Sorry to resurrect an old thread, but
-- Current law states that no non-LE folk can own anything with a detatchable mag north of I-80 in illinois, there are other restrictions as well.
That's absolutely untrue.
First of all, there is no Illinois firearm law that has anything to do with I-80 or any region of the state larger than a county. There are federal laws, statewide laws, county ordinances and municipal ordinances.
Secondly, Chicago and Cook County (the county in which Chicago is located) both prohibit "assault weapons." But it's a lot more complicated than banning any firearm with a detachable magazine. Both ordinances have lists of firearms which are considered assault weapons by fiat (any variant on the AK family, for instance, is considered an assault weapon in Cook County, regardless of features.)
Chicago has a list of features that make a weapon an "assault weapon" if it's not on that list, and furthermore allows the Superintendent of Police to add any weapon he wants to the list of prohibited "assault weapons" by personal fiat. However, the current Superintendent (Weis) wiped out the "Superintendent's list" when he took office and has not added any firearms to it since.
Cook County has a stringent set of features that identify assault weapons, and many weapons that aren't named on their list are included for that reason--for instance, several shotguns made by Mossberg and Remington, even pump actions.
Finally, yes, Illinois gun laws have a lot more to do with geography than with political party. Democrats and Republicans from the Chicago area tend to vote for more gun control, while Democrats and Republicans from "downstate" tend to vote against it. At the moment, though, there's a movement afoot to challenge gun control in Chicagoland as well. This week a town hall meeting in McHenry County just north of Chicago drew 500 people to hear the Sherriff and speakers from IllinoisCarry.org and the new McHenry Right to Carry coalition.
I moderate at
www.thehighroad.us and
www.thefiringline.com (the original forum from which The High Road sprang) as well as writing the Chicago Gun Rights Examiner column for Examiner.com and serving as a Director for IllinoisCarry. Right now I'm working on finding Marshals to help with the IGOLD (Illinois Gun Owner Lobbying Day) at the state capitol in Springfield on March 10, so if anyone is willing to help out, please let me know. The event has roughly doubled in size every year for the last few years, and indications are that we can expect 7500-10,000 gun owners this year. Buses are available from all corners of the state, and if you've never seen IGOLD, you owe it to yourself to get there this year. I'd love to have more EMTs as Marshals, just in case, so let me know.
And since this is supposed to be a showoff thread, here's my "Gun Blog .45" from Para-USA. These were used for a weekend of training with Todd Jarrett at Blackwater's North Carolina campus (awarded to ten lucky bloggers by vote, and one lucky reader--me--by lottery) the summer before last. Everyone had the option of purchasing the gun, and everyone did, though a couple have grumbled about them since. If it didn't have the LDA trigger, it'd be nearly perfect.