Today, the Illinois Senate voted 41-17 to override Governor Quinn’s veto, and they become the last state in the Union to allow civilians to carry firearms. This was a long, hard road for them, but the political maneuvering leaves Illinois residents with a problematic law.
The ball really got rolling with a 7th Circuit opinion last year, in which it was found that the state’s total ban on carry was unconstitutional. Attorney General Madigan was left in a delicate position. She could appeal the case to the Supreme Court, in which case Illinois would have likely suffered its third loss on 2nd Amendment issues (McDonald and Ezell were the other two). She applied for a stay and it was granted, but Wednesday would have been the cutoff. Had the legislature not passed a law, there would have been no statewide regulation on the carry of firearms, and Illinois would be like Arizona, Alaska, and Vermont.
That simply wasn’t going to do, so the legislature scrambled to pass a bill regulating the practice. The bill passed both houses by a wide margin, and it looked like the votes were there to override a veto from Governor Quinn. His response was to use his amendatory veto power to add a few loathsome provisions to the bill, including a ban on carrying more than one gun and magazine at a time. Today’s Senate vote rejects those changes, and the HB 183 passes into law as written.
It’s not all sunshine and unicorn farts, however. Applicants are required to pursue 16 hours of training, which is the highest burden of any state. More problematic are the prohibitions on carrying in establishments that serve alcohol, and on public transportation. By prohibiting carry on public transportation, they’ve pretty much made the law a moot point for urban residents.
(Aldermen, of course, will still be afforded armed protection on the taxpayers’ dime.)