Monday, June 29, 2009

Guide to Chicago CCW for My Hoosier Friends

Tam, Caleb, and Uncle are all commenting on the sad case of Shrome George (someone might have made that name up as a joke, but I swear I didn't.) Shrome carried a 9mm pistol into the Taste of Chicago event last weekend (allegedly) and was arrested for his trouble because, you know, Chicago. Also Illinois.

Anyway, that led to a discussion of whether Shrome has a carry permit in Indiana, not that anybody seems to know the answer to that question. That led to a short discussion of Illinois carry laws (Executive Summary: DON'T.) and that led to Uncle summarizing the only method of acquiring a permit to carry a loaded firearm in Illinois, whether openly or concealed: "Run for office" is his advice.

See, Hoosiers, Illinois CCW laws aren't that complicated. Basically, if you want to carry a loaded firearm on your own time in Illinois, you need to be a "peace officer." You can either join a police force, or you can run for a position on a municipal council, because aldermen and mayors are considered "peace officers." Now, we're talking specifically about Chicago here, so a few specific qualifications are necessary.
How many of these apply to you?

I am the son/daughter/niece/nephew of a current or former Chicago Mayor or Alderman.

In exchange for city jobs and contracts, I can guarantee tens of millions of dollars in fees, donations, and campaign support for Mayor Daley.

I know several very embarassing secrets about the Daley/Mell/Burke family. Some involve bank account numbers.

If you meet these simple requirements, you too can get a CCW permit in Chicago! Good luck with that.


2 comments:

W.Richards said...

It's funny on how your 3 conditions listed, ring true in both Illinois and Chicago politics.

Don said...

Right, just not "ha ha" funny.

On Facebook, Sebastian from PGP commented that Maryland and Illinois have similar laws in many ways, with Illinois "even worse" in some. True. Having been involved primarily in concealed carry lately, I forget sometimes that there are places with much worse laws in other ways . . . . but not many. Off the top of my head, the only things I can think of are assault weapon bans, goofy bans like the hollow point ban in New Jersey, and waiting periods worse than ours (California comes to mind.)