Skokieans Make Impassioned Pleas On Concealed Carry Gun Law

Written by Pam DeFiglio

Skokie became a hotspot in Illinois' tussle over the concealed carry gun law Monday night, when 16 residents spoke passionately, pro and con, at the village board meeting.

Another 20 residents stood up when one speaker asked the audience to stand if they opposed concealed carry. Some who spoke urged the village to adopt a resolution banning assault weapons, which would only be possible in a 10-day window after the governor signs the legislation.

Some of the speakers used dramatic examples to make their points.

Denise Wang Stoneback framed the issue in terms of December's Newtown shootings in Connecticut, in which a shooter killed 26 children and adults in what some estimate may have taken less than five minutes.

She urged Skokie to take action to protect its residents, saying such things could happen anywhere.

"Newtown was a wakeup call," she said. "Since then, 4,800 people have been victims of guns."

For Robert Schwartz, the issue was about how Jewish survivors of Nazi concentration camps had once come to Skokie's village hall to say "Never again."

Referencing the statue of an armed Jewish freedom fighter against the Nazis, which stands near Skokie's village hall, he said, "I remember when Nazis were driven out of Skokie. Do you want to bring Nazi-type laws in Skokie?" 

While some advocated the assault weapons ban,  others maintained that would only get the village sued and involved in spending millions of dollars fruitlessly defending itself. 

The state legislature passed a concealed carry bill May 31 in order to meet a June 9 deadline set in December by a federal appeals court, which ruled Illinois, the nation's lone holdout state in prohibiting concealed carry, must permit it under Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms.
 
Gov. Pat Quinn has yet to sign the bill, and if and when he does, that will open a 10-day window in which municipalities can enact gun-related legislation, as long as it doesn't violate concealed carry, according to the State Journal Register. 

Attorney General Lisa Madigan has filed a request with the U.S. Supreme Court to allow Illinois to delay the issue another month to research legal issues for a possible appeal, according to abclocal.go.com.

At the Skokie meeting Monday, resident Linda Berenson and others objected to the fact that the state law would trump the ability of Skokie, a home-rule community, to make its own decision on concealed carry. 

"Municipalities can be voted dry. We can control cell phone use in cars," she said. "To say a municipality cannot control whether handguns are allowed in a house of worship or a school is not right, especially with such a small window of 10 days."

She said that if the law is signed, she would volunteer to organize a campaign to help schools, businesses and residents so inclined to put up signs barring concealed weapons on their premises, according to the provisions spelled out in the law.

But a man who said he lived in the 8900 block of Bronx Avenue and had recently served in the armed forces commented that would not be a good idea, because it would let people with bad intentions know exactly where people were defenseless.

"To a person, everyone shook their head and said 'we don’t understand why they need to be in our community--we think they're dangerous,'" he said.

Mayor George Van Dusen thanked all the commenters for remaining civil, and said he was concerned that municipalities are being given 10 days to react to a complicated piece of legislation. 

"As the mayor of a home rule community I'm always concerned when the state preempts our ability to home rule ourselves," he said. "We don’t know what the governor is going to do."

Quinn can veto the bill, amendatorily veto it or veto it in a way to give municipalities more than 10 days to react, he said.  

"I would ask everybody, please stay tuned."

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