Wisconsin man sues for open-carry arrestRACINE - The man who was arrested while openly carrying a gun on his porch Sept. 9 filed a lawsuit Friday against the city and two members of the police department.
The lawsuit, on behalf of a gun rights group and two members, challenges Wisconsin's Gun Free School Zone Act, claiming it "unconstitutionally deprives plaintiffs of a meaningful opportunity to bear arms and is unconstitutional on its face and as it applies to WCI's members."
The act prohibits carrying firearms within 1,000 feet of a school.
Gun rights group Wisconsin Carry, along with Frank Hannan-Rock of Racine and David Bernson of Milwaukee, filed the lawsuit in Milwaukee federal court Friday. The lawsuit also lists Gov. Jim Doyle, the City of Milwaukee and a Milwaukee police officer as defendants.
The lawsuit seeks a declaration that the school zone act is unconstitutional and damages for the two men for their arrests and confiscated guns.
Hannan-Rock's arrest in September sparked a controversy. Hannan-Rock was arrested for obstructing when he refused to answer questions from officers investigating a shots-fired report in the block.
"I was well within my rights to not provide my name and it just escalated from there to the arrest," he said then to The Journal Times. "They said it wasn't for the firearm but it is my belief (the officers) did not like the idea of me openly carrying and they were going to be confrontational about it."
Police said at the time they believed Hannan-Rock may have wanted to test the officers' reactions to his openly carrying a gun.
"We have to make sure there is no danger to others when we're handling a call for service," police spokesman Sgt. Bernie Kupper said then. "We don't just arrest people because they have a gun."
According to the lawsuit, Bernson was arrested near his home in May 2008 and his handgun and other property seized. He was later released without any charges but the City of Milwaukee reportedly refused to return his gun because Bernson had it at a gas station within 1,000 feet of a school.
The Racine County District Attorney did not prosecute Hannan-Rock on charges of obstruction, the lawsuit said, but reportedly warned him that officers will have probably cause to arrest him at his home when he has a gun and refuses to identify himself to police because he lives within 1,000 feet of a school.
The lawsuit contends the school zone act "covers such a broad area that it practically forecloses a meaningful right to keep and bear arms in large parts of the state."
http://www.journaltimes.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/article_566b44ac-fcc0-11de-8d26-001cc4c002e0.html
