John Boch, president of [G]unssavelife.com, holds up a Glock handgun that was the prize in a drawing sponsored by the group earlier this month. GSL meets monthly in Rantoul.
Guns Save Life nailed down some very favorable publicity in the hometown paper. Dave Hinton, working for the Rantoul Press, came out and joined us at our last monthly meeting and it sounds as though he had a good time.
He did interviews with the audience and met a surprising cross-section of the community.
In reading it, there were a couple of minor errors, but from my own experience writing up what speakers say, I’m certainly less than flawless and make mistakes now and then with the little things.
(For the record, there were closer to 300 people present than 200, and the second home invasion victim survived being shot multiple times.)
Anyway, overall, we all agree it was exemplary work. It won’t make Nicole and her merry band of a gun ban advocates from ICHV’s grassroots book club very happy, but as Dave wrote, “I’m writing about GSL”.
It’s the “front page” story in today’s online edition.
Do guns save lives? Local group says owning, carrying guns the best solution to protecting law-abiding citizens
By DAVE HINTON
Rantoul Press editor(Rantoul Press) – One by one they stood up, gave their names and place of residence.
Cissna Park, Champaign, Rantoul, Gibson City, Georgetown … to name a few.
They were first-time attendees at a meeting in Rantoul of Gunssavelife.com, an Illinois nonprofit group of more than 1,000 members and growing.
About 30 newbies in all, they were among more than 200 people who attended the meeting at the Knights of Columbus Hall.
Don’t get the wrong impression. This is not a group of sidewinders who enter with guns on their hips, checking their weapons at the door.
Enter the hall, and the atmosphere is like any other group held there — the chamber of commerce, Rotary or church organization — with a meal followed by a business meeting.
It isn’t just area residents who are curious about the group. The press is as well. In addition to a newspaper reporter, a crew from the British Broadcasting Corp. was on hand. Other national media have also covered the group.
Gunssavelife.com advocates the right to own and carry guns. It also promotes gun training.
The only difference at this meeting from other groups meeting there was a few hand guns on display at a table in the front and a drawing or two with the prize being, what else? A gun.
And the meeting topic.
Guns, guns, guns. There might not be a hotter topic in the United States these days.
Much of the business meeting included updates from GSL President John Boch about efforts to ban guns and Americans’ right to bear arms.
Jane Sprandel of Thomasboro was one of those attending for the first time.
Sprandel came with her father, Phil Hamlow of Cissna Park, also a first-time attendee, and said she was on hand because she wanted to educate herself about guns and protecting U.S. citizens’ Second Amendment rights.
“The idea behind the movement,” Sprandel said, “is most of the gun violence we hear about today is not occurring due to the legal gun owner.”
Boch and other members of GSL, which is an arm of the Champaign County Rifle Association, believe those who want to ban the right to own and carry a gun have their focus wrongly fixed. They believe making gun ownership illegal will mean that only the outlaws will carry them.
Exhibit A in their argument is the city of Chicago, which has one of the most restrictive gun laws in the country but has one of the highest homicide rates due to guns.
Well done! How unusual it is for reporter to actually report.