ISRA 6/9/04 Sparta Shooting Complex Killed

[FRIZ]

DALEY & PALS KILL FUNDING FOR WORLD SHOOTING COMPLEX IN DOWNSTATE SPARTA

Late today, Senate Democrats led by the Daley Gun Grabbing Machine, killed funding for the World Shooting Complex that was to be constructed in downstate Sparta.

The project was seen as a boon to the financially depressed area and at least two major shooting events - the Amateur Trapshooting Association's "Grand American" and the Single Action Shooting Society's national matches were scheduled to move to Sparta upon completion of the complex.

The decision to kill the World Shooting Complex also means that the state's largest public range will not be constructed.

The full impact of this attack on your gun rights is not known at this time.

HERE IS WHAT YOU NEED TO DO:

1. Please call your Illinois Senator today and demand that the funding for the World Shooting Complex be restored.

If you do not know who your Illinois Senator is, follow this link: http://www.legis.state.il.us/ and click the "Legislator Lookup" link in the lower right hand side of the page. Then follow the instructions to find out who your state senator is.

2. Please pass this alert on to all your gun owning friends.

3. Please post this alert to all Internet bulletin boards to which you may belong.

Remember: Gun control is a disease, you are the cure.

 

[Frohickey]

Couldn't this be done with private monies instead?

 

[Henry Bowman]

The bigger obstacle may not be the money, but the red tape. Having public money involved often helps to cut through red tape.

 

[El Tejon]

Why they decided to move this project from Indiana to Illinois is beyond me.

 

[SaintofKillers]

All I have to say is that in a way I am glad that this happened. All those trapshooters who cast their vote for Blago when he said downstate that he supported sportsmen and promised them that this complex was going to be built can now see what they really got themselves into.

We can also thank the I$RA for not supporting Cal Skinner when he was running for Gov. I am not saying that the I$RA hasnt done anything to protect our rights but they sure havent done enough. They seem to be more of a elitist trapshooting club than a 2nd Amend. rights org.

I think that this will seal the deal for Blago to be a one term Gov.

 

[NukemJim]

I think that this will seal the deal for Blago to be a one term Gov.

I sure hope so !

NukemJim

 

[shooterIII]

Well it isn't completly dead, the dept of natural resorces is going ahead with construction. If you really want to find out the latest go around on this, go to www.trapshooters.com there are a number of threads on this subject.

 

[Don Gwinn]

The other thing we should all be doing is playing up how good this would be for the horribly depressed economy down there and asking everyone who will listen who Blago is to screw up job creation just so he can feel like he beat the gun owners at something.

Trapshooters are not th3 3vi1. I met one the other day while working at a gun show who was raffling off an expensive shotgun for the "East County Democrats." Nobody from north of I-80 would have believed those guys were Democrats, lemme tell you. Good folks.

 

[srschick]

Sparta is about 10 miles from where I grew up and lived until about 6 years ago, along with my wife and both our families. (Marissa, IL)
We used to do all of our shipping at the Sparta WallyWorld.
We still live only 30 miles away and alot of our friends and family still live in that area.

I can tell you the shooters around this area, along with ALOT of people around these parts who know what this can do for the economy, are none the happier about this. But then again, alot of them voted for Blagoi-a-bitch.

 

[F4GIB]

The trap and skeet shooting "elites" have been willing to sell the rest of America's shooters out over and over again. "I don't need me one of them 'assault rifles' or a 'killing' handgun."

Tell me one reason why they would CHOOSE an anti-gun state for this facility. Missouri not close enough to New York?

Maybe if these elites" lose a battle, they'll realize how nice it is to have the support of other shooters. They are gonna have to ask real nice if they expect to get mine.

 

[Don Gwinn]

F4, I imagine it has to do with the facility offered. Probably also with the fact that Illinois is NOT anti-gun outside the Chicagoland area. Missouri is just as anti-gun as Illinois except that St. Louis isn't as big as Chicago.

Yes, Missouri just passed CCW, and I take nothing away from that accomplishment. But they've got their own wacky laws, like their system of asking permission from the local sherriff for each and every pistol you buy--and paying him a fee for the privilege.

I don't love the way a lot of trap shooters act, either, but that doesn't make them th3 3vi1 as a class of people. They're not.

