No state is a monolith. Even the most leftist states in the nation have actual conservative or libertarian voices stuck behind enemy lines. That includes a state like Illinois.
In fact, most of Illinois is pretty chill. It's just cities like Chicago that muck everything up.
One of the sane lawmakers in the Land of Lincoln has introduced a bill that one would imagine would be totally uncontroversial were it not for the fact that we all know how stupid Illinois gets. The bill just allows concealed carry at rest areas:
An Illinois Republican has filed a bill that would amend the state's Firearm Concealed Carry Act and remove the stipulations regarding rest areas.
State Sen. Neil Anderson filed Illinois Senate Bill 3134 that would remove Illinois rest stops and the buildings on those sites from the Act. It would allow concealed-carry license holders to have their guns on them at the many rest stops and rest areas throughout the state. According to the Illinois Department of Transportation, the department "maintains a system of 53 rest areas" as well as 30 rest areas and 11 welcome centers on "highways throughout the state."
The reason for the ban is that rest areas fall under the Illinois Department of Transportation, an executive agency, and that means rest areas fall under government property restrictions for concealed carry.
Which is stupid, because people carry while driving all the time. If you're on a long road trip and you pull into a rest area in Illinois to use the bathroom and maybe get a drink out of the vending machine, current law requires you to disarm yourself as you go about your business.
Considering the number of robberies and rapes that happen at rest areas throughout the nation each year, I can see why some people would be uncomfortable with that. I sure as hell would be.
As it stands, there's not a lot of opposition to the bill, so far as I can tell, and this is such a common-sense thing that it shouldn't face opposition to its passage, especially as it won't impact literally any other gun-free zone in the state.
Yet if it passes, it'll be a sign that the apocalypse is nigh, because this is Illinois.
It's not like the predators who hunt their prey at rest areas care about the law, but those who do must make themselves more vulnerable to those predators, and the anti-gunners that run the state literally couldn't care less. If good guys who own guns get murdered, they don't lose a moment's sleep. In fact, they then use that murder to justify more gun control, not even acknowledging that gun control is why the good guy was killed.
So this should be common sense.
Among Democrats, common sense is so freaking rare it's not a superpower. It's downright mythological. This is unlikely to go anywhere, will likely never even get heard in committee, and will definitely not get a floor vote.
Because then they'd have to admit that they just hate guns so much that they don't want laws to make any sense in the least.
