PLEASE forgive me for posting if not appropriate here -- i've searched around and not found a more appropriate place... so here goes.
i'm a texas resident and am fairly well-versed with the gun laws here, for the most part they fall in the "common sense" line of thought, or at least i think so. i don't yet hold a concealed weapons permit, but i plan on taking the classes and submitting the paperwork sometime this winter/spring (especially due to some recent nonsense in my neighborhood).
anyway, my folks are nearing retirement and in the next several years will retire and plan to spend perhaps 1/2 of the year up in wisconsin (they plan to keep their primary residence in texas, but have the additional summer home up there). they've just recently made a contract on a property up there and assuming all goes well it'll be closing within the next couple months. i personally work full-time from home as a software developer so i can pretty much work wherever i have internet access and computers. since they're not planning on actually using their house full-time for maybe 2-3 years it's entirely possible i could move up there (it's absolutely beautiful) and in effect rent the house from them... especially during the increasingly hot summers lately here a change like that might be nice. they'd like someone to watch the house and prepare it for them (as well as paying down the mortgage by paying rent), and i'd love to get away from here for a while. so far my experience there is that of a more relaxed atmosphere and "how life used to be" (it's in door county, if that matters). our family originates from up there so in a sense they're going back home, even if a couple generations out.
i believe wisconsin doesn't have concealed carry, which doesn't really bother me too much -- but that'd be nice. what i really wonder about is dual-state residency. i'm currently a texas resident, and i don't plan to change that... how does it work to be a resident of one state living in another? there's been talk about putting the house up there in my name, at least initially, but that's neither here nor there. if i (or my family) owns property up there, you'd think you'd have "rights" as a resident, but if you don't hold a drivers license in the state and you consider yourself a resident of another state, then what if you wish to buy a firearm there? for the time i spend in texas, i clearly want to be able to get my ccw and i enjoy the rights i have here -- it's a pretty firearm friendly state and i really don't want to give that up for any time i spend up there, but if i'll be there for a few months a year, or even for the next year or two how can i operate without being a resident? can i take my guns from here with me, or do i need to go through some sort of process to transfer them and get a license, etc? i'd be totally fine with leaving all my firearms here and buying new ones up there -- a shotgun and a .22 would probably do the job for me there, but can i do that if i don't hold a state id? also, what are the laws for concealed or open carry on ones own land? they'll have several acres of heavily wooded property -- more often than not we wouldn't even think of carrying there, but what if we wanted to... is that even possible?
some of these questions may seem silly -- but i honestly cannot find anything which clearly and authoritatively puts my questions to rest. anyone with real-world experience in wisconsin especially, and anyone with any sort of experience with living between two states throughout the year would be great.
i'm a texas resident and am fairly well-versed with the gun laws here, for the most part they fall in the "common sense" line of thought, or at least i think so. i don't yet hold a concealed weapons permit, but i plan on taking the classes and submitting the paperwork sometime this winter/spring (especially due to some recent nonsense in my neighborhood).
anyway, my folks are nearing retirement and in the next several years will retire and plan to spend perhaps 1/2 of the year up in wisconsin (they plan to keep their primary residence in texas, but have the additional summer home up there). they've just recently made a contract on a property up there and assuming all goes well it'll be closing within the next couple months. i personally work full-time from home as a software developer so i can pretty much work wherever i have internet access and computers. since they're not planning on actually using their house full-time for maybe 2-3 years it's entirely possible i could move up there (it's absolutely beautiful) and in effect rent the house from them... especially during the increasingly hot summers lately here a change like that might be nice. they'd like someone to watch the house and prepare it for them (as well as paying down the mortgage by paying rent), and i'd love to get away from here for a while. so far my experience there is that of a more relaxed atmosphere and "how life used to be" (it's in door county, if that matters). our family originates from up there so in a sense they're going back home, even if a couple generations out.
i believe wisconsin doesn't have concealed carry, which doesn't really bother me too much -- but that'd be nice. what i really wonder about is dual-state residency. i'm currently a texas resident, and i don't plan to change that... how does it work to be a resident of one state living in another? there's been talk about putting the house up there in my name, at least initially, but that's neither here nor there. if i (or my family) owns property up there, you'd think you'd have "rights" as a resident, but if you don't hold a drivers license in the state and you consider yourself a resident of another state, then what if you wish to buy a firearm there? for the time i spend in texas, i clearly want to be able to get my ccw and i enjoy the rights i have here -- it's a pretty firearm friendly state and i really don't want to give that up for any time i spend up there, but if i'll be there for a few months a year, or even for the next year or two how can i operate without being a resident? can i take my guns from here with me, or do i need to go through some sort of process to transfer them and get a license, etc? i'd be totally fine with leaving all my firearms here and buying new ones up there -- a shotgun and a .22 would probably do the job for me there, but can i do that if i don't hold a state id? also, what are the laws for concealed or open carry on ones own land? they'll have several acres of heavily wooded property -- more often than not we wouldn't even think of carrying there, but what if we wanted to... is that even possible?
some of these questions may seem silly -- but i honestly cannot find anything which clearly and authoritatively puts my questions to rest. anyone with real-world experience in wisconsin especially, and anyone with any sort of experience with living between two states throughout the year would be great.