***Note to Illinois Carry Proponents***

I know you are all working very hard to enable the good Citizens of Illinois to finally be able to exercise a Right to Carry.

If Illinois can get a very clean and super strong Shall Issue bill passed, great! If not then consider this carefully:

Acquiescence to a restrictive carry bill (just to get something passed) is strategically unwise. If Illinois can wait for its Federal Circuit (or SCOTUS, if need be) to eventually hold that the Second Amendment protects a fundamental right to carry outside the home then Illinois instantly has Constitutional Carry by default (yes, that is a good thing!). This happy result would only be the case if absolutely NO carry licensing legislation (good or bad) happens to be on the books for the State authorities to fall back on. Think long and hard about this opportunity!

Everybody knows that the current Illinois ban on carry outside the home can't really be squared with emerging Second Amendment jurisprudence and is all but destined to be struck down (hopefully sooner than you think). Please consider fighting like hell to make sure no restrictive carry licensing system is ever put in place in Illinois. Then by default Illinois will have Constitutional Carry once the State's 'total' carry ban is finally struck down as unconstitutional.

Remember: Carry Ban Struck Down + No Alternate Carry Licensing System to take its place = Constitutional Carry.

But wait, won’t a future Illinois legislature just pass carry licensing legislation anyway in the event that the current carry ban is struck down? Not necessarily. Not if a number of die-hard Second Amendment supporters in the Illinois legislature pull out all the stops to block ALL carry licensing legislation from ever seeing the light of day. Do onto the anti-gunners what Chicago has done all these years to smother your gun rights. It is time to turn the tables.

Good luck!

If Illinois can get any carry law passed with preemption thenany changes will only require a majority vote and a new governor. Currently we need 3/5 majority in both chambers to pass any bill that preempts home rule. The only good news there is that a gubernatorial veto is irrelevant at that point.

Passing a carry law now as proposed will allow citizens to protect themselves without a felony hanging over their heads. Privileged carry for now will not stop the move to constitutional carry.

lockman said:

If Illinois can get any carry law passed with preemption thenany changes will only require a majority vote and a new governor. Currently we need 3/5 majority in both chambers to pass any bill that preempts home rule. The only good news there is that a gubernatorial veto is irrelevant at that point.

Passing a carry law now as proposed will allow citizens to protect themselves without a felony hanging over their heads. Privileged carry for now will not stop the move to constitutional carry.

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Lockman, I hope you can get a very good carry bill, but failing that, NO carry bill is better than even a good carry bill IF (and only if) the current Illinois ban on carry is struck down. THEN you have Constitutional Carry (by default) because there would be no carry 'licensing' legislation on the books at all . . . unless of course you actually like licensing ;-). I hope this point is not lost on you good Citizens of Illinois. The legal concept to remember is that if something is not specifically illegal under the law then it is lawful. That means that if the current Illinois statute prohibiting carry (either openly or concealed) is struck down then carry is lawful. No 'enabling' legislation is required to be passed 'allowing' carry. You just get to do it. You will then need to strongly OPPOSE any attempts to pass any carry restrictions by the legislature (i.e. licensing, gun-free zones, etc.) to maintain the 'new' status quo of what will effectively be Constitutional (i.e Permitless) Carry.

You definitely raised a good point regarding Preemption. Strong Preemption is indeed needed in a hurry and it should be your highest legislative priority. Without Premption, Chicago will bypass the state legislature and set up their own restrictive carry licensing system.

Just curious, has there ever been a case of self defense with a firearms, outside the home, in Illinois? If so, how did it end?

Tucker6900 said:

Just curious, has there ever been a case of self defense with a firearms, outside the home, in Illinois? If so, how did it end?

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First link is the accused telling his side of what happened...

http://register-news.com/local/x972392221/Opening-statements-in-Wilks-trial/print

the second link is the outcome of the trial.....

http://register-news.com/x547241190/Wilks-Not-Guilty-At-least-two-arrested-following-verdict

This happened in the Southern part of the state . I would expect things to turn out much different in the Chicago area. I was amazed at how it turned out myself . They didn't charge him with having a loaded firearm , nor was there any mention as to if he had a FOID card.