Dart was right about concealed carry law

Dart was right about concealed carry law

The prize for worst legislation ever goes to this year’s concealed carry bill. To placate a few hundred thousand gun obsessed Illinoisans whose manhood suffers when they’re not packing an extra rod, Illinois has put the 12 million plus other Illinoisans at risk for even more gun carnage in the most violent so called civilized country in the world.

It was a matter of state pride that Illinois was the last holdout to such insanity, but alas, come Jan. 1, that wonderful distinction ends.

That is why Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart calling the new law a “monstrosity” is so welcome. Dart points out that the state police, responsible for overseeing the permit process, are only required to file an objection to a concealed carry permit if the applicant has five or more arrests in the last seven years or three or more gangbanger arrests. That means the overseers are not required to object to a concealed carry bloke who’s had four arrests in the last seven years or two gangbanger arrests.

That’s very comforting ... to folks who have no business owning a gun, much less concealing and carrying it. If that’s not bad enough, Dart points out that state police are prohibited from searching the more comprehensive national database LEADS which would surely ensnare gun carrying undesirables that will slip through the porous Illinois system.

Furthermore, Illinois screening for the mentally ill is woefully inadequate. It flags only those who have been committed to a hospital for psychiatric treatment or have been determined by a doctor to be a danger to themselves (and by extension, the general public).

The Illinois legislature should hold hearings to fix or rescind the “monstrosity” of concealed carry. And the first witness should be the sensible and sane Tom Dart.

Walt Zlotow

Glen Ellyn