The Illinois General Assembly is in Session and the push to adjournment is on May 31st. This is the most dangerous time. It is no secret; the anti-gun side knows this also. Please stand by for alerts.
Just when you think it can’t get any nuttier, it does. An amendment is on the way (I don’t know to which bill yet) which would require a FOID card to purchase non-serial numbered gun parts. A similar bill was introduced last week in the California legislature. The point here is not how nutty this is but to point out the lengths and organization of the far reaching anti-gun cabal. I know most readers of this column understand the concept. The problem is that 98% of the average hard working Jane and Joe gun owners do not understand the danger; it is up to you and me to educate them to the dangers.
The Chicago City Council has just passed an ordinance that would make it illegal for average law-abiding citizens to buy body armor. It is already illegal for criminals to buy body armor. This means that our old friends Jane and Joe homeowner and their family cannot have the protection of body armor when some thug, who is most probably free because he has been given a reduced charge, probation or simply let loose by Cook County, invades their home. We must, after all, make it fair for the rapists, home invaders, drug dealers and murderers. This ordinance should be named the Criminal Protection Act. While there are not many conventions coming to Chicago these days, I would suggest the economic development people for the city contact the National Society of Nitwits. It looks like the perfect fit.
There are plenty of bad bills that bear watching, like HB1465, HB1467 and HB1469. We will call for witness slips on Amendments to these bills if there is time. HB1664, the Snitch Bill, is such a bad bill, it doesn’t deserve a decent burial, but it is still out there.
Since the 2016 Presidential Elections, we have watched relentless attacks on President Donald Trump. This is more than the left wing media, politicians and their fellow travelers hating President Trump; this is because President Trump upset their apple cart in a big way. Everyone knew Hillary Clinton would be elected. The leadership of the FBI was out of bounds and more of that is being exposed for the corruption that it is. The FBI shenanigans are just the crust on the cow pie. It goes much deeper.
The election of Hillary Clinton would have been the final nail in the coffin in the Left’s attack on the United States Constitution. Had the election of Clinton occurred, packing the United States Supreme Court with socialist lefty judges was all but done. A series of court cases would have then been brought before the Supreme Court that would have reduced the United States Constitution to a useless piece of parchment. The United States Constitution is the implementation of the Declaration of Independence and all those inalienable rights would have been chipped away until they were just lip service.
That may still be the case depending on how the 2018 Elections go. A President cannot appoint anyone to the Supreme Court without the approval of the United States Senate. This is far from over. Every gun owner in every state better hit the ballot box.
The hysterical attacks on gun owners and the Second Amendment have predictably manifested itself in an increase of firearm sales. March 2018 set a new record of 2,767,699 NICS checks. This is up more than 330,000 NICS checks than what occurred in March 2017. Buying a firearm is only a small part of securing the Second Amendment.
The Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) and Second Amendment Foundation (SAF) have filed a lawsuit against the Village of Deerfield ON April 5, 2018. This legal action is a challenge to the Defendant’s Ordinance O-18-06, passed on April 2nd, which bans assault weapons (used specifically as that term is defined in O-18-06) within the Defendant’s municipal limits. The suit was filed In the Circuit Court of the Nineteenth Judicial Circuit Lake County, Illinois, Chancery Division.
If you watched the anti-gun demonstrations in March you may have noticed similarities with the Black Lives Matter and the Antifa demonstrations. That is because they are related. What we are seeing is a framework which has been in place for some time. This framework is staffed by organizers and professional agitators designed to organize people to protests. Professional agitators are in the background but they are the muscle. They take advantage of naive people, using emotion, misrepresentation of facts and groupthink; that doesn’t matter because naive people vote too. This is all funded by millionaires and billionaires with a political agenda that is designed to fractionalize and divide this nation by tearing away at our traditions, core beliefs and attack the Constitution of the United States. We are facing the radical left; they are vicious and are capable of anything. Their target is you, the individual gun owner, and the Second Amendment.
These tactics are not new. They have been used by left wing groups, whose numbers are small, but have been successful in overtaking the majority and seizing power in many countries around the world. One of their goals is to take firearms away from all of the citizens, but not themselves. These are troubling times.
All firearm owners need to stick together. Recently, we have seen some firearm owners willing to sell out their fellow firearm owners so they can keep their firearms; this is known as appeasing the alligator. Translated, this means you feed to the alligator all your friends and neighbors in order to keep the alligator happy. In the end, that only means you will be the last one eaten but, you will be eaten, never the less.
There are some gun owners who think “they will never take my gun.” The signs these people carry betray their true intentions. Signs like “Yes, we are here to take your guns” and “Ok, we will pry it from your cold dead hands.” There is no special dispensation for target shooters, hunters, collectors, those interested in self-defense, or anyone else – no exceptions.
On Tuesday, March 27, 2018, the New York Times carried an op-ed written by Retired Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, calling for the repeal of the Second Amendment. This is another sure sign of where the American Leftists want to go. Stevens has pulled the mask off of the American Left and we can now see clearly what and who they are and where they want to go. Of course, the left is denying everything. Remember, what is unthinkable today can become law tomorrow.
Think for a moment: much of the rights delineated in the United States Constitution are worthless without the Second Amendment. I believe some of the millionaires and billionaires envision a cabal between themselves, a bureaucrat laden United States government and the left wing media. Individual freedom will be toast. An armed free people stand in their way. I know, I am not supposed to think such thoughts.
The number of FOID card holders and Concealed Carry Licensees increases every day. As of a week ago, there are about 2,276,586 FOID card holders and 285,900 Concealed Carry Licensees in Illinois. That means Illinois gun owners will go through 922,494,960 or more background checks this year. The crime rate among legal gun owners is so low it can’t be statistically measured.
The NRA has announced the first ever National F-Class Smallbore (.22LR) Championships, to be held in conjunction with the other Smallbore Championships, in Bristol Indiana. F-Class Smallbore is an up and coming competition for those who love precision shooting. F-Class Smallbore has been a part of the ISRA Thursday Night Smallbore League for the past two years. If you are interested, come out and join the ISRA Smallbore League. The league starts on May 17th!
Spring has arrived, although it seems to have taken the scenic route to get here. That means outdoor shooting leagues are starting at the ISRA Range and local clubs everywhere. Be sure to sign up and participate in one or two near you.
You say you support the Second Amendment; prove it by joining the ISRA.
ISRA
PO Box 637 * Chatsworth, IL 60921
(815) 635-3198 * member@isra.org
ISRA Range
1589 N 7000 W Rd. * Bonfield, IL 60913
(815) 635-3198
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