Illinois concealed carry - apply yet?

Last year (2013) the Illinois General Assembly passed a concealed-carry law, finally giving law-abiding citizens the lawful privilege to carry a loaded and concealed firearm in public. Did you apply yet?

If you did - even just apply - you gave up important rights. Did you know that?

Section 30 of the law reads:

"430 ILCS 66/30

Sec. 30. Contents of license application. (a) The license application shall be in writing, under penalty of perjury, on a standard form adopted by the Department and shall be accompanied by the documentation required in this Section and the applicable fee. Each application form shall include the following statement printed in bold type: "Warning: Entering false information on this form is punishable as perjury under Section 32-2 of the Criminal Code of 2012." (b) The application shall contain the following: (1) the applicant's name, current address, date and

year of birth, place of birth, height, weight, hair color, eye color, maiden name or any other name the applicant has used or identified with, and any address where the applicant resided for more than 30 days within the 10 years preceding the date of the license application;

(2) the applicant's valid driver's license number

or valid state identification card number;

(3) a waiver of the applicant's privacy and

confidentiality rights and privileges under all federal and state laws, including those limiting access to juvenile court, criminal justice, psychological, or psychiatric records or records relating to any institutionalization of the applicant,..."

Have you been pounding on your legislators to change this? To restore your rights, if you have already applied? You haven't? Why not?

Consider what could happen the next time you get stopped for speeding or a burned-out license plate light. The cop says, "I'm going to search your car and your person."

You say, "No, you're not. I have rights."

The cop says, "My in-car computer says you have an Illinois concealed-carry license. You don't have those rights any longer."

The NRA and the ISRA rolled over and gave up the fight. They apparently have failed, so far, to drag the State of Illinois into court over this. The NRA lobbyist said in about April 2013 that he had the votes to block a bad bill. He didn't.

Don't go soft as time passes. I knew immediately that I would never apply, so I moved out of Illinois.

I guess that deputy with MCSD was right. When I telephoned in 1996 to ask how to apply for a concealed carry permit, he laughed at me and said I would never get a permit in Illinois.

If you have paid your $150 and have applied, call your lawyer now and ask how to protect yourself, if it's even possible now, regarding those rights that you gave up. What did you give up? When you signed that application, you gave up your "privacy and confidentiality rights and privileges under all federal and state laws."

Not just to "juvenile court, criminal justice, psychological, or psychiatric records"; you gave up ALL your rights, including those.