Concealed carry is right for Illinois
Recent events have changed the way people must look at gun control. Last June the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in D.C. vs. Heller that the Second Amendment is indeed an individual right unconnected to any militia service; "and protects individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation". Thus the court has affirmed the right to keep and bear arms.
Any restriction on a protected civil right must be questioned. Bearing arms for lawful purposes is just that, a protected right. Any regulation placing a prior restraint on the exercise of that right is unconstitutional. If citizens of Illinois want all gun sales to undergo a background check at the time of sale, then all the taxpayers of Illinois should bear the burden of this cost. Requiring a gun owner to pay for the exercise of an individual right is the equivalent of a poll tax.
Under penalty of law you are required to wear a seat belt and have smoke and carbon monoxide detectors in your home for your own safety. But when it comes to responsible citizens providing for their own armed protection, Illinois law makes that a felony.
Earlier this year the Wisconsin Attorney General made clear the fact that citizens of Wisconsin in the absence of a concealed carry law have the right to bear arms openly in public places for self-defense.
With our neighbors to the north allowed the carry of arms for self-defense, that leaves Illinois the only state in this union without a lawful way for citizens to bear arms for self-defense in places other than their own property, concealed or otherwise.
Illinois needs to reign in rogue local governments such as Chicago and Cook County by passing a firearms pre-emption law. Gun laws should be uniform throughout this state. Fundamental rights should not change because of urban/rural or political differences.
It is time that Second Amendment rights are treated with the respect and reverence our system affords the First, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments.
Jack V. Forbes Jr.
Elgin