Dismantling the stigma of guns

State senator Kwame Raoul, who helped write the new legislation, says he isn’t worried. “Particularly in northern Illinois, there’s a sense that the sky is falling,” says Raoul, who represents a liberal district stretching from downtown Chicago to the southeast side. “But people who’ve traveled the country probably haven’t thought about the fact that the places they visited had conceal and carry. In fact, in a lot of the places they traveled to, they probably felt safer.”

Raoul stresses that he’s never been a gun-ownership advocate. “But it can’t be as simple as, if you’re a true fighter against gun violence you’re for everything on this side of the line, and if you’re a proponent of gun ownership rights, you’re somehow for gun violence.”

Vernon’s two-day conceal-and-carry course is detailed and intense. Before heading to the range to shoot, participants spend a full day in the classroom. On the day I sat in, Vernon focused on basic firearm safety. “Number one, treat every gun as if it was loaded,” he said. “Number two, never point a gun at anything you are not willing to destroy.”

One of the men in the class nodded. He recalled how his aunt once waved her gun at another car that cut them off in traffic. After she was able to pull away, someone in the other car shot out her back window. “My mom was like, ‘Bitch, what are you doing?'”

“That’s right,” Vernon said.

He told that class that he takes at least one gun everywhere he’s allowed, but he repeatedly stressed that a gun should never be pulled unless it’s a matter of critical urgency—and in those instances, you need to be practiced enough to put the threat down. You don’t shoot for the legs, like on TV—you aim for the central nervous system, and you can’t afford to miss.

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