PA Bill Number: HB335
Title: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons.
Description: In inchoate crimes, further providing for prohibited offensive weapons. ...
Last Action: Removed from table
Last Action Date: May 1, 2024
With gun possession comes great responsibility :: 12/26/2015
In endorsing a concealed carry law with stipulations for Illinois in 2013 — Illinois was the last state holdout, the judicial writing was on the wall, by and large we had not seen the O.K. Corral erupt elsewhere — our hesitation was that person with a hair-trigger temperament within immediate reach of an actual trigger.
Reportedly something akin to that situation happened in a local commercial parking lot recently when 65-year-old David P. Dwyer of Peoria allegedly became upset with a woman who was waiting for a parking space to open up at Westlake Shopping Center. When she and then her boyfriend emerged from their vehicle to ask Dwyer, by then behind the wheel of his own car, what the problem was, she says he swore at her, pulled out a handgun and visibly displayed it — without pointing it at her directly — before driving off. Police were called, his license plate number was shared, and Dwyer was later arrested at his home on a preliminary aggravated assault charge, a misdemeanor. His revolver was confiscated by law enforcement and the state's attorney is reviewing the matter, with the flexibility to pursue another charge or none at all. Dwyer is legally licensed to carry.
We can't say for certain what happened because we weren't there. If there is video footage of the altercation from any of the surrounding stores, that might be helpful to the prosecutor's office. If a formal charge is forthcoming, Dwyer will have an opportunity to tell his side of the story.
In any case, the Journal Star story on the incident became one of the online talkers of last week, with various people including the alleged victim weighing in. A not-uncommon sentiment came from the commenter who wrote, "I hate the shadow that this incident casts on conscientious concealed carriers."
Generally we have been satisfied with the requirements of the Illinois law — multiple background checks, a 16-hour training course. There is a process for revocation (see 430 ILCS 66/70). "At minimum there must be pending prosecution," while in other cases "a conviction is required," said an Illinois State Police spokesman.
As of Monday 142,274 concealed carry licenses had been granted in Illinois — in an adult population of some 9 million, give or take — with another 334 permits that have been pulled for various reasons. On the one hand, that could represent 334 potentially regrettable situations in the less than two years that concealed carry has been legally permissible in Illinois. On the other, it's a revocation rate of less than three-tenths of 1 percent. People with strong opinions on this issue likely will choose the perspective that best fits their previously held view.
We'd just say that this is a reminder that with gun possession comes great responsibility, and that if any such weapon comes out in public, there had better be a strong and defensible justification for it. What has been described here — again, if it's accurate — would not qualify. That a Second Amendment and a carry law exist does not mean that everyone is entitled to legally have and carry a firearm.
