Urge Illinois Legislators to Support the Second Amendment

In addition to pension reform, the Illinois legislature is debating gun legislation this week. In mid December, a court of appeals struck down a ban on concealed carry of guns in the state, giving the state 180 days to pass concealed carry legislation.  Just a couple weeks ago, the appeals court denied Attorney General Lisa Madigan's request to re-hear the case. The Illinois state legislature has a several bills being discussed in committee including bills requiring gun owners to have liability insurance , bans on specific types of guns, and legislation delineating specific reasonable requirements for training and licensing among a host of  other bills.  The Illinois State Rifle Association has a page with links to each of these pieces of legislation, the status of the bill, and their stance on  these  bills.  Please see here for more information.

 The National Rifle Association shares this caution with the legislative approach currently being taken by 2nd amendment opponents:

[This week], the Illinois House will consider extreme anti-gun legislation that will ban commonly owned semi automatic firearms and standard capacity magazines. The particular language will most likely be attached on the House floor as amendments to shell bills, so no language is currently available. While under a federal court order to pass a state Right-to-Carry law, anti-gun Chicago politicians continue to play games with your right to self-defense. Rather than working on measures to reduce violent crime, they continue to play politics and attack the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding citizens.

Economist John Lott Jr. warns that the legislation being proposed, at least with the amendments discussed last week, would be "the most restrictive concealed hand gun law in the country", as the amendments' vague language essentially prohibit guns from being carried almost anywhere.  As an example, one amendment prohibits concealed carry on college campus, not even allowing individual campuses to make that decision themselves. This is in spite of the fact that campuses that allow concealed carry showed a reduction in crime following implementation of such policies.

 Also this week is the extremely timely Illinois Gun Owners Lobby (IGOLD) Day in Springfield on Wednesday, March 6th. For information about the day's scheduling and transportation options to Springfield, please see here. Please contact your legislators and ask them to uphold their oath of office in supporting the 2nd amendment. Contact information for Illinois state representatives can be found here and state senators here. The right to bear/bare arms in Illinois should not apply only to Michelle Obama's fashion choices.

Crossposted from Illinois4Palin.