Update on conceal carry in Illinois

From yesterday's syndicated column from the CapFax's Rich Miller. Talks about the conceal carry debate that's raging in Springfield:

During the Illinois House’s floor debate last week over the concealed-carry bill backed by the National Rifle Association, I was told by an intimate of House Speaker Michael Madigan that Madigan wanted to make sure the bill received no more than 64 votes.

Because the bill pre-empts local government home-rule powers, the bill required a three-fifths majority of 71 votes to pass.

The anti-gun forces were demoralized the day before when their highly restrictive concealed-carry proposal got just 31 votes, so Madigan (D-Chicago) wanted to do the same to the NRA’s version, I was told.

The idea, the source said, was to show both sides that they couldn’t pass their bills on their own and needed to get themselves to the bargaining table and work something out.

Right now the discussion is over a bill blogged about earlier here about having Cook County become a may issue county while the rest of the state is shall issue. It's possible this bill won't be successful either as indicated this morning at CapFax:

And [Steve Brown, IL House Speaker Michael Madigan’s spokesman] comments about not finding consensus on concealed carry may be telling. Could they be waiting until after the June 9th federal court deadline to act?

As stated earlier any restrictions on carrying in this state will be null & void after this date as per a federal court ruling last year. Illinois is currently the only state that doesn't allow for conceal carry permits. A bill to consider such a practice had been vetoed by Governor Pat Quinn long before that ruling!