MADISON, Wisconsin - April 9, 2010 - Approximately a dozen people openly carrying handguns on Madison's State Street were left alone by police officers, in contrast to the treatment received by a UW-Madison student with a gun on the same main drag last year.
Authorities said people with guns in holsters on their hips visited State Street March 28, and went into Fair Trade Coffee House. Authorities said Fair Trade owner Lorie Henn contacted police the next day.
"She wasn't completely comfortable having these people in her coffee shop," Madison police spokesperson Joel DeSpain said.
DeSpain said an assistant city attorney was consulted and Henn was told she could post a sign to prohibit guns in her business if she wanted to head off any repeat visit by gun-toting customers. When contacted by 27 News, Henn declined comment.
Sources told 27 News at least one person openly carrying a gun was also in the grocery store Trader Joe's on Monroe Street Mar. 28. Grocery store managers declined to comment.
John Pierce of the Virginia-based, gun rights advocacy group OpenCarry.org said the people who openly carried firearms March 28 are affiliated with his group and are board members of Wisconsin Carry, Inc.
Pierce said group members were holding a meeting in Madison that day.
Last summer, police officers ticketed UW-Madison student Travis Yates for disorderly conduct after Yates was spotted openly carrying a gun on and around State Street. In an interview with 27 News, Yates protested the citation.
Pierce said the group with guns openly displayed wanted to acknowledge Yates' predicament.
"It was symbolic for them to finish his walk on State Street."
A city official said Yates' case was dismissed February 17 at the request of Madison's city attorney.
In April 2009, Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen issued an opinion reinforcing the simple open carrying of a firearm does not constitute disorderly conduct.
"Some officers may ask people what they're doing with a gun on their hip," DeSpain said.
"If someone says, 'I'm exercising my Second Amendment (right),' that's it. That's legal for those people to carry a weapon."
DeSpain said it is a case-by-case assessment as to whether conduct associated with someone's open carry rises to the level of being considered disorderly.
People who saw the gun-toting group in Madison had mixed opinions of its presence, and only responded to WKOW27 News on the condition their anonymity would be preserved. One person said seeing someone with a holstered gun in the grocery store felt routine, since such a sight was commonplace in a previous state in which he lived.
Another person who saw the people with guns on State Street said while she believed it was legal, it was also disconcerting.
