ARMED VIOLENCE

720 ILCS 5/33 A2

https://ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs4.asp?ActID=1876&SeqStart=86700000&SeqEnd=87100000

and

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=072000050K33A-2

Penalties and Definitions: 

•  The most fundamental level of the offense of armed violence happens when someone uses or has a dangerous weapon while committing a felony, except when the definition of the felony committed already includes the element of using a weapon or other categories of severe violence as listed below.
•  The next and more serious level of armed violence is if you discharge a firearm during the commission of the felony. Firearms are considered even more deadly than the general category of “dangerous weapon.”
•  The next and worst level of armed violence is when you discharge the firearm while committing the felony and it causes great injury, disfigurement, or death. The penalties here also depend upon which category of dangerous weapon you used to help commit the felony.
•  Category I weapons include a handgun, a sawed-off shotgun or sawed-off rifle, any other firearm small enough to be concealed upon you, a semiautomatic firearm, or a fully automatic firearm or machine gun.
•  Category II weapons refer to other rifles, shotguns, spring guns, other firearms, stun guns or Tasers, knives with at least a three-inch blade as well as such stabbing or cutting weapons as swords, daggers, switchblades, stilettos, dirks, axes, and hatchets. The term "semiautomatic firearm" refers to a repeating firearm using some of the energy of a fired cartridge to extract its cartridge case and then chamber another round so that only the trigger must be pulled again to fire another cartridge.
•  Category III weapons include such clubbing, striking, or hitting weapons as bludgeons, black-jacks, slingshots, sandbags, sand-clubs, metal knuckles, batons, or similar weapons. 
•  If you commit a felony without discharging or firing it, your punishment will depend on what kind of weapon you used as reflected in the above categories. 
•  If it is a Category I weapon offense (for the kind of weapon you merely possessed while committing the felony), that is a Class X felony for which the convicted defendant shall be sentenced to a minimum term of imprisonment of fifteen years with thirty years imprisonment possible, and thirty to sixty years if it is an extended sentence. No probation is possible for Category X offenses. A fine of up to $25,000 is possible.
•  If you merely possessed a Category II weapon during the felony that is a Class X felony for which you will be sentenced to a minimum term of imprisonment of ten years (with thirty years possible) upon conviction, and thirty to sixty years if it is an extended sentence. No probation is possible. A fine of up to $25,000 is possible.
•  If you merely possessed a Category III weapon during the felony that counts as a Class 2 felony with three to seven years’ incarceration (seven to fourteen years if an extended sentence) and a fine of up to $25,000 is possible.  Probation of four years is possible. However, if the penalty provided for the same original felony act while unarmed is greater, that greater penalty will be the one imposed. Subsequent violations here involving the use of a Category III weapon are Class 1 felonies with a possible four to fifteen years’ incarceration (fifteen to thirty year if an extended sentence). Four years’ probation may be possible here, as well as a fine of up to $25,000 is possible.
•  The above sentences are only if you used a weapon in the commission of the felony without discharging or firing it. Should you discharge a weapon while committing the felony, the penalties get even worse depending upon the category of the weapon and whether you hurt, killed, or disfigured someone as a result. 
•  If you discharge a Category I or Category II weapon in the commission of a felony without hurting anyone, that is classified as a Category X felony but with a minimum sentence of twenty years’ incarceration (with twenty years possible). No probation is possible here, and a fine of up to $25,000 is possible. 
•  Should you discharge the firearm during the felony and that results in great bodily harm, or permanent disability or disfigurement to someone or in their death, the term of incarceration goes up to a minimum of twenty-five years with forty years possible. A $25,000 fine may be imposed as well. 
•  These formal penalties imposed by the state are just the start. You may have to pay court and attorney fees and face trouble finding employment or gaining admission into school or getting a residential lease. You will have trouble getting professional licenses needed for work. You can have your rights to vote or own a firearm restricted or just denied. If you are an immigrant, you may be deported.
•  Whether you just use an accompanying weapon, discharge it without injury, or actually cause injury or death, an armed violence charge is not one accompanying the commission of the flowing felonies because the penalties are already even worse than those provided for the additional felony of armed violence: first degree murder, attempted first degree murder, intentional homicide of an unborn child, second degree murder, involuntary manslaughter, reckless homicide, predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, the aggravated battery of a child as outlined in Section 12-4.3 or subdivision (b)(1) of Section 12-3.05, home invasion, or any other offense that makes the possession or use of a dangerous weapon either an element of what it means to commit the base offense, an aggravated or enhanced version of the offense, or as a mandatory sentencing factor increasing the sentencing range. Those offenses thus already incorporate in their definition and description the use of a weapon as part of the crime.
•  An armed violence charge is thus an additional element of guilt and culpability piled on to whatever felony you allegedly performed because just having the dangerous weapon on you while doing the allegedly crime is a worse threat to public safety or peace than if you did not have or use a weapon. For example, you do not need a weapon to commit burglary like you would need to carry out armed robbery or aggravated offenses, but just having and possibly using the weapon makes you a worse threat to society and safety than if you were unarmed. Having a weapon both makes you more of a threat as well as making you perceived to be more of a threat, especially if it is a firearm. That threat is compounded by discharging a firearm, and even more so if you cause injury or death by discharging a firearm. Dangerous weapons generally are defined as those weapons belonging to categories I, II, and III.