The Shylocks in Springfield are up to their old tricks.
From NRA-ILA:
House Bill 2265, sponsored by state Representative Michael Zalewski (D-23), is poised to create and impose harsh mandatory minimum felony penalties ranging from three to ten years in prison for those who carry a firearm without a Concealed Carry License (CCL) or possess a firearm without a Firearm Owners Identification Card (FOID). This specific provision incorrectly targets otherwise law-abiding citizens, rather than deterring violent criminals with harsher penalties.
In the Illinois Supreme Court’s recent opinion in People v. Aguilar, the court unanimously held that the state’s “comprehensive ban” on the “use of an operable firearm for self-defense outside the home” is invalid under the Second Amendment, reaffirming that it is a fundamental right for an individual to possess a firearm for self-defense. However, state law requires that individuals obtain a CCL, which will be available after January 1, 2014, in order to exercise this right.
They aren’t targeting habitual criminals toting guns in Chicago running around killing, robbing and raping innocent people. If they were, they could transfer them to the federal system for an automatic, no parole 5-years at the federal level.
Thugs like the two who shot up the park wounding a dozen a couple of weeks ago – if they had prosecuted them under this provision, they wouldn’t have been prowling the streets to shoot those folks.
Here’s our position on the matter… a sneak peak at November’s editorial in GunNews.
Mandatory minimums: Trying the same old, failed policies, hoping for a different result
by John Boch
(GunsSaveLife.com) – Some anti-gun lawmakers are touting a new proposal to increase the mandatory minimum prison sentences for anyone arrested with a gun.
Rep. Mike Zalewski’s proposed legislation establishes a mandatory three-year term for anyone without a criminal past carrying a loaded gun, and still longer terms for felons and criminals.
The Illinois Department of Corrections is warning this will result in up to 4,000 new inmates and $700 million dollars to house them, including the need to construct at least one new prison.
We’ve got an idea: Instead of making the illegal “illegaler”, let’s let the card-carrying good guys in Illinois carry guns sooner. It has worked very successfully in the other states in the Union that have approved it, lowering homicides, sexual assaults and aggravated batteries.
How does it work?
Well, the smarter bad guys learn to restrain their violent, predatory urges, something their mothers, neighborhoods, schools, community and the entertainment industries have failed to teach them.
The not-so-smart bad guys? They assume room temperature after springing leaks, saving taxpayers millions to incarcerate them.
It’s a win-win for the state both near- and long-term, helping this state solve some of its pervasive budget woes.
Innocent good people – people like Edward Hambrick, a man with a FOID card and a South Dakota carry permit in his wallet, who was carrying a pistol for personal defense in Chicago – should not be spending three years in Illinois prison for carrying a gun, particularly after the 9-0 Aguilar decision from the Illinois Supreme Court.
Should people like Scotty Pippen, caught carrying a loaded pistol for personal defense in Chicago, be sentenced to three years? The answer is not only ‘no’, but Hell No!
We can all agree that habitual criminals carrying guns should already be in prison from their previous convictions. We can agree that increasing mandatory minimums for asocial scumbags is a good thing.
We offered this very proposal earlier this year, but were rebuffed by people like Zalewski. People of his ilk want the power to put productive, law-abiding people like Edward Hambrick, Scotty Pippen and Donnie Trotter in prison, for three years minimum, for what should be a petty offense after the Aguilar decision recognizing Illinoisans’ right to carry a gun outside the four-corners of their home.
Let’s not wreck the life of the 17-year-old carrying a gun to defend himself against gang members or the 32-year-old mom of three from Missouri with a carry permit and a gun in her purse. These people aren’t the ones killing innocent people in Chicago.
They are, however, the people who will get caught up in a draconian mandatory minimum law.
Has got to be a person with history in the Soviet Warsaw pact under Stalin. Or just a Democrat drinking the party purple kool aid and not getting enough oxygen to the brain.
Aren’t these the same lawmakers who wail and gnash their teeth at Federal mandatory minimums and sentencing guidelines, that don’t give judges “discretion”?
What’s next, three years minimum for the person with a CCL who carries into a posted no guns business? Oh, wait, let’s give them 5 years minimum, because they should have known better.
[ok, switching off the sarcasm setting now]
Wait, here’s an idea. How about mandatory minimums for people carrying a gun during the commision of a felony!!! Yes a felony, otherwise you’d get three years for carrying a gun in the car while speeding.
when you play by their rules …you and yours lose……criminal politicians need to be in jail….
Down state Illinois, if you want this crap to stop, then you need to stop voting for democrats.
I’m with Biff on this one. You can fix this law by adding four words “while committing a felony”. I would even support it then.
Keep in mind that it was just a few years ago that Kirk Dillard supported a similar bill that made a three year sentence mandatory for possession without a FOID. It is NOW LAW. He claims to be a Republican and he wants to be Governor and some of the brass at Illinois Carry support(ed) him.
http://www.infowars.com/illinois-senator-wants-to-imprison-gun-owners/
Illinois Senator Wants to Imprison Gun Owners
May 5, 2010
The Illinois General Assembly has passed HB 5832 a Bill that makes carrying a firearm in Illinois without a valid FOID card a mandatory 1-3 years in prison.
The new law was sponsored in the Illinois Senate by Kirk Dillard, who was recently endorsed by the ISRA for Governor on the republican ticket.
HB5832 sounds like a strong tool to fight crime….
while its bad legislation from bad legislators, its also going nowhere because the entire Dem black caucus knows that it will be 99.8% black and hispanic teens or young adults catching 3 year minimums.
They wont go for it, despite the fact that warehousing these guys is the only way you are going to actually control englewood or auburn gresham without World War Z grade martial law.
Nope, the minimum only applies if charges are filed. Possession charges are dropped or not made in the first place in those neighborhoods. Don’t mean a thing. Just another one to plea-bargain away so that probation is an appropriate sentence.
Kirk Dillard got his passed three years ago and is now law. The only difference this time is that the NRA is opposing it this time. Has anyone asked Senator Dillard if he is going to associate himself with this one too?
Exactly on point.
Dave Workman is reporting the NRA is in negotiations with Rahm to pass this Bill. Dave is also reporting the ISRA has also been asked to join the negotiations.
I have been told the ISRA declined.