The heads of the Illinois State Police and the state’s Firearms Services Bureau are being sued for allegedly denying residents their Second Amendment gun rights.
Article from Bob Unruh at WND.
The complaint was filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois by the Second Amendment Foundation on behalf of the Illinois State Rifle Association and four individuals.
It names as defendants Brendan F. Kelly, the director of the state police, and Jarod Ingebrigtsen of the Firearms Services agency.
“Illinois was the last state in the country to establish a licensed concealed carry program because we sued them in federal court and won,” said SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb.
“The legislature passed a law requiring the ISP to either approve or deny an application within 90 days if the applicant supplies fingerprints, or 120 days if fingerprints are not submitted.”
However, the ISP has been “habitually leaving applicants in legal limbo for months” by not making decisions.
“Compounding matters, there has been a surge of CCL applications over the past 12 months. Our plaintiffs have been waiting for months and have received nothing,” he said.
The lawsuit states plaintiffs Nicholas A. Luce, Joseph R. Stacho III, David M. Rice and Jerry J. Robinson “are concerned about being able to properly exercise their right to armed self-defense in public, especially given recent events and the current spate of car-jackings that have plagued Chicago and the collar counties.”
“The state police cannot justify these delays,” Gottlieb said. “As it stands, the ISP is indefinitely denying Illinois residents their fundamental Second Amendment right to carry a concealed sidearm in public for personal protection. We’re saying in this lawsuit that if the state of Illinois conditions the exercise of a fundamental right on the receipt of a license, then the ISP needs to comply with state law and process those applications in a timely manner as required by law. We’re taking them to court in an effort to make that happen.”
The complaint seeks a judgment that failing to respond to concealed carry applications within the legal time frame is a violation of the Second Amendment and the Due Process Clause.
Also, it seeks an order either immediately issuing licenses for the plaintiffs or limiting the state’s restrictions.
“The consequences for delay are neither abstract nor a mere inconvenience; they are a matter of life and death. Sadly, in similar situations, where the government bureaucracy legislatively empowered to act as a Second Amendment gatekeeper has dithered in processing applications, there have been fatal results,” the complaint states.
“If not permanently enjoined by this court, defendants and their agents, representatives, and employees will continue to fail to timely approve CCL applications, which deprive the individual plaintiffs and the members of plaintiffs ISRA and SAF of their constitutionally protected right to keep and bear concealed firearms in public for self-defense.”
Will America-First News Outlets Make it to 2023?
Things are looking grim for conservative and populist news sites.
There’s something happening behind the scenes at several popular conservative news outlets. 2021 was bad, but 2022 is proving to be disastrous for news sites that aren’t “playing ball” with the corporate media narrative. It’s being said that advertisers are cracking down, forcing some of the biggest ad networks like Google and Yahoo to pull their inventory from conservative outlets. This has had two major effects. First, it has cooled most conservative outlets from discussing “taboo” topics like Pandemic Panic Theater, voter fraud, or The Great Reset. Second, it has isolated those ad networks that aren’t playing ball.
Certain topics are anathema for most ad networks. Speaking out against vaccines or vaccine mandates is a certain path to being demonetized. Highlighting voter fraud in the 2020 and future elections is another instant advertising death penalty. Throw in truthful stories about climate change hysteria, Critical Race Theory, and the border crisis and it’s easy to understand how difficult it is for America-First news outlets to spread the facts, share conservative opinions, and still pay the bills.
Without naming names, I have been told of several news outlets who have been forced to either consolidate with larger organizations or who have backed down on covering certain topics out of fear of being “canceled” by the ad networks. I get it. This is a business for many of us and it’s not very profitable. Those of us who do this for a living are often barely squeaking by, so loss of additional revenue can often mean being forced to make cuts. That means not being able to cover the topics properly. Its a Catch-22: Tell the truth and lose the money necessary to keep telling the truth, or avoid the truth and make enough money to survive. Those who have chosen survival simply aren’t able to spread the truth properly.
We will never avoid the truth. The Lord will provide if it is His will. Our job is simply to share the facts, spread the Gospel, and educate as many Americans as possible while exposing the forces of evil.
To those who have the means, we ask that you please donate. We have options available now, but there is no telling when those options will cancel us. We just launched a new GiveSendGo page. We also have our GivingFuel page. There have been many who have been canceled by PayPal, but for now it’s still an option. Your generosity is what keeps these sites running and allows us to get the truth to the masses. We’ve had great success in growing but we know we can do more with your assistance.
Thank you, and God Bless!
JD Rucker
