CCW for Illinois? Now is the time to act!

S

SCR1

New member
With the Safe Neighborhoods Act ruled unconstitional, it is now a misdemeanor to carry a firearm. However, Governor Ryan is pushing hard to make it a felony again. This has revived CCW talk in IL! Even in the Chicago Tribune there was an article today!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/metro/chicago/article/0,2669,2-39819,FF.html

Gov. Ryan's comment about people carrying .45s in their belt is outrages. I sent him a nice fax telling him so, but don't just contact him contact your State Representatives and Senators. The Republican controlled Senate is not happy with Ryan on this one! Now is the time to go forward and bombard our Reps. use the NRA web page to find your Reps and Senators. Call, Fax, and Mail! I think we can do it! The Senate goes back in session next week!

Check out this site too:

http://www.concealcarry.org/

Steve


[This message has been edited by SCR1 (edited December 26, 1999).]
 
Now is the time? Anytime is the time to carry concealed. Did you all forget, "...the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."?

That organization, "Concealed Carry", is going to do more harm than good for Illinois residents. Just read through their website. This guy (John Birch) suggests that if you are caught carrying concealed, you are to use your gun as a bribe to the cop to get out of your predicament. Yeah that's right, give up your expensive ($400-$600) handgun as hush money! Because most cops, so says Mr. Birch, will take the offer of accepting your handgun to ignore further charges against you.

The idea of immediately treating someone who is caught with a firearm as a felon, is not only wrong, but it is un-Constitutional. You are innocent until proven guilty, and you DO HAVE A RIGHT TO KEEP AND BEAR ARMS remember. Granted, if you just held up your local 7-11, and you're caught with a gun, that's one thing. But if you are stopped for a traffic violation...ordered out of the vehicle...patted down...and your firearm is found, unless you already have a felony background, you should be allowed to carry on with your business (traffic citation issued). No further discussion. Period.

Concealed Carry, wants gun laws in our state. If you believe in the Constitution, you need to be thinking in terms of repealing all gun laws. We shouldn't have to take 40 hours of firearms training, pass FBI background checks, submit to fingerprinting, or be issued a permit to excercize an unalienable RIGHT! Concealed Carry has their own agenda, and it represents the ideology of one person, that being Mr. Birch.

Seven years of declining crime, murder rates down, armed robberies down...so why are we discussing more gun laws? It's not about reducing crime, it's about removing an adversary. And you are that adversary!
 
Small steps Paul. While I don't disagree with your position, it lacks any answers. We have to start getting our rights back one right at a time. If this means getting law-abiding citizens the right to carry without fear of prosecution then so be it. It is a start - we didn;t get where we are today overnight! I am sorry that I am not ready to lead an armed assault on the Congress of the USA, but what would you suggest we do? I think I know what you would say because I actually agree with you on several of your points.
 
SCR1...

This issue assumes that there are only two camps of pro-gun people. One that is ready, willing, and able to take up arms against government action, and another which conforms to any legislation that comes out of Washington D.C. or the State capital's rectum.

Let my argument represent the third and maybe fourth camps, but not the first two.

As citizens in America, we have the basis for our government, our freedoms, and our remedies to disputes...all outlined and enumerated in the U.S. Constitution and its Bill of Rights. All states, including Illinois have their own state Constitution, which can only enhance one's Constitutional Rights, not take them away. ANY laws, acts, ordinances, executive orders, or legislation that does not pass the Constitutional litmus test, ultimately become null and void and unenforceable. Period.

Follow the law of the land...the U.S. Constitution, and the ten commandments, then stop worrying about these restrictions that violate the very fiber of our American existance.

Either you live as a free American under our Constitution, or you live as a subject of a regime. There is no middle ground as a true Constitutionalist.

The fact that we are even discussing conformance to these un-Constitutional laws only means that you and others like you have submitted to this tyranny. We must stand together first as FREE AMERICANS, and boldly and loudly state, that "THESE UN-CONSTITUTIONAL LAWS DO NOT APPLY TO US!"
 
I can't believe that anyone would be so stupid as to publically advocate bribing a police officer to get out of an arrest. Lets just add another felony charge to the UUW while we're at it.

