* From a press release…
Demonstrators Wear Targets to Show What Illinois Will be Like Under Concealed Carry
Advocates for safe streets plead, “Lisa Madigan, Don’t Let Us Be Targets”
WHO: Rev. Wendy Ann Witt, Associate Pastor, Chicago Temple; Garrett Evans, student shot at Virginia Tech University; David Borris, Chicago Area Peace Action; Ellen Chiocca, Moms Demand Action; Lee Goodman, Stop Concealed Carry Coalition; and other community leaders
WHAT: Demonstration to ask Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court the 7th Circuit Federal Court’s decision that threw out Illinois’ ban on carrying concealed weapons in public
WHERE: James Thompson State of Illinois Building, 100 West Randolph, Chicago, IL (Street level, plaza entrance, inside)
WHEN: Thursday, March 21, 2013 at 11:00 am
CHICAGO (March 19, 2013) – Community leaders wearing National Rifle Association approved pistol targets will publicly call upon Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to comply with Governor Pat Quinn’s request that she appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court the 7th Circuit Federal Court’s decision that threw out Illinois’ ban on carrying concealed weapons in public.
Madigan has stated that she does not plan on appealing since the Illinois General Assembly may pass a new law authorizing people to carry concealed weapons. But once the legislature acts, the case becomes moot, and it will not be possible to appeal. “Madigan is acting like a lawyer who waits until after her client has been executed to appeal the sentence,” said Lee Goodman, organizer of the Stop Concealed Carry Coalition.
* The protest organizer Goodman was at a rally attended by Gov. Pat Quinn last weekend…
Lee Goodman, a Northbrook resident and a member of the Stop Concealed Carry Coalition, was heartened by the governor’s stance and his statement that Attorney General Lisa Madigan should appeal the decision of the circuit court.
“I believe that’s the first time he said the decision should be appealed,” Goodman said.
2014 has arrived.
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- liberty4all - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 9:08 am:
What these people fail to understand, is that if you are NOT allowed to defend yourself, then all you are IS A TARGET!
- Todd - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 9:10 am:
Please appeal it, pretty please.
We would love to watch New York, Maryland, New Jersey, California, Hawaii and a few others fall.
- titan - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 9:11 am:
Don’t they realize that they are precisely just those targets right now?
The people likely to shoot them are the criminals who are illegally carrying now. Haven’t they noticed all the kids getting shot lately?
- Kasich Walker, Jr. - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 9:13 am:
The “Don’t Frack Illlinois Rally” at JRT on Friday has a greater sense of urgency for me:
http://www.dontfractureillinois.net/dont-frack-il-emergency-rally-friday-march-22-in-chicago/
- bored now - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 9:19 am:
lol. i’m not safe if i don’t have a gun??? how did i ever survive into my 50s??? all that is is the politics of fear, and apparently there are enough people who aren’t capable of critical thought who buy into it…
- RNUG - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 9:24 am:
Puts Lisa between a rock and a hard place … or maybe it just reinforces the existing situation.
Does she want to potentially be known in gun control circles as the person who didn’t appeal and lost Illinois or the person who did appeal and lost the entire country?
- Skeeter - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 9:32 am:
Let me get this right — even though nothing has been passed, Illinois might just pass something, and that would make taking it up moot, so she’s not going to appeal?
Is she that short of staff? File the pleadings and if something is passed, it is dismissed. Big deal.
A poor move by Lisa.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 9:34 am:
liberty4all - As “Bored Now” has said, many of us are tired of the fear mongering. I am 66 years old, have never been threatened or known anyone who has been, and never owned a gun.
- John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 9:36 am:
See? The anti-freedom and the pro-freedom sides both want Lisa to appeal to SCOTUS.
What’s to lose?
- Skeeter - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 9:36 am:
By the way, I would like to thank the protestors for making all the people who are in favor of reasonable gun control look ridiculous.
