker from Kenosha, Wis., who was busted for not having a concealed carry permit while he had a loaded handgun in his truck.

It’s something state law says he can do, according to Nik Clark from Wisconsin Carry Inc., the gun rights group defending the trucker.

The case has far reaching implications for all sorts of people, says Clark.

“There are a lot of people who don’t necessarily want to get their concealed carry license and don’t necessarily want to carry concealed on their person,” Clark said. “They just want to have a gun in their vehicle and this would verify that they could do that.”

Wisconsin Carry, which has been searching for a test case on the law for some time, says the law clearly states that prohibitions for carrying guns in cars do not apply to handguns.  

Clark doesn’t believe the trucker should have ever been arrested in the first place.

“(There are) 3,600 felons in Milwaukee were caught with guns over the past five years, and they didn’t even file charges in a third of those cases,” Clark said. “(But this) hard-working, military veteran (with a) squeaky clean record … the DA’s going to chase after him.”

Until now, district attorneys generally have interpreted state law to say that any gun in a car is a concealed weapon and so would require a permit if it’s loaded.