Fish in a barrel

After reading what Nicki (with more here) and David (with more here) wrote about yesterday's atrocity at Northern Illinois University (and I'm sure there are many more excellent posts that I haven't read yet), I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this--it has already been well covered.

I do want to reiterate something I said after the last mass shooting in Illinois, about Illinois' score on the new Brady Bunch score system.

llinois, for example, was ranked ninth among the fifty states (meaning Illinois' gun laws are the ninth most restrictive in the country). That would put IL in the 82nd percentile. One area in which Illinois scored particularly "well" is concealed carry legislation:

States can earn up to 10 points by making it harder to carry “Guns In Public Places” (except for trained law enforcement and security) and by allowing localities to “Preserve Local Control” over municipal gun laws. This includes keeping guns out of workplaces and college campuses, not forcing law enforcement to issue concealed handgun permits on demand, not permitting
“shoot first” expansions in self-defense laws, and not preventing municipalities from passing their own gun laws. Illinois scored all 10 points in this category.

The reason, of course, that "Illinois scored all 10 points in this category" (that emphasis was the Brady Bunch's, by the way) is that not only does Illinois "not forc[e] law enforcement to issue concealed handgun permits on demand," Illinois bans outright the carrying, either openly or concealed, of firearms in public. In other words, Illinois achieves a high state-mandated defenselessness score. I certainly hope the families of the victims appreciate that.

In other Illinois news, HB 1304, the " Family and Personal Protection Act," has actually made it out of committee, and can now be brought up for a floor vote. Probably as good a time as any for Illinois gun owners to remind legislators who works for whom, unless, of course, you're too busy to demand your rights.