More job losses for Illinois, YYYEEEAAAHHH!!

[SaintofKillers]

Gun related see link.

www.isra.org.

 

[GTSteve03]

Maybe these idiot gunophobic politicos would learn a hard lesson when their tax base decides to up and leave.

Consequences are a aren't they?

 

[nucstl1]

Class Action Suit?

I wonder if it is possible for a class action suit to be brought against the Illinois House/Senate for violating the constitutional rights of its citizens. Just a thought.

 

[fletcher]

Bad situation, but the companies' response to it is excellent.

 

[Jeff White]

Well it was a forgone conclusion that the Executive Committee would pass amendment 9. The democratic leadership has kept the legislation in committees that it knew would pass it. (ie those that didn't have too many Southern Illinois members).

I think it's interesting to see the lengths the antis, particularly the Brady organization is willing to go to pass this bill:
http://www.isra.org/cap_com/cap_com060224.shtml

Capitol Commentary

by Todd Vandermyde


February 24, 2006
It’s been an interesting time at the capitol. The big event is the tug of war going on over the semi-auto ban.

Anti-gunners continue to suffer set backs as their own arrogance gets the best of them. This past week, the Brady Campaign, bought full page ads in newspapers around the suburbs. The ads were targeted in those districts of nine suburban legislators who they thought they could woo over to their side. It backfired

The ads named the legislators and gave out email and phone numbers for people to call and contact them urging their support for the gun ban. Then, after the ads hit, they started robo calls into the districts. These calls are computer generated, hence the term “robo calls”. People were asked, via the recorded message, if they support HB-2414 an anti-crime bill and if they did to press 1 if they opposed press 5. If you pressed 5 the call was dumped since you knew what the bill number was. Those that pressed 1 were transferred to the Capitol office of the legislator.

One secretary of the targeted bunch had an interesting story to tell. About half the people were mad that they were being bothered and wanted to know how to get off the list. They also wanted to know why the legislator was calling them! Of the other half, many did not even know what the bill was about. Some that did know expressed their OPPOSITION to the bill.

One legislator took calls personally since the office people were so overwhelmed. When one of the people on the phone was clueless and sounded familiar, the caller was asked for a name. It turned out to be a hunting partner. After the bill was explained to the caller, the caller exclaimed that “you can’t vote for that, I own those guns”.

Another legislator was so enraged by the phony hyped up, manufactured so called support, that he let loose a tail chewing on the sponsor and proponents of the bill. He has flipped from a yes to a no vote.

Guys, I couldn’t make this up if I tried. This over the top intimidation at legislators usually goes bad. It also shows the disconnect between the Bradys and Illinois politics. An analysis of the week’s events and those leading up to it give me reason to believe they are still short votes.

They targeted a large number of people who voted with us. Which means they need to flip votes. They went high profile in an attempt to make those legislators feel pressure and uncomfortable. They tried to make it look like a hue and cry from the masses when they have no membership base and only rely on general perceptions of things created via a biased media.

If they had the votes, they would not be messing around with amendment #9, more on that in a minute. And they would have run the bill and passed it. All of this tells us they are still short and maybe losing ground daily. Keep your fingers crossed.

As was mentioned, the City has now filed amendment number 9 (2/23/06). Last week we were on amendment #8 which added an exemption for Olympic competitive shooting. Amendment 9, adds in coaches as being exempt from the law as well as shooters. Although, they are only exempt while shooting at the event, range or to or from. It looks like the there may not be an exemption for possession.

These bills also seek to instill a new standard for transporting guns. That you may only transport guns to or from a range, and they must be broken down in a non-functioning state. The over/under for you sports book guys is 10 on the number of amendments we may see. We know there have been at least a dozen drafts of stupid things we haven’t seen.

Many of you may have seen flaws with the bill and pounded your fist on the table about things you think we should be screaming from the mountain tops about. We’ve seen the flaws of the bill, we just don’t talk about all of them in public forums to educate the other side on writing a watered down bill that may find enough votes to pass. It’s not that we haven’t figured it out, we have. And there are a few more things in there that we have seen that the other side hasn’t. We know from past experience that when we give too detailed of an analysis, they go back and fix/re-write the bill. We simply mentioned Olympic shooting and the Daley attempt to lure the Olympics to Chicago and well—a, new amendments. They must have talked to someone in the shooting sports to get the changes in amendment #9 for coaches.

