Executive Director’s Notes March 2016
Welcome and thanks for reading!
by John Boch
Guns Save Life Executive Director
- Legislative.
It would seem that the President’s call for gun control was taken to heart by some of the far leftists in the IL General Assembly as they have put their entire wish list out there for all to see in proposed bills to: Taxes on your right to own a firearm, gun registration, gun insurance, liability for manufacturers and dealers, licensing of dealers, no fly list gun bans, and ex parte petitions to take your rights to own a gun. All are pretty much dead, but they are submitted to pander to the uninformed and the zealots – and to help the anti-gun advocates justify their big salaries from Soros, Bloomberg, and other lefty foundations. - The anti-gunners can’t get what they want in legislatures. They’ve lost in courts. Now they are pushing both referendums and growing the number of prohibited categories. Now, one federal gun grabber wants to ban people convicted of misdemeanor hate crimes from guns for life.
- Action items: HB-3160 The “Gun Violence” Restraining Order. Contact your legislator and urge them to vote “NO”. Cite the unconstitutionality of the bill. Note that there is court precedent to strike it down. Mention that it’s just plain unAmerican.
- HB4348 and SB2341. These bills would ban taxing firearms and ammo. Ask your legislators to sign on as sponsors. NRA’s sending out an alert on SB2341 Monday. We’ve got the votes to pass these if leadership doesn’t get involved.
- HB-6008. Carol Sente’s bill. Chill out on this one. Todd’s finessing this.
Illinois residents have been buying guns! December had its biggest month for gun sales ever in Illinois. Over 60,000 checks made. 5,000 were done on Black Friday. In 2005, 162,000 checks were conducted. IN 2015, 418,000 checks were done. Keep in mind a non-negligible percentage are a single check done on multiple guns purchased in the same transaction.
Federally: Feb call ins… 2.6million or half again more than last February.
Active FOID as of 2/29/16: 1,987,882 Active CCL – 151,261
In Maryland, their scary gun ban was struck down. We were doing cartwheels until Justice Antonin Scalia’s death. There is now a conflict between circuits and the court is likely to take this up. Elections have consequences and whoever wins the presidency will get to make a number of appointments.
Former GSL member Robert Rees running a primary challenge for the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley’s seat. Pressure on Grassley not to buckle on hearing for Scalia replacement. If he buckles, he’s probably going to be out in the primary later this summer.
Virginia will get universal reciprocity as of July 1st.
West Virginia. Constitutional Carry in this coming June after the Governor’s veto was over-ridden. They are the eighth (or ninth, depending on how you look at it) to get Constitutional Carry. Another dozen plus states are considering CC measures. (Sooner please to Illinois!)
Campus carry’s got gun haters on college campuses rattled. Did you hear about the college professor who left U Texas at Austin because the law allows campus carry? He went to teach in PA where the law allows campus carry.
Chicago. Arrests are half of what they were a few years ago, and homicides are approaching twice last years’, or the most in almost 20 years. Shootings are up almost 250%. And they wonder why people aren’t feeling safe? Carry your gun!
IGOLD. In short, we’re sitting it out because of what happened last year and the ISRA leadership’s failure to return our emails and phone calls for ten months. ISRA’s Rich Pearson pledged a week ago to begin communicating with GSL and to work with us moving forward. We’re optimistic he’s a man of his word.
HOOAH Golf Outing/Dinner. Coming to Pontiac, IL on Saturday September 24th. Come join us to play, volunteer or the dinner afterwards! All are welcome for a great cause to help America’s wounded servicemen.
Visit the website and leave comments. We’ve had a lot of fun there.
Speaking of the website: Insticator on the site. Will provide us $500 or more per month in ad revenue if all goes as planned, which we can use to expand GSL to more cities, grow our influence among Illinoisans and work to defend your right to defend yourself.
Join Guns Save Life. We’re stronger with you. Sign up a friend for just $20 more.
Stretch request. Got kids or grandkids named after gun makers? Contact Stretch Ledford.