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| -Land of the Free |
| Ill. Supreme Court strikes down part of gun law |
| 2013-09-16 |
| [reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown ... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,... Tribune] Cook County prosecutors will drop weapons charges pending against a small number of licensed firearms owners after the Illinois Supreme Court ruled this week that part of a state gun law is unconstitutional. The Illinois Supreme Court ruled Thursday that state prosecutors must follow a ruling from a federal appeals court last year that ended Illinois' status as the last state without a concealed carry law. The ruling from the state's highest court affects only a portion of a law prohibiting people from carrying guns outside their homes. Cases of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon brought against people who have valid FOID cards and were carrying firearms will not be pursued, prosecutors and defense attorneys said. Convicted felons or those charged under other parts of the statute are unaffected. "It's going to be a very, very small percentage of those charged," said Fabio Valentini, who heads the Cook County state's attorney's office's criminal prosecutions bureau. The office does not plan to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, according to a spokeswoman. Prosecutors and other observers said the ruling does not give gun owners a green light to carry concealed guns now. Under a deadline from the federal appeals court, Illinois amended its gun laws -- including its statute on aggravated unlawful use of a weapon -- in July to permit concealed carry. This new law was specifically exempted in the high court's ruling. Illinois State Police have until next year to begin issuing permits. While a federal lawsuit brought by the Illinois State Rifle Association seeking to speed up that timetable is scheduled for oral arguments next month, the new law remains in effect. "Given that no such permits have been issued, it would not be prudent for citizens to carry loaded firearms in public, whether they possess a valid FOID card or not," state's attorney spokeswoman Sally Daly said in an email. State rifle association Executive Director Richard Pearson agreed, saying that although a licensed gun owner may eventually prevail in court, he or she could still be tossed in the slammer Please don't kill me! and charged as the law now stands. He was pleased with Thursday's ruling, saying "it certainly helps clarify the law and the shortcomings." Darrell Miller, a professor at Duke University law school, said the opinion also makes clear the court supports "some sort of regulation" regarding carrying firearms. The case before the Supreme Court involved the 2008 arrest of Alberto Aguilar, then 17, who was spotted with a gun by Chicago police among a group of teens screaming and throwing bottles at passing cars in the Little Village neighborhood. He was convicted at a bench trial of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and sentenced to two years of probation. Though the Supreme Court set aside Aguilar's unlawful use of a weapon charge, it upheld his unlawful possession of a firearm conviction, finding that the state does have the right to restrict the possession of guns by minors. David Holland, Aguilar's attorney in the appeal, said the Supreme Court's ruling will affect gun cases now in the appeals courts and open the doors for anyone convicted under that law to have their record cleared. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #2 Fabio Valentini, who heads the Cook County state's attorney's office's criminal prosecutions bureau What do you do when there's family on both sides? |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2013-09-16 12:00 |
| #1 ended Illinois' status as the last state without a concealed carry law Does this hint that states have been moving toward concealed carry and IL was the last to wake up? Maybe it was OK to carry your weapon on your hip? |
| Posted by: Bobby 2013-09-16 05:58 |