The longer they delay in calling the bill the better it looks for us. They have one more week to get the bill passed by the House schedule. They could seek an extension of the deadline, which could push this out till the end of session. But if the legislature adjourns on time, they have six more weeks left. After that, they can hope to try and revive the issue in the veto session in the fall. If we win all our elections in November, that will be rendered moot as well.

This week also saw some other action on gun bills. HB-4529, a bill that would allow people who do not get their FOID card in time to sue the State Police and recover damages plus costs and attorneys fees passed the House. On a vote of 80 – 29 the bill passed over the objections of the state police and anti-gunners. The bill will got o the senate, were it may get stuck in rules.

Hb-4694 a bill to outlaw self defense in your home was beaten back. After lengthy debate, the bill only received 52 yeas votes. The sponsor then asked for postponed consideration.

** We will now switch from our regularly scheduled programming to House rules 101. Postponed consideration is when a bill receives more than 46 votes but less than the 60 required for passage. The roll call vote for the bill is then dumped and no official record of it exists. The ruling party usually hits the print button, and gets one before the roll is dumped. Now back to our regularly scheduled update.

Being in the gallery for the debate, we watched as representatives pointed out the anti-self defense portions of the bill. How having a gun in your home would have to be 1. locked up or 2. rendered in operable. And that criminal liability exists when a person under the age of 18 is likely to gain access to the firearm.

We may see this bill come back, but we don’t know at this point in time. This was the third blow struck to the anti-gunners this week, with their blunder on the semi-auto ban, the passage of HB-4529 and the rebuke of their no self defense storage law, they just were not having a good week.

There has been some talk of a bill introduced by Senator Brady, not to be confused with the Brady Campaign, formally known as Handgun Control Inc. The bill has not been released from the rules committee. The bill is unlikely to go anywhere this year, as the senate has not released a single gun bill. While we support the measure, it does not look like it will not get a hearing this session.

Jeff

 

[Ridge]

All I have to say is...and I'm not meaning this as an insult to anyone...But Kentucky will welcome the firearm companies with open arms!

 

[DonP]

Blago already "responded" to the jobs issue

One of his meat puppets was asked about the loss of 800 or more jobs and she said something along the lines of; "we'll probably save that many lives in one year".

If they are asked if these guns are used in crimes the typical response is; "We can't wait until they are, they are too dangerous". That's like saying "We're cutting out your tongue because you might violate free speech laws".

These are the same guys that won't share a list of underage girls that have had abortions because of their right to privacy but want the name of every Illinois gun owner in their hands

These people are really living in a socialist utopia and can't grasp why people are moving out of Chicago and Cook County, or totally out of Illinois! They just raised the tax another $1 per pack on cigarettes in Cook County and are stunned that sales are going down! I guess a carton now goes for like $75 here now.

They really don't have a clue and Blago's answer to every problem is to launch another unfunded plan like his "Free" pre-scvhool for all Illinois children and "Free" healthcare coverage for every citizen.

Considering how his "Free" flu shots program last year and "Free" canadian prescription programs blew up in his face. (The flu vaccine he bought could not be imported and was past it's code date, and now he doesn't want to pay the French company he bought it from and none of the seniors wanted to take his bus trips to Canada to get prescriptions filled) But all that matters was he got his press conference and his face in the paper.

 

[Jeff White]

Well at least Blago is getting national news coverage

Not for his stupid assault weapons bill, but for appointing the Protocall Director of Louis Farrakhan's Nation of Islam to the Governor's Hate Crime Commission. I thought this embarressment would stay a regional story but Fox News has picked it up. Blago of course says he didn't know who he was appointing, after 3 other members have now resigned in protest. Of course he has to keep her on the commission. Can't back down, even though he says he didn't know who he was appointing.

And now a Chicago alderman wants to name a street after a Black Panther leader who was shot to death in a police raid in 1969.

There is no way he should be able to be elected dog catcher, much less for a second term as governor, but I don't believe the state republican party is up to the challenge of beating him....

