Louis McWilliams was on his way to a business meeting back in April when he was pulled over a police officer in Chicago for a missing front license plate. The 46-year-old small business owner informed the officer that he was lawfully carrying his firearm, as he’s required to do under Illinois law, and even presented his concealed carry license to the officer.
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The officer, however, told McWilliams that his concealed carry license didn’t show up in the Illinois database known as LEADS, and the legally-armed citizen was arrested and charged with two felonies for supposedly carrying without a license: aggravated unlawful possession of a weapon, and unlawful use of a weapon.
Williams spent a day in jail and three months fighting the charges before they were officially dropped in June. And as CBS Chicago reports, he’s not the only concealed carry holder to be subjected to this nightmarish experience.
It’s nearly impossible to know how many drivers are wrongfully charged with unlawful gun possession, only to have the charges dismissed. Neither CPD nor the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office track this specific data. But CBS News Chicago found three other cases, including two lawsuits, accusing police of violating the rights of legal gun owners in similar situations.
One of them was filed by Lucy Washington, a real estate agent and single mother of two who lives in Chicago. She told CBS News Chicago that she carries a gun for protection.
In December 2023, CPD stopped her for failing to use her turn signal. Within minutes of being stopped, Washington told the officers she’s a gun owner with a CCL, body camera video of her arrest shows.
The officer told Washington that when police ran her information, the state database showed her CCL was expired. But Washington had just renewed it before she was stopped, according to records obtained by CBS News Chicago.
The video shows she tried several times to show police an email she received from state police explaining her pending CCL renewal. But the officers wouldn’t accept it and arrested her anyway.
The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office approved a felony charge of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon.
“I freaked out, especially when I was told that I was going to being charged with a felony,” Washington said. “I was like, I can lose my broker license.”
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While Illinois law allows someone to continue carrying if they have submitted their renewal application, there’s a provision that excludes anyone who allowed their carry license to lapse before they turned in their renewal paperwork. In Washington’s case, her CCL had expired two days before she submitted her paperwork, and just like with McWilliams, it took months for her to have her felony charges dropped for what was a minor mistake, at best.
“You’re picking on somebody coming home from work or someone downtown enjoying our beautiful city, who isn’t doing anything criminal, who isn’t doing anything suspicious, and placing them in jail. And that’s the problem. That’s where the breakdown in trust comes,” said Brandon Brown, Washington’s attorney.
“This is a law-abiding citizen. This is a gainful member of our community. It interrupts and breaks down the trust between the community and law enforcement, which should be a concern of everyone.”
To make matters worse, even though it’s been months since McWilliams and Washington had their felony charges dropped by the Cook County State Attorney’s office, the Chicago PD is still hanging on to their firearms.
Phillip Smith, the founder and head of the National African American Gun Association, told CBS Chicago that the arrests make him outraged, angry, and frustrated, and he’s not alone. Every Second Amendment supporter should be furious about what has happened to McWilliams, Washington, and an untold number of other concealed carry holders in the Windy City.
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Illinois was the last state in the country to adopt a concealed carry law, and the only reason Democrats in Springfield took that step was because the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled the state’s complete ban on bearing arms was unconstitutional. Rather than defend the ban before the Supreme Court, gun control groups prevailed on lawmakers to take the loss and keep the issue away from SCOTUS by adopting a carry law that imposed an 16-hour training regime and a host of “gun-free zones” where lawful carry isn’t permitted.
Since that carry law was adopted in 2013, hundreds of thousands of Illinois residents have obtained their CCL, but it’s clear that some areas of the state, particularly Chicago, are still innately hostile to those residents who dare to exercise their right to bear arms. I know the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division already has a lot on its plate and no shortage of Second Amendment abuses across the country to investigate, but I’d love to see Chicago and Cook County’s practices get the Division’s attention. If people are being thrown in jail for illegally carrying despite presenting officers with their carry license, that’s a huge problem… and one that’s not going to be addressed by anti-gun politicians like Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker or Attorney General Kwame Raoul.
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