Alan Gottlieb
By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
A highly-publicized self-defense shooting in Chicago’s Logan Square area by a legally-armed Uber driver would not have happened without federal court action spearheaded by the Second Amendment Foundation, which forced the Illinois legislature to adopt a concealed carry law in 2013.
The unidentified Uber driver fired several rounds at a gunman who opened fire, apparently on a group of people virtually in front of where the driver was stopped. While nobody else was hurt, the gunman ended up in a local hospital with multiple gunshot wounds.
But this defensive gun use would never have happened, had not SAF filed a right-to-carry lawsuit against the long-standing prohibition in Illinois against concealed carry. A similar lawsuit, filed independently by the National Rifle Association, added fuel to the fire for change that had been sought for years by Illinois gun rights activists.
Those cases are SAF’s Moore v. Madigan and NRA’s Shepard v. Madigan. When the federal court ruled against Illinois, the legislature scrambled to write a law that, albeit reluctantly, met the federal requirements.
After former anti-gun Gov. Pat Quinn tried to veto the legislation, the legislature overrode his action in mid-2013. At the time, SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan Gottlieb applauded lawmakers for their 77-31 vote in the House and 41-17 vote in the Senate.
It was a stunning defeat for Quinn, who was voted out of office in November 2014. His attempt to veto the concealed carry legislation may have contributed to his defeat, drawing angry Illinois gun owners to the polls.
Gottlieb noted in a press release that the Logan Square shooting met the usual standard “so often tossed out by gun control opponents” to push their gun control agenda.
“It has saved one life,” Gottlieb observed, “and possibly more lives.”
The remark was like a slap across the faces of gun prohibitionists who have repeatedly used the phrase, “If it saves just one life, don’t you think it’s worth it” as they tugged at the public’s emotional heartstrings to justify their battle to erode the Second Amendment.
A spokeswoman for the Cook County State’s Attorney told TGM that the Uber driver will face no criminal charges, while the guy he put in the hospital is being held without bail. The 47-year-old driver, who appears to have been armed with a six-round handgun chambered for .45 Colt and .410 shotshells, acted in self-defense and defense of others, according to the prosecutor and police.
Various accounts of the shooting, including the one published by the Chicago Tribune, say the Uber driver was at or near Logan Square when the suspect, identified as 22-year-old Everardo Custodio pulled a handgun and opened fire. He apparently didn’t hit anybody, but by then the Uber driver had pulled his gun, which has been erroneously identified by some reports as a “shotgun,” and fired six rounds. Custodio was reportedly hit in the leg and lower back, and was taken to a local hospital.
According to the State’s Attorney’s spokeswoman, Custodio faces charges of aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, and aggravated discharge of a firearm. A handgun was recovered at the scene. So far, there has been no explanation for why the suspect opened fire.
“Thanks to his quick action,” Gottlieb said, “nobody else was apparently hurt in this inexplicable incident, the kind of random violence for which Chicago has become notorious over the past several years.”
Gottlieb noted that the SAF lawsuit “was aimed at putting law-abiding citizens on equal footing with street thugs and dangerous nuts.” He called the incident “a text book example of an armed citizen using his legally-carried defensive sidearm to protect his fellow citizens from violent attack.”
“This is precisely the reason law-abiding citizens in Illinois fought so hard for concealed carry, and why we went to court to make that happen,” Gottlieb said. “While SAF deplores violence, we’re delighted that our lawsuit made it possible for this armed man to stop a potentially deadly attack.”