Jeff

 

[Johnnybgood]

I'm not possitive

but I think HB2414 is out of the books. The deadline for them to do something with it was today and they did not bring it up for a vote. Waiting to see what happens.

 

[Standing Wolf]

I wonder if it is possible for a class action suit to be brought against the Illinois House/Senate for violating the constitutional rights of its citizens. Just a thought.

How long do you suppose such a suit would last in an Illinois court?

 

[longhorngunman]

Texas would welcome the companies with open arms! BTW I truly feel for the people of Illinois that live outside of ****cago yet have to abide by it's laws.

 

[zastros]

It's a pity. Zastrina and I LOVED living in Chicago (food/neighborhoods/music/theatre/the Cubbies!) but you couldn't pay me enough to move back into IL let alone Chicago.

 

[stevelyn]

I'm glad to see the gun companies getting slapped around a little bit by the IL legislature. I hope other anti states with gun industries in them follow IL's lead. Maybe it'll be a much needed wake up call for them.

For far too long gun owners have taken the brunt of the anti's efforts while the gun companies stood by and didn't join the fight with us. Since they're now being targeted by the antis perhaps in the future they'll understand that an attack against gun owners is an attck against them and compromise isn't an option.

 

[Thundercleese]

I'm not 100% sure of the implications of the "Substantive Bills" deadline, but it seems to me this is actually far better than we've done in past years fighting this particular bill off. Last year it was called to a vote on the floor, narrowly going down. This year it sounds like it won't see the light of day (again, maybe).

Still, I'm cautiously optimistic. They'll put it on the backburner until next year of course, but this is an election year and we might be able to shake up the governorship.

 

[Jeff White]

NRA ILA is reporting that it won't be called

Got this in an NRQ ILA e-mail alert today:

ILLINOIS

HB2414 (sponsored by Representative Edward Acevedo (D-2)), which seeks to ban countless semi-automatic handguns, rifles, and shotguns, as well as .50 caliber rifles, will not be called for a vote by the third reading deadline. While this does not mean that the bill has been officially defeated for the session, it represents a tremendous loss for the anti-gun extremists, including Governor Blagojevich (D) and Mayor Daley. We will keep you informed of any future developments.

ISRA has this on their website:
http://www.isra.org/

Springfield Report for March 3

Today the deadline passed for "Substantive Bills." HB2414, the semi-auto ban, was one of those bills. We can count that as a victory at least temporarily. Substantive Bills are those with descriptive language in them. Shell bills have no language so there was no deadline for them.

A shell bill could be amended and HB2414 could be back. They did not call HB2414 because we had them beat hands down. Next week the House of Representatives is out. I'm sure they will be regrouping.

I'm sure if the Mayor and his cronies think they have half a chance we will see HB2414 again.

I have been told that I do not trust some people in Springfield. That would be correct.

Richard Pearson

Posted Fri Mar 3 21:20:44 CST 2006

There are all kinds of legislative tricks they can use to bring this back from the dead. Until Daley is dead or in prison, we're going to have to deal with this.

Jeff

 

[Don Gwinn]

Shell bills are scary, and most sessions they read more shell bills through than actual bills. More shell bills than they could amend and pass if they did nothing all day but rubber-stamp the things.

In other words, there will not come a time when 2414 is really dead for the session until the time when the House takes up Senate bills and vice versa. Even then, it's only dead for one session. It can always come back.

However, I've been wondering for the past couple of years why on Earth they didn't rewrite this thing to fix the truly idiotic flaws that even anti-gunners wouldn't support (such as arresting a police officer for possessing his issued weapon while on duty!) I expected them to do so someday and really thought that would mean passage unless something changed drastically in the legislature.

Well, the legislature didn't really change, and they made 9 amendments, and apparently they know they still don't have the votes. Now I can move on to worrying about what will happen after the election when Blago and the leadership feel secure.

 

[Atticus]

There are all kinds of legislative tricks they can use to bring this back from the dead. Until Daley is dead or in prison, we're going to have to deal with this.

Hmmm. Maybe you'll get lucky, and he'll die in prison like the last notorious criminal boss who ran Cicero. Didn't Marion Fed replace Alcatraz? Would be a fitting place for him to end up..and hopefully with a social disease or two like Big Al.