>>>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.
>>>
>>>“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.
>>>
>>>
>>>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
>
>Uh, where do you get your information? Reminds me of that commercial where the girl is dating a French model she met on the internet :) That's not meant to be mean, but I hope it comes across as humorous. :)
>
>What the founders intended can only be determined by learning what they wrote about, the context of the time, and their many discussions and arguments on the subject. Go to the library and look up:
>
>George Mason
>James Madison
>Richard Henry Lee
>Zachariah Johnson
>Alexander Hamilton
>Samuel Adams
>Noah Webster
>
>or better yet, some are readily available in one location, not all, but some: just read the Federalist Papers :)

In fact I will read the Federalist Papers. Thank you for the recommendation. I have a nice little shelf of Library of America volumes already and one of the best is some writings of Abraham Lincoln. A Republican, I mention only in passing.

I don't get the French model reference. Please send her by so she can explain it ;-)

(Yeah, as if. I am finally starting to feel my age).