ARTICLE 21. DAMAGE AND TRESPASS TO PROPERTY

(720 ILCS 5/21-6)

Sec. 21-6. Unauthorized Possession or Storage of Weapons.

(a) Whoever possesses or stores any weapon enumerated in Section 33A-1 in any building or on land supported in whole or in part with public funds or in any building on such land without prior written permission from the chief security officer for such land or building
Commits a Class a misdemeanor.
(b) The chief security officer must grant any reasonable request for permission under paragraph (a).
(Source: P.A. 89-685, eff. 6-1-97.)

SHERIFF LETTER PAGE 1

January 13, 2002

Sheriff AAA XXXXXX
Street Address
City, ST, Zip

Re: Article 21 ILCS

Dear Sheriff XXXXXX:

Under the provisions of 720 ILCS 5/21-6 (enclosed) I am requesting your written permission to possess weapons on publicly funded or partially publicly funded land in your county. I frequently travel with my handgun encased, unloaded and while in possession of a valid FOID card. I find now that I am committing a Class A misdemeanor every time I am on the public roads. It is to forestall arrest and subsequent prosecution that I make this request.

I have no criminal record, therefore I am requesting that I receive written permission from your office to possess or store any weapon enumerated in Section 33A-1 in any building or on land supported in whole or in part with public funds or in any building on such land.

Since the chief security officer (the county sheriff) must grant any reasonable request for permission, I hope that you will agree with me that my request is indeed reasonable as it’s just impossible to transport my weapons without entering publicly funded lands. If you find that my request is not reasonable, please enumerate where it falls short.

Respectfully yours,

Joe Gunowner

SHERIFF LETTER PAGE 2

(720 ILCS 5/)

ARTICLE 21. DAMAGE AND TRESPASS TO PROPERTY

(720 ILCS 5/21-6)

Sec. 21-6. Unauthorized Possession or Storage of Weapons.

(a) Whoever possesses or stores any weapon enumerated in Section 33A-1 in any building or on land supported in whole or in part with public funds or in any building on such land without prior written permission from the chief security officer for such land or building

Commits a Class a misdemeanor.

(b) The chief security officer must grant any reasonable request for permission under paragraph (a).

(Source: P.A. 89-685, eff. 6-1-97.)

(720 ILCS 5/33A-1)

(c) Definitions.

(1) "Armed with a dangerous weapon". A person is considered armed with a dangerous weapon for purposes of this Article, when he or she carries on or about his or her person or is otherwise armed with a Category I, Category II, or Category III weapon.

(2) A Category I weapon is a handgun, sawed-off shotgun, sawed-off rifle, any other firearm small enough to be concealed upon the person, semiautomatic firearm, or machine gun. A Category II weapon is any other rifle, shotgun, spring gun, other firearm, stun gun or taser as defined in paragraph (a) of Section 24-1 of this Code, knife with a blade of at least 3 inches in length, dagger, dirk, switchblade knife, stiletto, axe, hatchet, or other deadly or dangerous weapon or instrument of like character. As used in this subsection (b) "semiautomatic firearm" means a repeating firearm that utilizes a portion of the energy of a firing cartridge to extract the fired cartridge case and chamber the next round and that requires a separate pull of the trigger to fire each cartridge.

(3) A Category III weapon is a bludgeon, black-jack, slungshot, sand-bag, sand-club, metal knuckles, billy, or other dangerous weapon of like character.