When I was young, most states had a provision for an ordinary law-abiding citizen to get a permit to carry a concealed and loaded handgun in public, but the issuing of the permit was discretionary to the issuing authority. In many jurisdictions, this \u201cmay issue\u201d situation became a code phrase for \u201cwe\u2019ll issue you the permit if you\u2019re white, male, rich, and politically connected.\u201d Fewer states were \u201cshall issue,\u201d making it mandatory for the authorities to grant the permit to anyone who applied unless those authorities could show that the applicant was a convicted felon or had been adjudicated mentally incompetent. Only a single state, Vermont, allowed the citizen who was neither a confirmed felon or mental patient to carry without a permit.
\nAnd seven states had no provision at all for carrying a gun in public to protect self and family.
\nOver the last twenty years, things changed profoundly for the better. The great majority of states moved from \u201cmay issue\u201d to the egalitarian \u201cshall issue\u201d format. Vermont was joined by three other states in eliminating the permit requirement. And, one by one, those \u201cno-permit\u201d states fell. Wisconsin had been the most recent. Only Illinois was left with nothing in its law to allow the good citizen to carry.
\nThat appears to have changed this week, thanks to a lawsuit brought by the Second Amendment Foundation and a mandate by Federal judge Richard Posner. Leading the fight on the ground in Lincolnland was ISRA, the Illinois State Rifle Association, one of the great grassroots state-level organizations devoted to gun owners\u2019 civil rights. There is much yet to be worked out, and ISRA\u2019s official position on the matter can be found here. http:\/\/www.isra.org\/
\nNow awaiting the signature of a spectacularly anti-gun governor, the new bill will establish shall-issue concealed carry in Illinois, the permits to be issued by the Illinois State Police. The bill is, in many ways, less than ideal from the viewpoint of hard-core gun owners\u2019 rights activists, but it\u2019s a huge improvement over the previous situation. When the prohibitionists scream about it as loudly as they\u2019re screaming right now, it\u2019s proof positive of a victory for gun owners\u2019 civil rights.
\nStay tuned for how it shakes out as to the fine points. We\u2019re not winning on every front \u2013 witness recent Draconian legislation in California \u2013 but concealed carry in Illinois can\u2019t be seen as anything but a huge, landmark victory. Thanks to all who made it happen. I hope to go to Illinois soon to raise an adult beverage in a victory toast to those who fought the good fight\u2026and I hope to hear blog commentary on the matter, particularly from our Illinois readers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
When I was young, most states had a provision for an ordinary law-abiding citizen to get a permit to carry a concealed and loaded handgun in public, but the issuing of the permit was discretionary to the issuing authority. In many jurisdictions, this \u201cmay issue\u201d situation became a code phrase for \u201cwe\u2019ll issue you the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":6428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2317","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2317"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2317\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6428"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.backwoodshome.com\/blogs\/MassadAyoob\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}