More than 2,000 Sangamon County residents received a license to carry a concealed firearm in the first year under a state law enacted in 2014.
The Illinois State Police released data showing 2,081 people had active concealed carry licenses in Sangamon County by the end of the law’s first year, ranking the county 10th statewide. In total, 91,651 people statewide had a concealed carry license by the end of 2014, and despite the legalization of guns in public, fears of rampant shootouts involving licensees don’t appear to have materialized.
Illinois legislators passed a law in July 2013 reversing the state’s previous ban on carrying concealed firearms. Illinois was the last state to allow concealed carry in some form, and the change in policy was prompted by a court case which found Illinois’ ban unconstitutional. Even with a court order to implement concealed carry, the bill was hotly debated, and pro-gun lawmakers had to negotiate intensely to produce a compromise that included several limits on carrying concealed firearms.
Data released by the Illinois State Police show 2,115 people in Sangamon County applied for a concealed carry license in 2014. More than 98 percent of applications – 2,081 in total – were approved, but 28 were denied and six were approved and later revoked.
The data show that residents of rural downstate counties obtained the majority of the licenses statewide. DeWitt County, northeast of Sangamon, where Clinton is the county seat, led the state in concealed carry licenses per capita. DeWitt County ranks 68th statewide for population, but its residents received 712 licenses in 2014, meaning one out of every 23 people was licensed to carry a concealed firearm.
Contrast that with populous Cook County, where Chicago-area residents had 23,921 concealed carry licenses by the end of 2014. Although Cook County had the largest total number of licenses by far, just one out of every 219 people had a license.
DeKalb County near Rockford, where the county seat is Sycamore, had the lowest number of licenses per capita with one license per 446 people. That county has a population of 104,741 people, but only 235 active licenses.
Sangamon County had the 10th highest number of active licenses by the end of 2014, but the county ranked 58th out of 102 counties for licenses per capita. At 2,081 licenses spread among 199,145 people, roughly one person out of every 96 people in Sangamon County had an active license.
During the debate on concealed carry in the Illinois General Assembly, opponents forecasted that confrontations would turn into shootouts with the introduction of guns into the public sphere. That doesn’t appear to have happened. A search of Illinois newspaper archives since concealed carry licenses were first issued shows only a handful of incidents in which licensees broke the law or otherwise failed to exercise good judgment. Still, the incidents that did happen certainly don’t paint concealed carry license holders in a positive light.
One man in suburban Northfield was arrested after forgetting his gun – and his concealed carry license – in a shopping cart at a grocery store. The gun was found by a mother and her child and turned in to the store manager. Another man, in Bloomington, was arrested after illegally taking his gun into a bar and passing out.
In a more serious case, a Crestwood man licensed to carry a firearm shot at a fleeing armed robber, narrowly missing a police officer who was pursuing the suspect. A detective commenting on the incident called the man an “idiot.” In a separate case, a driver in Oak Lawn threatened another driver with his legally carried pistol in a fit of road rage, coming the closest to proving opponents of concealed carry right.
It’s those kinds of cases that make Aaron Turner of Springfield shake his head in disgust. Turner is a concealed carry instructor and owner of Capitol City Arms Supply, a gun store and shooting range in Springfield. He says he expects those who take his course to be proficient with their firearm and to know which situations warrant using it – and which don’t. To Turner, carrying a firearm comes with responsibility.
“They need to practice, and they need to realize that their weapon is only to be pulled out if their life is in danger,” he said.
Still, Turner says the guns themselves shouldn’t be blamed when their owners make mistakes.
“If people are going to kill, they’re going to kill,” he said. “I understand guns make it easier, but they don’t get up from the table and shoot people.”
Contact Patrick Yeagle at pyeagle@illinoistimes.com.
This article appears in Jan 29 – Feb 4, 2015.
