Illinois Concealed Carry Gun Ban Overturned

A panel of federal appeals court judges in Chicago stuck down the statewide ban concealed carry ban in Illinois. The ruling comes at a time when Americans on both sides of the gun control issues are discussing how best to prevent another mass shooting from ever taking place.

Some consider the Illinois concealed carry decision at odds with made by other federal courts on similar cases since the Supreme Court’s ruling that Americans have the right to carry a gun for self-defense purposes, according to the Huffington Post. State lawmakers now have six months to craft concealed carry regulations, ABC News reports.

7th US Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Richard Posner had this to say about the Illinois gun ban ruling:

“A Chicagoan is a good deal more likely to be attacked on a sidewalk in a rough neighborhood than in his apartment on the 35th floor of the Park Tower.”

As previously noted by The Inquisitr, Chicago has one of the most violent crime rates in the United States. The gun ban ruling in Chicago pushes the issue of whether or not a well-armed populace thwarts or enhances crime. The Illinois concealed carry case may not make it possible for citizens to get a license to carry a gun to better protect themselves in public places.

Approximately 40 states allow residents to pack a gun in public. State and local regulations in both New York and California make it extremely difficult if not almost impossible to get licensed to carry a gun.

NRA Chief Executive Wayne LaPierre had this to say about the need to carry a gun for self-defense:

“Clearly, the individual right under the Constitution does not apply only to your home. People have lives outside their home and the constitutional right applies outside their home. The only thing to stop a bd guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

In the District of Columbia verses Heller in 2008, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to end Washington’s ban on handgun ownership. The ruling largely focused on residents’ rights to use a gun to protect their home and left the debate for using a gun in other circumstances to be battled on another day.

Heller case attorney Alan Gura had this to say about the right to own a gun:

“In some of our most populated states, the right does not exist either because it’s completely forbidden or practically forbidden.”