By the way, you know where USPSA holds the IPSC finals a whole lot? In PASA Park, which is a fantastic shooting facility. I know. I've shot there. It's in Barry, Illinois. You can't carry a 1911 on your belt on your way to the IPSC championships, and nobody tells the IPSC shooters they're traitors to the RKBA.


In Illinois, we're eager to get this thing built and have more shooters in the state for whatever reason. The more decent people running around with guns not hurting anything, and the more they help the local economy, the better for everyone. I know you don't believe this, but it's in your interest for us to do anything and everything to win public opinion--or in southern Illinois, to reinforce it and make people feel more strongly about it--because the antis have a very conscious strategy in targeting Illinois so strongly. They figure we're in the middle of the country and can be used as a small breach through which to spread to the rest of the midwest.

 

[Kingcreek]

Tell me one reason why they would CHOOSE an anti-gun state for this facility. Missouri not close enough to New York?

Some credit goes to DNR director Joel Brunvold, a Dem and former state representative, very pro-gun, pro CCW. He and some other downstate Democrats have been promoting this.
Illinois is an interesting state. Talk about jobs in my part of the state and you gotta include Springfield Armory, Rock River Arms, Armalite, Les Baer, ...

edited to add:
Illinois is not an ANTI-GUN state. It is a state populated with mostly good people locked in a power struggle with the Chicago Democratic Machine, the elite suburban "collar" counties, and the rest of the state better characterized as "south of I-80" with islands of urban insanity like East StLouis.

Don, I have also shot at PASA years ago when it was Dick Metcalfs back yard. (Even sat and had a beer with Jeff Cooper hisself.)

Illinois is only as bad as we allow it to be.

 

[Don Gwinn]

East St. Louis. . . . . what a town. There's just no real comparison to anything else, there. ESL is truly in a class of its own.

 

[Jeff White]

I think that this is more democratic power politics then anything antigun. Sure there are plenty of people who would like to see the project killed for anti-RKBA reasons. But I really think this has more to do with the current budget fight.

Blagojevich is a one termer. That's been set in stone for months now.

The good thing is that just like the old Soviet Union, the Daley machine is about to collapse of it's own weight. The cash cow is dead. Socialist policies towards business have finally killed the economy here. Fewer jobs means more demand for the very generous state services they instituted to buy themselves votes with. The only question is, is that will we be like Cuba and continue to struggle on with an ever diminishing standard of living until Daley dies or a good federal prosecutor sends him to prison, or will the other politicians see the writing on the wall and send him into retirement?

Jeff

 

[Nanook]

"The only question is, is that will we be like Cuba and continue to struggle on with an ever diminishing standard of living until Daley dies or a good federal prosecutor sends him to prison, or will the other politicians see the writing on the wall and send him into retirement?"

Please, let it be so! As the old saying goes, Jeff; "From your mouth to God's ears"

 

[Don Gwinn]

I agree, but I still think we can beat him about the head with it.

As for him being a one-termer, that's great, but we need to be tying him to Daley. He kissed Daley's butt for a few minutes straight on Chicago TV last week while reversing himself on tourism dollars. That's the kind of thing more people need to see.
Daley thinks he's untouchable, but if we tie Blagojevich around his neck along with all the other weights (the truck scandal, Meigs, that family of gangsters he gives preferential treatment, the mafioso working in the Parks department, the "acting" head of purchasing who has been the "acting" head since 1989 because he's not qualified to be the head of purchasing) he can be sunk.

 

[six 4 sure]

As someone else that lives 30 min away, I'm sad to hear it probably won’t happen. I have to agree with some of the others, it not being built has little to do with gun control. They’re trying to pass a budget, and everyone want their piece of the pie. What’s somewhat amusing is that it’s dems fighting dems. North vs. South, well actually Chicago vs. the rest of the state.

My only gripe is they don’t have $30 to build a shooting complex in an economically depressed part of the state, a complex that will eventually pay for its self with tax revenue, BUT we do have millions of dollars to pay to have wild flowers planted along the interstate, and $9 million to build a rec center for gays, lesbians, and bi-sexuals in Chicago. Hmmmm

I agree, Blogo is a one term gov. At the rate business are leaving the state, he’s gonna need to pull one HUGE bunny out of his hat in the next two years to keep his job.