Open Carry In Germantown Educates Public

By Dean Weingarten

Open Carry Family Style
Open Carry Family Style
Dean Weingarten
Dean Weingarten

Arizona – -(Ammoland.com)-
A man in Germantown, Wisconsin, was accosted by police for exercising his rights on Saturday.   William Polster was carrying a holstered pistol and a shotgun on a sling on his back.   He says that he carries the firearms to educate the public about their rights and for personal protection.

Police claim that some people called them and were upset.  This is certainly possible, but in other cases, such as with the Culver 5 in Madison, and with open carrier in Michigan, calls turned out to be mostly asking the police whether open carry was legal or not, something that furthers the education effort that that Mr. Polster said that he is trying to accomplish.  From 620wtmj.com:

 Police realized Polster was exercising his right to open carry. Since he wasn’t breaking any laws, they let him go.

The education effort appears to be working with the police.   It was not reported that they pulled guns on Mr. Polster, knocked him to the ground, or handcuffed him as they have done with a number of other open carriers.   Several settlements of thousands of dollars have gone from city budgets to open carriers who have been victimized in this way.  It is clear that the police understood that this was a citizen exercising their rights, and not a criminal or crazy person.  Hint for those who have not considered this: Mr. Polster was not shooting or pointing the firearms at anyone.  He did not even have them in his hands.

People may believe that the police are being insensitive and are trying to chill the exercise of a constitutional right.

Mr. Polster says that he is going to keep carrying firearms openly, and exercising those rights.

c2014 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice is included. Link to Gun Watch

About Dean Weingarten;

Dean Weingarten has been a peace officer, a military officer, was on the University of Wisconsin Pistol Team for four years, and was first certified to teach firearms safety in 1973. He taught the Arizona concealed carry course for fifteen years until the goal of constitutional carry was attained. He has degrees in meteorology and mining engineering, and recently retired from the Department of Defense after a 30 year career in Army Research, Development, Testing, and Evaluation.

2 Comments
Most Voted
Newest Oldest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
will basham

Topic: Open carry- to carry legally or otherwise may be moot, soon, at meltdown, won’t be able to find or trust the constabulary anyway; just posing a probable likelihood in any anarchist movements… Toro

bill

the more the dumb cops harass the people, the more the people need to drain the city coffers of their cash, and once all the money is gone then start firing the dumb bastard in the D.A. office and the city attorney along with the mayor and all who is involved in being a total ignorant jack asses. keep suing them until the police are laid off.