When a federal court declared Illinois’ ban on allowing people to carry guns in public unconstitutional, it also gave legislators an assignment: pass a concealed carry law by June 9.
Lawmakers are in continued negotiations, but so far gun rights’ activists and those who favor stricter gun control have been unable to reach an agreement.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart is doubtful they will, at least in time. He fears that could leave Illinois temporarily without any real limits on who can carry a gun, and where. He wants a local ordinance passed just in case.
Amanda Vinicky spoke with the National Rifle Association’s lobbyist in Springfield, Todd Vandermyde, who says the NRA is ready to take action of its own.
WUIS - My Source for News 
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Please note an important point: the Court did not “give an assignment” to the Legislature, nor did it, as incorrectly reported elsewhere, “order” it to produce a new law.
Courts do not have that power under the Constitution to order a legislature to do anything.
The Court declared the Illinois UUW law portion that controlled citizen carry in public unconstitutional. Then, it added a stay on its own order giving the Legislature time to enact a Constitutional law.
The legislature has that as an option; it can also decline to act, thereby leaving Illinois without the carry portion of the Unlawful Use of Weapons statute.
Our right will NOT be infringed….tick tock…
Duty to Inform (DTI) w/criminal penalties was placed in Rep. Phelps HB997 by the NRA, not the Chicago machine. Any cop off duty or out of uniform, or a police impersonator can approach an armed citizen and they must volunteer that they are armed. If not the cop may arrest on the spot and the citizen faces 6 months or 1 yr. in jail! With audio recording of police by citizens a felony in IL, this is one persons word against anothers. 95% of NRA members are small town people who don’t care about DTI since they think they live in Mayberry circa 1962, where cops never lie and the sun always shines. NRA got trendy and likes to use Chicago people like Otis McDonald for its lawsuits. How much are the lawyers going to make by leaving DTI in the bill? Is this why DTI was put in the bill by Phelps and NRA contract lobbyist Vandermyde? DTI violates the right to remain silent and the right to be treated as innocent until proven guilty. Vandermyde says that the Mayor of Chicago has acted with bad faith and he wants equal protection for all, so why is DTI in the NRA backed HB997 and Chicago democrats are testifying against DTI in floor debate? Something smells in this deal. Are Chris Cox and Chuck Cunningham at NRA/ILA watching what this guy is doing?
What a paranoid argument, with no basis in fact.
Illinois has been violating the civil rights of it’s citizens for 52 years.
Instead of trying to distort and pervert the meaning of the Second Amendment, Illinois politicians should abide by the Supreme Court’s decision and stop their infringement of our rights.
Fifty two years of human rights violations by this government is a travesty!
Moe- here’s some facts. Todd Vandermyde was a lobbyist for the Intl. Union of Operating Engineers local 150 in Countryside, where he worked for William Dugan. Dugan was convicted of federal charges in 2010 by US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. Check the October 14, 2010, press release from the FBI Chicago office: http://www.fbi.gov/chicago/press-releases/2010/cg101410.htm
So why is Vandermyde allowed to roam the state capitol and influence laws that will effect millions of people? NRA used Otis McDonald as front man for their lawsuits, then betrayed him and everyone in Cook County with DTI, as a payoff to the police unions. When licensed gun owners get set up, arrested and killed by police criminals, Vandermyde will have job security to lobby against his own bad bill. Chris Cox & Chuck Cunningham at NRA/ILA HQ let him do this.
The only people who can’t figure this out are the hick NRA members who are too dense to understand that Vandermyde and Brandon Phelps are not their friends.
Vandermyde betrayed all LE personnel in Illinois. LE had a exemption from costly training requirements under the CC bill as recognition that a NRA trainer was unlikely to have anything to add after years of documented LE training.
A exemption was in the law, and everyone in Illinoiscarry.com noted that Vandermyde had started making very strange statements on the site about this provision, even though it was already in the law.. Well, he knew and was cooperating in trading off that provision for other stuff he wanted, and was telling people on one hand that “something got slipped past him”, and then at other times claiming he had a agreement to create a exemption that the speakers staff and accepted – despite the fact that no exception needed to be created, it was already in the original carry law.
Vandermyde waited till after the trailer bill had been voted on to tell people that the language stripped their training exemptions out and made sure that almost no LE training could be exempted.
If you know any more dirt on Vandermyde or I can be of ANY assistance in paying back this human piece of lying trash, please let me know. Vandermyde is a greater enemy than the chicago dems, because the chicago dems dont lie to you while pretending to be on your side. Thanks for revealing some details about Vandermyde. If it helps, I have a screengrab off a web site where he is logged in and posts that he always carries a unlicensed handgun into Chicago (before any carrry law or permit was obtained) and this alone is a severe enough gun crime to get his own carry priviledges revoked.
His post is enough PC for a chicago or cook county copper to do s stop and frisk on him, because he its a spontaneous admission.
Welcome to the club. Seems like the only people in IL who can’t figure out that Vandermyde is dishonest are the NRA members. Anyway, here’s some info:
Go to IL Sec. of State cyberdriveillinois.com
in the search bar enter “lobbyist activities”
Fish around there re: DTV Associates & you will have the personnel info.
Few know, including State Reps. & people in Springfield, that Vandermyde is a contract lobbyist for NRA. 1099, not W-2. Check the lobbyist filings & you will see that he worked for the union & NRA at the same time.
He “works” for two guys at NRA-ILA (Institute for Legislative Action) This is the lobbying arm of NRA, which can give money to candidates. So when Vandermyde tells ILA to endorse a candidate, they take his word for it to dole out the money. Or just oppose/not oppose them in elections. So this makes him a kingmaker to some extent in politics.
Chris Cox
Executive Director
NRA-ILA
703-267-1493
ccox@nrahq.org
Chuck Cunningham
Director, ILA State and Local Affairs
703-267-1228
ccunningham@nrahq.org
I don’t know that these two have ever set foot in IL. Vandermyde operates without supervision, and he is involved in picking plaintiffs for NRA lawsuits, so in effect he is acting as an unlicensed attorney.
Because IL was the backwater of gun rights for 50 years, we may have had the absolute worst lobbyist in America when the McDonald case came along. Don’t expect the NRA to do anything about him. Clearly they did not check his employment background, character, or associations. Now they will try to hide it after he sold out the Chicago black population with this bad carry bill.
150membersvoice.org has some info. on Vandermyde
laborers.org has some info. too.
Re. illinoiscarry.com: If you do an ICANN search, Valinda Rowe owns the site. There really is no illinoiscarry, it’s just her editing, blocking and deleting posts. She is together with Vandermyde now, and most of the people on there are her snitches. If you post or PM anything about him, she will see it. If she knows you are saving posts, she will delete them. Not to be trusted. Carry bill sponsor Rep. Brandon Phelps is her Rep., and most of her followers are deep south people, and pretty stupid. They haven’t figured out that Vandermyde is bad news.
Re. the admission of UUW:
Suggest you contact CPD. Vandermyde has publicly insulted Superintendent McCarthy many times.
Also ISP, as they will be issuing licenses. Read Phelps HB183 carry bill that passed at the ilga.gov site. The bill forms a Concealed Carry Review Board. Vandermyde describes alcohol use on the blog. That may be of interest to the Board.
You could also get your info. to the guys who put out the press release. If they looked into the union, they may have a file on him also.
This guy is unfit to write legislation that will effect millions of people.