Concealed carry fires blanks in the Illinois Valley

[SecularMotion]

Two years ago Illinois became the last state in the union to allow citizens to carry a concealed firearm. Was the anticipated boon for the state a misfire?

“It hasn’t been the numbers the state was anticipating,” said Jay Irizarry, a firearms instructor in Bureau County. “As a matter of fact, Cook County outside of Chicago had the lowest per capita number of permits.”

La Salle, Bureau, and Putnam County residents haven’t been rushing to get their licenses, either.

“Everyone who wanted one already got it,” said John Atkins, an instructor at Down Range Tactical in Spring Valley. When the law first passed, he said they were giving six courses a week. “Now we can barely fill classes.”

http://newstrib.com/main.asp?SectionID=2&SubsectionID=27&ArticleID=46841

[GGJohn]

1. And the point is?

Doesn't surprise me about Cook County, sheriff Tom Dart has thrown every roadblock he can against those that do want a CHL, he doesn't believe citizens have the right to defend themselves outside of their homes.

[DonP]

2. $150 for a permit and 16 hours of training and range qualification slowed it down

$300 for out of state resident permit.

The training runs around $175 for the full 16 hour course, not counting range time or ammo to qualify.

They have made sure that poor people need not apply for a permit.

But some instructors are doing free/discounted classes in some neighborhoods. I've done 2 classes where I only charged for the materials and I know other instructors that are doing the same thing. The more people that have the choice to carry, the better.

As noted above Sheriff Tom Dart in Cook County is trying to block anyone who lives in a neigborhood he deems "unsafe". "Coincidentally" those neighborhoods are all people of color, funny that.

The last Illinois State Police count was 180,000 permits so far. And the new applications for a FOID card continue to rise at about 15 to 20,000 per month, indicating new gun owners that might be getting permits as well.

Not bad considering the obstacles they threw in the way.

[Eleanors38]

3. I remember getting alerted for describing Chicago's gun laws as...

...Jim (large, raucous black bird).

Variation on a down-south scheme

Doo-dah, Doo-dah.

[pablo_marmol]

4. Interesting how our pals on the restriction team are all for supporting POC

until the issue is support of their right to self-defense. Then they supply an erect middle digit.

Same with women. All about supporting women's rights until it comes to concealed carry -- then again.....the middle digit.

[DonP]

5. Blanks? Latest numbers from the Illinois State Police

As of last Friday October 16th, there are now 134,061 active CCL's.

(FWIW, LaSalle, Bureau and Putnam are rural farm counties with relatively small populations to begin with.)

As of the end of September 2015, there are 1,918,937 active FOID's, up over 200,000 from a little over 1.7 million same time last year.

But 200,000 new FOID cards in a year means 200,000 new first time gun owners? You don't go through the time, background check, pictures and expense hoops to get an FOID, unless you're serious about getting a gun

We have been assured, repeatedly and desperately by the "world's foremost authority on obscure and pointless surveys", that there are fewer gun owners everywhere. There HAVE to be fewer ... or the whole "guns are fading away" premise is full of shit.

Well, maybe Illinois, a deep blue state, is just an anomaly, right?

We may have almost a quarter million of new first time gun owners in a year, but all the other 49 states are going in the other direction. Yeah, that must be it.