Sen. John Cullerton has had it. With nothing to show for years of trying to push through a bill that would require motorcyclists to wear helmets, the Chicago Democrat says enough is enough.

So, Illinois remains one of three states with no helmet law. The others are Colorado and Iowa. Of the rest, 25 require helmets on all riders and passengers; 22 require riders under a specific age, usually 18, to wear helmets, said the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

What Cullerton has butted up against is the same kind of organized effort that happens whenever a state considers forcing motorcyclists to strap on helmets. In the late 1960s, for example, motorcyclists circled the Capitol after Gov. Richard Ogilvie signed into a law a helmet safety bill ruled unconstitutional months later. In Cullerton's case, the opposition has been A Brotherhood Aiming Toward Education, a motorcycle owners' organization known as ABATE.