Sangamon County Rifle Association
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights
Springfield, Illinois


Jim Butler



The fight for Illinois right-to-carry goes on

by Jim Butler, President, SCRA
June 2011 GunNews


 


The anti-self-defense groups are delirious with joy over the narrow defeat of the Illinois Right-to-Carry (RTC) Bill, HB-148, which needed a super-majority to pass.  This happened after the Mayor of Chicago and the Governor were threatening everyone they could and our side only missed by a few votes.

However, the opposition's joy may be short lived as this is only one battle in our long fight to obtain the same right for self-defense as 48 other states have done.  Illinois and Wisconsin are the only holdouts, with Wisconsin on the verge of passing it.  No state that has passed a right-to-carry law has ever repealed it!

Laws outlawing RTC of firearms by honest, law-abiding citizens cause nothing but disrespect for the law.  As our Founding Fathers knew well, a government that doesn't trust its honest, law-abiding, taxpaying citizens with the means of self-defense, isn't itself worthy of trust.  Laws disarming honest citizens proclaim that the government is the master, not the servant of the people.  The Second Amendment is an individual right that exists to ensure that government governs only with the consent of the people.

Don't lose hope in this fight for RTC in Illinois as in the end we shall prevail.

Richard Pearson, the Executive Director of the Illinois State Rifle Association, said about the latest vote on HB-148 "We put 68 votes on the board, our first time out.  That is great.  I know in the end we wound up with 65 and we needed 71.  The Mayor and the Governor were threatening everyone they could and we only missed by a few votes.  We had promises that weren't kept, because the mayor carried more weight that we could deliver, today."

According to Pearson, the bill was put on postponed consideration.  That means it can be called anytime between now and the second Wednesday in 2013.  Now that we have probed and found out the weak spots we can begin working on the bill again.

So take heart folks the battle for carry rights isn't over yet.

One bright spot in all this is that the verbally-challenged Mayor of Chicago is retiring.  And after all those years attempting to deprive us of our Constitutional Second Amendment Right, including an illegal unconstitutional gun ban in Chicago, has the nerve to ask for armed police bodyguards to protect him and his wife after he retires.  He also asked for two vehicles.  This requested security detail has been estimated to cost $400,000 a year.

His retirement pay is $185,000 a year and he still has over a million dollars in his campaign fund that he can spend for anything he wants.  According to the Chicago papers he also has other funds and pensions he can use.

So let him protect his family and buy his own cars like the rest of us peons have to do.  This man has been at the public trough long enough!


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