future
Not to be so pessimistic, but by the time I'll ccw or OC comes about we may be into looking for (to quote Arnie in Terminator and the gun shop clerk) a "phased plasma rifle in the 40 watt range" to which the clerk says "just what you see here pal."
My point is simply this: as long as Cook county politicians continue to dominate and control gun laws in Illinois, it may well be that by the time carry laws happen here we will be watching our grand kids buying sci-fi guns. It is time Illinois politicians understand that the state is far larger than one county. South of Champaign, or even Springfield, there is a constituency that is largely ignored. A non-gun example is the coal gassification plant that was set to be built down here and was killed by Chicago, back in the late '80s. That plant would have meant hundreds of construction jobs, skilled and unskilled, for several years, as well as all the jobs needed to run that plant. But Chicago said "if we can't have it, nobody else can."
I see a parallel in gun law: "if we don't want it, nobody else can have it." Meanwhile politicians are allowed to carry, and they avail themselves of armed bodyguards.
Self defense is not solely the purview of the political elite. Their lives are no more valuable than ours. Every law abiding citizen of Illinois deserves and is entitled to the rights guaranteed by the 2nd Amendment.
God help us when we need a license, fee'd and taxed by the government to exercise our 1st Amendment rights to speak our mind or go to church. God help us when we need to show ID to worship. These rights, these limits upon federal or any governmental power apply equally to all of the bill of rights. The phrase "self evident" comes to mind.
Illinoisans, we must stand together, defend the 2nd, so that the 1st through the end of the list may not be taken from us.
