Illinois State Rifle Association Executive Director’s Message April 2nd 2015

By Richard Pearson
ISRA Executive Director

Illinois State Rifle Association
Illinois State Rifle Association

Illinois –-(Ammoland.com)- In Indiana the number of concealed carry permits has doubled in the last three years to a total of 608,000.  Nice job Hoosiers.

Illinois permits, which are at about 102,626, are now being recognized by Ohio.

Nearly every other Thursday Bulletin I admonish everyone, including myself, to be prepared for a possible domestic attack.  It might be an attack by thugs, terrorists, or actually both.  Last week’s news is a case in point.  One of the National Guardsmen attempting to join ISIS was assigned to the National Guard Armory in Joliet, Illinois.  This was not “over there” or “up there” or some wacky enclave, this was Joliet, Illinois.  Think of the soft targets within one hundred miles of Joliet.  Think of shopping malls.  The malls look like they are all vying to be the national headquarters for the self-absorbed; of course there are “no concealed carry” signs everywhere.

Meanwhile, the Administration is negotiating with Iran.  The main story line of the Administration is pushing the limiting of the number of centrifuges that Iran has in order to slow their progress toward an atomic bomb.  The Administration wants victory to be centered on how many centrifuges Iran has, not whether or not they have or can get an atomic bomb.  The centrifuge argument is a ruse.  The United States didn’t have any centrifuges when they developed the atomic bombs in World War II.  It was all done with chemical processes.  The Soviets didn’t have any centrifuges either.  The centrifuge was not developed until the 1950’s.

This looks like the “Peace in Our Time” deal that Neville Chamberlain made with Adolf Hitler.

We are at the mid-point of session in most respects.  Bills had to get out of committee by March 27 or were declared dead (unless of course they received “extended deadlines”).  During the last week of March, SB-1858 (Ivory Ban) was defeated, for the time being. This bill was in the Environment and Conservation committee and lost with a vote of 6-4.  This is one of the bills with the committee deadline extended to April 24.  The Ivory Ban would have banned the sale of, or the intent to sell, any type of ivory, even fossilized mammoth ivory.  Those ivory grips on that old Colt single action would be included, as would Grandma’s brooch or the family antique piano if you ever wanted to sell them.  This bill provided for fines of minimally $1,000 or twice the value of the item for a first offense.  Upon conviction, the ivory product would be seized and the DNR had the option to destroy the article.  This is really an attack on all hunters and collectors.  The sponsor has proposed an amendment that won’t make a bad bill any better.  Call your Senator while they are home (until April 13) and ask them to oppose SB-1858.

Gun bills of all types are all tied up in Rules committee or in a subcommittee, the bills we support as well as the bills we oppose.  So what happens to all of these bills?  I believe some of the ideas in these bills will be rolled into an omnibus bill and will be voted on much later.  This will not be a bill as we normally know it.  This strategy will take an existing bill or a shell bill and replace the language of the bill, by amendment.  We may have as little as just a few hours to review and react when an amendment like this is proposed; we may have language we like and some we don’t.  Don’t look for any bill numbers, you won’t see any.  And yes, it is legal – one more element of the shadow process of the Illinois General Assembly.

Thanks for being a member.

If you are not an ISRA member please go to www.isra.org and join. You may also call 815-635-3198 and join over the phone or we will mail you an application.

About:
The ISRA is the state’s leading advocate of safe, lawful and responsible firearms ownership. Since 1903, the ISRA has represented the interests of over 1.5 million law-abiding Illinois firearm owners Visit: www.isra.org