Image courtesy Mossberg & Sons

In another example of our paranoid and hoplophobic society, police scoured a Madison, WI neighborhood last Saturday morning after residents reported ‘a man in camo’ carrying a shotgun down the street. Everything worked out in the end, but a law-abiding hunter found himself the object of intense police scrutiny for a little while . . .

According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel:

The Madison Police Department said in a statement that the man, a University of Wisconsin-Madison student, had been hunting outside the city and was unable to find parking close to his residence. He decided to walk home from his parked vehicle with an uncased shotgun, police said.

The man never pointed his weapon or made any threats, and he was not arrested or cited, the department said.

Props to the cops for keeping their cool and not calling out the SWAT team MRAP.

This hunter is NOT an Irresponsible Gun Owner Of The Day. Leaving a gun in a car in Milwaukee might be borderline irresponsible due to the risk of theft; this guy was forced to make a less-than-optimal choice because he couldn’t find a close parking spot. Reports indicate that he forgot to wipe the camo greasepaint off his face, but I’ve got to hand it to him for the effort of going hunting while living in an urban area.

I guess the takeaway here is that you should always have a gun rug (or even an old blanket) handy when you transport your guns in crowded areas.

34 COMMENTS

  1. So what happened to the caller? Were they told their concerns were completely unfounded?

    Or were they sincerely trying to get the guy killed by police?

  2. So glad I live in western Wisconsin were this is not a cause for alarm. Hell one job I worked here my boss and another employee openly compared shotguns in the work parking lot.

  3. A long gun under a blanket will probably still get some calls, especially near a college campus. Gone are the days when an open action was enough to announce you were an upright citizen.

    The other thing that stinks is the hue and cry. Back in the 90s, I walked across a satellite campus with my .22 to go plinking at the quarry. Yes, I had the cops called on me and they gave me a lift home to avoid further trouble. Today, the whole city would’ve went into lockdown, with the media issuing by-the-minute alerts.

  4. “I guess the takeaway here is that you should always have a gun rug (or even an old blanket) handy when you transport your guns in crowded areas.”

    No, the take away here is that someone simply having a firearm in public is viewed as a crime.

    Maybe if more people open carried in order to normalize guns.

    • +1

      Seems to me that dressing up in camo and carrying something that looks like it might be a gun wrapped up in a blanket would be more suspicious than what this chap did.

  5. And remember that open carry is perfectly legal in Wisconsin. The deer gun season is going to open up this weekend, and for a full week, you will see men (mostly) dressed in orange walking around empty fields.

  6. I am starting to think these incidents are like the media frenzy with shark attacks a while back. The whole media industry is looking for the next Dorner, or Navy Yard Shooter. And now that people are looking egads! they see stuff that was always there that they never noticed before. As eyeballs wane, editors will start to ask why this incident is different or unusual compared to the last 12 and the media fascination will wane.

    It also means Shannon Watts will have to do ever more crazy things to get attention. Personally I am waiting for the Mom’s Demand Action video. chicka bow wow

  7. Lets get a law passed that makes it illegal to “report” to police that someone is acting within the law (in this case – OC). The law should also include penalties such as fines attributed the “reporter” -the sum of which fines will be split equally between police dept. and the citizen acting within the law.

  8. “I guess the takeaway here is that you should always have a gun rug (or even an old blanket) handy when you transport your guns in crowded areas.”

    Yes, nothing looks less suspicious than walking down the street with something gun-length wrapped in a blanket, hehe. Perhaps disassembling it and putting it in a backpack would work, that way you can easily reassemble it in a restroom somewhere. /sarc.

  9. Long gun transport laws haven’t changed in WI. A blanket doesn’t cut it. Of course he may have just left the case/sock with some sort of closure device (even a piece of string will suffice), in the vehicle. Still, a hunter walking down the street with a gun would only raise eyebrows in Madison and Milwaukee.

    • Yes they have, if you aren’t aware of the law changes since 2011. You can have a uncased, unloaded long gun in your vehicle when you are moving. When the vehicle is not in motion, no motor running, you can have a loaded long gun in the vehicle. At all times the long gun must be visible unless it is cased.

      He was also legally able to walk down the street with it uncased.

  10. I’ve said it before, and sadly this is just more proof: The terrorists have won. Abetted by the media and the authorities. These fools will report anything cylindrical as a gun.

  11. I live up in Toronto, Canada not exactly gun friendly area. I am an urban condo dweller who also likes to hunt. My building is high security with double entry doors, secured elevators and 24 hour on site security.

    The looks I get when I get in the elevator in full camo with a shotgun (in gun sock) and a brace of ducks from a good days hunt is priceless!

    But after two years of this, not a single call to the cops, no fights with neighbours, no standoffs with SWAT. Us Canadians are too nice for that 🙂

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