illinois

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Concealed Carry May Be on the Line in Illinois Gubernatorial Race

October 6, 2010 by 4 Comments

Illinois is one of two states that do not have any form of concealed carry whatsoever. Bills have been introduced on an annual basis for a number of years now and have always failed. The voting strength of legislators from the Chicago Metro area has been enough to overcome those Downstate Illinois legislators in favor of it.

According to a story in the Springfield State Register-Journal, the tide against concealed carry may be changing.

“The climate is changing,” said Todd Vandermyde, an Illinois lobbyist for the National Rifle Association. “I think we are closer than we have ever been. We will probably have the most aggressive year you’ve ever seen.”

The agrees with what Richard Pearson, executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association, said at the 2010 Gun Rights Policy Conference. He said that they are going to go “full bore” on concealed carry in the legislature this year along with state pre-emption of municipal gun laws so that they won’t have cities like Chicago interfering with concealed carry laws. He noted that they had gotten the Illinois Sheriffs Association to be supportive of concealed carry and the Illinois Police Chiefs Association and the State Police have been neutralized on the issue. Pearson said “those are big steps in Illinois. If you can get some of the people to back out of the fight and others to join you, it is a big deal.”

This brings us to the gubernatorial race. The unelected Democratic incumbent, Gov. Pat Quinn, is anti-gun, anti-concealed carry, and has been endorsed by the Brady Campaign. Conversely, his opponent, State Senator Bill Brady is both pro-gun and pro-concealed carry. Indeed, Brady has been criticized in ads by Quinn for not supporting more gun control.

Brady was quoted in the same Springfield State Register-Journal story regarding concealed carry:

“Carrying to protect yourself is a right that is afforded to citizens in 48 other states, not Illinois,” Brady said in a written statement issued through his campaign. “With the proper safeguards — including training, education and background checks — it should be legalized in Illinois.”

I don’t if Brady supports “may issue” or “shall issue” concealed carry but this is a definite improvement over Gov. Quinn whose spokesperson, Mica Matsoff, said ““He is not in favor of legalizing conceal and carry.” The spokesperson then adds this non sequitur, “Gov. Quinn believes in keeping the most dangerous guns, such as assault weapons, off of our streets.”

The latest Rasmussen polls show Brady leading Quinn 48% to 36% with 8% undecided and 9% backing other minor candidates. Brady’s support has dropped slightly and Quinn’s rose by 1%.

With a pro-gun governor, concealed carry, and a whole host of legal challenges to gun control laws in the state, Illinois may become a free state again. Or at least a semi-free state.

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Illinois’s FOID Card Challenged

August 19, 2010 by 2 Comments

When one thinks of organizations supporting pro-gun rights litigation, immediately think of either the NRA or the Second Amendment Foundation. In California, this can be expanded to include the CalGuns Foundation and the California Rifle and Pistol Association. This explains, in part, why the case of Mishaga v. Monken which challenges Illinois’s Firearm Owner’s Identification law flew under the radar. You do not think of the Mountain States Legal Foundation which is providing legal assistance in both this case and the suit against the Nevada State Park system, Baker v. Biaggi et al.

That may well be changing. Jim Manley, the staff attorney for MSLF handling their firearms litigation, shared this in an email to me:

MSLF is committed to protecting individual rights and that commitment extends to protecting the right to keep and bear arms. To that end, MSLF filed amicus briefs in Heller and McDonald. MSLF also represents the students suing the University of Colorado to overturn that school’s concealed carry ban.

In this case, Mishaga v. Monken, the Illinois State Police are being sued by Ellen Mishaga for violating her Second and Fourteenth Amendment rights. Mrs. Mishaga is a resident of Ohio who frequently visits friends in Illinois on overnight trips. While staying in her friend’s home, she wants to be able to have a loaded firearm for self-protection. However, this would violate the Firearm Owners Identification Card Act, 430 ILCS 65/2 (10), which requires non-residents to keep their firearms unloaded and enclosed in a case. The other exceptions to the requirement to have a FOID card involve law enforcement officials, non-resident hunters, or competitors in shooting competitions – none of which apply to her. The full list can be found here.

As the suit states with regard to her Second Amendment rights:

9. The Second Amendment guarantees, inter alia, the right to possess and use firearms in a home for personal security.

10. An overnight guest has a legitimate expectation of personal security in her host’s home and an overnight guest has the same Second Amendment right to possess and use firearms that the overnight guest has in her own home.

Mrs. Mishaga twice applied for an Illinois FOID card and both times her application was rejected. The rejection was because she did not have an Illinois driver’s license or Illinois identification card. As a resident of the state of Ohio she is precluded from having either form of identification. The suit notes that “Illinois law recognizes the right of Illinois residents to keep and bear arms, Ill. Const. Art I, Sec. 22; 430 ICLS 65/1 et seq.” Therefore, the suit claims:

The right to travel, guaranteed by the privileges and immunities clauses of Article IV and the Fourteenth Amendment, is violated when a State discriminates against citizens of other States where there is no substantial reason for the discrimination beyond the mere fact that they are citizens of other States.

