Second Amendment Opponents Regroup as Dust Settles Following Illinois Concealed Carry Ruling

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
December 13, 2012

Gun rights opponents in Illinois on Wednesday said they will continue their fight to rollback the Second Amendment after the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday ruled that a ban on concealed carry is unconstitutional.

Gun-grabbers in Chicago demanded state Attorney General Lisa Madigan appeal the ruling. Gov. Pat Quinn and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said they will work closely with legislators to come up with a new law that will “protect the public” against citizens exercising their constitutional right to own and carry firearms.

“I think it’s important that we stress that public safety comes first,” Quinn told the Associated Press.

In November, Quinn attempted to sneak through legislation banning so-called assault weapons, but was frustrated by the Illinois Senate. “The Governor overstepped his reach when he decided to rewrite this Senate bill and impose an assault weapons ban without the measure first being heard by the legislature,” said Sen. Dave Luechtefeld.

Despite efforts by the legislature to uphold the Second Amendment, Quinn claimed the public supports his efforts to deny them access to firearms.

“I think that’s where the people of Illinois are on this issue and anything having to do with guns and assault weapons and things like that. We cannot have those sorts of people eligible to carry loaded weapons on their person in public places, whether it be malls or churches or schools,” he said.

Quinn also said he will continue his push to outlaw “military-style assault weapons.”

“An assault rifle is, by definition, a medium caliber rifle capable of firing more than one round when the trigger is pulled,” Eric Nirschel wrote following actor Jason Alexander’s tirade against the Second Amendment earlier this year.

The firearms Quinn and the gun-grabbers in Illinois want to outlaw are not assault weapons, but semi-automatic rifles and handguns. The term “assault weapon” is used to demonize any firearm that is not a single shot or bolt-action weapon.

Gov. Quinn and Second Amendment opponents in the state will attempt to include restrictions in the new legislation that will be drafted within the next 180 days.

“I expect a battle,” House Majority Leader and gun-grabber Barbara Flynn Currie said. “The proponents of concealed carry have not yet carried the day.”

Gun control advocates cited Chicago’s street violence as an excuse to limit the Second Amendment.

Judge Richard Posner, however, wrote in the majority appellate opinion that Illinois doesn’t have “some unique characteristic of criminal activity” providing an excuse for outlawing concealed weapons. “A right to bear arms thus implies a right to carry a loaded gun outside the home,” he said.

“A Chicagoan is a good deal more likely to be attacked on a sidewalk in a rough neighborhood than in his apartment on the 35th floor of Park Tower,” Posner added. “To confine the right to be armed to the home is to divorce the Second Amendment from the right of self-defense.”

Prior to the ruling, Illinois was the last remaining state to outlaw concealed weapons. The ban was challenged in 2009 by Second Amendment advocates suing on behalf of an Illinois woman violently attacked while volunteering at her church.

This article was posted: Thursday, December 13, 2012 at 10:04 am

Tags: constitution, domestic news, gun rights

---

---

---

---