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| The City Council will be Windier than usual on Wednesday. Photograph by Gregory Tejeda |
The
outcome is already known. These ordinances are the casualties of the Illinois government
effort earlier this year to bring the concept of “concealed carry” to the state
– a concept that goes contrary to what the city was trying to accomplish all
these years.
SO
THE ACTIONS to be taken by all the aldermen (and which were recommended Monday
by the council’s Public Safety Committee) on Wednesday will be to repeal much
of what has passed for local law in recent decades.
But
will we get a collection of aldermen who want to rant and rage and whine and
complain about the horrid act they are about to do – but will still do anyway
because, in a sense, it’s already done!
The
council will merely go along and create an ordinance that complies with state
law.
All
the rhetoric we’re going to hear on Wednesday is going to be a complete waste
of time – except to the political people who just enjoy hearing themselves
speak! Almost as if they think they’ll die if they don’t engage in endless
debate.
I
DO FIND it interesting to learn that the National Rifle Association has its
objections to what the City Council plans to pass. Because it seems the Chicago
response to having a “concealed carry” measure being rammed down our collective
throat is to ensure that the people who feel completely insecure if they can’t
have a pistol tucked in their waistband or in a shoulder holster under their
jacket don’t get any more use of their weapons in public than the state law
requires.
It
seems that NRA officials are determined to find ways in which the city
ordinance is not as lax as the state law that became official this summer
following Gov. Pat Quinn’s unsuccessful attempt to impose tougher restrictions
on firearms use.
So
we’re still going to get NRA “trash talk” about Chicago not fitting their
vision of what our society ought to be like – which probably says more about
their vision than it does our desires.
It
also was interesting to learn of the council’s actions last week that were
meant to ensure that Chicago’s legal attitude toward firearms was more
restrictive than the rest of Illinois.
THE
STATE LAW approved this year included provisions that require restaurants doing
at least half of their business in alcohol sales to post signs saying that
firearms are banned from the premises.
Even
for those people who manage to get the police-issued permits that say someone
can carry a pistol on their person.
The
idea is to keep firearms out of taverns – which makes a lot of sense. Although
the firearms advocates seem to feel so threatened about life that they even
want their pistols on them while becoming steadily intoxicated.
It
seems the council is trying to make sure that provision of state law gets
strictly enforced by working on a measure that says businesses that get lax
about enforcing such a ban WILL lose their liquor licenses!
NRA-TYPES
ACTUALLY HAVE their objections to strict enforcement of such a measure – trying
to claim that it results in circumvention of state law. “Two classes of
citizens” is what they claim is being created.
The
bottom line about all this is that everybody is going to be determined to spew
their rhetoric. Everybody is going to keep a hard line viewpoint on this issue.
Which
might be why it is ludicrous to think that we can ever have a single stance on
firearms within Illinois – a state that has quite the urban, suburban and rural
mixture of societal elements.
The
sooner we can realize we need to agree to disagree, so to speak, the better off
we all will be.
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