How the Brady Campaign Ratings Work

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HoosierQ

HoosierQ

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So I live in Indiana where we score a 9 out of 100. So that's good. Some states are lower like KY. In Indiana we don't have open carry...gotta have a permit to carry a handgun no matter how you carry it. Of course we are a "shall issue" state so nobody really cares. Little things like that score us Brady points...but life in Indiana is good.

What gets me is how California is number 1 by huge margin with 79 points I think. And yet, undoubtedly the least firearm friendly state in the Union, Illinois, is 9th with only 28 points. I mean in Chicago, you simply cannot own a handgun...nobody, now way, no how...right? No where in Illinois, can you carry a handgun...nobody, no way, now how...right? I don't think you can legally own any AR15 in Chicago...maybe anywhere in Illinois.

I understand that in California, for example, as long as you have to use a tool to remove a magazine, a regular old AR-15 is legal with all the acoutrements and even a 30-round mag...as long as you need an allen wrench or something to remove that 30 round mag.

So my question is, up there at the top, above Illinois...California, New Jersery, etc, is it really actually harder to exercise your RKBA than Illinois...where it seems that you may not actually have a RKBA? Or have states like California pandered to Brady by "running up the score" with this law or that? I mean I know it is really bad in California (no lead ammo all over the place, the tool removable magazine thing etc), but I am just so surprised that Illinois, which would seem to me the worst place in the USA to exercise the RKBA, scores 9th instead of first.

Is the Brady rating really a good way to tell what's what? Especially up at the top. You gotta figure if you score in the single digits that your in pretty good shape.
 
Brady rates the states, not the cities within them. Their scorecard is a measure of the state's gun laws. If they did a city rating, surely Chicago would be in the top 2, but Chicago's laws are far stricter than the state of Illinois'.
 
So downstate Illinois then, in your opinion is a better place to exercise your RKBA than say northern California? Both a long way from the big cities in those states.

That's kind of what I am getting at. I guess I am under the impression that all of Illinois goes the way of Chicago on gun laws to an extent.

Here is part of my reason also...the California desert is beautiful. I would love to live out by the Salton Sea which is in Riverside and Imperial counties. But man I would want a gun out there...you know out there "When seconds count, the police are like an hour away".
 
Illinois, outside of Cook County, is not all that bad:

1. 24/72 hour waiting period. It's shorter than California, Hawaii, and several east coast states.
2. No training requirement.
3. No magazine limits.
4. No one-a-month or any crap like that.
5. No semi-auto bans.
6. No "junk gun" bans.

We require pre-approval through something called a FOID, there is no concealed carry or open carry, and no NFA weapons. But we are not nearly as strict (i.e. unconstitutional) as California, Hawaii, and many of the east-coast states which have those problems PLUS most of the six additional problems that Illinois does not.
 
Hoosier,
What I am saying is the Brady ratings only take into account laws on the state's books. Not regional laws, city laws, or any other municipality. Only the laws of the state legislature/courts. It pits the laws of the STATE of California against the laws of the STATE of Illinois. There is no measurement for cities who have stricter laws than the states in which they are located.
 
It all depends on what one's own personal priorities are. If your top priority is concealed carry, than you'd probably consider Illinois to be the most strict. If you really love AR's and AK's and want high-cap magazines, then you'd be fine with Illinois but hate California. I don't think there is any way to come up with an objective standard to rank the states, because there is necessarily a subjective standard associated with each individual restriction.

The thing about Illinois is that once you get over the FOID hurdle (which is a PITA), you have pretty expansive rights with at least respect to your own private property. Once you step off your own property, you become extremely restricted (pretty much can never possess a loaded gun except when hunting).
 
I live in CA, and other than no assault weapons unless registered, it's not too bad. We have an "approved" gun list which the gun makers have to submit a gun for "safety" testing and pay a huge fee for the privlege and every gun has to be tested even if its just a different color. How stupid is that? So we might not get every model of every line available to us. But for pistols we must take a cheezy test and pay $25.00 to buy one. You get a okey dokey card good for 3 or 5 years I forget which. Also only 10 round mags are permitted unless grandfathered in before the law changed. We are a may issue state so its up to the top cop of your city or county if you qualify.
 
2. No training requirement.
Click to expand...
IS that really a law, in Cook County? I just recently got my FOID card(and let me just say as long as you're not insane or a felon it's the easiest thing to apply and get) and I've never heard of any such rule here in Cook County, is that just in Chicago?
 
I am really hoping for a good bump for Utah this year, we just passed parking lot possession and no permit for in-car carry, and we have legislators looking to write legislation to allow in-state FA manufacture and possession like MT has done. If that doesn't get us an "F", I don't know what they want from us. (fumes.)

Also, we are no longer a 'duty-to-inform' state.
 
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No where in Illinois, can you carry a handgun...nobody, no way, now how...right? I don't think you can legally own any AR15 in Chicago...maybe anywhere in Illinois.
Click to expand...

Cops (and retired cops) can CC. Anyone can open carry without a permit in "rural areas." I've always taken that to mean where there are no people (ie useless). I think that the OC thing is in there mainly for hunting. ARs and other EBRs are legal, along with all magazines.

I guess I am under the impression that all of Illinois goes the way of Chicago on gun laws to an extent.
Click to expand...

Oh they try. Pretty much any gun law we have is because Chicago muscled it through. They push us around on everything. I think that if Chicago was it's own state, and the rest of Illinois was Illinois, then we'd have gun laws equal or better (for gun owners) than you guys in Indiana.

Yes the FOID blows. It's just gun owner registration. There is no way that it prevents any criminals from buying guns because the Brady Bill requires a background check on every purchase. It's just stupid.
 
Oh, and FOID also puts in another hoop for good people to jump through to get a gun, thus discouraging them from getting one. I need to move away from here. The West sounds nice, good gun laws, lots of open land to shoot on. I should really do that.
 
Well thanks all. This has been informative...very informative. Sounds like, other than CC, you all are better off in Illinois...as long as you're not in Chicago.

So, is gun control working up there in Chicago? Anybody ever get shot in Chicago since, you know, guns are illegal up there? ;)

PS I love Chicago as a city and find all of Illinois that I've seen very nice so I have no desire to defame the Land of Lincoln on any point other than gun control. Ditto for California.
 
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