Two years ago when UUW involving a firearm became a felony here in Illinois, the States Attorney in my county sent out a memo to all law enforcement agencies in the county saying that he didn't want to see businessmen on the way to the night deposit box, or the abused spouse looking out for herself and her children brought up on felony charges. This meant use your discretion out there on the street.

I am 100% for CCW in Illinois, in fact most officers I know have said they would have no objection to any person taking the same 40hrs basic use of force and firearms training we take being licensed to carry concealed.

But, if I were ever about to use some of that discretion and make sure a gun I found was unloaded and transported within the limits of Illinois law before I realesed the subject to go on his or her way, and that person offered me a bribe in the form of their weapon, I would almost certainly arrest them on both charges.

I am forwarding these comments to Mr. Birch.
Sorry for the rant, but I don't think that is the way to get CCW in Illinois.
Jeff
 
You are right sir, but and that is why I want to have a CCW law in IL. The answer exists already in the licensing of Armed Guards in IL. With respect to bribing police officers, I Did not write it and just found this web site a few days ago. I have not had a reason to even consider it since I am a law-abiding citizen. From what I have heard though, things are a bit different in the People's Republic of Chicago. I believe since 1970 pistols have not been permitted in the city so your options are very very limited, either be illegal or be unarmed. My point is just to draw attention to opportunity that I see as getting something on the books that will allow us to Carry LEGALLY! Please write, call, and mail your STATE reps and Governor.

SCR1
 
SCR1
I did e-mail Mr. John Birch and got a reply that said he should have updated the site to say that the bribery should only apply to Cook County. He said in Cook County that there is a zero tolerance policy and that one didn't have much to lose by adding the possibility of another felony charge.

Getting a "blue card" or Armed Guards License only allows one to carry a firearm within the purview of his or her employment and enroute to and from your place of employment. I wouldn't depend on that to get you by. Most cops would look at you as a dangerous "wannabe" if you were caught carrying in other then the situations allowed by law and pulled out your "blue card" as your license.

I will once again write my representative and state senator on this issue. I feel that we will have to get more momentum going than what is presently here. While it failed in the Senate by two votes, we would still have to get it through Michael Madigan's House and I don't think that Goerge Ryan would sign it to save his life.

We still haven't managed to keep the UUW charge a misdemeanor yet. The Senate will go back into session on Wednesday. Ryan will twist all of the arms he can. I don't know what kind of press this is getting up North, but down here in Southern Illinois everyone seems sort of non-chalant about it, it's sort of a non-issue in the press here.

Jeff
 
Jeff...

Up here, it's headlines. You wouldn't believe the leftist slant on this entire issue. Just yesterday, the Chicago Police Commisioner announced that, "I cannot guarantee that crime rates will not begin to climb", if the Safe Neighborhoods Act (specifically the gun possession felony provision) is not immediately re-enacted.

The arrogant Chicago political machine is actually taking responsibility for the 13% reduction in murders, claiming that it was the Safe Neighborhoods Act that made that happen.

Carrying in Illinois is an individual choice and Right. If one uses discretion and does not give reason for a cop to even consider a pat down or vehicle inspection, there isn't anything that should prevent him/her from carrying.

SCR1...

Handguns are prohibited in Chicago City limits, which means only cops and criminals can have guns. But it shouldn't be surprising that most Chicagoans ignore that ordinance. Most good people can read, and it's pretty difficult to ignore both the U.S. Constitution and the Illinois State Constitution that both allow citizens the Right to keep and bear arms, thus making anything enacted to the contrary within Chicago (or anywhere else in the State) null and void. Hence the Illinois Supreme Court's decision finding the Safe Neighborhood Act un-Constitutional.
 
Paul,

The one flaw is that if you are carrying in IL and you end up USING your concealed weapon to thwart a crime, you are in danger of going up the river - probably longer than the criminal you just stopped (If he lives).
 
SCR1,
Actually use of an unlawful weapon in self defense does not poison the act of self defense. As long as the self defense was justified by state law, the fact that the means of self defense (illegally possesed handgun) is irrelevant. The States Attorney "could" pursue seperate UUW charges but that would have to be totally separate from the use of said weapon in the self defense situation. I'm not aware of any instances, even in Chicago where someone was charged for using an illegally possesed handgun to defend himself. In fact I know of a couple incidents where a handgun was properly used to defend a citizen in Chicago and no charges were filed.

