Its been just over 3 years that Illinois has had conceal Carry Permits .. 228,000 have now received their permits in that time ..

The tri county area in central Illinois where I live has slightly over 10000 permit holders .. which comes out to about 18% of the eligible population .. one of the highest percentage areas by population in the state ..Tazewell County has the most out of the 3 counties with almost half of the permits ..

Classes for the 16 hour course ranges between $150 and $250 dollars .. the permit itself costs $150 for 5 years, additional cost for a picture and electronic finger prints vary .. non-resident permit costs $300 if your state qualifies but the state of Illinois can and will change the states they honor on a whim !!

It was thought that 300,000 permits would be issued in 5 years so well ahead of those predictions .. The shooting qualification is 21 of 30 shots in a B-27 target .. 10 at each 5 yards, 7 yards and 10 yards .. It would be very hard not to pass the shooting qualification .

Area police spoke persons say that Conceal Carry has been a non issue area wide !! Only 2 incidents with CC holders has happen and both were DUI's and the CC charges were dropped in both cases according to court records .. Its estimated 2.1 million people in Illinois have gun ownership .. the number has doubled in the last 5 years ..

Being the last state to have Conceal Carry we are slowly catching up to other states .. Efforts to carry more places is a continuing fight ..