CHICAGO — Until this year, people in Illinois who were arrested for carrying a gun illegally faced charges with names like “unlawful use of weapons” or “aggravated unlawful use of a weapon,” phrases that seem to describe the firing of a gun. These titles, legal advocates said, create an unfair stigma because they lead potential employers, landlords, and the public to believe that someone committed a violent act, when in most cases, their crime was carrying a gun without the required paperwork.
In January, a new Illinois law changed the names of six weapon possession charges in an effort to better clarify when someone is charged with illegally possessing a weapon as opposed to using one in a crime. While the new law simply changes the names of the charges, advocates say it could help those convicted face less discrimination.
“What we were learning through our criminal defense attorneys is that even in the courtroom, they were encountering judges who were misinterpreting what the defendant in front of them had done because of this inaccurate title,” said Emma Ruth, the policy manager at Cabrini Green Legal Aid in Chicago, a nonprofit that provides free legal support to people involved with the criminal legal system…