Originally Posted by Joe Obenberger

I'm writing this note from my office at 115 South LaSalle in Chicago. I'm about to walk a block down a dark alley in order to get to the garage where I park my car.

I will not be walking without defense. I'm an Illinois Concealed Carry license holder. More than that, I'm certified by the State Police as a concealed carry instructor and an NRA certified pistol instructor. Outside representation of adult content producers, I'm deeply involved in a series of lawsuits aimed at the repressive laws that limit citizens from defensive carry. It takes a special permit called a FOID Card to own or acquire guns or ammo, and about 1.5 million Illinoisans have that card. But it's not good enough to carry concealed. For that, a $200 fee, sixteen hours of instruction, and the publication of your personal information to all of of the LE agencies in the state, in case any of them want to object for any reason they want, is all necessary, with delays now past six months. When I stared these lawsuits, the Board that decides did not even notify an applicant about an objection until after the Board had considered it and affirmed it, denying your license. As a result of all this intrigue against gun rights, only about 150,000 Illinoisans statewide have been able to secure a concealed carry card. Since our lawsuits started, much has changed, but one still never gets to see any evidence submitted to support an objection while it's pending before the board. No chance to rebut evidence that you can't see. It's unconstitutional as hell. The fight is arduous, and we're now in the Seventh Circuit challenging dismissals of cases in which the District Court judges have tapdanced their way around this uncomfortable truth. I like fighting for underdogs, and the establishment and machine in Chicago are so fiercely against the Second Amendment and the right of armed self-defense that there is no doubt which side the underdog is!

Why is gun violence up here? It's not associated with the weather recently, which has been colder than average. Warm weather is associated with armed violence in the cities. Part of the reason may be a climate of violence among the minorities, angry with more and more evidence of lawless police murdering young black and hispanic youth, with city hall and the prosecutors covering it up. But that's a weak reason to explain Black on Black crime, which is a huge, overwhelming component of gun violence here. What encourages crime everywhere is the belief of criminals that they can get away with it. I can't prove it, but I believe that the practical difficulties for honest, ordinary citizens in getting the right to carry defensive arms has been part of that and encourages armed violence by criminals. All of that is part of the answer. The remaining part is likely to be related to turf wars over drug territory. It's hard to get honest information about that because the press goes far out of its way to not report accurate information about gang activity. The thought is that identifying gangs and their conflicts adds prestige to these criminal organizations and encourages them, but that policy leaves the public out of the loop in understanding these spikes in crime.

That's the best I can do.