cuchulainn
Member
from the Streator Times Press
http://www.times-press.com/newsmain.php?storyid=5073
http://www.times-press.com/newsmain.php?storyid=5073
Dordan: You gotta fight for your right to...
By TERRY DORDAN — Wet 'n' Wild
Here we go again. I warned folks they may get tired of reading things like this in the column, but since I try to be a voice for the consumptive sportsmen in our society – hunters, trappers and anglers – I have to stay with it.
One of the constant costs of freedom is vigilance. Stay aware and tuned to what is happening in the arena of law, the legislature, where our rules for living in a free society are set in order to enjoy life under the rights accorded to us by God and the U.S. Constitution or wake up some day living under some type of totalitarian, communist or other repressive regime where those in power will tell you what to do, how to do it and when it will be done. Yeah, I know, how close are we to that already when considering things such as seat belt, helmet and headlight laws, blaze orange requirements when hunting or bans on leaf burning, just as simple examples.
Anyway, this is all leading back to you getting out your pencils and paper or firing up your keyboard or dialing your phone. Once again gun owners’ rights are attempting to be trampled and, as usual, the hunters and recreational shooters will be the ones getting their rights taken away. Once again, the Illinois legislature is taking up the mantle of gun control as proposed by the Chicago mentality headed up by Mayor Richard Daley. This call to action centers around three bills passed out of House and Senate Committees, SB 1195, HB 2532 and HB 2356.
SB 1195 is billed as an assault weapons ban. It will make it a felony to own many firearms as well as manufacture, possess or transfer any firearm magazine with a capacity of over 10 cartridges. Firearms having things such as folding stocks, pistol grips or threaded muzzles would be banned.
It also bans any semi-automatic firearm with a bore diameter over .50 caliber and a magazine capacity over five rounds. That means semi-automatic shotguns 28 gauge and larger can be banned. I know state law requires sportsmen to have a plug in their shotguns limiting the magazine to only two cartridges. However, if this law is passed, plugged or not, all you hunters using those Model 12 Winchesters are going to have to turn them in.
Modern muzzleloaders would also be banned. All you deer hunters who are taking up these firearms, and I’ve personally seen the popularity of them grow every year through deer hunters coming through my taxidermy shop, will have to get rid of them. You’ll have 90 days to get rid of your guns in compliance or be liable for a felony charge. Get a felony rap and you lose your FOID card, so you lose all gun privileges anyway. How convenient!
If that isn’t reason enough to contact your legislator, consider the industries that will be harmed in the state. Companies such as the Springfield Armory, DS Arms, Rock River Arms, Armalite, Les Baer and others will be forced to close and contribute all those workers to the unemployment lines plus fail to fulfill military and law enforcement contracts. Just what is needed with our nation at war and in a state of heightened security. Sure they could, and probably would, move to another state, but there goes how many millions of dollars in state income, corporate and sales taxes? Just what we need as our state stares at a $5 billion budget deficit.
Contact your senators and tell them to oppose “The Daley Gun Ban,†SB 1195!
Meanwhile, over in the house, HB 2532 – Statewide Gun Registration – has made it out of Committee, which calls for gun dealers to be licensed by the state. Maybe someone forgot to tell the House Committee that the federal government already requires this of all gun dealers. We don’t need the redundancy. Then again, look at all the new political jobs that would need to be filled to run this new Department of Gun Registration. Is that the ulterior motive? Beyond that, many gun dealers who may not be able to afford the additional fees would go out of business. It is said the real purpose of this bill is to create a central database to allow for registration of all gun purchasers and registration of their guns. No doubt a combination of all three would be enjoyed by the anti-gun lobby.
Finally is HB 2536, which is labeled the “Gun Show Ban.†This would require that any sale of a firearm at a gun show would have to go through a licensed dealer. It may sound like no big deal until you realize “gun shows†are defined as any gun club meeting, organized shooting event or even a hunt at a hunting club. I would bet anyone who has done a little trap or skeet shooting, spent time around a shooting range or gone to any sportsmen’s club meetings or shooting preserve hunts has been involved in a gun transaction or seen one completed between two individuals. Sportsmen buy and sell guns all the time just as car lovers buy, sell and trade in their pursuits. We’ll have to go through a dealer if you want to sell or buy a gun from someone, even family members, according to this bill.
Besides it being more expensive as the dealers can set any transaction fee they want, it is redundant. After all, to possess, buy and sell firearms in Illinois, one needs a FOID card. We need a background check to obtain a FOID card in the first place, so why do we need another background check each time we buy another firearm?
Summing it all up, these three laws, as usual, will do nothing but restrict the freedoms of the law-abiding citizen. We all know criminals and big-city gangbangers really aren’t too worried about obtaining or keeping their FOID card up-to-date or going through a licensed dealer to get a weapon. As usual, we downstate law-abiding gun owners must fight for our rights due to the inadequacies of the Cook County and surrounding county court systems.
You know the drill. Write, call, e-mail, cut out this column, print “yeah, what he said†across it and mail it to your state Senator very soon as the Senate is where the final battle is being waged and tell him or her to defeat this legislation which will keep in step with our freedoms as defined by the Bill of Rights and at the same time – in respect to SB 1195 – not further hinder the Illinois economy. Get involved.
Copyright (c) 2003 The Times Press Publishing Co.,
