Carrying in Illinois

[bclark1]

Well, as long as we've got so many Illinoisians on the horn here...

I just wanted to ask about carrying here, illegally. I don't want anyone to incriminate themself. I don't want to encourage it in any way, shape or form. I don't do it, and I wouldn't support you if you did, because it would reflect poorly on our community and be counterproductive. I don't carry, I don't fanny-pack, and the only place I am with my guns is at home, a range, or in the field hunting.

But I know it happens. A friend's aunt came by my place once with him, they were just hanging out for the day and she had been planning to stop by. She has family in bad neighborhoods of Chicago, and her job takes her there occasionally. We got to talking about lots of different things, and guns came up. She's not only quite a shot, but she pretty much carries everywhere. I'd say she'd be justified to (were it legal, of course) as well. She actually needed to brandish once when someone tried to force into her car, to steal it or worse.

So I know of at least one. But I've heard other rumblings. I know I've heard at least once of people who were stopped carrying, and the cops let them go because they were law abiding citizens. I've also heard of people having to draw when confronted with trouble.

So this thread is all over the place. What I'm wondering, I suppose: Any general stories to share? And secondly, okay, so you know someone who carries illegally. What happens if they need it, seeing as even the most justified application of defensive force will still be against the law? Finally, there are an elite few allowed to carry. Aldermen and many of Chicago's high-powered, suit-and-tie crooks. How do they go about it? Do they have some sort of permit written up, or do they just present their governmental credentials? Anyone know anything about the stipulations surrounding their "rights" in which we don't share?

 

[vito]

I belong to a gun club here in Illinois, and I know that many of the members routinely carry concealed, being convinced that to face legal consequences for illegal carry is better than to face assault/death at the hands of a criminal. The only people I know of that were "caught" carrying concealed did not, in fact, conceal their weapon very well. I have a good "friend" who occasionally puts a snub nose 357 mag in his coat pocket when he knows he must travel to a particularly dangerous part of Chicago.

 

[Autolycus]

There is no permit in Chicago. It is written into the law that alderman and mayors can carry.

 

[bad LT]

I don't carry a loaded gun except when hunting or on the range in IL but...

I have been in a couple of situations where I really wanted a gun:

1) Man with knife in hand tried to approach me from behind at midnight outside of a university library. Ended by facing assailent while producing a weapon (can of mace).

2) Followed by two large, strangly quiet men while walking home at night on the same university. Ended by entering locked university building I had keys for.

3) Approached by several "miscrent-looking" youths while with my father in a parking lot. They approached the lot as a group, split up, and approached us from numerous angles. Ended by jogging into the store (which oddly enough sold firearms).

Note, each of these cases did not occur in the Chiciago area. If you think that crime only occurs in Chiciago, you are sadly mistaken.

Also, in each case I did not want a (just) a pistol. I really wanted Rambo's M-60

 

[P95Carry]

Please watch carefully where this might go and what gets posted - THR does not in any way encourage illegal activities as I hope members know.

Thus far it is seemingly in the hypothetical realm - it must remain that way, to avoid closure.

 

[CNYCacher]

IANAL, but from what I've heard, carrying in Illinios is not illegal if you have your FOID Card, and the gun is unloaded in a case. Some people have been stopped by LEOs while carrying this way, and they were let go not because they were "law-abiding citizens" but because they were "citizens abiding by the law". That is to say, by a literal interpretation of the law in IL, they were not breaking the law.

See icarry.org for more info.

People who are doing this are living in the grey zone of the law. Some might call it the "front lines" of the RKBA movement.

 

[Autolycus]

I attended SIU in Carbondale Illinois. I lived next to the main strip through town where all the drunks hung out. IT was rediculous with the amount of crap they pulled. I also lived next to some fraternity houses and tehy would get overzealous in their endeavors to find drugs. Apparently the house me and my roommates rented was a coke house. They used to go there for coke and to just party. So I had a lot of students walking in thinking that it was the same deal (it was not!) and telling me that tehy knew the owners who were cool with it.

I also lived next to a liquor store which had a lot of homeless people and other undesirable types who would congregate behind my house to drink and smoke.

I always wanted to carry a pistol but couldnt because of stupid laws. I did around the house and it saved my butt 2 times. I am no longer there but I could see wanting a pistol when I traveled through Chicago to visit friends. I hope things change soon.

 

[illini52]

Note, each of these cases did not occur in the Chiciago area. If you think that crime only occurs in Chiciago, you are sadly mistaken.

Two of my friends where mugged and beaten on university grounds in Champaign this summer. One was in the hospital overnight. This [baloney] occurs everywhere.

 

[bclark1]

I spent 4+ in Champaign (actually might have been the first student to shoot at the PTI, before IOT was founded), so I know, I only used Chicago as an example. Universities are very much what I would consider a gray area though. The prevalance of drinking and youth will inevitably end in violence sometimes. While I'd like to think the potential rape victim and unprovoked walker at night deserve their right to self-defense, I could see far more cases of hopped up wannabes abusing their right and setting us back in the long run. In any case, even in states where they allow carry, many have clauses in their statutes preventing carry on campuses. I see both good and bad in this, and although I don't think rights should be suspended on tax-funded property like a state school, I can at least understand the intentions. To discuss this one scenario at further length would be myopic in this thread, though.

To the ends of closing this thread, I tried to be very clear in my wording. There was a thread a week or so ago that was heading this direction after having been started in a different vein, and a mod closed it before much detail could be had. I PM'd him and asked if a thread were started specifically on this topic, would he be opposed to it, and he replied that it would be alright. I realize this is very thin ice but I am genuinely curious about where this has gone with respect to the individuals and cases that we haven't heard about in high-profile court battles.

 

[eastwood44mag]

If you're aware of what's going on, you're always carrying:

Keys, lighters, watches, combs, rings, etc. Anything hard, sharp, or pointed can be used to disable an assailant.

I think it's a tyrannical regime when citizens are forbidden to exercise the fundamental right to defend themselves, but I'm not willing to catch a UUW to prove my case.

 

[Don Gwinn]

Don't go around the filters, OK guys?

My estimate would be that there are a lot more people--people who consider themselves law-abiding citizens--carrying loaded concealed pistols illegally than there are people doing fanny pack carry. A LOT more. It's not uncommon in my experience, and my experience is pretty limited.

But I don't do it for reasons I've posted many times.

 

[Autolycus]

I agree with the post above mine. I have heard of a few people doing this but I cannot support it without a word of extreme caution. It is not worht risking everything in my eyes but at teh same time by not carrying your risking everything.:banghead:

 

[Sungun09]

Check www.concealcarry.org

John Birch had done some things regarding carry in Illinois .

I carry most of the time, legally according to one interpretation of Illinois law.

 

[Soybomb]

I've only really felt like I wished I had a firearm on me a few times in life. I've never been in a situation where I would have come close to drawing one. I've been pulled from a wrecked car and taken by ambulance once in life. A little probability and cost benefit analysis and I feel like I have greater risks caryring in Illinois than not carrying. Similarly I don't believe I would benefit from either a car gun or a unloaded pistol on my waist. Ymmv.

 

[Don Gwinn]

The unloaded gun is not really there to enhance my security, although I always feel obligated to point out that just such a thing could very well have changed Suzanne Gratia-Hupp's life for the better at Luby's Cafeteria.

The real reason it's there is that I don't feel right tweaking politicians and journalists about legally carrying a gun in Illinois if I don't have the guts to go through with it. Most people never give it a second glance.

The one thing that kind of worries me about it is that I feel like an obvious shoplifting suspect when I go into retail stores. But there's not much I can do about that.