Editorial: Concealed gun law allowing questionable people to carry

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Two years after Illinois’ concealed-carry law went into effect, it’s time we took a hard look at whether people who are a danger to themselves or others are getting permits to carry hidden weapons.

Under the law, even people who been arrested for violence are eligible to carry concealed weapons. The law leaves it up to local police to object if someone who shouldn’t be packing heat applies for a permit.

But that extra safeguard apparently is not protecting us the way it should, at least in Cook County, whose residents account for about a quarter of the state’s concealed-carry permit applications, according to State Police numbers released in January.

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According to Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, when he files an objection, the Illinois Concealed Carry Licensing Review Board goes ahead and grants a permit anyway 82 percent of the time. That’s a pretty good batting average for people who have records that a professional lawman finds scary.

According to Dart’s numbers, the sheriff has objected to a total of 3,230 applications. Of those 1,950 on which the review board has acted, only 351 were denied. The other 1,599 were approved anyway, and the applicant got a permit.

In one example, the board granted a permit over Dart’s objections to a person who had two arrests for unlawful use of a weapon, a violation of an order of protection and a domestic battery case.

Does that sound like a “law-abiding individual” who should be permitted to carry a concealed weapon?

And those numbers likely understate the seriousness of the problem. Some people with violent pasts who apply for a concealed carry permit remain completely off the radar of local law enforcement because their arrests took place in other counties, and police are not permitted to use the most comprehensive data base for background checks — the Law Enforcement Agencies Data System — when evaluating concealed-carry permit applications.

Consider the case of 45-year-old Richard Idrovo, who just this month shot his girlfriend and himself to death at a Loop business. Idrovo possessed a valid Illinois concealed carry permit though he had a “domestic violence history,” according to police. We now know his record contained a 1994 order of protection and a 1997 arrest on misdemeanor charges of assault and violation of an order of protection. But without LEADS, Idrovo’s full record didn’t show up, and no police department objected when Idrovo applied for a concealed-carry permit.

We recognize that the state’s seven-member review board, which makes its decisions in private, has a tough job. It’s not always easy to judge how responsible a particular individual is just by looking at a police record. An arrest isn’t always a sure sign that somebody is a danger. But the board does not give reasons for its decisions. Board member Jeremy Margolis said that, although the news media has not raised the question before now, he believes it would be improper for board members to discuss these confidential deliberations.

But we also know there are people out there who simply should not be allowed to carry a gun — and they are allowed.

When the Illinois Legislature debated the concealed-carry law two years ago, supporters of the law stressed the ability of local police to object to applications as an important protection for the public. This, they said, was the ultimate backstop. But that protection works only if valid objections hold up both before the review board — and in court if an applicant sues.

Two years into the program, it’s time a full review was conducted of the Concealed Carry Licensing Review Board’s actions and reasoning. When Dart’s objections to somebody getting a permit are overruled more than 80 percent of the time, the public deserves to know why.

It is not necessary, nor would it necessarily be legal, to name names of applicants whose fitness to carry a gun has been questioned. But if local police says these people shouldn’t be carrying, let’s find out why they are.

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