They wasted their money on private registration. It's owned and run by Shaun A. Kranish.
Rockford Register Star (Illinois)
July 30, 2006 Sunday
RVC student pushes for right-to-carry guns
Jeff Kolkey Rockford Register Star
ROCKFORD Ask Shaun Kranish how many guns he owns and he is unlikely to give you an answer.
The 21-year-old Rockford man views that as a personal question.
It's probably a safe bet Kranish owns more than the one that was confiscated by police in May. He was carrying it in a holster strapped to his right thigh as he shopped with his girlfriend at the mall.
Founding a Web-based organization called ICarry.org, a lawsuit he filed against Rock Valley College, and getting arrested twice in 10 months has catapulted Kranish into a somewhat prominent spotlight among Second Amendment activists in Illinois.
Although guarded and private in many ways, Kranish is developing a habit of calling attention to himself and his cause.
"We don't get our rights from the government," Kranish said. "We are endowed with them when we are created as human beings. The Bill of Rights is there to protect them and prevent the government from infringing or denying those rights ... our right is to not only keep, or own, but to bear, which is to carry arms."
Not in Illinois, say law enforcement officials.
Officials from the Winnebago County state's attorney's office, Illinois State Police and even the National Rifle Association say Illinois law is clear: It is one of two states that don't have any provision allowing regular citizens to carry guns.
Illinois State Police Lt. Lincoln Hampton said police like current state law because they know who should have guns and who should not.
"In Illinois, you can't carry a weapon on your person at all," Hampton said, noting the law allows workers doing some jobs to be armed with training and certification. "Putting a gun in a little pouch or carrier, or even having it unloaded does not make it legal to carry."
Gun support grows
There were just 10 states with right-to- carry gun laws in 1987, according to the National Rifle Association. Today, 40 states have provisions that allow regular citizens to carry guns and two of those don't require a permit. Eight more states have laws allowing residents to carry guns with restrictions based on police discretion and limited permits.
Illinois and Wisconsin are the only two that don't offer some form of permit that would allow carrying firearms. Several cities, including Chicago, have laws that are more restrictive.
Peter Hamm of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence said there is no question that gun control advocates have suffered setbacks. He attributes that to a powerful gun rights lobby that often has the ear of rural legislators and a core of passionate gun owners who are willing to contribute lots of cash to their cause.
"Is the issue dead? I say no, because people keep dying. This issue has been fiercely debated in America for 100 years, and it unfortunately will continue to be debated for another 100 years," Hamm said.
The majority of Illinois law enforcement officials oppose an armed populace, said Limey Nargelenas, deputy director of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police.
"It reduces the number of guns police officers have to face on the streets whether an individual can possess them legally or not," Nargelenas said.
Gun activist born
Kranish said he did not grow up around guns. His parents didn't own any when he was a youngster.
He got his first gun at age 18, he said, because he wanted protection as he worked late at night operating an Internet cafe in Rockford.
He said he then was angered to learn that legal gun owners could not carry a loaded gun for protection in Illinois when they can in other states. He established the ICarry.org Web site in September to advocate for strengthening Second Amendment gun rights in Illinois.
"When you set up a gun-free zone, what you are doing is creating a criminal-friendly zone or victim disarmament zone," Kranish said. "You are encouraging bad guys to commit crimes there because they know they won't meet resistance."
The effectiveness of right- to-carry laws on reducing violent crime is difficult to discern because just about every study is countered by the other side of the debate.
The National Rifle Association says states with right-to-carry laws have on average reduced crime rates, while gun control advocates counter that crime rates have dropped nationally and there is no evidence it is because of looser gun restrictions.
Kranish began wearing what Rock Valley College police reports describe as similar to a police officer's black tactical holster strapped to his thigh with a Velcro flap. Because Rock Valley rules prohibit guns on campus and because state law prohibits guns on state-supported property, he did not carry a gun there.
Wearing the empty holster to school symbolized the disarmament of Illinois residents and provoked conversations about gun rights with fellow Rock Valley students, he said.
But Kranish was armed when he would go out to other public places.
"I don't believe any other human being on this Earth was given the job to protect me," Kranish said. "It's not just a matter of self-defense, it's a matter of freedom."
Busted Part I
Kranish wants people to be able to carry guns not only in public but also at his school. He walked into Rock Valley College President Jack Becherer's office on Oct. 11 to schedule an appointment to talk about the topic.
The black holster alarmed Becherer's secretary. She thought he might be armed, especially since he had "I Carry" printed on his jacket. According to police reports, she attempted not to stare at the holster as she tried to determine whether he had a gun.
She told him he should take up his conversation over gun policy with the campus police chief.
