By KATE CLEMENTS
Published Online February 11, 2001

SPRINGFIELD – Your neighbor, your mailman, your child's day care provider and even you may be able to carry a concealed handgun under a proposed state law.

State Rep. Joel Brunsvold, D-Milan and state Rep. Dan Reitz, D-Steeleville, introduced a bill in the House called the Family and Personal Protection Act.

It would legally allow citizens who obtain a permit to carry concealed firearms in Illinois.

"The police in Illinois do a wonderful job," Brunsvold said. "They do a fantastic job. But there are not enough of them, and there will never be enough of them. They just can't be every place at the same time. They can't protect everyone."

If the bill became law, Illinois would join 43 other states that have some form of concealed carry legislation, he said.

But there is plenty of opposition from law-enforcement groups and gun-control advocates, who say allowing people to carry concealed weapons will lead to more shootings and deaths.

"We're opposed to any concealed carry laws," said Limey Nargelenas, manager of governmental relations for the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police. "Our big concern, of course, is the proliferation of handguns out there. That is a situation that we believe would not be safe for our police officers."

The Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence is also fighting the measure.

"It's our position that arming everybody is just not the solution," said spokeswoman Kirsten Curley. "If someone has a gun on them, the opportunity to escalate a situation into deadly violence is exacerbated. The citizens in Illinois have time and time again made it known that they do not want concealed carry in Illinois."

Concealed carry bills have been introduced in the past, but have never made it out of the Illinois Legislature.

Area lawmakers said they are open to the idea of allowing certain citizens to carry concealed weapons, but said it would have to be done carefully.

State Rep. Bill Black, R-Danville has voted for concealed carry in the past and said he would be inclined to vote for it again, depending on how the law is written.

"I want to read it very carefully, I want to know what the training requirement will be, what the background check will be, where you will be prohibited from carrying – it is not something that I want just anybody and everybody to have the right to carry a concealed weapon."

State Rep. Rick Winkel, R-Champaign, said he has not seen the details of the bill yet, but is not opposed to the idea behind it.

"I have always supported the right of individuals to protect their families, and I think that they should be able to apply for a permit to carry a gun," Winkel said. "I think there needs to be training in place, and we need to make sure the guns as permitted never make it into the hands of convicted felons, or the mentally ill, or people who otherwise would be disqualified."

State Rep. Julie Curry, D-Mount Zion, said she would not take a position, since she hasn't read the bill, but said she has been "supportive of the issue as long as there are proper controls and procedures" put in place.

"Theoretically, a concealed carry program that would provide for the appropriate levels of investigation and technical training is certainly something that might help public safety here in Illinois," said state Rep. Tom Berns, R-Urbana.

Supporters of concealed carry laws say they make states safer because they deter crimes from taking place and allow people to protect themselves if they are in danger, but gun-control advocates disagree.

"There's little to no evidence that permit holders use their handguns to stop crimes, but there is plenty of evidence that they use them to commit crimes," said Kristen Rand of the Violence Policy Center in Washington, D.C. The center has done studies on other states like Texas and Florida which have concealed carry laws, she said.

"The myth that permit holders somehow prevent crime is just that – a myth," Rand said. "You're arming some dangerous people."

Brunsvold said his bill is designed to weed out any dangerous people.

"It's a very, very scrutinizing process to make sure that the individuals who would obtain a right to carry permit are honest, law-abiding citizens," Brunsvold said. "If you look around the states that do this, very few people ever get involved in this."

Marsha Slack, treasurer of the Champaign County Rifle Association is one woman who would go through that process, she said.

"Even if you are following every common sense procedure, you can get into a bad situation," Slack said. "This would give me a way to defend myself against that 6-3 man trying to rape me at the ATM machine. I would feel much more secure. Many times, the attacker does indeed have a gun, and it is not owned legally. I would own that gun legally."

Black said many women in his district told him that they carry handguns even though it is illegal because they fear for their safety.

"I think you would be shocked by the people who have come into my district office, many of them women, who already carry a firearm in their purse," he said.

Linda Menner of Sidney also said she would "absolutely" carry a concealed weapon if it were allowed.

"I have the right to protect myself in my home, but not off my property," Menner said. "Right now, there is not a vehicle where one can carry a valid means of self protection. I would like to have the right to choose to protect myself."

Some Illinois residents say they have found a way to legally carry their guns with them.

John Boch, vice chairman of the Champaign County Rifle Association, is one of a number of Illinois residents who carry a handgun in a special fanny pack.

He said the state's Safe Neighborhoods Act allows people with Firearm Owner Identification Cards to carry their weapons in public as long as they are in a case and unloaded.

All he would have to do to use the gun is unzip the fanny pack and snap in some ammunition.

However, once the person takes the gun out and loads it, he or she breaks the law, some state's attorneys and police chiefs have pointed out.

If the concealed carry law passes, those people who obtain permits would not even need a fanny pack, something Boch said is sure to happen eventually.

"I feel it's actually inevitable that Illinois will eventually have concealed carry," Boch said. "It's a right to choose to carry an extra measure of safety with you. It's time and then some for Illinois.

