Visiting from Florida

SteveInCO said:

I did most of that on my last trip (by car) to Illinois--except for the in-car carry which I didn't realize I could legally do, so the gun went into the trunk (unloaded, ammo separately cased) in the Iowa quad cities.

Come to think of it I am not sure "separately cased" is necessary there. Is it?

I have one of those little safes that you actuate with your fingers and has a cable to tie around your seat anchors (or the hinge of your trunk) and brought the gun into the hotel room in that--and used it to secure the gun inside the room while I went about my business. (I unloaded the gun and separately cased the mags just before departing, too--I don't know if I had to do that or not; please chime in.) Brought a second cheapie case for the (loaded) mags. There doesn't seem to be any issue about whether a loaded mag not in the pistol or even in the same container is a "loaded weapon" in Illinois, unlike some other states.

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No ammo doesn't need to be in a separate case from the firearm, and a loaded magazine can be in the case with the firearm, just not in the mag well. I see that Iowa's transport laws aren't as good as Illinois if you don't have a CCW. - Iowa says You have to have it in a closed and fastened container or securely wrapped package which is too large to be concealed on your person or inside the cargo or baggage compartment not readily accessible to anyone. Again the previous sentence is Iowa law not the more gun owner friendly Illinois law!

junglebob said:

No ammo doesn't need to be in a separate case from the firearm, and a loaded magazine can be in the case with the firearm, just not in the mag well. I see that Iowa's transport laws aren't as good as Illinois if you don't have a CCW. - Iowa says You have to have it in a closed and fastened container or securely wrapped package which is too large to be concealed on your person or inside the cargo or baggage compartment not readily accessible to anyone. Again the previous sentence is Iowa law not the more gun owner friendly Illinois law!

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On the other hand at least Iowa will recognize my Colorado permit when I am NOT in my car, and you can Open Carry most places there! (I believe some of the larger towns will hassle you.) But then on the other other hand, I can legally buy full-cap (16+1) mags for my CZ-75 in Illinois so long as I throw them out the car window before I cross the state line going into Colorado on my return. (Luckily the ones I already have are grandfathered. Also the stupid law is basically unenforceable.)

I see there is at least one bill in the Illinois legislative hopper to allow for reciprocity with other states (and another to reduce the fee and training requirements); I would love to see them pass but I am in no way optimistic.

SteveInCO said:

On the other hand at least Iowa will recognize my Colorado permit when I am NOT in my car, and you can Open Carry most places there! (I believe some of the larger towns will hassle you.) But then on the other other hand, I can legally buy full-cap (16+1) mags for my CZ-75 in Illinois so long as I throw them out the car window before I cross the state line going into Colorado on my return. (Luckily the ones I already have are grandfathered. Also the stupid law is basically unenforceable.)

I see there is at least one bill in the Illinois legislative hopper to allow for reciprocity with other states (and another to reduce the fee and training requirements); I would love to see them pass but I am in no way optimistic.

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We've had some bad gun bills defeated this past year in the Illinois legislature. The carry bill that was passed got more than the 3/5 majority needed to override the governor's amended veto. A really terrible bill could have been enacted if the legislators had voted to accept his amendments. Changes to the carry bill can be made with a majority vote of the legislature if we get a governor in that won't veto because it makes things better for those who want to carry.

SteveInCo, Interesting what you mentioned about being able to buy full-cap mags in Illinois but not being able to have them in Colorado. One of the things that Governor Quinn wanted, as I recall, was a 10 round magazine limit and you could only carry one handgun, also a prohibition to carrying in restaurants that serve alcohol, and more gun-free victim zones.

I checked and what I posted above was mostly right, under Quinn's amendments you could only carry 10 rounds and one handgun, also you could only carry in stores, restaurants, churches, etc. if they posted a sign saying it was permitted. The gun-free victim zones spelled out weren't increased, technically. He also wanted duty to inform if stopped by law enforcement. The current law says you must inform the LEO if asked.

junglebob said:

I checked and what I posted above was mostly right, under Quinn's amendments you could only carry 10 rounds and one handgun, also you could only carry in stores, restaurants, churches, etc. if they posted a sign saying it was permitted. The gun-free victim zones spelled out weren't increased, technically. He also wanted duty to inform if stopped by law enforcement. The current law says you must inform the LEO if asked.

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Oh without a doubt you could have done much, much worse with this bill (but even that would have been an improvement over the zero freedom you had before). However, though I am no expert on other states' laws, Illinois does seem to be the state with the worst shall-issue law.

You ARE moving in the right direction though, so it must be pretty exciting if you have lived there your whole life to see this happening, and I am rooting for you.

SteveInCo, You may be right that Illinois has the worst laws of any shall issue state. We did get it in the law that your handgun must be concealed or mostly concealed so you won't get arrested because your gun prints or the wind blows your jacket open. Carry in churches that don't post is allowed. I was glad to see this the reason we got a concealed carry bill passed was that the federal court in Benton ruled in favor of Mary Shepard in her suit against Illinois. She and another woman working at a Baptist church were severely beaten. Mary has 2 non-resident licenses which did her no good in Illinois. The court directed the state to pass a CCW bill.

We had less restrictive bills, fewer "victim zones", NRA basic pistol as all the training required and carry for Illinoisans with a non-resident CCW for 6 months or 1 year. There are a lot of things gun owners don't like about the bill that passed. However the bill that did pass was given support by house speaker Madigan who was always opposed to concealed carry. Politics and ego probably came into play when the governor made a amendatory veto. Almost all the legislators who voted for the original bill voted to override the veto. Quite a number of us thought that the house speaker would show him who was boss. He doesn't like the governor trying to write legislation. A lot of Chicago legislators were against preemption and would have preferred to be able to have local ordinances on carry, giving Illinois a patchwork of carry laws. Hopefully we can improve on the law as other states have done. I know in Ohio where my daughter lives there had been a prohibition against carrying in any place that sold liquor, not just places that sold by the drink. So even some grocery stores were "victim zones".