This is going to be a interesting week in the City of Chicago.  Hopefully we get some good press on this one.
c-rock
[url]www.illinois-shooter.org[/url]


Chicago Public Officials to Get A
Taste of Gun Owners
(Human rights advocates will spice up Gun Day at The Taste of Chicago )
Sierra Times 06.29.00


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To celebrate freedom, thousands of gun owners will appear at the Taste of Chicago on July 4 to celebrate their right to self-defense. Some may be lawfully carrying an unloaded concealed handgun encased in a fanny pack or purse. Chicago officials plan to arrest and prosecute those gun owners.

"If anyone is found carrying a concealed weapon, you are breaking the law," Chicago police Sgt. Robert Cargie has said. "The Chicago police will act appropriately. If that means arrests, then arrests it shall be."

Cook County State's Attorney Dick Devine said, "Make no mistake: Anyone arrested for toting a gun around Cook County in a fanny pack will be prosecuted."

Controversy arose last fall when gun groups began educating their membership that citizens may legally carry a concealed gun (conceal carry) in Illinois as long as it's unloaded, enclosed in a case, and the person has a Firearm Owners Identification Card (FOID). In this situation, a fanny pack or purse is considered a case in which to carry the gun.

Chicago Area Gun Rights Groups Engaged (C.H.A.R.G.E.) is asking that NO GUNS be brought to the Taste of Chicago but is encouraging people to stand up for their rights.

"We aren't telling people to bring their guns to The Taste of Chicago," says Stephanie Sailor, Chicago Coordinator, Second Amendment Sisters. "But we are telling Dick Devine that disarming citizens is wrong. Self-defense is your right."

While Illinois state laws allow limited conceal carry, Chicago's
anti-gun laws are some of the most radical in the country. It is illegal to even own a handgun in the city.

"Basically, the only people in Chicago permitted to have a handgun are cops, aldermen and other politicians," Matt Beauchamp, Chairman of the Libertarian Party of Chicago, said. "If you're a storeowner, cabdriver, woman, veteran, senior citizen, or disabled, you're not allowed that luxury of self-defense."

Christopher Morley, Coordinator of Don't Disarm the Disabled, agreed. "Gun owners are kind, everyday people. We are not gangbangers," he said.

Tommy Parker, Chicago Coordinator of Pink Pistols, a gay gun rights group asked, "What are city officials going to do at the Taste of Chicago? Search everyone's fanny pack and purse? Sounds like a police state to me."




 
 
 
 

But according to Leroy Pyle, Director of Second Amendment Police Department, most police support citizens' rights to conceal carry. "Guns prevent crime: ask a cop," Pyle said. "You call 911 because the cop has a gun." Pyle is a retired police officer who has trained thousands of men and women in firearms safety.

According to FBI Uniform Crime Statistics, 20% of US homicides occur in four cities with just six percent of the population - N.Y.C., Chicago, D.C. and Detroit. Each has a virtual prohibition on private handguns.

"I'm not saying everyone should arm themselves, but we all benefit from conceal carry because thugs don't know who's armed, and who's not," John Birch, President of Concealed Carry, Inc. said. "Criminals are a lot less likely to attack if they know their prey is packing."

"Forty-three states including neighboring Indiana have concealed carry. They don't have a wild west. They do have less crime and safer streets," Birch said.

WHO: Thousands of gun owners and gun rights supporters, including
C.H.A.R.G.E.

(Chicago Area Rights Groups Engaged):
Don't Disarm the Disabled (dddisabled.org)
Libertarian Party of Chicago (www.LPChicago.org)
Pink Pistols (www.PinkPistols.org)
Second Amendment Police Department (www.2ampd.net)
Second Amendment Sisters (www.SASChicago.org)
Concealed Carry, Inc. (www.concealcarry.org)


WHAT: Violent crime drops when citizens carry concealed handguns for self-defense. To celebrate this freedom and right to self-protection, thousands of gun owners and gun rights supporters will peacefully carry a symbolic fanny pack or purse while at the Taste of Chicago. Contained in the packs and purses will be something symbolic of our basic human right to self-defense.


WHEN: Wednesday, July 4, 2001, all day
WHERE: Taste of Chicago, Grant Park, Chicago
WHY: (1) To peacefully demonstrate that gun owners are kind, everyday people who should have a right to self-defense. (2) Send a clear and direct message to Cook County State's Attorney Dick Devine that law-abiding gun owners will practice their human right to self-defense, regardless of his claims to arrest them for doing so.

I visit Chicago at least once a year and have been for the last 25 years. Always enjoyed it, great place, nice people, good food.

Unfortunately now becoming more and more like Kali and Flurida. Too bad.

[b]"Basically, the only people in Chicago permitted to have a handgun are cops, aldermen and other politicians," [/b]

Sounds like a police state to me!!!!
WHY do the politicans get to carry guns??? What are they scared of, since the citizens can't carry them???


BISHOP

                                              .