The U.S. Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals today ruled that Illinois' law preventing ordinary citizens from carrying concealed weapons is unconstitutional. Gee, does that mean that ordinary folks will have the same right to carry a concealed handgun as state Sen. Donne Trotter (D-Chicago), who was pinched when he was caught trying to board a plane with a hidden handgun? That we won't have to get a security company to do us a favor by calling us an employee so he could get a license to tote the gun? There will be a lot of reaction from this ruling, most of it expected: Second Amendment advocates will hail it and liberal gun control advocates will denounce it. Except for this, reaction, which stood out in the Tribune story:
Ald. Howard Brookins, 21st, chairman of the City Council black caucus, welcomed the decision, saying allowing Chicagoans to carry concealed weapons would help level the playing field in neighborhoods where law-abiding citizens feel like they need firearms to protect themselves."Certain people will have a sense of safety and peace of mind in the ability to do it," Brookins said of conceal-carry. "I know that even people, for example, just trying to see that their loved ones get homes safely are in technical violation of all sorts of weapons violations. If you just walk out to your garage and see that your wife is coming in the house safely, and you happen to have your gun on you, you're in technical violation of our ordinance. So I would hope all these ordinances would be consolidated so there's one set of rules and people would know where the bright line is to what they can and cannot do with respect to carrying a weapon."
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