A medium-sized suburb south and a bit west of Chicago, Orland Park, IL, has passed a new ordinance aimed at helping out CCL holders as they navigate the restrictive gun laws imposed on them by Cook County and the State of Illinois.
As the Mayor summarizes the ordinance, “This ordinance is a good option for CCL carriers that mistakenly carry into the wrong place, given the ever-growing list of restricted locations. Rather than referring an otherwise cooperative CCL carrier who made a mistake to the county and revoke their CCL, it allows us to give them a municipal ticket that has a consequence to the carrier, but not a revocation from the state level.”
While this is certainly a good gesture on the part of the Village of Orland Park, it does not change the laws that CCL holders are responsible to know and follow. It rather just gives officers another option when dealing with violations and in no way should imply that CCL holders can ignore state law expecting to get a free pass.
The new ordinance does include a fine of up to $1000 so it’s not necessarily painless but it does generally keep the incident local so the violator won’t need to go to state court and be subject to having their CCL revoked.
Again, it’s awesome that a Village Council wants to do something about Cook County’s oppressive gun laws but this is still at an individual officer’s discretion so it’s far from automatic. In the end, it likely won’t make much of a difference for most residents of Orland Park (and only within the boundaries of Orland Park) but it is a step in the right direction.
Perhaps, though, it will encourage other cities in the area to look for ways to minimize the State’s gun laws and make it easier for Cook County residents to defend themselves from violent attacks.
