Heller's impact on Illinois, a (non-comprehensive) roundup

Yesterday, I talked about Chicago Mayor Daley's Heller-induced media meltdown and the apparent call by the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence (ICHV) to do away with our three branch system of government.

Days of Our Trailers spotted what is perhaps the biggest news--the lawsuit, filed by the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) and the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), against Chicago's draconian handgun ban. One of the attorneys in the case is Alan Gura, lead attorney in the Heller case. That probably won't improve Daley's mood.

Advocates of forcible citizen disarmament in the Illinois legislature are also apparently not happy, over concerns that their agenda is going to be a harder sell in the post-Heller reality. Armed and Safe favorite tyranny enabler, Commissar . . . er, Senator Dan Kotowski, in adjusting to Heller, seems to have forgotten about the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act of 2005:

"This ruling has clarified the debate," said. Sen. Dan Kotowski (D-Park Ridge), a former gun control lobbyist. "If you are going to allow access, like most of the country does already, what are we going to do to make our society safer? The gun industry is basically the last unregulated industry in our country. They should abide by same sort of health and safety regulations that apply when any other consumer product is sold, whether that’s teddy bears ... or a bottle of aspirin."

The same article indicates that Senator Benedict Arnold . . . er, John Millner would apparently have us believe that he is turning his cloak again, and is now opposed to forcible citizen disarmament.

Sen. John Millner (R-Carol Stream), a former police chief in Elmhurst, predicted the ruling will produce a record number of gun bills in the next legislative session.

"People are going to try and figure out what they can do to go after the gun industry, and I think that’s a mistake," said Millner, who believes the Chicago ordinance has been a colossal failure. "They are dealing with emotions and you can't draft public policy on emotion alone."

You'll have to do a lot better than that, traitor.

Here's some good news--two Chicago suburbs with handgun bans, Wilmette and Morton Grove, are apparently suspending their bans, while they try to determine what kind of legal footing they're on. This, presumably, is in response to NRA plans to file their own suits against suburbs with such bans.

Wilmette will suspend enforcement of the ban while attorneys decide whether the ruling applies to them, said Village President Chris Canning.

[ . . . ]

Morton Grove Mayor Richard Krier said the village would comply with the law.

"We are a small suburban town," he said of the north suburb, which banned the possession or sale of handguns 27 years ago. "We've never had any real handgun violence before then or since then."

Now, War on Guns tells us that "Snuffy" Pfleger is "sad" about the Heller ruling.

That was at an event with Governor Rod Blagojevich, who called the ruling "very scary."

Finally, and this isn't really directly related to Heller, but while I'm talking about Illinois, I can't in good conscience neglect to remind readers of the Second Amendment Freedom Rally (SAFR), in Chicago on July 11th. Even if you can't make it, perhaps you could help defray the very considerable costs.