Conceal Carry in Illinois

Conceal Carry in Illinois

Because I shoot, this topic seems to always get brought up with friends; they all feel that I must have a strong opinion on the topic. I find that I rarely discuss this with friends I shoot with, not because we don’t have opinions, but for us, shooting is a sport, not a political volleyball that gets batted around. Being honest about it, I’m not sure that I had very strong opinion, in large part because concealed carry was not part of the scope in which I was considering owning a firearm.

I loosely followed the debates, and then earlier this year got more involved, because I felt that it was a fundamental right that was being denied to residents of Illinois. Every major credible crime statistic did nothing to prove to me that concealed carry would increase crime, or shootings. Then again, I don't think it will eliminate it either, in all honesty though, I don't think we'll see it's true impact until a few years down the road, and that's when I would expect the data to start to show a decrease. Go figure that Chicago has some of the most restrictive gun laws in the United States and there are more homicides by gun than anywhere else. By contrast, Houston is a similar city from a demographic standpoint, they have concealed carry laws, but the homicide rate is far lower. Do I believe that is because citizens have the ability to carry a firearm? Honestly? No, it may play a part of it, but it’s not the sole reason. People don’t want to go beyond numbers and look at why certain areas have crime, but if we examine those, I think we’ll see greater contributing factors.

When I go to a major match, I’m around 200 to 300 people, all with guns in holsters on their belts, and I feel absolutely safe. I know that the competitors are safe, and that the match staff is keeping them, and everyone else safe. I noticed it at my first match, it’s now unremarkable to me. Most gun owners responsibly own, their firearms. Competitors have to have a degree of gun safety to compete.  It’s a different environment, but it surprises people when I tell describe having 300 people with guns around me, and I don’t think a thing of it.

Let’s be honest, background checks fail, the Washington Naval Yard shooter? He legally owned the shotgun he had, despite having mental health issues. I happen to have heard that at least one Illinois resident who had applied to teach concealed carry was approved, and then had his credentials pulled; the word is that there was something in his history that should have flagged him. There will always be people who slip thru the cracks, who are going to own guns. No system is perfect. Am I saying don’t try? Absolutely not, but I’m also not naive enough to believe that criminals will stop owning and using guns, much less that they will suddenly respect the law.

Personally, I debated if I ever would, and it was not really until August of this year that I decided that eventually I would. I can’t have a firearm in my work vehicle, and I have no intention to bring one, I don’t expect I would carry a gun that much. I hope I never have an occasion to need a gun, but if I did, I’d rather have one than not. Ultimately it came to me deciding that I would do it, because I could. I want the choice. That does not mean I think I need to go armed everywhere, or that I will, but if I choose to, I can. I don’t know if it makes me safer, I do know it’s a responsibility above and beyond the basic 16 hour class I must take in IL. There are some pretty deep questions there, like “could I use this gun if I had to?”, and that answer had better be yes, otherwise you are probably better off not doing it at all. There is a moral, an ethical, and a personal level of questions and comfort to be considered. I still have not worked my way completely thru it, at least to my own satisfaction just yet. I want to take some specific classes, because most of what I have done is competition oriented.

Walther PPS

My wife is still on the fence, and she’s not ready to consider it yet, both for what she does, and on a personal level.  She makes some pretty good points, and it makes me realize that CCW is a personal choice. There are going to be people out there who carry irresponsibly, just like in other states, there will be people who will be conscientious, and there will be people who will choose not to. I will take the class, and leave myself the future option to carry, or not to carry. 

MISS Match tonight, video in tomorrow’s update.

Practice note, Dave is going all in, doing his drills strong hand, weak hand and so on. I’m not quite there yet, I’m going to drill down my par time until I can consistently hit 1.9 seconds, and then I’ll start adding some off-hand/strong hand to my drills, probably once a week, for 10 minutes each time. It’s a valuable skill, and there are stages and classifiers where you have to do those things. I need those skills too, but I'm just not quite ready to add those yet. Give me a week or so.