Wisconsin Town Outlaws Throwing Snowballs

Snowballs
Getty Images/Christopher Furlong

Wisconsin may be a winter wonderland this time of year, but for those in the town of Wausau who plan on fashioning the freshly fallen snow into snowballs to hurl at other people, you can forget it.

The town of Wausau, Wisconsin, has outlawed the throwing of snowballs, “in the interest of public safety.”

“No person shall throw or shoot any object, arrow, stone, snowball or other missile or projectile, by hand or by any other means, at any other person,” says the Wausau municipal code, under the “Weapons” heading in the section dealing with “Peace, Safety, and Morals.”

“It’s really in the interest of public safety,” Wausau Mayor Robert B. Mielke told WCCO.
“A lot of it is just consideration and common sense. You don’t throw stuff at people, period.”

Mielke says that the proposal to ban snowballs was brought forth years ago, after some issues developed involving projectiles. However, police told WCCO that they could not recall issuing a fine for the throwing of a snowball.

The ordinance specifies that snowballs cannot be thrown “at, in or into any building, street, sidewalk, alley, highway, park, playground or other public place within the city.”

Follow Dylan Gwinn on Twitter @themightygwinn

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