Heard on the local news this morning that Ryan was going to make a "whistlestop" tour of the state to try to whip up grassroots support for the safe neighborhoods act. Didn't say if he was coming to Southern Illinois though. Probably isn't, it is always in the news if he comes to the area.

BTW, were you aware that a couple of months ago Ryan came to Southern Illinois to fire the first shot at a new sport shooting complex at Rend Lake? What a hipocrite.

Jeff

[This message has been edited by Jeff White (edited December 28, 1999).]
 
My parents are from Bellevile, and I have been to Rend lake a few times. Used to go by the Damn/Spillover a lot. That's interesting, but not unbelieveable since the attitudes 100 miles outside Chicago are very different, and probably very supportive of a CCW. Of course we all know that it is all politics for Ryan's presence there - he could care less, I hate the part about guns 'being' for Hunting and Shooting sports - that is not the intent of the Constitution - which is one of the reasons people are not for the Felony charge. I wish the Pro people would start using the facts that more guns = less crime. Of course that would be too reasonable. Pate Philip has reported that he is receiving MANY calls and faxes supporting him. He got a faw from me too.


CALL, WRITE, AND FAX - Wednesday is when the Senate goes back in session.

Ryan is sending his flunkies around the state to drum up support - because he knows that he doesn't have it.


SCR1
 
SCR1,
Small world...I grew up in Belleville, my mom is still there. You're right, it's a different world down here. Many people jokingly advocate putting a triple strand concertina fence around Cook DuPage and McHenry counties and seeing if they can get Wisconsin or Indiana to take them in.

Yes CCW would have wide support down here. It probably would have wide public support in Chicago too, if the public were ever allowed to see the facts. those of us active on the issue in downstate Illinois have often said that the only way to get CCW would be to let the Chicago area exempt it's self it it so desired. That is not acceptable to me, the one place where it's really needed would forbid it.

I haven't been to the new shooting complex at Rend lake, but I hear it's pretty nice. It was big news locally when Ryan came down to open it. I likened that to Clinton's duck hunting trip, during the debate on assault weapons. I see this as just another way of telling the people that there are approved uses of weapons. you are right, this is not what the founding fathers intended when they wrote the second amendment. I find it interesting that the push to eliminate firearms and destroy the "gun culture" is happening at the same time the government is grabbing up power in other areas. people should wonder what our loving and benign leaders have in store for us once the means of resistance has been removed.
Jeff
 
Oh, well I am in Mchenry County. I did move out from Cook County so I feel a bit better.

Call, Fax, Write!

Tomorrow the Senate gets back together. Why I don't know - they already shot it down once.
 
SNA failed! - I guess Ryan was blowing SMOKE out his ASS about having enough
votes.

Call your Senator and see how they voted if they voted against it thank them!

Write a letter to Gov. Ryan asking him why he is a Democrat in Republican clothes.

Thank Senator James 'Pate' Philip for stopping the insanity.

We didn't get CCW, but we defeated Mayor Daley! CCW next - Write your Reps and Senators!!!
 
YES!!!!! One down one to go! Lets get those CCWs! Keep writing, calling, faxing, emailing, whatever it takes.

One question, now that it is officially a misdemeanor, what about Chicago where handguns are totall ban? I am in Des Plaines and the Chicago border is about 5 min from here. My parents live in chicago and I go there all the time. I dont own yet, but say I do, I am carrying a handgun and get pulled over. Is it still going to be a misdemeanor seeing that I am in Chicago?

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My-website
We are as one as we all are the same fighting for one cause -Metallica
 
Its hard to say MD, In Chicago all guns have to be registered and no more pistols are allowed in, not sure what to recommend.
 
So far, so good and the chowderhead governor loses again. For posters who live in DuPage County, Dan Cronin, the state senator from Elmhurst, voted with Ryan, as did Beverly 'Pass the Potatoes' Fawell. Remember, these two state senators were the only Republicans to vote against the concealed weapons bill. The bill lost by two votes.
 
How can we find out how our area lawmakers voted? is there a way without calling them individually?
I did contact them as well as the Guv's office, and I will continue to do so re: CCW.
What a great "compromise" we could all claim if the responsible citizens got CCW and the criminals got felonies!
 
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