Illinois: Cook County Board Poised to Shut Down Cabela's Superstore

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I would think that Cabelas lawyers would be smart enough to put a stipulation in the peoperty lease to break it, penalty free if should Cook county do something else stupid. I am amazed that they got suckered into cook County anyway, when they could move just down the road and be someplace more gun frinedly
 
Heh... I posted a Cabela's press release from 2004 a week or two ago about how they were supposed to be opening a Super Store here in NJ at the new mega-sports/entertainment complex Xanadu on the site of the Meadowlands Sports Complex, incl. a Firearms Museum and shooting gallery (range?). It's a pretty high-profile location. Can't wait to see what hits the fan here if this is going on in IL.
 
Holy Mary, Mother of God! That link of Javelin's above was surreal. If that's what it takes simply to transport a weapon in Illinois, I can't even begin to fathom owning one there. Here in Pennsylvania I get my CCW permit and that's the end of it. I don't even need permission to buy one, just pass the check and it's mine.

God love you guys in Illinois. I don't know how you do it. Move to Pennsylvania and bring your tax dollars with you. You'll love it, the government will love it, and you'll actually have some freedom to exercise your rights, which still exist here.
 
I'll borrow a line I saw in another thread: "Vote with your feet".

Truly amazing how bad it is in some places, glad I live in the South...
 
Cook County citizens must take a stand. Outside letters or support will be whitewashed by County Politicians as outside activist and not what “our people want.” The strategy is to divide and conquer. The anti-rights and control groups can never get this passed on a national level.

Every gun owner or supporter of the constitution must write a letter or postcard to their county representative. Blogs don't count other than to encourage people to write!

Basically gun owners are lazy. They don’t write, they find excuses not to get involved. We are the majority, we just don’t say anything. We must make it easy for gun owners and patriots to make their voices heard. Someone in the county needs to print address labels and distribute them in pro gun establishments. Someone draft a letter where the writer can add a personal paragraph so the letter is not dismissed.

Sporting stores and firearm stores like Cabela’s must have a petition for clients to sign. Where is the local chapter of the NRA? Get them to help organize these essential tasks or loose your rights. Demand that the NRA show support and leadership.

Keep the name calling and emotions out of the letters. No threats or outlandish claims ("pry it out of my cold dead hands"). There are enough facts to support our position. Emphasize the consitution; give quotes from the founding fathers and Madison's first draft that clearly show that it was protection against a tyrannical government that the second amendment was added. Best yet, show the majority of the people do not want this gun control.

The hardest thing to do is get people to attend public meetings. Present the facts. No name calling against the anti gun groups. Ask to see the facts that show this type of legislation has ever worked. Council meetings rarely go against the majority of people in the meetings. Demand the right to be heard.

The majority of us are sheep. We need and want leaders and organizers. ARE you one?
 
Why don't the gun owners in Cook County get together and initiate a recall petition. You might get enought signatures to get it on the ballot and this Suffredin guy would have to spend time and money defeating the recall petition. Use the political process ( not stunts)against these people. The worst that can happen is the antigunners will jump to the defense of one of their own. Who knows, you might get him voted out and the next guy will think twice.
 
Mayor Daily(sic), and the rest of the Cook County politicians are Gestapo like in their hatred of gun owners
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I doubt if they hate us but they do use us as they know it isn't costing them anything - votes, campaign donations, political volunteers, etc. - they know they aren't going to get our votes anyway. Someway, we need to be smart enough to turn this around on them - use the political process against them.

Know your enemy, find the weakness - everyone has them - and exploit it to our advantage.
 
Where is the local chapter of the NRA? Get them to help organize these essential tasks or loose your rights.
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The Illinois State Rifle Association sent me the e-mail alert with the info on this. I guess you could call them the "local chapter" of the NRA. And they are "out in front" on this issue. But it takes individuals to call, write letters and go to County Board meetings in a "Show of Force".

They have asked that EVERYONE call Sufferdin and Beavers, even if you don't live in Cook County. "Hi, my name is XXXX, my family and I were planning on coming to Chicago to visit, but if you're going to close down the Cabela's in Hoffman Estates, we'll go to ____(Insert Gun Friendly State/Place with a Cabela's)_____, instead. If you want our tourist dollars in the future, change you're stance on harrassing law-abiding gun-owners. (Or use you're own words.)

Or: "Hi, my name is XXXX, I live in ____(Name of Collar County)____ and spend a lot money in Cook County. If these ordinances pass, I will no longer do any shopping in Cook County and ensure that my sales tax nor any other of my dollars go to support gun control."

I live in DuPage but have called and written letters to both Sufferdin and Beavers voicing my opposition. I'll be calling and sending letters to the other members of Cook County Boards after the Holiday.

If the staffers of the board members can't get anything done other then answering phonecalls from polite gunowners voicing their displeasure, that will kill these proposals.
 
I smell extortion here. I seriously doubt that we're hearing the whole story between the village of Hoffman Estates and Cabela's legal counsel. I spent a couple years living in Schaumburg (backyard of Harper College) and it seemed that many of the surrounding villages were envious of Schaumburg's tax revenue from the Woodfield area.

This may be such an attempt.

Seems rather silly here since the new store is only a mile or two from the Kane county line where GAT and R Guns can operate freely.
 
