"A thief was caught, but argued that since he only stole one horse and the law specified horses" The California Penal Code has a preface that states that plurals include a single instance and vice versa, masculine pronouns include women, etc. Then there's Trump's argument that he did not commit both a high crime and a misdemeanor.

@Accumulation and this precedent is the reason such an explicit preface is necessary and added in competently written legislation in common law countries.

Manrikigusari: think Xu Xialing's weapon in the Ten Rings movie, but has weighted ends, not darts.

"2 yr old": Not true. 29.304: "No person under 12 years of age may have in his or her possession or control any firearm unless [they learn how to shoot under adult supervision]."

To my lay-person eyes an AR15 looks clearly like a military style assault rifle and not like a hunting rifle. On the other hand, if I read your post correctly the law defines anything with a barrel length of at least 16 inches as a hunting weapon. Is that correct?

@quarague Only sick-minded people would assume that since it is the civil version of a military rifle, it is a gun for people hunting (that Rittenhouse acted in self-defense here notwithstanding). Sarcasm aside, it actually is used for hunting. People are not that different from other beasts.

@peter you're right, the other statues would apply, I've edited the answer to say that the minimum age is practically 12

@quarague no, the barrel length does not change it into a hunting weapon . The law is just so badly written, that if the barrel length is >16 and at least one of the 2 hunting statues doesn't apply, then the whole underaged section of the dangerous weapons statue explicitly becomes void.

@Eugene Is there evidence that this wasn't the intent? They may have been trying to ban minors from using handguns and short barreled weapons because those are used by gang members in Milwaukee. Long guns aren't usually used in crimes besides hunting violations.

@quarague an peter. A hunting rifle can be as deadly as any other. As an external observer I find a bit strange that hunting rifles are allowed anywhere. In my country hunting rifles, knives and spearguns must be kept safely packed outside the hunting area.

@IllusiveBrian I'm pretty sure that was the intent: to clamp down on urban gangs (with a lot of the legislators perception of those gangs coming from contemporary action movies which had mohawked punks with nunchuks, cestus, chains etc), while not interfering with rural hunting culture. But they accidently wrote part 3.C of the statue in such a way that when strictly interpreted(by common law precedent), anyone 12+ is free to possess and use any gun with a 16''+ barrel, as long as they don't require a hunting license for that activity.

"the benefit of people finding the question through "Other SE questions" in the StackOverflow sidebar" — StackOverflow user here; thanks for the pseudocode :)

But I think next time, a freshly written law should be reviewed by programmers. :-)

@MCEmperor lawyers is sufficient, but it looks like that wasn't done

@Eugene Rural and small town gun culture extends beyond just hunting. A person living where there is a real risk of dangerous animals like wolves and mountain lions coming onto their property is going to want their children to be familiar with how to defend themselves with a firearm. The compromise is that long guns are both generally an effective tool to use for that purpose and the least likely to be used in crime, so only short barreled firearms are banned.

@TigerGuy because the question relates to the Rittenhouse trial and the Wisconsin "Possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18" statute that he was charged under. One answer had an incomplete explanation and I provided what I think is a more detailed one.

but the question isn't about the Rittenhouse ruling, it is more general.

@TigerGuy it's an explanation of how it's legal in the state the Rittenhouse trial just took place in. Otherwise, in the US federal system, it would require 49 other answers, because each state's laws are different.

@IllusiveBrian I totally understand. It's just that the whole of section 948.60 as written might as well not include references to guns, due to the way subsection 3.C is phrased, because pistols are prohibited for <18 federally, short barreled rifles are prohibited for everyone under 941.28 anyways and due to the requirement for both 29.304 AND 29.593 to apply, anyone over 12 and not separately prohibited by 29.304 and not doing something requiring a hunting permit via 29.593 can use any other gun.

@IllusiveBrian Firearm can literally be removed from the definition of "dangerous weapon in (1) and have ZERO impact on the legality of kids of any age possessing a firearm. It's sloppy drafting.

@Eugene I'm guessing the controlling federal law is 18 U.S. Code § 922(x)(2) law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/922, but section 3 is all exceptions for juveniles being given a handgun by some authorized adult which apply if the possession isn't otherwise prohibited by state or federal law. So the handgun restriction isn't redundant.

@IllusiveBrian I stand corrected, thanks