Elderly Chicago man saves family, self with 'illegal' handgun

Early yesterday morning, an 80-year-old Korean War veteran in Chicago faced an armed home invader, whose first reaction upon seeing the homeowner was to fire two shots at him.  Fortunately, both missed.  Also fortunately, his was not the only gun on the scene.

An 80-year-old Army veteran shot and killed an armed man who’d broken in to the two-flat where he and his wife live in East Garfield Park early this morning and fired at him.

Other accounts of the incident reveal that the homowner's firearm was a handgun, possession of which in Chicago is--at least pending the Supreme Court's McDonald v. Chicago decision expected next month--illegal.  This upstanding citizen, in other words--by all accounts well liked and respected by neighbors--is a "gun criminal."
What would have persuaded such a man to break the law with regard to Chicago's handgun ban--to think, in other words, that it's (to paraphrase) "better for the police to catch him with it than the robber to catch him without it"?  A previous armed robbery:

A couple of months ago, the man — a Korean war veteran with three children and six grandkids — had been robbed at gunpoint at his home by three intruders, his son said. The robbers took $150, he said — and his father bought a gun and vowed never to be a victim again.

So where does this leave the man, legally speaking?  Apparently, not in bad shape.

No charges are expected for a man in his 80s who fatally shot an alleged assailant during a home invasion Wednesday morning in the West Side Garfield Park neighborhood, police said.

Part of that is no doubt due to even Mayor Daley having the sense to avoid stepping into the politcal minefield of prosecuting an 80-year-old veteran who protected his life and family against an armed thug with a 13-page rap sheet.  Another part is that Illinois has a law that protects violators of municipal gun laws, when the gun was used in self-defense at home. 
Interestingly, when this law worked its way through the legislature in 2004, President Obama was an Illinios state senator (it was, in other words, before his election to the U.S. Senate).  He voted against the bill, first when it came up for a vote in the state Senate, and again when there was a vote to reconcile the Senate's version with the amended House version.  By the time of the vote to override then-Governor Blagojevich's (remember him?) veto, Obama had been elected to the U.S. Senate, but there's no reason to believe that he would have changed his vote, had he still been active in the state senate.
Still, legal issues aside, Chicago's handgun ban could cause problems for this good man and his family.  His gun was almost certainly collected by the police as "evidence," and I would be willing to wager that he'll never get it back--the self-defense at home exemption from prosecution for violations of municipal gun laws says nothing about getting the "illegal" gun back.  Does he have other guns?  If not, can he quickly buy one on a fixed income (and then there's the wating period--three days for a handgun in Illinois)?  Did the deceased have similarly unsavory friends who will want to "avenge" his death?
Oh--one more thing about the "illegal" gun.  NYC Mayor Bloomberg's "Mayors Against Illegal Guns" group (of which Daley is, of course, a member, as is St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay) claims not to be anti-gun--just anti-"illegal" gun.  Not anti-gun owner--just anti-"illegal" gun owner.  You know--like this brave man who saved his life and his family.
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