Some common sense in Illinois
Hale DeMar used a banned handgun to defend himself. This prompted a bill that stated essentially that if an unregistered or banned handgun was used in self-defense that the court could clear the charges for the violating the ban. The Illinois senate passed the bill but the governor vetoed it. Now, the senate has overridden that veto:
Gov. Rod Blagojevich vetoed the measure, saying “each individual municipality should determine which affirmative defenses apply to a violation of its own ordinance,” but the Senate voted 40 to 18 to override him.
It’s not over yet:
The bill now heads to the House, where it must get at least 71 votes in order to become law in spite of the governor’s objections. It got 90 votes in the House in May.
It looks like it will pass. Of course, the obvious solution is to pass a bill repealing unconstitutional bans on gun ownership. That probably won’t happen in Illinois any time soon. However, these baby steps are reassuring.
We’re winning . . . slowly.
