>In a huge win for gun-rights groups, a federal appeals court in Chicago Tuesday tossed the state’s ban on carrying concealed weapons and gave Illinois’ Legislature 180 days to craft a law legalizing concealed carry.
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>“The debate is over. We won. And there will be a statewide carry law in 2013,” said Todd Vandermyde, a lobbyist for the National Rifle Association.
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>http://www.suntimes.com/16951312-761/federal-appeals-court-tosses-state-ban-on-carrying-concealed-weapons.html
>http://www.scribd.com/doc/116435469/7th-Circuit-Court-overturns-Illinois-concealed-carry-ban

Aren't I the same guy who said just today he wasn't going to get into political debates any more? ;-) The flesh is weak.

The founders never intended for us to keep and bear arms at all times. The Second Amendment doesn't say that. It was explicitly stated that the intent was a citizen militia as a means of defending us against attacking forces. Citizens were not allowed to keep firearms or carry them around. Arms were kept in munitions facilities to be distributed in times of crisis. When a standing army was established in 1850 it became a more or less dead issue until the NRA came along. It was never the idea that we should always be ready to plug holes in whoever we found threatening or all go around packing.

I truly do not understand why we are the only developed nation which does not tightly control guns or why we have the gun fatality rate we do. If you look at the statistics that is not a club we should want to belong in.

The NRA has to be the most effective lobbying machine this country has ever had. Until around 1980 this debate did not even exist. They push, push, push, and raise boatloads of money.

Here is the text of the Second Amendment. You only need to read a few words to understand what was and wasn't intended.

"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."

MILITIA