Hi! Planning on a trip from Ohio to Wisconsin. I'll be driving, and will be staying in a hotel for about a week. I'll be traveling through or near Chicago and Gary. I've an Ohio CCH license, and I'd very much like to travel with my SIG P250c, but I'm pretty bad at reading legalese (my eyes tend to roll up and I begin to nod off), and I'd really like to get some advice. What I've come up with is as follows: I can carry in Ohio and most of Indiana, but I'd have to disarm around Gary all the way through Chicago and onto Wisconsin. What I'm not quite getting is transporting my handgun through Gary and Chicago. If I read the Illinois statute 720 ILCS 5/24-1 right, I can remove the magazine, the round in the pipe, and take the slide off, and pack the loaded magazines in one locked box and the separated slide and grip in another locked box, put both locked boxes in the cargo area (I drive a station wagon), and I should be fine in Illinois. Not sure about Gary's laws, but I would think that would work there, too. And I think that will do for the rest of the trip through Wisconsin. Any thoughts? I'm also unsure of how I'd manage at the hotel. Could I bring both locked boxes up to my room and leave them there? Could I reassemble the gun within the hotel room? Am I even allowed to carry in the hotel room? Is it considered a private residence for the purposes of carrying while I'm there? And what about leaving the disassembled gun and ammo in my car while in Wisconsin? Would it be considered concealed if I used the cargo cover? I think someone was convicted of concealed weapon prohibition for driving with a gun locked in a glove compartment (State v Fry, 1986). Thanks in advance!
As far as IL law, if you have your gun unloaded in a case that is made for a gun that completely encloses it, you're good. Handguns in Chicago and some of the surrounding communities are completely forbidden. Best bet is to put the case in your suitcase while traveling through. Your hotel room is considered a private residence, but if it's in a community that forbids handguns, you're out of luck.
Sounds pretty complicated and if kept separate, would do you no good if needed. Maybe think of an alternative to CCW. Maybe pepper spray if allowed?
well... you need the alternative while driving through but given that starting and ending points are both free, level-minded states with good laws (finally), it's nice to be able to CCW once there.
Just moved from Chicago suburban area. What I have found is: Gun unloaded and mag removed in a gun case Mags unloaded and separate from gun. Can be in a bag Ammo not 100% sure of. Carried mine in bag All items in trunk and none in driver compartment If you plan to stop for lodging I would wait till you pass entirely through the big city.
Did you just refer to Wisconsin as a free, level-minded state in reference to guns? The Badgers are only upstaged by Illinois in their anti-gun legislation...it's almost not worth taking a gun at all.
Thanks for all the replies so far! OK, from what I'm getting so far, in IL and WI and Gary IN, I can keep the gun assembled, just stowed away in a gun case, so long as it's empty and the mag is removed. The magazines should be unloaded and the ammo also stowed away (in the box the ammo came in?) and both mags and ammo should be put in a container separate from the gun case. Questions that come to mind: 1. Is a Wilderness Safepacker enough of a gun case for the purposes of stowing away the P250c? 2. Assuming the Safepacker is OK, would there be an issue if the Safepacker (or a GunVault) was in a suitcase and the mags and ammo in a different suitcase? 3. Is the cargo area of a station wagon legally considered far enough away to be "out of reach"? 3. I typically drive my station wagon with the cargo area covered. Would that somehow be an issue regarding concealed carry in either IL or WI?
huh... thanks for the heads up. just realized that those cheeseheads would be a little more down to earth with constitutional rights. my bad.
