Crusaders need hope. Without hope, you simply do not get crusaders.
Wisconsin's anti-gun Governor Doyle was absolutely opposed to any sort of property tax freeze.
The Republican majorities in the senate and assembly beat him up hard enough that he had to announce his own plan to freeze property tax rates. His stunning announcement said that property taxes next year would only go up $3 per home.
What does this have to do with CCW? Everything. The governor had to cave to public pressure, and came up with an extremely lame promise on taxes. A whopping three dollars.
Many on THR believe that open-carry marches, carrying concealed and then challenging through the court system, or other brazen methods will change the politics.
In Wisconsin, and probably Illinois as well, those publicity stunts won't work.
The work will be done--one on one--in the offices of the individual legislators.
Look, people, we all know that 46 states have no problems. So do the legislators. They're not as dumb as they seem (with a few exceptions). What those legislators are looking for is: a) political cover from any fallout from the press; and b) a quid pro quo to bring home some bacon to their districts that will more than offset any heat the concealed carry issue the press raises.
So, what can gun owners do to deliver (a)? Write, call, email, and get every last living relative or critter you know to do the same. Letters and postcards are the best. When I and other WCCA volunteers went into legislators' offices and asked what the ratio of pro-CCW to opposition was, some of those sumbitches lied. Surprise! When I asked them to show me the stacks of mail, it was an avalanche versus a snow-dusting favoring our side. We always win. We always will.
The tough part for us, as political outsiders, is to bring the quid pro quo to the table. We're not part of that process.
The most that we can do is offer to help Legislator Joe in his effort to bring a new library to his district.
Conversely, if the library is absolutely unnecessary, then it's incumbent upon us to alert the rest of the voters as to why Legislator Joe is trading his vote on concealed carry for a Pork Project.
If that fails, then some might want to consider "alternative means." Legislator Joe probably has some personal faults--perhaps many more than the average person, given his ego--that can be brought to light. Chances are that there are some professional private investigators in your state who know how to uncover such faults. I know that we have them here.
In the end, the fight for CCW always turns dirty. The question is how much dirt you want to get on yourself to get the bill passed.