Even before Governor Pat Quinn (D) tried to use his “amendatory veto power” to weaken the concealed carry law soon to go into effect throughout Illinois, Mayor Rahm Emanuel had been working behind the scenes to make lawfully carrying a concealed weapon as difficult as possible in Chicago.
Breitbart News first reported on June 26 that Emanuel was trying to set up new gun free zones throughout Chicago. These zones consist of certain streets that school buses travel to get to schools and certain streets that children use to walk to school. The mayor wants them to become new areas which are off-limits for firearm and ammunition possession–even if the firearm in question is possessed by a law-abiding citizen with a concealed carry permit.
This means a parent with a concealed-carry permit who wants to walk their child home to keep him or her safe will be out of luck.
But of course, the criminals who are using firearms to wreak havoc throughout the city will still carry their guns on these “gun free” streets: as they do so, they will know their law-abiding, would-be victims are defenseless. And in time, as violence rises in these areas, gun control proponents will be able to claim that concealed carry failed in Chicago.
Moreover, the hassle of learning which streets concealed carry is legal and where it is not is certain to prove too burdensome for many–thereby reducing the number of Chicagoan residents who bother getting a concealed carry permit to begin with. In turn, this artificially reduced number of concealed carry permit holders will impact the effectiveness of concealed carry in Chicago–giving 2nd Amendment opponents something else to cheer about.
Emanuel has called a special council session on June 17 to push for these “gun free zones,” which he will refer to as “school safety zones.”
Follow AWR Hawkins on Twitter @AWRHawkins.
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