JTHunter
08-09-2011, 10:31 PM
Got this in an email from the NRA tonight. It's a little focused on Illinois but, as we are the last "hold-out", some of you might be interested.
Illinois – Statewide
Capping a quarter-century of legislative victories on the right to carry firearms outside the home, Wisconsin enacted one of the nation’s strongest “shall issue” concealed carry permit laws in July. This left Illinois as the only state with a total ban on carrying firearms for personal protection away from one’s home or place of business. To change that, NRA-ILA is continuing to promote Right-to-Carry legislation at the state capitol. But we’re also challenging in court.
The case is Shepard v. Madigan, currently pending in the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. The lead plaintiff is church treasurer Mary Shepard, who, along with an elderly co-worker, was severely beaten at her workplace by an attacker with a criminal record. Ironically, Mrs. Shepard has carry permits issued by two other states, but was left unarmed and defenseless by Illinois ’ law. Her challenge -- in which the Illinois State Rifle Association, NRA’s state affiliate, also joins as a plaintiff -- contends that Illinois’ carry ban cannot stand in light of the Heller and McDonald decisions.
After the case was filed, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit decided Ezell v. City of Chicago (see discussion on Chicago litigation, below). Among the important points in that decision was the court’s ruling that “broadly prohibitory laws restricting the core Second Amendment right … are categorically unconstitutional.” Based on that ruling, Mrs. Shepard’s attorneys have now asked for an immediate preliminary injunction against enforcement of Illinois ’ carry ban.
Illinois - Chicago
Politicians have taken the same approach in Chicago, where just four days after the McDonald decision, then-Mayor Richard Daley got a unanimous City Council to vote for a new law that (among other things) prohibits possession of a gun anywhere outside the living space of a home (even on a porch or in a garage). Chicago also banned all gun stores and gun transfers (except by inheritance) in the city. The city also required mandatory training in order to get a permit, including at least one hour of live fire -- while also banning shooting ranges within the city limits.
Four days after the council vote, NRA-ILA supported a group of Chicago residents challenging the worst provisions of the new law. Also joining the case of Benson v. City of Chicago is the Illinois Association of Firearms Retailers -- a state affiliate of the National Shooting Sports Foundation -- whose members would open gun stores and shooting ranges in Chicago if not for the new law.
Fortunately for Chicago residents, the shooting range ban was struck down on July 6 in Ezell -- a case limited only to the shooting range issue. In its opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that “The right to possess firearms for protection implies a corresponding right to acquire and maintain proficiency in their use,” and noted that “It's hard to imagine anyone suggesting that Chicago may prohibit the exercise of a free speech or religious-liberty right within its borders on the rationale that those rights may be freely enjoyed in the suburbs. That sort of argument should be no less unimaginable in the Second Amendment context.”
While Ezell was not NRA-ILA’s case, our more comprehensive challenge in Benson continues. Chicago ’s range prohibition was only one way in which the city is continuing to thumb its nose at the U.S. Supreme Court and the rights of law-abiding gun owners. As noted earlier, Chicago also bans gun possession not only outside the home, but in parts of the home such as garages, porches and front steps; bans nearly all firearm transfers and on the operation of gun stores; and restricts each Chicago license holder to keep only one “assembled and operable” firearm within the home. This case is in discovery through October, in which both sides have the opportunity to demand documents and take statements from opponents.
Illinois – Statewide
Capping a quarter-century of legislative victories on the right to carry firearms outside the home, Wisconsin enacted one of the nation’s strongest “shall issue” concealed carry permit laws in July. This left Illinois as the only state with a total ban on carrying firearms for personal protection away from one’s home or place of business. To change that, NRA-ILA is continuing to promote Right-to-Carry legislation at the state capitol. But we’re also challenging in court.
The case is Shepard v. Madigan, currently pending in the U. S. District Court for the Southern District of Illinois. The lead plaintiff is church treasurer Mary Shepard, who, along with an elderly co-worker, was severely beaten at her workplace by an attacker with a criminal record. Ironically, Mrs. Shepard has carry permits issued by two other states, but was left unarmed and defenseless by Illinois ’ law. Her challenge -- in which the Illinois State Rifle Association, NRA’s state affiliate, also joins as a plaintiff -- contends that Illinois’ carry ban cannot stand in light of the Heller and McDonald decisions.
After the case was filed, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit decided Ezell v. City of Chicago (see discussion on Chicago litigation, below). Among the important points in that decision was the court’s ruling that “broadly prohibitory laws restricting the core Second Amendment right … are categorically unconstitutional.” Based on that ruling, Mrs. Shepard’s attorneys have now asked for an immediate preliminary injunction against enforcement of Illinois ’ carry ban.
Illinois - Chicago
Politicians have taken the same approach in Chicago, where just four days after the McDonald decision, then-Mayor Richard Daley got a unanimous City Council to vote for a new law that (among other things) prohibits possession of a gun anywhere outside the living space of a home (even on a porch or in a garage). Chicago also banned all gun stores and gun transfers (except by inheritance) in the city. The city also required mandatory training in order to get a permit, including at least one hour of live fire -- while also banning shooting ranges within the city limits.
Four days after the council vote, NRA-ILA supported a group of Chicago residents challenging the worst provisions of the new law. Also joining the case of Benson v. City of Chicago is the Illinois Association of Firearms Retailers -- a state affiliate of the National Shooting Sports Foundation -- whose members would open gun stores and shooting ranges in Chicago if not for the new law.
Fortunately for Chicago residents, the shooting range ban was struck down on July 6 in Ezell -- a case limited only to the shooting range issue. In its opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit ruled that “The right to possess firearms for protection implies a corresponding right to acquire and maintain proficiency in their use,” and noted that “It's hard to imagine anyone suggesting that Chicago may prohibit the exercise of a free speech or religious-liberty right within its borders on the rationale that those rights may be freely enjoyed in the suburbs. That sort of argument should be no less unimaginable in the Second Amendment context.”
While Ezell was not NRA-ILA’s case, our more comprehensive challenge in Benson continues. Chicago ’s range prohibition was only one way in which the city is continuing to thumb its nose at the U.S. Supreme Court and the rights of law-abiding gun owners. As noted earlier, Chicago also bans gun possession not only outside the home, but in parts of the home such as garages, porches and front steps; bans nearly all firearm transfers and on the operation of gun stores; and restricts each Chicago license holder to keep only one “assembled and operable” firearm within the home. This case is in discovery through October, in which both sides have the opportunity to demand documents and take statements from opponents.