Come November, UW Badger fans may tailgate while armed but will still be forbidden from bringing their guns inside stadiums, classrooms or any other buildings at the flagship UW-Madison campus and the University of Wisconsin System's 26 campuses statewide, says a Wisconsin State Journal report.
The shift — currently guns are barred on system campuses — comes to accommodate the state's concealed carry law and will likely change the look of campuses, with large "Firearms Prohibited in Building" signs expected to adorn every entrance to every campus building in accordance with the new law.
The concealed carry law takes effect Nov. 1, the WSJ report says, and gives people who obtain a permit and go through training the right to carry concealed weapons in public but not at places such as police stations, schools and courthouses.
Weapons also will be prohibited in buildings where posted notices bar them.
The new law represents "a very big, very complex kind of shift" for colleges where existing state law makes weapon possession illegal on campus, said University of Wisconsin System spokesman David Giroux. The new law has no such protection so the colleges have decided to ban weapons inside buildings, the report said. Carrying a concealed weapon will be legal on campus quads, parking lots and other spaces that aren't enclosed and in cars be they occupied or parked, the WSJ report said.