Remember Hale DeMar?

In other good news out of Illinois, the Illinois legislature overrode Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s veto and enacted a law that exempts people who use a firearm in self-defense from being prosecuted if they violate local anti-gun ordinances in the process. According to the Pioneer Press Online:

Senate Bill 2165, which creates a self-defense exception to local gun bans, passed the House of Representatives on Tuesday afternoon with a vote of 85 to 30, with one “present” vote. It needed 70 votes to override the veto and came close to the 90 votes which first passed it out of the chamber in May.

State Reps. Elizabeth Coulson, R-17th, Julie Hamos, D-18th and Karen May, D-58th, voted against the override, supporting the concerns of area villages officials who believe the law would undermine local gun control measures.

Hamos, of Evanston, said the legislation was a backdoor attempt by the National Rifle Association to usurp a municipality’s right to establish its own gun laws.

“This is really about local control,” she said. “And the Illinois legislature took that away from them.”

In the Senate, the veto override passed Nov. 9 with a 40-18 vote. Sen. Jeffrey Schoenberg, D-9th, continued his opposition to the bill.

Yes, the evil NRA controls even the Illinois legislature! So, as I said, remember Hale DeMar?

It became known as the DeMar bill after a Wilmette homeowner, Hale DeMar, shot and wounded a burglar in his home late last year. DeMar was not charged in the shooting itself, but Wilmette moved to enforce a 1989 ordinance banning handguns, which could result in the loss of his two handguns and a fine.

That case is still pending in court, though DeMar faced a legal setback when a court ruled against a constitutional challenge of the law.

Schoenberg said gun rights groups have long worked to eliminate or curtail local gun control, and were able to cast DeMar as a hero who was unjustly punished.

“The NRA spotted an opening and they ran with it. So as a result of this one case where the charges were dropped, a whole sweeping change in state law is about to take effect,” Schoenberg said.

“I spoke forcefully against the bill, on a variety of counts, but unfortunately, the die was cast. I’m deeply disturbed at the outcome,” he said. “It certainly doesn’t reflect the overwhelming majority view in my community and I believe in most other communities in the state.”

So Mr. Schoenberg apparently isn’t deeply disturbed by representative democracy? Read those numbers again – 85 to 30 in the House, 40-18 in the Senate. Well, obviously those 125 legislators are all in the pocket of the eeeeevil NRA.

So what’s the reaction of the municipalities?

(Wilmette Village President Nancy) Canafax said the Village Board may look at ways the Wilmette ordinance can be rewritten and strengthened against challenges under the new law.

“We haven’t talked about that specifically, only very generally. Yes, there probably is something we can do, but as to what, we haven’t taken that step,” she said.

Canafax said she is concerned that the law’s self-defense exception would be used in situations much different then DeMar’s, and that it could effectively prevent villages from ever enforcing a gun ban. Gun owners could claim self-defense in a variety of situations, and might take more aggressive action than they otherwise would.

“My fear on the bill as far as it impacts that ordinance is it actually encourages use of the gun,” Canafax said.

And that’s the idiot argument always made when the law restores the citizen’s right to the use of a firearm for self-defense. It’s the same old “BLOOD IN THE STREETS!” argument – that never happens. Will these people ever learn that laws that prohibit the law-abiding from effectively defending themselves are counter-productive? Read what Ms. Canafax implied: the gun ban was designed to keep people from using firearms. But it only succeeds in disarming the ones who obey the law. Hale DeMar wasn’t a threat to anybody – except a burglar. I’m glad he decided that the protection of himself and his family was more important than obeying Wilmette’s idiot ordinance, and I’m glad the Illinois legislature recognizes the injustice done to him.

I congratulate the residents of Illinois for this and the recent Illinois Supreme Court decisions mentioned below.