As always, your posts are appreciated simply because they are informative (not because they align with my own).
I pulled this from Wikipedia on 'Gun laws in Illinois':
"On July 9, 2013, Illinois became the last state in the country to allow the
concealed carry of firearms. Within 180 days of that date, the
state police will begin accepting permit applications. The police will grant permits to qualified applicants age 21 or older who pass a 16-hour training course. However, any law enforcement agency can object to an individual being granted a permit "based upon a reasonable suspicion that the applicant is a danger to himself or herself or others, or a threat to public safety". Objections will be considered by a Concealed Carry Licensing Review Board, which will decide whether or not the permit will be issued, based on "a preponderance of the evidence". Permits issued by other states will not be recognized.
Open carry will still be prohibited in most areas. Without a concealed carry permit, a firearm must be unloaded and enclosed in a case when it is being transported.
To legally possess firearms or ammunition, Illinois residents must have a
Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) card, issued by the state police. Non-residents who may legally possess firearms in their home state are exempt from this requirement. There is a waiting period to take possession after purchasing a firearm — 72 hours for a
handgun, or 24 hours for a
rifle or
shotgun. Private sales are allowed, and are subject to these same requirements. Possession of
automatic firearms,
short-barreled shotguns, or
silencers is prohibited. Possession of
short-barreled rifles is permitted only for those who have an
ATF Curios and Relics license or are a member of a military reenactment group.
Illinois has state preemption for only some areas of gun law, and some local governments have enacted ordinances that are more restrictive than those of the state."
^ Except for the ban on Open Carry, it looks like the state itself is sane. But this shooting, in which nobody was killed, happened in the city of Chicago between rival illegally armed street gangs. Guess what, rival street gangs will ALWAYS be illegally armed. The only people affected by the legislation are, of course, law abiding citizens who find themselves completely vulnerable when presented with illegally armed criminals!
In Los Angeles, a city with uber-strict gun control, Mexican cartels actually feed the street gangs semi-automatic and automatic rifles and handguns. Now this is ironic since Mexico has the strictest gun control laws on the American continent. The entire country of Mexico is basically a gun free zone (except for some hard to get permits for shotguns and .22 rifles for the wealthy). Yet the gangs are armed to the teeth through the cartels! They've even used explosives tossed under cars to blow them up. Totally crazy but law abiding citizens can just stand around and wave their cell phones at these tattooed street gangs members when they go into action (e.g. murder for hire, attacks on rivals, armed robbery, kidnapping for ransom, etc...). Of course we all know what Mexico's gun murder rate did after strict gun control legislation passed: it skyrocketed.
Last month, the Chicago City Council and the Cook County Board of Commissioners passed the strictest gun-safety laws in the state of Illinois. It's probably on it's way to the high court.
Is Chicago’s New Gun Law Legal?
The only people being hurt by all this gun control legislation are the good people being made defenseless.
Funny thing there Age, Chicago actually just allowed the legal carry of weapons. Overall murders are the lowest this year since the 1960's. A large shooting is, of course, going to get more attention than 12 single shootings, but the violence is actually down.
I'm not seeing the date the gun ban was lifted, in a quick Google search, but it was recently.