If CC is passed, we are all targets? Sure, and then the sky will fall. And dogs will sleep with cats. It will be absolute mayhem. Just like in the 49 other states with CC.
“No matter what you do, don’t go into any other state, because you will just be a target!”
Yeah, that’s a winning strategy. Awesome way to appeal to the moderates!
Between the ILNRA poll showing gun owners to be paranoid, and this move by the anti-gun people, it seems like this is “Make Our Own Side Look Really Really Bad Week” for people concerned with guns.
- hum - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 9:39 am:
I get that this is an emotional issue, but I need someone to explain to me why one of the arguments is that we need conceal and carry for protection. Is it that you’re truly afraid to walk down the street without a gun? I get this logic if you live in a gang-infested, high crime area. But most of the people making this argument don’t.
My fear is that it’s really a deep desire to be the superhero. It’s not that the person is afraid to walk down the street without a gun, it is that he/she wants to be the person who whips out a gun and stops a crime or an attack. Sure there are instances where a person saves the day when another opens fire or tried to commit a crime, but that person is usually a law enforcement officer or someone with extensive training. In a serious situation, the guy who shoots occassionally and is now packing because he thinks he needs it for protection is probably more dangerous than the actual criminal.
- Todd - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 9:43 am:
Between the ILNRA poll showing gun owners to be paranoid, and this move by the anti-gun people, it seems like this is “Make Our Own Side Look Really Really Bad Week” for people concerned with guns.
Sketter– that was ISRA they are their own group. They are affiliated with NRA, but NOT controlled by them. As an FYI
- How Ironic - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 9:47 am:
@hum
There are lots of legitimate reasons for carrying a firearm. A woman that is being harrased by a violent ex husband/boyfriend may very well live in an upscale area.
If you have been the target of muggings/robberies before, you may feel more secure with a weapon.
Secondly, you are sadly mistaken with your ’superhero’ analogy. Please look at the other 49 states, and give us an example where that’s happened. It doesn’t.
In training classes, you are specifically TOLD not to intervene in sitatuions that don’t directly involve yourself. The weapon is a defensive measure to be used if and only if all other options (including retreat) have been exhausted.
Running around playing superhero is the last thing a CC is going to do.
- Mason born - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 9:49 am:
I wonder if the real hard point for LM is the whole outside money thing. Rich had a story last week or the week before about how Lisa had traveled to New York looking for support. I think in my humble opinion that she was informed she would not be appealing by Bloomberg and his associates. To me she loses nothing here in IL if she appeals Quinn is as Anti-gun as she is so he certainly won’t run to the right of her on that. However if Bloomberg decides to throw his cash behind Quinn the money might bite her in the butt. Bloomberg has a lot to lose if she appeals this case. This is the best case the NRA has to have carry ruled a part of the 2nd amendment and protected by the constitution. (as witnessed by Todd salivating at the thought) If she loses then so does NY state, California and all the may issue states. More importantly so does Bloomberg and the NYC law as well as Boston and most of the East coast cities who have ordinances imposing more restrictive requirements for that municipality.
- Skeeter - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 9:51 am:
Todd,
Thanks for the correction. I don’t want to blame you for the work of another group.
- walkinfool - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 9:52 am:
Skeeter: You got it right.
Advocates on both sides are cultivating fear, and ignoring sensible opportunities. I just don’t believe they represent the majority of their supporters in the public at large.
- Chavez-respecting Obamist - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 9:53 am:
I’m not afraid and I’ve never owned a gun, nor will I ever own a gun. And I’m sick of ‘patriots’ and ‘liberty4all’ types trying to scare me.
I do think IL should have a sane conceal-carry law. I don’t see mayhem in the states that allow it.
- Fan - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 9:55 am:
Wearing a target might be a good idea in Chicago. Many times it has been proven, that when non-FOID shooters shoot, they don’t hit their target.
- RonOglesby - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 9:57 am:
@hum
I carry because I travel. I leave Illinis and drive through indiana, michigan, even wisconsin and sometimes all the way to texas.