"The criminals are already carrying guns," he added. "They don't follow the laws anyway."

But law-enforcement groups hope to prevent any concealed carry measures from becoming law.

"There's too many guns out there in the streets now," said Ed Hoes, executive director of the Illinois Police Association, which opposes concealed carry.

"There would be just too much extra power out there, and people would not know how to handle themselves in various situations. People would be using them, I think, for the wrong reasons."

Attorney General Jim Ryan is also opposed in general to concealed carry laws, said his spokesman Dan Anders.

Here are some of the terms of the proposal that would allow Illinois residents to carry concealed weapons:

- Anyone over the age of 21 who has lived in Illinois for at least six months could apply for a permit to carry a concealed weapon.

- Applicants must pass a background check, a handgun use and marksmanship test, vow never to participate in a street gang and pay a $100 fee.

To pass the background check, the person must show that he or she has no history of drug or alcohol abuse or mental illness or mental instability. The person cannot ever have been sentenced to more than one year in prison or have been convicted of any violent misdemeanors. There cannot be any outstanding warrants for that person for such crimes.

- Permits would have to be renewed every three years.

- The applicant's local sheriff or police chief would be able to submit a written objection to a permit, detailing specific reasons. The Illinois State Police would have final say over which applications are approved.

- Those who are granted permits must keep a full set of fingerprints and a recent color photo on file with the Illinois State Police.

- Permits would allow holders to carry a hidden firearm almost anywhere in the state at any time, with a few exceptions, including bars, police stations, correctional institutions, courthouses, schools, airports, amusement parks, churches and stadiums, arenas and collegiate and professional sporting events.

- Permits would be yanked immediately if a court grants an order of protection against the permit holder.

The latest Burma-shave-like signs along interstate highways put up by a local gun owners group may have been a little off-target, according to 911 emergency dispatch officials.

Since 1998, signs in the style of the former shaving cream advertising have been used by the Burma Sign Committee of the Champaign County Rifle Association to promote the idea that people can protect themselves if they own guns.

One of their latest messages reads:

"Dialed 911
"And I'm on hold
"Sure wish I had
"That gun I sold."

The signs – posted along Interstate 72 east of Monticello, as well as on Interstate 74, Interstate 55, Interstate 57 and other highways in Central Illinois – raised concerns among 911 system officials.

Al Anderson, director of the Metropolitan Computer-Aided Dispatch service, which serves police, fire and ambulance services in Champaign County, except for the Rantoul area, said he hadn't received any complaints, but was concerned that the message could be misinterpreted.

"The signs doesn't portray the 911 centers in a very good light," Anderson said. "We don't put 911 calls on hold without an assessment of a situation.

"It would be very rare for anyone who called our 911 center to be put on hold," Anderson said. "It could happen, briefly, if we had a tornado or major ice storm and got inundated by calls. What we do, if our lines are all tied up, is to switch our incoming 911 calls to Rantoul."

Rantoul police also have a 911 emergency dispatch center for their police, fire and ambulance calls and the two centers are linked for backup contingencies.

Richard Gragert, Livingston County 911 coordinator, saw the signs with the 911 message last fall south of Pontiac on Interstate 55.

"I had great concerns that the phrase 'called 911 and I'm on hold' would portray the wrong message to people that would see it," Gragert said. "People would get the wrong idea that they would be put on hold."

His daughter saw the signs when going to visit him and immediately asked if she would be put on hold if she called 911, Gragert said.

He sent the local committee an e-mail asking them to reconsider their message due to the confusion it might generate. Gragert said the signs along I-55 were subsequently removed.

Tom Menner of Sidney, head of the rifle association's sign committee, said the signs are a way to get out the message of gun owners, to counter the anti-gun images portrayed in most mass media.

"We want to make people aware guns are used 2.5 million times a year in preventing crime, often without firing a shot," Menner said.

The signs, put up with cooperation of area landowners and various sponsors, have messages to inform the public and provoke thought about the value of having a gun.

"Just because we have 911 doesn't mean people would be out of danger," Menner said.

There are cases in big cities where people are put on hold when they call 911 and other examples of people who call and police don't arrive in time, he said.

"Right here in Champaign County, there was a perfect example where we had a case where a citizen had to shoot an intruder in his home while he was on the phone trying to call 911," Menner said.

That incident occurred a little more than a year ago. On Dec. 13, 1999, a Champaign man shot and killed a man after hearing noises as someone kicked through his front door. Lathan Townsend, 41, of 1108 N. Walnut St., C, was shot twice and died. The name of the man who fired the shots was never released.

Assistant State's Attorney William Gaston said recently that it was decided after a review of all reports, including laboratory tests that were delayed, that no charges should be filed against the resident.

Menner conceded the message his group was trying to send really wasn't focused on 911.

"Maybe it clouds the issue a little," he said.

The next message approved by the committee to be displayed on highway signs will be:

"Police rarely
"Arrive in time
"What protects you
"During the crime?"

Source: News-Gazette Online