illinois

Concealed carry legislation is on the move in the State of Illinois!

The Agriculture & Conservation Committee passed HB 148 out of committee by a 12-2 vote. HB 148 is the bill that would finally establish concealed carry in Illinois and would preempt home rule on firearm regulations. The bill has 36 sponsors and co-sponsors.

HB 148 would:

Creates the Family and Personal Protection Act. Permits the county sheriff to issue permits to carry concealed firearms to persons at least 21 years of age who meet certain requirements. Requires an applicant for a permit to have completed specified training requirements developed by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board consisting of classroom instruction and live firing exercises. Preempts home rule. Amends the Illinois Police Training Act and the Criminal Code of 1961 to make conforming changes. Effective immediately.

This bill now goes to the floor of the Illinois State House. With IGOLD – Illinois Gun Owners Lobby Day – set for this Thursday, I don’t think the timing could be any better.

H/T ISRA

The Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) posted this message earlier this morning on Facebook:

It’s been a busy week at the capitol. There have been a lot of bills filed and the gun hating antis seem to be distracted as to which way to go.

The week led off with published reports that there is major movement in the senate with the Senate President realizing the votes exists to pass RTC. Almost immediately the gun hating crowd went into a tizzy. For some time the anti-gunners have claimed very low support for RTC regardless of the fact that it failed by only two votes.

Now things are taking shape. The fact that we are just one of two states that have no opportunity for average citizens to exercise the right to self defense in public is sinking in. The fact that if nothing is done, we will be the only one, is sinking in.

The other political calculus is that downstate democrats are feeling a lot of heat over several issues and they think the only way to get a chance at re-election is to bring home RTC. This is causing them to apply pressure to their leadership. Their feeling is that many of the conservative democrats that are their base are bent out of shape and they will lose the edge if they can’t deliver Right To Carry. Those pleas are being noticed by leadership such as Senate President Cullerton.

While we fight the right to carry battle, we have introduced a number of other bills to strengthen the right to keep and bear arms and protect it further. At the same time, the City of Chicago and the gun hating crowd have re-introduced their stale package of bills to ban semi-autos, stop private sales of firearms, ban standard magazines, limit you to one gun per month, tax your ammunition and run gun dealers out of business. Mind you, some of these could pose real threats. Ending private sales, banning standard magazines and modern semi-autos are at the top of their wish list.

With the shooting in Arizona still fresh in people’s mind, they are once again trying to dance in the blood of the victims to try and move their political agenda. The problem they are having is that not many politicians are paying attention to them, and the Supreme Court has placed handcuffs on what they want to do.

Three things showed us this week what kind of a panic the other side is in;

1. A Board member for the Brady campaign barged into a conversation to make unfounded aspersions and tell us that the coming debate would be about dead children. They are just seething to have a verbal assault because the rest of their little tantrum is falling on deaf ears. So they lash out at us personally.

2. Another anti-gun Brady supporter activist came up and stated a willingness to trade away a may issue RTC for a proposal they want. Why would they offer to trade away RTC? They reached too far and are now losing their last stronghold. The fact that they are willing to deal, shows that even they see the writing on the wall — they are losing Illinois.

3. Anti-gun groups are trying to rally the troops and are bringing in outside help. The nationals are banging the gong with the revelations about Illinois. If their last hope for anti-gun-topia, the Kalifornia of the Midwest is going down like the Titanic, what do they have left?

Their future is bleak! How can they sell their gun hating ideas around the country if they lose Illinois?

What to expect;

Look for the national anti-gun groups to circle the wagons around Illinois. Look for more national figures or representatives from their groups to show up here over the next few weeks, and look for them to say or do almost anything to save face.

So what can you do?

1. Start calling your legislators and politely tell them, you oppose the Chicago gun control plan to punish law abiding citizens. A list of those bills can be found on the ISRA website

( http://www.isra.org/legislation/ ) or the Illinois Carry website (illinoiscarry.com) in their forums section.

2. Tell your legislators that you support Right To Carry and other pro-2A reforms proposed by ISRA, and NRA.

3. Attend IGOLD on March 10th so you can tell your legislators in person and those legislative leaders that it’s time to pass Right To Carry, 48 and soon to be 49 states can’t be wrong.

This will be a marathon fight this year, but one with great potential for protecting and expanding the codification of those rights that Dick Heller and Otis McDonald fought so hard for. Please do your part, call, write, and show up to be counted.

If Illinois adopts concealed carry – even a may-issue concealed carry – it would be a huge step towards re-normalizing guns in America.

I fully expect Wisconsin to pass a concealed carry law if they can ever find their missing Democrat State Senators reputed to be hiding in Illinois. As an aside, I wonder if we could commission Dog the Bounty Hunter to drag at least one of them back so they can have a quorum in the Wisconsin Senate.

Back to Illinois, one must wonder how much the end of the “reign” of Mayor Daley plays into all of this. With Daley gone or soon to be gone, how much power does he continue to wield over the Illinois General Assembly? Would we even be talking about concealed carry passing with a veto-proof majority if Daley wasn’t a lame duck? I don’t think so..

As I noted a couple of days ago, there are at least two concealed carry bills that have been introduced in the Illinois General Assembly. Richard Pearson, the Executive Director of the Illinois State Rifle Association, discusses the cases with Cam.

As a reminder, ISRA was part of McDonald v. Chicago and is an organization plaintiff in Ezell v. Chicago.

Two bills have been introduced into the Illinois State House that would bring concealed carry to Illinois if passed. HB 112 and HB 148 would both establish the Family and Personal Protection Act. Both bills have been referred to the Agriculture and Conservation Committee. While separate bills have been introduced, they are both identical in wording. As to why two identical bills would be introduced into the same chamber, I don’t have a clue.

The bills would as described in their synopses:

Creates the Family and Personal Protection Act. Permits the county sheriff to issue permits to carry concealed firearms to persons at least 21 years of age who meet certain requirements. Requires an applicant for a permit to have completed specified training requirements developed by the Illinois Law Enforcement Training Standards Board consisting of classroom instruction and live firing exercises. Preempts home rule. Amends the Illinois Police Training Act and the Criminal Code of 1961 to make conforming changes. Effective immediately.

Of the seven members of the House Agriculture and Conservation Committee, five are either sponsors or co-sponsors of these bills including both the Chair and Vice-Chair.

HB 112 can be found here and HB 148 can be found here.

According to a story in the Quincy Herald Whig quoting NRA lobbyist Todd Vandermede:

Todd Vandermyde, legislative liaison of the National Rifle Association, believes the Supreme Court rulings and the make-up of the Illinois Legislature both help the cause of gun rights.

“I think we’re positioned better now than we ever have been. A lot more Democrats coming on board,” Vandermyde said.

He pointed out that Sullivan is a member of the Senate leadership and supports gun rights. Additionally, he said a straw poll in the Senate shows a solid majority of the body supports laws to allow Illinois residents to carry firearms for protection.

“This isn’t some wild thing that only a few states do. It’s something that a lot of states do,” Vandermyde said.

The Sullivan referred to in the quote above is Senator John Sullivan (D-Rushville), one of the Majority Caucus Whips, who has consistently voted for gun rights legislation since he entered the Illinois State Senate.

While concealed carry bills may pass both houses of the Illinois legislature, Gov. Pat Quinn indicated in his election bid that he would veto any such bill. This makes the narrow loss of the Republican candidate for Governor in 2010, Bill Brady, even more painful as Brady had indicated he would sign such a concealed carry bill.

UPDATE: Thirdpower has this update about CCW in Illinois. There may be enough support for it there is a veto-proof majority. If that proves true, it is great news!