Here’s the story:
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A federal judge has rejected a push by gun rights advocates to let Illinois residents immediately tote firearms in public instead of waiting months for the state to outline the permitting process under its new concealed carry law.
U.S. District Judge William Stiehl on Friday threw out the lawsuit filed in East St. Louis by Mary Shepard and the Illinois State Rifle Association, siding with Illinois in ruling the suit moot.
Under the last-in-the-nation concealed carry law, passed by the General Assembly July 9 against Gov. Pat Quinn’s vehement objections, Illinois State Police have 180 days to set up a program before accepting applications, plus an additional 90 days to process the forms.
Meanwhile, the Illinois State Police “intends” to make applications available on January 5th. From the ISP website:
The ISP will make applications available to the public by January 5, 2014. The ISP intends to have applications available via the ISP webpage.
How kind of them, right?
The bureaucrats at the Illinois State Police are firmly in charge.
Note there is no provision in the law to penalize the State Police for failing to meet the deadlines put forth in the law, just as there are no consequences for failing to provide FOID cards in the state law mandated 30 days.
Translation: It’s time to put in a call to Alan Gura.
It’s time to demand Open Carry as a right, no matter how many shenanigans the State of Illinois plays with the privilege of concealed carry.
Illinois’ ban on carrying weapons has been declared unconstitutional. HR183 replaces that and sets standards to get a permit to carry. Does HR183 expressly forbid carry without a permit?
How many people will they hire without thumbs to work in this Twight zone to process the “forms”.