Specifically, with regard to Illinois:

Illinois law prohibits Ms. Mishaga from possessing a functional firearm for self-defense when she is an overnight guest in her friends’ Illinois home because she is not a resident of Illinois. 430 ILCS 65/2; 65/4; 65/14.

By prohibiting Ms. Mishaga from possessing a functional firearm, Defendant
currently maintains and actively enforces a set of laws, customs, practices, and policies under color of state law that discriminate against citizens of other States, including Ms. Mishaga, and thereby deprives Ms. Mishaga of the right to travel, in violation of the privileges and immunities clauses of Article IV and the Fourteenth Amendment.

The suit is seeking a permanent injunction against the enforcement of the FOID card requirement on out-of-state residents or, as an alternative, to process Mrs. Mishaga’s application for a FOID card. The lawsuit is filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois.

The full complaint can be found here.

While I, of course, want all the post-McDonald litigation to succeed, I especially want Mrs. Mishaga to prevail in her case. The Complementary Spouse’s mother lives on the Illinois side of the river in Metro St. Louis. Whenever we go out to visit, I must lock up and unload my firearm in Kentucky before we cross the Ohio River even though I have a concealed carry permit. If we go into St. Louis, we must travel through East St. Louis which has one of the highest crime rates in the nation. I drive through there in that gray area between being in Condition Yellow and being in Condition Orange. It is that bad.

I plan on sending a donation to MSLF. You can find out more about them here.

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Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn – Ban on Semi-Auto’s OK with Him

August 13, 2010 by

From the Illinois State Rifle Association:

Governor Quinn Steps Up Attacks On Law-Abiding Firearm Owners

CHICAGO, Aug. 10 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The following was released today by the ISRA Political Victory Fund (ISRA-PVF):

Law-abiding Illinois firearm owners are under a renewed attack by Gov. Pat Quinn’s re-election campaign. After receiving the endorsement of a radical gun control group last week, Quinn’s campaign is now the apparent mastermind of a plan to place a referendum on the November ballot that would call for the banning of a wide variety of popular hunting and target firearms.

Petition documents filed with the Illinois State Board of Elections show the title of the proposed referendum as being “Petition to Ban the Sale on Semi-Automatic and Assault Weapons.” Notarized signatures on over 100 pages of petitions show one “Maz Jackson” as being the petition circulator. Maz Jackson is a top field operative for the Quinn gubernatorial re-election campaign.

“It appears that Pat Quinn plans to attack hunters and sportsmen from every angle,” commented ISRA-PVF spokesman, Richard Pearson. “First he throws in with the likes of gun control extremists Jim and Sarah Brady, and now his campaign staff is circulating petitions seeking to ban most of the privately owned firearms in the state. Once again, Pat Quinn has shown himself to be more in step with Mayor Daley and the Chicago power structure than he is with the vast majority of Illinois citizens.”

The ISRA-PVF is a political action committee affiliated with the Illinois State Rifle Association. Donations to the ISRA-PVF are not tax deductible. A copy of our report is available for a fee from the Illinois State Board of Elections, Springfield, IL

Roberta X has good coverage of it on her blog.

As one of those who visits relatives in Illinois, their gun rules are enough to make you want to pound your head on the wall. I remember the first time I went into the local gun store in O’Fallon, Ron & Jo’s, and was told I couldn’t buy ammo because I didn’t have either a FOID card or a hunting license. I was like “WTF?”. They apologized and said it was Illinois law.

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Concealed Carry Gains Momentum in Illinois

June 27, 2010 by

The Belleville News Democrat ran a good story today about the movement towards concealed carry in the state of Illinois.

With 15 killings in six months, East St. Louis is on track to once again earn the label of one of the deadliest cities in the country.

But residents there, like all Illinois citizens, cannot legally walk around with a concealed pistol for protection.

Steve King, who operates the Belleville Indoor Shooting Range, says law-abiding residents of East St. Louis and throughout Illinois should be able to legally carry concealed handguns to defend their lives.

“Much of the crime in our area is in East St. Louis,” said King, “This is not meant to be derogatory toward East St. Louis. There are many law-abiding people there who have their backs against the wall who must risk breaking the law to protect themselves. They should be allowed to protect themselves.”

And some top metro-east lawmen agree. They urge that a law be adopted in Illinois to make it legal for qualified persons to pack a handgun. Illinois and Wisconsin are the only two states to entirely ban concealed firearms.

St. Clair County Sheriff Mearl Justus, Madison County Sheriff Robert Hertz and Belleville Police Chief Bill Clay all said they would support a concealed-carry law for trained persons who could pass an extensive background check.

Read the full story here.

This issue is of particular interest to me as the Complementary Mother-in-Law lives in St. Clair County. Having driven around East St. Louis, I always pray that I never have car trouble as the place reminds me of a Third World country. If you’ve read John Ross’s Unintended Consequences, you know what I mean.

UPDATE: Here is a link to IllinoisCarry