Illinois Site Of Unlikely Second Amendment Win

[Bearing Arms 388]

Illinois is never going to be mistaken as a pro-gun state. It’s just not going to happen, and recent history is proof enough of that fact. Texas or most of the Deep South, it ain’t.

That fact may make the unlikely victory yesterday for the Second Amendment that much more poignant.

llinois Gov. Bruce Rauner has vetoed legislation that would have required gun stores to be licensed by the state, calling it “unnecessary, burdensome regulation.”

Rauner said Tuesday the measure would hurt small business owners and won’t make communities safer.

His veto comes one week before the Republican faces a challenge from conservative state Rep. Jeanne Ives in the GOP primary. Last week, Ives’ campaign criticized Rauner for not speaking publicly against the bill, calling it “the prelude to yet another betrayal” of Republicans.

Supporters of the measure accused Rauner of putting politics over doing the right thing.

However, it’s also important to remember that this law actually did. It would make gun stores, which are already required to have a license from the federal government, to turn around and get yet another license from the state to conduct the exact same business. In other words, it would make the licensing requirement to sell guns go from one license to two.

Proponents of such a measure are acting like this will let anyone open a gun store and sling guns any which way or something. Gun stores are already required to have a federal firearms license (FFL) if they want to have guns shipped to them. This is a federal requirement. Failure to adhere to it is a felony.

So what would an additional license do?

Not much.

As part of having the license, it created burdens on gun stores to have video security–something most do–and training on how to identify straw purchasers, something that already takes place in most stores. However, by requiring it, it would force the training to be something more formal so that state regulators could keep an eye on things. That means time away from the sales floor to conduct the same training that would have happened on the floor, which means employees would have to be paid while doing nothing to help the store generate revenue.

It doesn’t take a genius to see how this creates a problem for small businesses.

While the usual suspects are upset over this, they should get over it. These are measures that no other business would be expected to tolerate, so why should gun stores?

For once we see a little sanity come out of Illinois, though the Second Amendment doesn’t seem to have played any kind of a factor. Frankly, I’m fine with that. I’ll take the win where I can get it. In this case, it’s a pro-business move. Maybe tomorrow it’ll be a pro-Second Amendment one.

Ah, who am I kidding? It’s Illinois. I’ve got a better chance of taking Shannon Watts shopping for her first AR-15.

Still, a win is a win.

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