The Shylocks in Springfield are up to their old tricks.

From NRA-ILA:

House Bill 2265, sponsored by state Representative Michael Zalewski (D-23), is poised to create and impose harsh mandatory minimum felony penalties ranging from three to ten years in prison for those who carry a firearm without a Concealed Carry License (CCL) or possess a firearm without a Firearm Owners Identification Card (FOID).  This specific provision incorrectly targets otherwise law-abiding citizens, rather than deterring violent criminals with harsher penalties.

In the Illinois Supreme Court’s recent opinion in People v. Aguilar, the court unanimously held that the state’s “comprehensive ban” on the “use of an operable firearm for self-defense outside the home” is invalid under the Second Amendment, reaffirming that it is a fundamental right for an individual to possess a firearm for self-defense.  However, state law requires that individuals obtain a CCL, which will be available after January 1, 2014, in order to exercise this right.

They aren’t targeting habitual criminals toting guns in Chicago running around killing, robbing and raping innocent people.  If they were, they could transfer them to the federal system for an automatic, no parole 5-years at the federal level.

Thugs like the two who shot up the park wounding a dozen a couple of weeks ago – if they had prosecuted them under this provision, they wouldn’t have been prowling the streets to shoot those folks.

Here’s our position on the matter…  a sneak peak at November’s editorial in GunNews.

Mandatory minimums:  Trying the same old, failed policies, hoping for a different result

by John Boch
(GunsSaveLife.com) – Some anti-gun lawmakers are touting a new proposal to increase the mandatory minimum prison sentences for anyone arrested with a gun.

Rep. Mike Zalewski’s proposed legislation establishes a mandatory three-year term for anyone without a criminal past carrying a loaded gun, and still longer terms for felons and criminals.

The Illinois Department of Corrections is warning this will result in up to 4,000 new inmates and $700 million dollars to house them, including the need to construct at least one new prison.

We’ve got an idea:  Instead of making the illegal “illegaler”, let’s let the card-carrying good guys in Illinois carry guns sooner.  It has worked very successfully in the other states in the Union that have approved it, lowering homicides, sexual assaults and aggravated batteries.

How does it work?

Well, the smarter bad guys learn to restrain their violent, predatory urges, something their mothers, neighborhoods, schools, community and the entertainment industries have failed to teach them.

The not-so-smart bad guys?  They assume room temperature after springing leaks, saving taxpayers millions to incarcerate them.

It’s a win-win for the state both near- and long-term, helping this state solve some of its pervasive budget woes.

Innocent good people – people like Edward Hambrick, a man with a FOID card and a South Dakota carry permit in his wallet, who was carrying a pistol for personal defense in Chicago – should not be spending three years in Illinois prison for carrying a gun, particularly after the 9-0 Aguilar decision from the Illinois Supreme Court.

Should people like Scotty Pippen, caught carrying a loaded pistol for personal defense in Chicago, be sentenced to three years?  The answer is not only ‘no’, but Hell No!

We can all agree that habitual criminals carrying guns should already be in prison from their previous convictions.  We can agree that increasing mandatory minimums for asocial scumbags is a good thing.

We offered this very proposal earlier this year, but were rebuffed by people like Zalewski.  People of his ilk want the power to put productive, law-abiding people like Edward Hambrick, Scotty Pippen and Donnie Trotter in prison, for three years minimum, for what should be a petty offense after the Aguilar decision recognizing Illinoisans’ right to carry a gun outside the four-corners of their home.

Let’s not wreck the life of the 17-year-old carrying a gun to defend himself against gang members or the 32-year-old mom of three from Missouri with a carry permit and a gun in her purse.  These people aren’t the ones killing innocent people in Chicago.

They are, however, the people who will get caught up in a draconian mandatory minimum law.