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| Some of these legislators can't comprehend split (by county) communities. |
The
ones that literally are split down the middle by the county line.
IT’S
TRUE. THERE are municipalities that either are Cook County-based, but have
newer residential developments that spill over the county line, or are based at
the edge of the surrounding counties and have portions that cross over into the
Land of Cook!
The
NRA-type argue that the potential for chaos is too great – because an
individual’s ability to get a permit allowing them to carry a pistol on their
person for self-defense (allegedly, although I think it’s more about
ego-stroking than anything else) depends on what part of town they live in.
And
what happens if, in the course of daily business, a person happens to cross
over the county line while remaining in their home town. Is their permit
suddenly not legitimate because they happened to come to the attention of
police while in the Cook County portion of town?
Theoretically,
I suppose it is possible for this kind of chaos to occur. There might well be
police officers who will dread the idea of having to pay attention to exactly
where an incident occurred. God forbid if it happens that an incident happens
RIGHT AT the county line (which usually is a street so innocuous that one doesn’t
realize right away that they’re no longer in the civilized land of Cook County
and have ventured into one of those bumpkin counties that surround us.
YES,
I AM being sarcastic by phrasing it that way. There really isn’t any
significant difference between the Cook County portions and the collar county
portions of any municipality that happens to be split in such a way.
If
anything, the split is a part of the unique character of those communities.
Local officials are used to having to deal with different jurisdictions – particularly
when it comes to the police having to figure out which state’s attorney’s
office to contact and whether they’re dealing with the Medical Examiner’s
office on the West Side or one of those coroners in the outer ring of cities at
the edge of the Chicago area.
Which
means I have faith in the ability of the local police to figure out for
themselves how to handle the dichotomy that would occur should it turn out that
any “concealed carry” measure winds up exempting Cook County as a political
compromise that lets the rural communities of Southern Illinois have their
pistol-packin’ mamas while leaving the portion that accounts for nearly half
the population of Illinois to decide for itself what sensible restrictions
ought to be in place for firearms possession.
The
simple fact is that we have many laws in Illinois that are passed with
exemptions for any community with 3 million or more people (which means Chicago
is exempted) or 5 million or more if the intent is to exempt all of Cook. There
even are laws written explicitly for Chicago and Cook County.
HONESTLY,
I BELIEVE the fight by the firearms advocates over this issue is that they view
it as a way of forcing the rural mindset onto the urban area that accounts for
so much of Illinois’ population. An exemption totally undermines that effort!
Which
is why the NRA types earlier this year talked of deliberately opposing any
Chicago-oriented bills as payback for opposition to “concealed carry” and are
now saying they would kill off any bill on the issue that tries to exempt Cook
County.
Who
knows? They might well find out that those communities that are split between
the counties will try to push for local measures that would unify the municipality
– most likely in favor of firearms restrictions for the whole community!
Gee,
the idea of people realizing that a pistol in the hands of a panicking person
who thinks their personal safety is at risk might be just as dangerous as all the
“criminals” they want to fear! That probably hurts their ego more than anything
else.
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