Posted on 03/23/2012 5:55:06 AM PDT by 2nd amendment mama
PASA Park, Barry, IL -- In the election held Tuesday, March 20, 2012, the voters of Pike County, Illinois, approved a firearms concealed-carry ordinance by a 3,214 to 550 margin. It was one of the largest voter turnouts in county history. The ordinance directly contradicts current Illinois state law. As presented on the ballot, the ordinance took effect upon passage, and applies only to Pike County. The ordinance was placed on the ballot by a citizen initiative petition process that garnered three times the number of signatures required by law.
The new "Constitutional Carry" Pike County initiative was spearheaded by local Second Amendment activist Dr. Dan Mefford of Pittsfield, who drafted the successful ordinance in conjunction with noted outdoor journalist and firearms law expert Dick Metcalf, who is also a resident of Pike County. According to Dr. Mefford, "The people are speaking, and what the people are saying is, 'Trust the people.'"
Historians have stated that this is the first time since 1862 that county voters in any U.S. state have explicitly reversed a state law. The previous example was when the five western counties of Virginal nullified that state's secession from the Union, and themselves seceded from Virginia to form the new state of West Virginia.
It is widely anticipated that other rural and downstate counties will follow Pike County's lead. In 2007, the Pike County Board enacted a resolution stating that further restrictive firearms laws enacted by the Illinois State Legislature would be deemed by Pike County "to be Unconstitutional and beyond lawful Legislative Authority." That resolution was subsequently passed by 89 percent of all Illinois counties.
County and local law enforcement officers in Pike County are obligated by law to enforce country ordinances. State law enforcement officers and agencies are obligated to enforce state law. Legal observers therefore expect the inevitable court battle to be complex, because the new ordinance was enacted by the voters themselves, not by any county or local legislative entity.
Great news for the county as long as Illinois does not have a preemptive law that makes it illegal for any entity to pass a law different from the state as we have here in Texas. Another thing - is it Constitutional carry or concealed carry?
Yeah Baby! The front lines are here in Illinois, many good men and women are still in the fight and showing us the way.
What Pike County is going to find out, I suspect officials already knew. County ordinances cannot contradict state law, even when state law is unconstitutional.
Illinois should secede from Cook (and maybe Lake) County and rejoin the USA. This looks like a good start.
We could certainly use it in California, Eastern Oregon, Eastern Washington...
Might be a way for Republicans to retake the Senate and hold it.
hey Shark, this might be one for ya to watch...
who has the high trump card once this all shakes out ???
the voters who directly [democratically] voted, the state apparatus who will be 'dissed' in their legislative, 'gov knows best' mentality...the size of the guns brought to bear by said state, or the numbers of guns brought to bear by the citizenry ???
wonder how many other conflicting laws/ordinances these two entities have/will have in the future...
In 1995/1996, there were many of us in rural counties working on “the county supremacy” movement (as described in the sneering MSM) but it died like the militia movement soon after OKC bombing.
Was West Virginia the precedent for the “State of Jefferson” movement?
As mentioned on another forum, The County may not prosecute but a State Trooper would put the hammer on you.
As mentioned on another forum, The County may not prosecute but a State Trooper would put the hammer on you.
And the State's Attorney, who is elected at the County level here in IL would decline that prosecution in a heartbeat if he wanted to be re-elected.
The DuPage County State's Attorney already partially invalidated Illinois' stupid anti-carry laws a few years back by publicly announcing he'd no longer prosecute people found with unloaded firearms in fanny packs, backpacks, etc.
Not all of Illinois is like Cook County. Once you get away from that den of insanity the rest of Illinois is pretty darned conservative.
Where does your distrust of government power come from?
I think this video of TSA searching a terrorist suspect (based on their profile of a suspected terrorist) should make you feel better.
6 year old girl groped by a TSA goon. What is this country coming to?
You wont see those libs at MSNBC complaining about this, guess why?
This is what you have to do in a country where the government ignores certain laws because illegals in this country break them more than we do.
I shoot Sporting Clay, Trap and Skeet. When the only choice is to cross Illinois on my way to a shooting event I usually drive non stop across the state due to the morass of gun laws dictated by Chicagoland.
Pike County, Illinois is across the river near Hannibal, Missouri home of Mark Twain. As a tourist visiting Twain's hometown I would check about places of interest in Pike County and its county seat in Pittsville.
I think it would be interesting just to meet the people who are not afraid to stand up for their freedoms against the tyranny of Chicago/Springfield.
Well done Pike County you have taken the first step.
I know. I am from central Illinos.
Intriguing, because there have been multiple cases of the US Supreme Court saying words to the effect: "legislative actions contrary to the Constitution have no effect and are treated as if they were never passed."
The powers of the legislature are defined and limited; and that those limits may not be mistaken, or forgotten, the Constitution is written. To what purpose are powers limited, and to what purpose is that limitation committed to writing, if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained? The distinction between a government with limited and unlimited powers is abolished if those limits do not confine the persons on whom they are imposed, and if acts prohibited and acts allowed are of equal obligation. It is a proposition too plain to be contested, that the Constitution controls any legislative act repugnant to it; or, that the legislature may alter the Constitution by an ordinary act.--Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803)Between these alternatives there is no middle ground. The Constitution is either a superior paramount law, unchangeable by ordinary means, or it is on a level with ordinary legislative acts, and, like other acts, is alterable when the legislature shall please to alter it.
If the former part of the alternative be true, then a legislative act contrary to the Constitution is not law: if the latter part be true, then written constitutions are absurd attempts on the part of the people to limit a power in its own nature illimitable.
Certainly all those who have framed written constitutions contemplate them as forming the fundamental and paramount law of the nation, and consequently, the theory of every such government must be, that an act of the legislature, repugnant to the constitution, is void.
So then, how can a state-law contradictory toward the Constitution bind counties from assuming laws which are agreeable to the Constitution if in fact the contradictory is void?
>hey Shark, this might be one for ya to watch...
>
>who has the high trump card once this all shakes out ???
In theory, the county; as I (or rather Justice Marshall in Marbury v. Madison) explain why here:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2862761/posts?page=17#17
Though, there could be an interesting curve the state could throw: they could say that the following text from the ordinance ( full-text: http://www.icarry.org/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=50402 ) —
“THIS ORDINANCE SHALL EXCLUDE: all individuals who are prohibited from possessing firearms under the laws of the United States, prohibited minors, and those under any intoxicating influence exceeding the standards of the Illinois Motor Vehicle Code.” — is discriminatory and two-faced, because while the rest of the ordinance makes a statement denying the authority for state/federal to impose upon the right to bear arms this, in fact, affirms that they have that authority (i.e. to prohibit people).
> the voters who directly [democratically] voted, the state apparatus who will be ‘dissed’ in their legislative, ‘gov knows best’ mentality...the size of the guns brought to bear by said state, or the numbers of guns brought to bear by the citizenry ???
Good question, and I think the answer could be most Intriguing.
I used to get at Ozark Shooters Sports Complex in Walnut Shade, MO every once in a while.....fun place.
I used to get to shoot sporting clays at Ozark Shooters Sports Complex in Walnut Shade, MO every once in a while.....fun place.
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