Please-
Cabela's gun section is of only microscopic import here. Cabela's could shutter it tonight forever and it would make little business difference to them. Not that it would be good, or that they would want to, but it wouldn't kill them.
The Village of Hoffman Estates already bent over pretty far to get Cabela's in. But they have absolutely no impact on the Cook County Board. None. They could call Daley all they want- he wouldn't even know who they were or what they were talking about.
But as much as I agree that activism might slow down the train a little, please keep in mind, that if Daley put it to a referendum within the County of Cook, to ban the private possession of firearms, it would very likely pass.
Certainly, if such a vote were held in Chicago, it might not even be close.
And even if it was, don't lose track of who owns, maintains, and operates the voting machines.
Meanwhile, yes, I'm doing calls and faxes. But all we can hope to do is slow it up a bit.
 
Please-
Cabela's gun section is of only microscopic import here. Cabela's could shutter it tonight forever and it would make little business difference to them. Not that it would be good, or that they would want to, but it wouldn't kill them.
The Village of Hoffman Estates already bent over pretty far to get Cabela's in. But they have absolutely no impact on the Cook County Board. None. They could call Daley all they want- he wouldn't even know who they were or what they were talking about.
But as much as I agree that activism might slow down the train a little, please keep in mind, that if Daley put it to a referendum within the County of Cook, to ban the private possession of firearms, it would very likely pass.
Certainly, if such a vote were held in Chicago, it might not even be close.
And even if it was, don't lose track of who owns, maintains, and operates the voting machines.
Meanwhile, yes, I'm doing calls and faxes. But all we can hope to do is slow it up a bit.
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There's no reason to waste time, effort, or money protesting if the best hope is to slow it up a bit. Doesn't matter enough anyway. Anyone who doesn't like it should move.
 
Comparison

I have recently lived in Carson City, Nevada, where Wal*Mart encountered a glitch in their lease.

They had a "regular" Wal*Mart in a shopping center along with a big name grocery retailer, whose lease contract stipulated that no other grocery store would be permitted to lease property in the same shopping center.

Wal*Mart decided they wanted to convert their "regular" store to a Super Store -- which includes a grocery section -- and the other big name store invoked the "no other grocer" clause. They managed to veto the Super Store.

Wal*Mart pulled out of the shopping center altogether and moved a couple of miles down the road -- and over the county line -- and built their new facility there.

All the revenue -- a whole lot of revenue, as it happens -- now went to Douglas County instead of Carson City. It took Carson City years to get another Wal*Mart in town (last year finally).

I don't know if Cabelas has the kind of financial depth that Wal*Mart has to up stakes and move their store, possibly leasing their old facility to some other venture.

I do know that Carson City fathers certainly caught a lot of flak for letting the Wal*Mart thing happen.

There's just nothing quite like hitting a local government in the wallet.
 
Arfin,

Cabela's opened their store in Hoffman Estates within the last six months (Actually I think it's been closer to three months).

Hoffman Estates kinda bent over backwards to get Cabela's to build there. (They even overturned a "No selling of guns allowed in our town", ordinance, much to the consternation of Mayor Daley, to lure Cabela's, along with the usual tax incentives.)

And Cabela's dropped somewhere between $30-$50 million to build there. Kinda hard to just walk away from that kinda of investment. I'm pretty sure that it costs Wal-mart quite a bit less to build and open one of their stores, not to mention Wal-mart has much deeper pockets and it easier/cheaper to convert a former Wal-mart into another retailer, then a Cabela's (with a giant fish tank/pond, etc.) into something else.

But it's not just Cabela's, also little shops like Chuck's in Riverdale that would be closed down. Think they have the resources to pack up and move ??? Probably not, and this ordinance does not provide any relief to those shops, so it is designed to not just "move" the shops out Cook County but to also, financially cripple them. (Yes, shocking that politicians would do that to legal, legitimate, law-abiding, businesses.)

It's not Cabela's that's the real target of this ordinance, but the small shops. In fact I could see a "Stores larger then x thousand square feet are exempt......for now." amendment. I hope that Cabela's, the ISRA and the people don't buy into it.
 
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I don't think the question is if Cabela's can afford to drop 30-50 million dollars by walking away from a new store. I believe the question is can the State of Illinois and Cook County afford to drop 50-100 million to repay Cabela's store start-up costs and the cost of the resulting lawsuits from state & local government enticing Cabela's to the location and then changing the laws making their business "illegal". I'm not sure how it would work out, but I think Cabela's could make it a very interesting lawsuit.
 
I definately agree with Scout26. It is the smaller shops that are the real target. Cabelas will not be in that bad of a situation if they are not allowed to sell firearms. However it will close some shops such as Chucks. We should not pretend that this is about Cabelas at all. It really is to close down gun shops in Cook County.
 
Not that I wish this upon cabelas. But at least there is someone with some money to fight trash like this. Because you know they wont let this go without a fight. They have to much money to loose also. This at least gives the little guys an edge also, there the ones that cant afford to fight stuff like this.
IMO this has to be the stupidest thing I have ever heard of. And I'm from NJ the kings of stupid useless laws.
 
Cabela's should have known that they were going to have to fight the devil on his own ground opening a store so close to Chicago.

Knowing what kind of history this areas has with gunowners and sportsmen in general, along with firearm manufacturers moving OUT of Illinois, why Cabela's would drop 8 figures here I cannot understand.
 
Cabela's should have known that they were going to have to fight the devil on his own ground opening a store so close to Chicago.
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Something tells me that a member of their senior management had a *** kinda day, and decided that the target was gonna be Chicago... Works for me.

If they get forced out, sue. If they get forced, out, trumpet the employment stuff. They'll get the money back in publicity.

It's win/win for Cabela's. And for us. Now can WE act upon it?
 
The Noose is Tightening

Other counties in my state, such as Pike county, have declared that they will not recognize laws limiting RKBA rights.

I get the feeling that the noose of common sense is slowly but surely tightening around Cook county. We will soon be an island of insanity in a sea of logic and understanding of our forefather's intentions.
 
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