by John Boch
As usual, the gun grabbers are busy once again this year, earning that money that the likes of George Soros, Michael Bloomberg, et al pour into the civilian disarmament industry.
For the past twelve years where we suffered the constant drumbeat of rabidly anti-gun Illinois governors promoting failed schemes to take your guns away.
There’s a new governor in town this year though, and his name is Bruce Rauner.
Rod Blagojevich and Pat Quinn used the bully pulpit of the Governor’s office to promote and support gun control to disarm the law-abiding and embolden the criminal element. Those failed (and in the case of Rod Blagojevich, disgraced as well) governors were always standing side by side with the most anti-gun members of the Illinois General Assembly and occasionally, the wife-/girlfriend-beating leaders of gun control organizations.
No more.
Support from the Governor is all gone for Dan Kotowski and his merry clan of gun control advocates when it comes to taking guns from the good guys in Illinois.
Another thing the gun grabbers are going to miss: The “support” of the Illinois State Police and other state agencies. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that the governor calls the tune for how state agencies lobby for or against issues. If the ISP and others come out in support of gun rights and in opposition to flawed gun control measures, that will reaffirm Governor Bruce Rauner’s support of gun rights and today’s court-recognized reality of what the Second Amendment really means.
With that in mind, gun control activists in Illinois are pushing a “new” initiative as their perennial scary gun bans and magazine bans appear doomed from the get-go, as are their dreams of making Illinois concealed carry law more onerous than it already is.
A couple of bills worth watching are House Bill 265 and House Bill 399. The two are an effort to bring Illinois closer to implementing the flawed California “Firearm Protective Order” system. In short, the bills would ultimately allow a family member, public official or health care worker to petition a court to strip a gun owner of his Second Amendment rights.
There is some other skulduggery underway as well, and we’ll bring you more about that in the coming days and weeks.
Suffice it to say for now, we welcome the legislative battle that’s coming.
And remember, every time anti-gunners see those “NO GUNS” signs out in public, they are reminded of how badly they lost when Illinois fell as the last state without right-to-carry. Let’s give them more reasons wallow in misery and cry in their beer. Lend and hand and file some witness slips. They do make a difference and they only take a moment or three to submit. Then you can know you have a direct hand in shutting down some of these bad bills, and helping the good ones advance through the legislative process.
Remember, because so few people are involved influencing politicians in Springfield, when you participate, your input is magnified dramatically.
Lastly, we need folks to contact their legislators about the Firearm Suppressor bills.
The bill would allow Illinois residents to purchase firearm mufflers – otherwise known as suppressors. Thirty-nine other states can’t be wrong in allowing their citizens to utilize these devices that attenuate the noise of gunfire, much as a car’s muffler attenuates the exhaust noise. Yes, there is a federal background check involved, and a lengthy approval process and a $200 tax stamp for each suppressor owned – all hoops that pretty much guarantee that only the law-abiding are going to be owning these items. Also, we would like to make suppressors legal to use for hunting – like 35 other states allow.
Make those calls today.
Don’t know your representative’s numbers after last fall’s election? We can help. Click here.
To the Witness Slips needing action. From our friends at Illinois Carry.
Call to Action
As the legislative session continues we find our interests broadening to include several new bills scheduled for committee hearings in the coming week, as well as two bills rescheduled from last week. Even if you filed witness slips for HB148 and HB265 last week, it will be necessary to re-file them again now.
Today’s Call to Action groups the current bills by position – Oppose versus Support – in order to avoid confusion when filing witness slips.
Log on to the ILGA Dashboard or Create a New AccountOppose
HB148 Lost & Stolen Firearms – OPPONENT
Illinois law has required FOID Card holders, but not persons illegally in possession of firearms, to report lost or stolen firearms since the Gun Safety and Responsibility Act became law effective 8/9/2013. HB148 seeks to deny otherwise law abiding citizens their right to own firearms via FOID revocation and felony conviction.
HB265 Firearm Protect Order – OPPONENT
There are many forms of protection order available to the courts in Illinois, from granting occupancy of the family home to giving custody of the family pet to one spouse or another. Of the tools available to a judge a firearm protection order, as it currently exists in law, is one of the most important when determined necessary by a court of competent jurisdiction.HB265 proposes to subvert the judicial discretion so necessary to our system of governance by prohibiting the subject of an order of protection from purchasing or transporting a firearm, even when that order is simply in regard to animals, property, and a number of other orders unrelated to a physical threat against the petitioner.
While enough to oppose on its own merits, HB265 also creates a frightening potential synergy when taken in context with HB399 Protection Order Issuance. Though not the subject of the current call to action HB399 proposes to empower the States Attorney, and courts on their own motion, to impose an order of protection on behalf of a petitioner even against the petitioner’s wishes. This combination of ill conceived legislation, both bad in their own right, establishes an untenable system of potential rights denial under the most unusual of circumstances.
HB359 Firearm Concealed Carry Signs – OPPONENT
Inverts the signage requirement. Establishes a precedent of allowing private property owners to passively deny the exercise of all civil rights under color of law.
HB419 Firearm Concealed Carry Prohibit Place – OPPONENT
Adds places licensed under the Video Gaming Act as prohibited locations, including fraternal & veterans establishments, and truck stops, whether or not alcohol is served. Changes privilege to post a location any person lawfully in possession and control. Changes private residences to presumptively prohibited.File Witness Slips in Support of these bills
HB319 Concealed Carry Parking Lot – PROPONENT
Removes dangerous unloading requirement from “safe harbor” parking lot provisionHB367 Concealed Carry Public Transit – PROPONENT
Removes the carry prohibition on public transportationHB433 Wildlife Use of Suppressors – PROPONENT
Removes the prohibition on hunting with a suppressorHB481 Concealed Carry Rest Area – PROPONENT
Permits a licensee to carry in rest areasHB482 FOID & Crim Cd Concealed Carry – PROPONENT
Permits firearms transfers to a person displaying a valid FOID or FCCLHB483 Crim Cd Firearm Waiting Period – PROPONENT
Eliminates the waiting period for persons licensed under the FCCA