Chicago gun ban struck down!

[IDASpaceman]

See you all in Springfield on the 10th, we'll be busing up with hundreds of Veterans from the Metro East St Louis area...

Let freedom ring!

[ToneGrail]

Originally Posted by J. Lundegaard

I think you're misconstruing what everyone is trying to say here. We are not arguing that "because other states do it, we must have concealed carry here in Illinois." The argument for concealed carry stands alone on its own merits, which I get to in a moment. The purpose of pointing out that 49 other states have concealed carry is to show how behind the times Illinois is. An example is Alabama, which did not repeal its ban on interracial marriage until the year 2000! At the time, it would have been valid to point out that every state in the union had repealed its laws against interracial marriage, save for Alabama. The point of this is just to show how backwards Alabama was on this particular civil right. And that’s what we’re trying to do here. Maybe not the commenters here, but I sometimes see people say “well only Texas and those other red states have crazy guns laws.” That is incorrect; the overwhelming majority of states – red or blue – permit some level of concealed or open carry.

Now as to the merits of concealed carry, I see two.

(1) First, it provides an effective way to reduce crime by putting criminals on notice that their victims may be armed. As Robert Heinlen once said, "an armed society is a polite society." It also provides a way for citizens to defend themselves if attacked by a criminal. That is, instead of being completely dependent on the State (i.e., the police) to protect you -- who we know can't predict where and when a crime will occur -- it transfers to the individual the capacity to protect themselves. In other words, by strengthening this civil right by letting an individual protect themselves and determine their ultimate fate, we provide for more personal autonomy. In my opinion, this is almost always a good thing.

(2) Second, independent of point no. 1 above (which I would call the policy argument for concealed carry), is the constitutional argument: the Second Amendment secures an individual right to both keep and bear arms, which includes the right to carry on your person (whether concealed or open) a firearm for self-defense. I'll be honest, the U.S. Supreme Court has yet to interpret the Second Amendment in this fashion, although a number of state supreme courts have (in the process of interpreting their own state's constitutional provision for arms). Even if you think my arguments in point no. 1 above are completely wrong, you would still have to contend with point no. 2. If you are truly against concealed carry and even the possession of firearms in general, you need to be honest and recommend a constitutional amendment that would either repeal or modify the Second Amendment. Of course, gun control advocates like Mayor Daley absolutely never do this. They just care about restricting gun rights, notwithstanding that pesky document called the Constitution.

..but...but...but..guns are evil....we should just join hands with criminals and sing kumbayah and maybe do a nice big group hug. Yah know, after all, it's society's fault that they've become criminals...HOW DARE YOU USE LOGIC TO REFUTE MY ARGUMENT! Silly you!