Illinois call to action

https://www.nraila.org/articles/201...ing-and-gun-ban-bills-to-considered-next-week

There's a "take action" button at the NRA-ILA link above.

Here's a synopsis of what is going on this week, text is from the NRA-ILA article.

Senate Bill 1657 would create onerous mandatory regulations, fees potentially in the thousands of dollars and excessive amounts of red tape that would almost assuredly force the closure of many firearm dealers, and prevent prospective owners from opening new ones. The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) already licenses and closely monitors all federally licensed firearm dealers (FFLs) and strictly enforces any violation of federal law.

We also expect legislation to be introduced to ban many types of commonly-owned semi-automatic rifles as well and standard capacity magazines that hold more than ten rounds of ammunition. This legislation attempts to brand these firearms as “assault weapons” to drum up unnecessary fear of their ownership. In reality, these firearms are only being defined by aesthetic features that in no way affect the functionality of the rifle. Semi-automatic firearms only fire one shot per action of the trigger, and such technology has been available to American consumers for over a century. Semi-automatic rifles and standard capacity magazines are commonly owned by law-abiding citizens for various purposes such as self-defense, recreation, competition, and hunting.

Click to expand...

My personal commentary below;

* We already have some of the nations' strongest mental health and "mandatory revocation" language in the country, with a "clear and present danger" system in place that has mandatory reporting for school officials and medical health professionals that automatically revokes gun rights.

* We already have universal background checks in place which cover private transfers of firearms.

* We have one of the strictest "shall issue" concealed carry bills in the country with a long list of prohibited places, incredibly high licensing fees, and extensive training requirements.

But a tragedy 1,000+ miles away, in a state with totally different laws than ours, is enough to justify our anti-gun representatives goals of taking away lawfully possessed firearms and accessories. If the assault weapons bill that is submitted this week is the same basic one that they have repeatedly tried to pass, it will very likely include forced confiscation language which would make it a felonious act for any person who does not surrender their firearms to the proper authorities in a timely fashion, without any financial reimbursement for the possessions.

This goes to prove the old saying we all know is true: " Give them an inch, and they will want a mile more "

The message we need to send to the state legislature is that NO MORE LAWS will change things. Criminals ignore the ones we already have, and they will continue to ignore them, regardless of what feel-good anti-gun legislation is passed. Quit punishing law abiding gun owners for the acts of criminals!

We lost our behinds today. Every single anti-gun bill that was called for a reading passed, many with veto-proof majorities.

Fortunately there was no assault weapon ban or magazine ban called. Those folks were on a roll.

See, all of those anti-gun organizations that we're so snide about being incompetent?

They whopped our butts today. They had a huge turnout.. and gun owners had.. nothing but some electronically filed witness slips. Which was brought up one time in debate. And did exactly no good.

Anti gun organizations mobilized their people and got them - en mass - to Springfield. They coordinated, organized, mobilized, even had matching T-Shirts all printed up in blood red, to fill the gallery.

Pro gun organizations... didn't really do any organizing whatsoever. Sure, the NRA-ILA sent out a last minute alert and ISRA even later than that... (And ISRA also threw us right under the bus on a couple of the bills, taking a "training activity" carve out for folks under 21 to possess rifles to switch their support..)

Not a very good day for us. The folks at IL carry (who I admittedly have not always agreed with, but that's neither here nor there) and GunsSaveLives seem to be the only ones really still in this fight.

We cannot win if we are always on the defensive. Especially if we don't even get one busload of people down when it matters.

Today was a wake up call for everyone else in the country to learn from our mistakes - complacency... well, complacency is a guaranteed way to lose.

Ugh this has turned in to an avalanche

New house hearings 3/6 at 3:30 PM Room 114

HB258 "phone replica firearm"
HB3390 "firearm owners id-revoke"
HB4185 "correctional officer firearms"
HB4218 "FOID- patient definition"
HB4402 "Juv. Subsequent firearm offense"
HB4403 "Firearms - Judicial Officers"
HB4502 "Display of imitation firearms"
HB4662 "Cook county coorections probation-firearms"
HB4851 "Concealed Carry Exemption"
HB4880 "Prohibit Bump Stock"
HB5492 "Firearms-Revocation"

I haven't had a chance to even look at all these new ones yet.

"Why are we getting slaughtered in Illinois politics?"

Here's a lesson in Illinois politics. Follow the money.

http://www.gunssavelife.com/illinoi...o-comment-springfield-armory-rock-river-arms/

Tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions towards anti-gun senators and representatives apparently buys you an "anti-gun" day in Springfield.

I really don't know how a grassroots Pro-2A effort can stand up to bought-and-paid-for politicians, to be honest. It really has me scratching my head.

It seems like the only time we get pro-gun legislation in Illinois is when the IL or US Supreme Court orders it after blatant constitutional violations.

But fighting stuff after it passed is a different subject altogether.

The original TTAG article is here. Great piece of investigative journalism here, digging in to IL gun manufacturers paying off IL senators and representatives to get "carve outs" from the anti-gun legislation.

http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/20...contributions-to-anti-gun-rights-politicians/

They actually found somewhere north of 40K in campaign contributions by anti-gun lobbyists to legislator's campaign funds, which were apparently NOT reported to the State Board of Elections.

Makes you wonder where that money really went?

Although something tells me there won't ever be a legal investigation about that. Not in this state.