[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 104 (Wednesday, July 13, 2011)]
[House]
[Pages H4950-H4951]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          CONCEALED CARRY LAWS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Illinois (Mr. Kinzinger) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. KINZINGER of Illinois. Madam Speaker, last Friday something 
actually very great happened. Wisconsin became the 49th State in the 
Union to approve concealed carry. Well, that means that leaves my home 
State, Illinois, as the only State to oppose that constitutional right 
to concealed carry.
  The action taken by Governor Scott Walker was a major step for 
Wisconsin, but the State of Illinois now remains the only State in the 
Nation to prohibit concealed carry and deny law-abiding citizens' 
rights to protect themselves or their family.
  The Constitution of the United States and 44 States, common law, and 
laws of all 50 States recognize the right to use arms in self-defense. 
In 1895, the Supreme Court case, Beard v. U.S., the Court approved the 
common law rule that a person ``may repel force by force'' in self-
defense and concluded that, when attacked, a person is ``entitled to 
stand his ground and meet any attack made upon him with a deadly 
weapon.''
  In 2008, the Supreme Court ruled in District of Columbia v. Heller 
that ``the inherent right of self-defense has been central to the 
Second Amendment right,'' and that the amendment protects ``the 
individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of 
confrontation.''
  Right-to-carry laws have proven to be effective. Since 1991 through 
2009, 23 States have adopted the right to carry, and violent crime 
rates have declined 43 percent. This all comes on the heels of a five-
fold increase in the number of shall-issue conceal carry States from 
1986 to 2006. Along with this, since the 1980s when the conceal carry 
issue started, the number of conceal carry permit holders is estimated 
to have risen from 1 million to 6 million people. Of major note, murder 
has declined 49 percent. Also, the city with the highest gun homicide 
rate in the Nation, Washington, D.C., happens to also have the 
strictest gun control.
  The lowest rate of gun homicide in the Nation is in Utah, which has 
some of the most liberal policies when it comes to conceal carry 
issues. According to the FBI, total violent crime and murder dropped 
more than 6 percent during the first half of 2011. Anti-gun advocates 
are in disbelief over this

[[Page H4951]]

number as not only is the Nation going through an economic downturn, 
but they've been seeing that the amount of Federal background checks 
done in order to purchase firearms broke record levels with more than 
14 million occurring last year alone. That's a 55 percent increase in 
firearms purchases in just 4 years, but it has not even led remotely 
close to the doom and gloom havoc being peddled by anti-gun advocates.
  Criminologist Gary Kleck analyzed National Crime Victimization 
Surveys and concluded that robbery and assault victims who used a gun 
to resist were less likely to be attacked or to suffer an injury than 
those who used any other methods of self-protection or those who did 
not resist at all. Unfortunately, in my home State of Illinois, 
Governor Quinn took it upon himself in May to determine what's best for 
Illinois. Rather than listening to the voice of the Illinois 
constituency, Quinn made desperate 11th-hour phone calls to sway 
Illinois Democrats to his side and block vital legislation to allow 
concealed carry in Illinois. He knows better than 49 other States, and 
he knows better than top law enforcement organizations like the 
Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, the Illinois Sheriffs 
Association, the Chicago Police Lieutenants Association, and the 
Chicago Police Sergeants Association.
  Quinn doesn't get it, but 49 other States do and so do I, which is 
why I am a proud cosponsor of H.R. 822, the National Right-to-Carry 
Reciprocity Act of 2011, which was introduced by my colleague, 
Representative Cliff Stearns of Florida. This bill allows any person 
with a State-issued concealed carry to carry in any other State. 
Therefore, for the 49 States that issue concealed carry permits, their 
State laws would apply.
  In Illinois, I refuse to deny visitors the right to carry weapons 
when they are authorized to do so. We must follow the example set by 
every other State in this Nation and allow law-abiding citizens to own 
and bear arms. We must restore, defend and preserve this constitutional 
right at all government levels.

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