Since the 7th circuit court of appeals ruled that Illinois ban on carrying concealed firearms was unconstitutional a clock has been ticking. The Illinois General Assembly and Governor Pat Quinn have until June 9th to pass and sign into law a bill that would allow for concealed carry in Illinois. If they can’t, or won’t, do that then Illinois residents get concealed carry anyway as their Firearm Owners Identification(FOID) cards become de facto concealed carry permits. Illinois prior to the court ruling was the only state in the nation without any form of concealed or open carry for its residents.
Chicago and Cook County Democrats hate, no despise, the notion of law abiding citizens having the ability to exercise their second amendment right to keep and bear arms to protect themselves from the street gangs and other criminal elements in our society. They have wanted Attorney General Lisa Madigan to appeal the 7th circuits ruling to the Supreme Court. They have attempted to fill a shell bill with so many restrictions on concealed carry that there wouldn’t have been anywhere in the state of Illinois one could have carried a weapon. A “may” issue concealed carry bill which would have granted police departments and Sheriff’s across the state to pick and chose whom to give concealed carry permits to was soundly defeated. Governor Pat Quinn is of the belief that every community in Illinois should craft its own ordinances regarding concealed carry which would create an unworkable patchwork of local laws. Most recently there has been an effort to create a carve out concealed carry bill which would make all of Illinois except Chicago and Cook County “shall” issue with Chicago and Cook County being “may” issue.
Sauk Valley Media: Quinn: Cities should decide
This is simply unacceptable.
Every Illinois resident whether they live in Cairo, South Beloit, or along Michigan ave. has the same second amendment rights and the same rights to defend themselves and their families from harm.
In fact given Chicago and Cook Counties gang problem, which is the major reason why they have dozens of shootings daily and 500 murders each year, Chicago and Cook County residents should be the first in line to get concealed carry permits, not be the only ones denied them.
Why Chicago Democrats are so dead set against letting the people most in need of concealed carry from having it is beyond me.
Chicago store owners have every right to defend themselves and their businesses from the cities thugs, criminals, and gang bangers as much if not more so than those of us who reside in the rural parts of Illinois.
A person walking down any street in Cook County is in as much of a need to defend themselves from the rapist, robbers, and murderers out there as anyone else anywhere else in Illinois.
Those Democrats in this state opposed to concealed carry and want to deny it to Chicago and Cook County residents clearly didn’t read the 7th circuits ruling very carefully because Judge Posner repeatedly cited hypothetical scenarios where a person in the City of Chicago would have need of and a right to defending themselves with a firearm. Including this one, “”[A] Chicagoan is a good deal more likely to be attacked on a sidewalk in a rough neighborhood than in his apartment on the 35th floor of the Park Tower.”
Get it through your thick skulls full of mush Chicago Democrats, every Illinois resident, including those in Chicago and Cook County, deserve concealed carry and any effort to deny any Illinois resident his or her constitutional rights should be opposed in the strongest terms possible.
O’ and remember this you anti-second amendment Chicago Dems, the Supreme Court several years ago now ruled Chicago’s ban on the ownership of a handgun unconstitutional.
If Gov. Quinn(D), Speaker of the House Mike Madigan(D), Senate President John Cullerton(D), and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel(D) continue in their efforts to deny Chicago and Cook County residents, along with everyone else in Illinois, their right to keep and bear arms don’t be surprise if some or all of them one day get held in contempt of court for their obstruction of Illinois residents constitutional rights.
