by Illinois will have shall-issue concealed carry regardless of whether Gov. Pat Quinn likes it or not. Today, both houses of the Illinois General Assembly passed the compromise bill, HB183, by a greater than a 75% margin.
First, HB183 with the language of Amendments 5, 6, and 7 passed the State Senate by a vote of 45 yea, 12 nay, and 1 present on its Third Reading. The one present vote was by Sen. Kwame Raoul (D-Chicago). The yea votes did include State Senate President John Cullerton who is no fan of gun rights.
The bill then went to the House of Representatives for concurrence on Amendments 5, 6, and 7. Amendment 5 which was the major part of the bill passed with an 89 yea to 28 nay vote. Likewise, Amendment 6 and Amendment 7 received concurrence by the same vote margin.
The bill now goes to the governor’s desk where Gov. Quinn now has 60 days to either sign or veto the bill. However, the stay from the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals expires on June 9th. I would presume that Quinn will need to act sooner than later if he doesn’t want the courts to intervene.
Video from the Senate vote is below:
I predict the governor will not sign it and then veto at 60 days-ish. The court will wait during the delay even though it goes past the deadline and when its veto'ed it will go on for more months while the legislature goes may issue the next round which Quinn may sign. The Chicago Way in action.
There is just no reason for Quinn to cooperate until he gets what he and his cronies want – which is "no issue [described as may issue]." He's keeping his job, getting paid and not getting sent to jail. That's all he understands. Jail time would get his attention, but then plenty of Illinois governors have gone to jail, and recently.
A few weeks ago, I read several commentators saying the bill was a steaming pile of suck. Is it better? Is this a good law, if it gets signed, or are there mega-turds hidden in it?
God forbid I ever have to go to Illinois; it would be interesting to know how sane they are about out of state permits.