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A municipal judge in western Wisconsin has dismissed one citation but upheld a second issued to a man for walking around Somerset last summer with an AR-15 rifle and a holstered handgun, and a statewide gun rights group said it will pay for the man's appeal.

Mark J. Hoffman, 24,, was cited in July for obstructing an officer and loitering after police found him with the weapons and he would not identify himself. Somerset is located in St. Croix County, on the Minnesota border.

The guns rights advocacy group Wisconsin Carry, Inc. paid for Hoffman's defense in the case, which went to trial before Somerset Municipal Judge Brad Nemec last week.

On Tuesday, Nemec released a written decision. He found police had reasonable suspicion to stop and question Hoffman because several people in the community were alarmed by Hoffman carrying weapons in the vicinity of a school.

Nemec said the village had met its burden proving loitering and fined Hoffman $195.90.

But the judge dismissed the obstructing an officer violation "for lack of foundation."

"We expect to have the conviction overturned in circuit court and will subsequently be filing a civil lawsuit against the Village of Somerset, the officer who unlawfully detained and disarmed Mr Hoffman, and the Police Chief who participated in the unlawful arrest," said Wisconsin Carry president Nik Clark.

Clark said he knows some people question why gun rights activists conduct protests or tests such as the one Hoffman did, but he said that the Somerset case shows there are places where certain Second Amendment rights can not be exercised.

"We don't think any of this passes constitutional muster," he said.

Somerset police still have Hoffman's guns, which were confiscated during his arrest in July, Clark said.