An Illinois state attorney announced on Tuesday that he will no longer prosecute citizens in his county's jurisdiction for carrying concealed weapons.
Randolph County's Jeremy Walker is the second prosecutor from the Midwest state to let residents keep firearms on their person. The governor, Pat Quinn, has been mulling over whether or not to allow Illinoisans carry concealed weapons since the federal court threw away the state's ban, the Associated Press reported.
Last year, the Seventh U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the state must allow citizens the right to bear covert arms, dismissing the state's last-in-the-nation prohibition. Illinois lawmakers were given until June 9 to draw up a measure that allowed citizens to pack heat. The state's General Assembly okayed the bill. It now sits on Governor Quinn's desk, awaiting either approval or dismissal. He has not publicly given a statement as to whether or not he will support the bill.
Now, local law enforcement is getting anxious for the governor to make a decision. Just a few days after Walker's counterpart in St. Louis Madison County decided to stop prosecuting the law forbidding firearms in public, the sheriff of southern Illinois' Clinton County also said he will not arrest any armed person who hails from a county that allows concealed weaponry.
Walker, like a few other local law enforcement in the area, had enough on Wednesday, stating firmly that "it is time to act."
"I think I'm on strong constitutional ground," he said. "I don't want to do something just to get my name in the paper. But [state lawmakers] could have resolved this issue in January and had something in effect by now."
Still, Walker admitted there were "rational arguments on both sides."
Some lawyers have stated that it is certainly a prosecutor's right to say which cases they will go after and which they will not.