Illinois travel sometimes I drive to St Louis for work, etc.
I have a emergency kit in my truck, Little food, water, radio, fire extinguisher, first aid kit, spare batteries, tools, blanket, etc. A pistol is just there “in case” like any of these other items.
as skeeter points out, these people are the other end of the spectrum on the anti-gun side. If they really think they are target I assume these people never leave the state as every surrounding state to Illinois has CCW. This is not a good strategy on thier part.
- Anonymous - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 10:04 am:
“Madigan is acting like a lawyer who waits until after her client has been executed to appeal the sentence,”
Oh, please…I don’t know which group is more paranoid, these people or the ISRA followers.
- Bemused - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 10:20 am:
To the point. I would agree, this is not the time to go before the SCOTUS with this issue. Change out a couple of the members of the court and then maybe.
- shore - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 10:22 am:
goodman is a left leaning version of that guy william kelly/jay levine’s favorite politician you posted about yesterday and comes from the mean streets of Northbrook, Illinois where the only things killed every year are deer by the suvs purchased for young drivers with their wealthy parents money. He ran for congress in 2004 and leads protests that usually draw local police and walk the very very fine line between aggressive demonstrations and stuff that harms people and gets his people arrested.
- FormerParatrooper - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 10:44 am:
Why aren’t the protesters not protesting in the neighborhoods where criminals are causing harm? Instead they are protesting against the people that will not be contributing to the violence. Prioritizeing does not seem to be their best attribute.
- 47th Ward - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 10:48 am:
The kooks on the anti-gun side are as goofy as the kooks on the pro-gun side. Lots of irrational fear on opposite sides of the issue.
It’s getting lonely here in the middle.
- wordslinger - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 10:50 am:
An appeal sounds like a win-win. The NRA wants. The groups against conceal-carry want it. Make everybody happy and appeal.
- RonOglesby - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 10:51 am:
@FormerParatrooper
they have no influence on that group of people causing issues today. So what good would it do. They know this. Its “do something, anything, regardles”
- Mason born - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 10:52 am:
Word
I am pretty sure the folks putting the breaks on Lisa don’t have IL addresses. Remember she went to NYC not that long ago looking for Campaign Cash.
- FormerParatrooper - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 11:08 am:
@Ron
I forgot, the do something syndrome.
They must be a scared bunch, with all the people who do carry, the criminals, the police, the politicians… How do these people function?
- Gunz - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 12:07 pm:
Law enforcment 97% of the time are usually after a crime is committed.
I can’t see a gangbanger or anyone intending on doing harm even paying attention to these laws.
Its all basically shoving crap down the throats of law abiding citizens that own guns. I havent seen any evidence that any of these screwed up people that committed these godforsaken shootings were legal owners of any of these any weapons.
- Endangered Moderate Species - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 1:08 pm:
The gun debate seems to be helping the gun business. Gun raffles seem to be on the increase and I am hearing gun shop ads on the radio, which I don’t recall ever hearing before.
The hard cores on both sides of the debate are beginning to wear me down. I guess its an ailment that comes with being a moderate.
- Mason born - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 1:11 pm:
i am starting to wonder if Quinn won’t veto whatever passes just to keep this up. Get all high and mighty like he has with the Casino bill. Say it’s Lisa’s fault that guns can be carried and he won’t sign a bad bill no matter what. Some crap about how it is her fault for not fighting this.
- Really? - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 1:37 pm:
Seems like they got a whopping dozen protestors “WBBM Newsradio’s Mike Krauser reports a dozen activists ”
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/03/21/protesters-urge-madigan-to-take-concealed-carry-case-to-supreme-court/
Look out. its a movement!
- Demoralized - Thursday, Mar 21, 13 @ 2:12 pm:
I thought the AG’s office made it pretty clear why they weren’t appealing. The appeal wouldn’t be anywhere close to complete when the June deadline hits, and there are already other cases in the judicial system that could have an effect on Illinois.