After Kranish left for the public safety building, the secretary called the cops to tell them someone might be on campus with a gun.
He was arrested for disturbing the peace after reaching the college police department and being questioned, a charge the Winnebago County state's attorney's office authorized but later dropped because it determined there was insufficient evidence, said Chuck Prorock, first deputy state's attorney.
Kranish filed a $1.5 million civil rights lawsuit in federal court alleging he was wrongfully arrested and his right of free speech among other rights was violated.
"I didn't have a gun on campus because they have a rule against it," Kranish said. "I wore (the holster) on campus as a statement of my beliefs."
Although college officials won't say much because of the pending litigation, they don't feel an armed student body would make for a safe campus.
"An environment of safety for students, faculty and everyone is critical on a college campus, and that is why we have a public safety department," Becherer said.
A status hearing is pending in early August.
Busted Part II
In May, Kranish got arrested again, this time on a felony charge.
He was carrying when he went shopping at CherryVale Mall. He had a semi-automatic pistol inside the holster, unloaded with an ammunition magazine ready in a compartment on the holster.
Cherry Valley Police Chief Gary Maitland said Kranish had modified the holster by having material sewn over it so the gun could not be viewed in plain sight. But it was visible enough to alarm CherryVale security guards.
They stopped Kranish and held him until police arrived.
This time he was arrested and the state's attorney's office authorized a charge of unlawful use of a weapon. Kranish said prosecutors later upgraded the charge to aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, indicating they plan to argue Kranish was carrying a concealed handgun.
The Gun Owners of America and the Champaign County Rifle Association have chipped in $500 each toward Kranish's legal bills.
"You wait and see, he will come out ahead in that deal because he wasn't doing anything illegal," said Roger Dorsett, past president of the Champaign association. "He went about it the right way, he wasn't doing anything wrong."
Illinois law
Kranish and his lawyer argue that if he was transporting the gun properly it is legal for him to have it in his holster.
Illinois law stipulates it is illegal to carry or possess a firearm in public. But it can be transported legally if it is broken down into a non-functioning state; is not immediately accessible; or is "unloaded and enclosed in a case, firearm carrying box, shipping box or other container by a person with ... a valid Firearm Owners Identification Card."
Kranish's case could come down to whether or not the courts buy his argument that his holster satisfies what the law means by a "case."
Maitland said the gun was unloaded, a magazine in another pouch of the holster. Even though it was unloaded, he said the law doesn't permit people to carry guns strapped to their legs, no matter how much they may argue that a holster with a piece of cloth sewed over it is a container.
"If you are proficient in loading a semiautomatic handgun, you can have it loaded and ready to go in a second, maybe two, but certainly very quickly," Maitland said. "You can't walk into a store with a gun in a holster. He contends it's a container, we contend it's a holster."
Whether the holster is a container or not could be what decides the outcome of the case.
"The first time, it was not a gun issue as much as a freedom of speech issue," Kranish said.
"The second was a perfect, shining example of how ... an Illinois gun owner is victimized for owning a gun. The safest way to not get arrested is not to own a gun, and that is not acceptable."
AT ISSUE
Rock Valley College officials say their policy against weapons is meant to keep the campus safe:
"Weapons and explosives: No person shall possess, store, or carry any firearms, other dangerous and deadly weapons, or explosives openly or concealed, except for those persons officially authorized ... on any property the college may own or lease."
RVC Student Handbook Rule No. 27
Kranish says he wanted to discuss the policy with college officials when he was arrested in October:
"Kranish decided to ... express his strong belief based on the Constitution in general, statistics, human rights, the beliefs of the founding fathers of this country, and the Second Amendment to the Constitution in particular, and common sense and logic that governmental policies against self-defense are immoral and quite possibly the gravest threat to public safety."
Federal civil rights lawsuit
Right to carry
2 States allow residents to carry guns without any permit Alaska and Vermont.
38 States issue citizens permits to carry firearms based on uniform standards.
8 States have a form of right-to-carry permitting process, but issuing the permits is often at the discretion of law enforcement officials.
2 States don't allow citizens to carry a loaded gun Wisconsin and Illinois
Illinois Gun Law: It is illegal to carry loaded guns in Illinois, but they can be transported if the weapons are broken down in a nonfunctioning state; or are not immediately accessible; or are unloaded and enclosed in a case, firearm carrying box, shipping box, or other container by a person who has been issued a currently valid Firearm Owner's Identification Card.
All hail Demosthenes, the all-knowing, all-seeing ... Remind me NEVER to get into a pissing contest with you. 
Besides, we all love ya too much.
As a former editor and writer, you think I would have noticed that.