The 2nd Amendment Comes to the City

An emerging trend in Chicago is catching my attention. It’s not making mainstream news yet, but since I am a native of Chicago and follow the local news it has my attention.

The city has been wrestling with a crime surge for the past year and a half, much like other urban areas across the country. I even heard about a bartender from a place I used to frequent getting caught up in the chaos.

What's changing now is the response from Chicagoans with concealed carry licenses. They're not standing by anymore. Instead, they're actively engaging in gunfights in the city streets. Gunfights, once a rare occurrence, are now happening with alarming frequency, several times a month.

For decades, legal guns were a rare sight in American cities, almost impossible to obtain and carry. In Chicago it wasn’t allowed. This was largely due to Mayor Jane Byrne's 1980s ordinance, which effectively banned new handguns in the city.

Whenever I think of concealed carry and carrying a gun around, my mind goes to rural or suburban areas—places where driving is the norm and interactions mainly happen in parking lots, like in Montana.

But Chicago is a real city where people take public transportation. Walk around on sidewalks to get places, bicycle, etc. There is way more potential interaction with your fellow citizen. Way more things can just happen.

This is a new experiment America is doing. Citizens with legal guns and criminals with (illegal) guns. It’s fascinating (and scary) to watch.

Chicago and the Second Amendment L

Fast forward to 2010, and the Supreme Court's McDonald v. City of Chicago decision changes things. It asserts that the Second Amendment's right to self-defense with a handgun isn't limited to federal jurisdictions but extends to state and local governments as well. Then, in 2013, Illinois makes a drastic move. The Firearm Concealed Carry Act is passed, opening the floodgates for concealed carry permits. This was a seismic shift, pulling Illinois out of its position as the last state in the U.S. to forbid concealed carry. But there wasn’t a big surge of people getting their concealed carry license. Some event needed to happen.

That event was Covid. It hit in 2020, along with anti-police protests and a massive crime wave followed.

The result? Chicagoans started started getting concealed carry licenses so they could pack heat while walking around the city.

And now here we are. A big liberal city like Chicago that suddenly is at the front lines of 2nd Amendment. Ground zero. An almost unthinkable idea 10-20 years ago.

A Year of Self-Defense in The City

It’s been fascinating (and scary) to follow this trend. Month after month, another confrontation unfolds between a concealed carry holder and criminals. These aren't cops shooting at criminals. They're ordinary folks, armed like you and me with maybe a week of training. It's like the Deathwish films have come to life, playing out on the streets of Chicago.

Every incident below reads out like a scene from a movie.

January 2023

May 2023

April 2023:

July 2023:

September 2023

October 2023:

November 2023:

December 2023

January 2024

February 2024

In This Newsletter

1) The Legal Gun In The American City The 2nd Amendment is coded as a red state rural issue. Will it become more prevalent in blue cities? Will being an urbanite mean also packing heat?

2) The Aspirational 2nd Amendment. Recently, federal courts have struck down restrictions on all weapons. Will we see a return of Butterfly Knives? Brass Knuckles? Swords? The Second Amendment debate is heating up, and it's not just about guns anymore.

3) The District Attorney. The future of the 2nd Amendment in cities will ultimately come down to the District Attorney. Will the state prosecute concealed carry license holders for engaging in self-defense?

The Legal Gun in the American City?

The 2nd Amendment is not theoretical. It’s really part of the culture. 1/3 Americans owns a gun. You can get away with pranks like this in the UK but it would be really risky doing this in America:

But gun culture has evolved over the century. In the early 20th century, carrying a legal gun around was generally easy. There were fewer federal regulations, and state laws varied widely. Then in the mid 20th-century state’s clamped down on carrying a guns. But in the last 30-40 years it has swung around again and people can now carry around guns wherever they like.

The last holdouts were the big cities. Places like Washington DC, New York and Chicago. But the Supreme Court ruled they must allow citizens to be able to carry handguns.

Gun ownership still lags behind in urban areas. That’s because it has only been legal in big American cities for less than a decade. But that could change in the near future. There could be a big city gun culture emerging.

You’re starting to see legal gun holders walk around in the city. Here is a profile of Chicago concealed carry licensees. A new legal gun culture is shaping the city. It cuts across racial, class and ideological divides.

Something that didn’t really exist before. Like this case in Brooklyn.

The Aspirational 2nd Amendment: Swords, Clubs, Brass Knuckles…

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