Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton hammered five businesses or organizations that ban off-duty cops from carrying on their premises, in violation of Texas state law. Among these was the Texas State Fair. Kudos to AG Paxton for not only using common sense, but holding noncompliant feet to the fire.
Anyone who says that your vote doesn’t count or that voting is a waste of time clearly doesn’t understand that elections have consequences.
Stop for a moment and ponder if gun owners in Texas had stayed home and someone named Beto O’Rourke won the Texas AG race. Do you think for a moment that Betaboy Robert Francis O’Rourke would have gone after these venues?
Here in Illinois we have the polar opposite from Ken Paxton. A whole lot of pro-gun folks stayed home in the last election.
Instead of electing renowned civil rights attorney Tom DeVore as our AG, we got Kwame the Clown.
Recently, Kwame Raoul’s office released an “informal” opinion that retired and off-duty police officers who carry firearms on school property are committing a Class 3 felony. In the “informal” opinion of Raoul, only on-duty police and armed security officers of said school have an exemption to the felony charge on school property.
What sparked this request for this opinion?
A state cop carried while off-duty at his daughter’s high school softball game. While coaching there, his gun became momentarily exposed and some Suzy Soccermom or her husband Chad became upset. A complaint was filed.
The brass at headquarters reacted by taking the state cop off the streets and putting him on a desk for months while they debated about firing him and filing a criminal complaint with the local prosecutor. Probably the state cop’s saving grace was a local prosecutor who looked at the report and said, “Are you kidding me?”
So the state cop was returned to duty with a stern warning that he would (likely) be terminated and potentially prosecuted if he dared pack his gun while off-duty at his kid’s school – or any other one – again.
The Republican leader of the Illinois House asked for an opinion relating to off-duty and retired officer carry in schools.
You can see here what she got back. It isn’t pretty.
In layman’s terms, the Land of Lincoln’s criminal-friendly (and cop hating) AG is putting retired cops at risk of arrest and a felony conviction that carries a sentence of 5-10 years in prison and a fine of up to $25,000 should they carry on school property.
Accordingly, in the absence of a statutory amendment otherwise providing, a qualified retired law enforcement officer may not carry a concealed firearm in a school or on the real property of a school without potentially violating subsection 24-1 ( c )( 1. 5) of the Criminal Code.
What’s more, the informal opinion lumps in “qualified law enforcement” with the retired officers at least twice. Plenty of lawyers are reading the opinion and believe that it suggests that anyone not “on duty” law enforcement or armed security for the school in question gets treated the same as retired cops.
For example:
Lastly, subsection 24-1 ( a-6) of the Criminal Code provides that subsection 24- 1 ( a)( 4) does not apply to or affect a “qualified current or retired law enforcement officer” qualified under LEOSA. It may be argued that because subsection 24-l(c)(l.5) is defined as a violation of subsection 24-1 (a)( 4) in a school or on the real property of a school, the language of subsection 24-2(a-6) also exempts qualified retired law enforcement officers from subsection 24- l(c)(l .5). However, Illinois courts have held that each “specific location” provision set out in subsection 24-1 ( c )(1.5) is a separate offense from the general offense established by subsection 24-l(a)(4). Chairez, 2018 IL 121417, 118 (because subsection 24-l(c)(l.5) is separate from the sentencing provision set out in subsection 24-1 (b ), “we presume that the General Assembly intended that, if proven at trial, the specific locations enumerated in [sub]section 24-l(c)(l.5) are to be separate offenses that carry their own enhanced sentences different from the prescribed sentences in [sub]section 24-l(b)”); Cunningham, 2019 IL App (1st) 160709, 113 (“our supreme court [in Chairez] recently held that the ‘specific places’ provision of the UUW [ unlawful use of a weapon] statute ( section 24-1 ( c )( 1. 5)) creates separate offenses from the unconstitutional blanket prohibition on the possession of firearms outside the home for selfdefense stated in section 24-l(a)(4)”); Green, 2018 IL App (1st) 143874, 114 (discussing Chairez and concluding that “the offense of ‘UUW within 1000 feet of a school’ is distinct from the offense of UUW, which the Seventh Circuit found unconstitutional in Moore”). 12
Nothing says “pro-police” like holding out the potential for felony charges for off-duty cops carrying their self-defense pieces, right?
Here’s the conclusion:
For the foregoing reasons, qualified retired law enforcement officers qualified under the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act of 2004 who are qualified under the Illinois Retired Officer Concealed Carry program are not permitted to carry a concealed firearm in a school or on property belonging to a school. In the absence of a statutory amendment otherwise providing, a qualified retired law enforcement officer under LEOSA who carries a concealed firearm in a school or on the real property of a school potentially violates subsection 24-1 ( c )(1.5) of the Criminal Code of 2012.
In a state where the biggest city has the most federal corruption convictions several years running, and where you can’t swing a cat in the Illinois General Assembly buildings or Chicago City Hall without hitting at least a couple of corruption scandals, Kwame Raoul – aka Sgt. Schultz when it comes to real crime – can’t find any corruption.
But if a cop carries off-duty at his daughter’s softball game, look out!
So when it comes time to vote, VOTE.
Elections have consequences. And if you don’t vote, you might get a Soros-loving state attorney general like Kwame the Clown to help make your state more dangerous for the good guys, including you.
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