Kwame Raoul (not pictured at the top, that’s Senator Don Harmon) didn’t finish at the top of his legal class. The people Raoul’s hiring have not dazzled the courts defending the Illinois Firearms Ban Act that Gov. Pritzker wanted so badly. Lord knows Kwame’s attorneys haven’t impressed us even when they did show up to actually defend named defendants in court.
This morning, someone named “Freddy” wrote in comments, “Kwame’s job isn’t too [sic] litigate or do lawyering stuff. Kwame’s job is to protect the corrupt Democrats running Illinois.” I never thought of it that way, but I suspect “Freddy” is right. In a state where you can’t swing a dead cat at City Hall in Chicago (or the General Assembly in Springfield) and not hit at least three or four corruption scandals, why is it the Illinois Attorney General can’t find any corruption to investigate at either location? Meanwhile the feds find cases to investigate without any problem. And they prosecute them left and right.
Let’s talk about the lawsuits.
First off, we don’t care who wins a state-wide court order to block enforcement of the new Illinois Firearms Ban Act. We would like to claim the title, but the end is more important than the means. Gun owners need relief. Multiple lawsuits mean multiple avenues for success. Differences have emerged involving the pace of the litigation.
The SAF/ISRA’s lawsuit was filed early on after Pritzker signed the bill into law. Instead of rushing a pleading, we as GSL and the Illinois Gun Rights Alliance, opted for a more deliberate approach in crafting a more sophisticated pleading. We filed a couple of weeks after SAF/ISRA.
Then NRA-ILA’s legal team filed their lawsuit within hours of ours.
The NRA-ILA’s legal team has some outstanding people. We work with them on other endeavors including GSL’s lawsuit challenging the FOID Act. At one time, had a handshake agreement for Guns Save Life to be their organizational plaintiff and we looked forward to working with the former US Solicitor General Paul Clement to, ahem, kick butt and take names against this Illinois Firearm Ban Act. Things didn’t work out in that partnership for two reasons, neither of which were the fault of Guns Save Life. No big deal. It wasn’t meant to be and both sides will be okay.
Instead of using GSL as an organizational plaintiff, they opted to go with the NSSF. That’s fine. But the NSSF (and NRA-ILA) made what we see as an unforced error right out of the gate… they agreed to a 30-day delay in proceedings to give Kwame’s people time.
Yes, the NSSF/NRA-ILA team willingly surrendered a 30-day extension when gun stores are seeing a 60 to 70% decline in business. Try running your household on 30% of your usual income and see how long that lasts.
The NSSF team gave up 30 days on top of the time normally needed to secure a preliminary injunction…. That’s time when gun owners can’t pick up their guns put on consignment, pawned or merely in the shop for repairs. Time when would-be gun owners can’t even pick up the guns they’ve already bought but had not taken delivery upon yet. And additional days when people who need the most effective personal defense guns for imminent potential threats can’t purchase them legally.
Not only that, but giving the state a 30-day extension simply racks up more billable hours for the attorneys. All for what? To “play nice” with Mr. Incompetent himself, Kwame Raoul?
The Illinois Gun Rights Alliance’s prime directive to our attorneys…
GSL’s attorneys, as part of this coalition known as the Illinois Gun Rights Alliance, are operating under the prime directive that we don’t cede anything to the defendants without a fight. That includes the State of Illinois, JB and the rest of their sorry circus).
We’re not here to do Kwame, JB Pritzker or anyone else from the State of Illinois any favors whatsoever. We want a speedy resolution to preliminary injunctive relief for all in our state. If the state wants to cede that to us, we’ll be more amenable to accept an extension.
What these evil gun-grabbers and would-be tyrants have gleefully done in improperly and unlawfully restricting our right to keep and bear arms for personal defense and other lawful purposes is unforgivable. They all have tax-payer funded executive protection. We do not.
So instead of agreeing to case extensions in our case, we’re filing another lawsuit in the coming days.
Senate President Don Harmon haughtily said “we’ll see you in court” as he launched the vote to approve the Illinois Firearm Ban Act in the Senate. The hubris runs strong with Mr. Harmon.
Your terms were acceptable, sir. You’re going to see a lot of us in court.
Our helpful hint to Don Harmon and the narcissistic Speaker of the House Chris Welch: we’d recommend you hire your own attorneys. Kwame and his 447 remaining attorneys don’t seem up to the job of defending your interests. In fact, at some of the court hearings, he’s left you completely undefended.
Leaving a defendant undefended in a court hearing is never a good move. It’s kind of like in hockey, leaving the net undefended is not a smart move there either.
Harmon may not look like Raoul the Tool, but they both have the same aroma of Communist dictator about them. It is the smell of oppression with a whiff of tin-plated bureaucrat.
“We’re not here to do Kwame, JB Pritzker or anyone else from the State of Illinois any favors whatsoever. We want a speedy resolution to preliminary injunctive relief for all in our state. If the state wants to cede that to us, we’ll be more amenable to accept an extension.”
Not one step backwards. No compromise with this scum on any level, no matter how insignificant. They have broken trust with law-abiding citizens for the final time. We must crush them completely and utterly to prevent them from doing this over and over again, just as they have been allowed to do for the past 50 years. You cannot compromise with leftists/liberals/Democrats/communists. They must be routed decisively.