The Patriot Post® · Hope in Chicago: Minorities Have Concealed Carry Permits

In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled in McDonald v. City of Chicago that the Windy City’s handgun ban was unconstitutional. In 2013, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed that the Illinois legislature needed to legalize concealed carry — the last state in the union to do so. And later that same year, Chicago’s gun registry was shot down. So it’s been a bad string of defeats for Chicago’s gun grabbing mafia. Now, no doubt much to their chagrin, it’s not only white suburbanites taking advantage of their restored constitutional rights; it’s inner city minorities. And Otis McDonald, the black man who won the Supreme Court case, would have been pleased. He died last year at 80. According to the Chicago Sun-Times, “[T]he 60643 ZIP code where McDonald lived is ranked 23rd out of more than 1,300 ZIP codes across the state” in terms of concealed carry permits. “Ten of the top 50 ZIP codes in the state were in Chicago.” Furthermore, “Chicago’s highest concentration of permits is in the 60617 ZIP code — in the East Side neighborhood on the city’s Southeast Side — with 538 permits. According to the census, about 55 percent of the residents in 60617 are black, 34 percent are Hispanic and 7 percent white.” Todd Vandermyde of the National Rifle Association in Illinois calls this a victory. “This is what Otis McDonald was telling us before he passed away,” he said. “People in his neighborhood and others were hungry for this but were denied by the political class.” Unfortunately, gang violence still plagues Chicago, and gun rights are not as firmly protected as they should be. But all isn’t lost, and there are hopeful signs.