3 year mandatory minimum for Crimes committed with Gun in Illinois Plus Obama's shutdown of America's Last Lead Smelter

Commit a crime with a gun and add 3 years to your sentence. Seems straightforward doesn't it? Ah, but in America were the Gun is Sacrosanct any law which might "harm" some innocent Gun is anathema. The NRA and their lapdog Representatives threw a hissy fit.

"I don’t think anybody should go to jail for three years for a mistake. With the new conceal carry law there’s going to be people that mess up, there’s going to be honest, law-abiding gun owners that are going to make a mistake,” Brandon Phelps an Illinois Legislator out of Harrisburg stated during interviews.

First off, there is no such thing as an "Accidental Discharge" there are only Negligent Discharges. And if a gun owner in Illinois commits a ND there should be consequences. I would leave sentencing up to the State's Attorney and the Judge based on the specific circumstances of each individual event.

And make no "mistake", there are tens of thousands of NDs every year. Many of those result in the wounding of children. Between 1997 and 2009, an average of 7500 children per year were admitted to Hospitals with gunshot wounds.

Of course, I'm certain Phelps as an Unrestricted Gun Violence Supporter would ignore this and claim he doesn't want some Gun Nut who illegally carries his gun whenever and wherever to be punished by the big bad government.

Illinois became the last state to adopt Conceal Carry Laws on July 9th of this year. However, there is a 180 day waiting period before the Illinois State Police (ISP)  to accept applications. There is also a lagtime for the ISP to process CC applications. Additionally, law enforcement agencies can protest specific CC applications with the Illinois State Police review board if "based upon a reasonable suspicion that the applicant is a danger to himself or herself or others, or a threat to public safety."

The verbiage associated with the concealed carry law is large but not overly complex. The Illinois State Police have a FAQ page. However, ignorance of the law is no excuse, except amongst conservatives who have perfected the right-wing persecution myth.

What I'd really like from the pro-gun rights group is a yes/no answer followed by a short explanation of the following questions:

• Should a gun owner be able to bring a firearm into a house of worship?
• Should a gun owner be able to bring a firearm into a bar?
• Should a person charged (but not convicted) of a crime be able to bring a gun into a courthouse?
• Should a gun owner be able to walk in and around Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois with their firearm?
• Should a gun owner be able to bring a firearm into a Hospital Emergency Room? Into an MRI?  
• Should a gun owner be able to carry a firearm inside Six Flags Great America in Gurnee? How about Rivers Casino in Des Plaines?
• Should a gun owner convicted of misdemeanor domestic battery have to relinquish his firearms?
• Should there be any restrictions on handguns, long guns, squad automatic weapon ownership whatsoever?

Related:

"Cursing, he reached for his pistols and would have killed him... But the Duck was faster and hot lead blazed from his smoking six-guns.'' - Gene Hackman, Unforgiven. But, Thanks Obama! Now, where is my hot lead gonna come from???

While reading No More Mister Nice Guy's Blog, I learned that conservative crazies are rending their hair and figuratively (this time) going ballistic in the Right-Wing Fart Bubble that Obama has shut down the last Primary Lead Smelting Plant (Doe Run) in the United States, in Herculaneum, Missouri. Doe Run has been operating on that site for the last 121 years.

Doe Run could have upgraded their facility so as to comply with the new Clean Air Act regulatory levels but, that would cost them money and Corporations are only interested in their bottom line and if poor people are killed and workers are exposed to toxic levels of lead well to bad for them.

Now, the Right-Wing Fart Bubble has officially declared this to be Obama's end run around the Second Amendment, using the Job-Killing EPA to take away America's bullets.

The EPA officially released the revised the National Ambient Air Quality standards back in November 2008...

Of course, the actual residents in Herculaneum are happy because they won't be breathing in lead dust,

"This was all over," said resident Jack Warden. "It covered the side-walking areas. Kids would ride their bicycle down the street and they’d see that dust, they’d lock the brakes up, slide the back tire around on the bicycle, dust would just go flying. And that’s what they were breathing—30 percent lead."

But, conservative crazies, who much like latter-day Roman citizens suffer from the effects of heavy-metal poisoning, can't be expected to be reasonable or rational.

Republicans want to Kill Chicagoans via Lead Poisioning

Yes, Republicans entice their conservative drones to shoot Liberals but this is the more prosaic poisoning.

From the Chicago Tribune story,

EPA researchers tested samples from 29 Chicago area homes and at least 1 liter in the first 12 tested in 15 of the 29 homes exceeded 15 parts per billion of lead. The current procedures require only the first liter out of the pipes be tested. The current procedures, obviously give an inaccurate account of the lead levels as the higher levels were registered in the proceeding water.

The EPA says there is no safe level of lead exposure, especially for vulnerable populations including children, pregnant women and infants who drink formula made from tap water. Miguel Del Toral notes that lead is the only substance other than carcinogens for which the EPA exposure goal is zero.

But, Republicans know that by simply eliminating the EPA the Lead levels will effectively drop to zero because no agency will be measuring for them!

As I related with my post Peter Roskam called me the other day about the Job-Killing EPA in which I asked Representative Roskam why the Republicans overwhelming support the idea of eliminating the EPA and federal clean water standards HR 2018, A Republican House bill in which 223 of 236 (94.5%) of Republicans voted to eliminate the Clean Water Act of 1972. The answer is always that the EPA harms jobs.

"Whether it’s the EPA, the FDA, the FCC, the SEC, the CFTC, you name it, there is an acronym for a federal agency causing harm right now. We’re trying to pull that in." - Eric Cantor, famous Republicon Hit Man for the Plutocracy who demanded disaster relief for Tornado victims in Joplin, MO only be appropriated from cuts to Medicare.

Oh, but don't worry Corporations have your best interest at heart, they certainly will voluntarily reduce their toxic pollution! It's the Myth of Self-Regulation.

As we have seen with every deregulation and privatization scheme Chicago and Cook County residents would face the prospect of tainted water with little to no remedy to face giant Corporate Criminals who regularly violate EPA and State rules now and would pollute and poison Americans with absolute impunity if the Republicons succeed in their efforts to dismantle the EPA.