Sangamon
County Rifle Association
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights
Springfield, Illinois
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights
Springfield, Illinois
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Sangamon
County Rifle Association
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights Springfield, Illinois |
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 FOID card turnaround time Tom Shafer SCRA Meeting 4/6/09 May 2009 GunNews Shafer reads many different media including The Madison County Chronicle, serving Hamel, Worden, Livingston, Alhambra and New Douglas, Illinois. The paper has some great articles. Hamel got a new police car. That's exciting news. But they have a story. Their Senator from rural Madison county just popped in one day to the Illinois State Police Director and said, "Why is it taking 73 days for a FOID card. He got some quotes and the Chronicle wrote a hell of a story. You won't see this in the Trib, the Sun Times or even the Journal Register in Springfield. This guy walked right in, State Senator Kyle McCarter, and met with the Director of the Illinois State Police on March 18. Of course on March 19 he wasn't the Director any more. We got some twenty-nine year old kid with no law enforcement experience who has never made a felony or a misdemeanor car stop in his life. This State Senator went in and said, "Why is it taking 73 days. Larry Trent who is no longer the director said, "We've got it reduced administratively down to 44 days." Shafer guesses we're supposed to be happy about that but state law says 30 days. Trent said, "Our goal is 30 days." Shafer thought, "That's good, the State Police Director has a goal of obeying State law." That makes Shafer feel good, the Director knows what the law is and he wants to try to obey it!! They check a mental health database every 24 hours and they check a criminal database every hour. So if you commit a felony an hour later your FOID card is going to be revoked. They're real quick on these databases. They're real quick on the mental health stuff. If you want to try to take a prozac they're going to try to yank your FOID card. They're checking that data base every 24 hours because heaven forbid somebody who is having a divorce problem with his wife might keep his FOID card. Yet if you go to apply or your child goes to apply, 73 days. "Oh we'll get around to that. We've got plenty of time for that." 73 days they make you wait. But they check all their police stuff every hour. That's a story from the Madison County Chronicle that has never made any of the local media that Shafer's seen. IGOLD Glory Shafer asked everyone who participated in the IGOLD to raise their hands and give themselves a round of applause. Most everyone did. As an activist in the pro-gun movement for many years, Shafer said it is like a dream when you're marching proudly down the street. Actually when you look at it, we're the only people in Illinois who know what we are doing. We actually know where we're going and what we're asking because it sure doesn't seem like anyone else in the state knows what they're doing. Indictments flying, prison time flying, and budget deficits flying. Shafer said It doesn't seem like anyone else knows what the heck they're doing in this state. God bless us. It was a pleasure to be a part of it. Shafer said he is proud to march with everybody, day or night, any time of the year. He absolutely enjoyed it. If anyone who has any tips about how we did, right or wrong, please contact Jim, Betty or Shafer and we'll try to make it right. One guy fell all the way down the steps of the Capitol. They sent him by ambulance to a good hospital where they took good care of him. It was the only black cloud over a tremendously successful event. Shafer wishes we would have seen the media coverage on the front page with a color photo because that parade certainly deserved it. It was one of the most spectacular Shafer has ever had the honor of participating in. It was spectacular to walk out of that darkened Convention Center out into the daylight of Adams Street with all those people, and all those flags and banners. The media will put two guys with a bongo drum on the front page but they don't put 7,000 people in a rally like that in the center of the city. Shafer doesn't really care what the media does. We know what we are, we're successful! We don't need the media coverage. We deserve it but we'll never get it. But look at how successful we are. Look at how many people we brought to Springfield on a workday and a school day to have an event like that. How was that for an IGOLD!!!!! Father Pfleger's Follies Several days later in March Shafer was up at the Capitol for the new governor's budget address and while he was listening to it, they said in an hour there's a gun rally. It turned out to be an anti-gun rally led by Father Pfleger. So Shafer walked down there and participated in the whole shebang. He walked up to this one woman and said, "Give me everything you've got." She said, "Oh, I just love you." He said,"Mam, I'm a pro-gun guy." She said, "I just hate you." Shafer kind of burst her bubble. Father Pfleger, this rabid anti-gun catholic priest from urban Chicago led the protest. Last year they were doing a protest in front of Chuck's Gun Shop and Father Pfleger said he was going to "snuff out" John Riggio, the owner of Chuck's Gun Shop. The press picked up on it and the Cardinal picked up on it and demanded that he apologize to the man and never say it again. The Cardinal of the catholic church said, "You can't be talking about killing people." Pfleger wasn't arrested but it was an outright blatent threat right in front of everybody and the media. Anyway, it was a beautiful day, right in front of the Lincoln statue and there were only about eighty to a hundred protestors, all urban minority. One guy had on a suit that literally stopped traffic. It was an electric blue checkered suit. There were people driving down Second Street staring at his suit. He handed Shafer a sign they were holding up given out by Father Pfleger and his minions, "Stop the Gun Flow and Save Our Children Will You." Bless their hearts, urban Chicago has big problems. They've got big problems with dope, single mothers, 99% of them are single mothers and, problems managing their youth and gangs. They've got big problems with the gun ban up there. They confiscate more guns than are legally registered in Chicago every year! They've got big problems, almost intractable, unsolvable problems. Pfleger brought down some victims families. They've got gang problems. A poor kid was standing at a bus stop and a car goes by and blasts him to bits. Twenty-two school children. It didn't happen at school. I guess they call them a school child if they've ever gone to school ever in their life. Of course they dropped out years ago. They're technically not a school child right now but they used to go to school. And that counts because if they're a school child it adds more to the sensational nature of a child shooting. These people are so crime ridden and so skewed in their thinking about crime and punishment, responsibility, and law and order. Pfleger only had eighty people that were dedicated to his speech. Shafer passed around some literature from their anti-gun rally. The name of their group changes every year. The Illinois Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, The Brady Campaign to Ban Handguns, The Brady Campaign Against Gun Violence, and The Legal Community Against Violence. It changes every year! Whatever the guy thinks up for his better clique name for this year, it'll change next year. So don't worry about the letterhead. It won't be the same next year. He passed those out and the woman who gave those to Shafer said a similar deal. She said, "Thank you so much for promoting our cause. Shafer said, "Mam, I'm a pro-gun guy!" And she said, "I just hate you!" They had several undercover police mingling through the crowd. Shafer didn't take it personally because they were there for Pfleger. Shafer thought, "Good, somebody else gets a lick." Pfleger causes trouble and deliberately gets arrested wherever he goes to try to get in the paper because his event got zero coverage. It deserved zero coverage. Finally when they walked out onto Second Street and started to stop traffic with their signs, all the cops came and finally said, "Time to go boys, that's enough, that will be enough of that." Pfleger said he was going to try to storm the Governor's office. They said, "Wouldn't advise it. That'll get you arrested." The event broke up and there was a lull. Shafer took full advantage of it since he knew the history of Pfleger and his quotes, what he wanted to make the media and what he didn't want to make the media. Shafer walked right up to Pfleger and said, "Did you say you were going to snuff out a gun shop owner?" The whole place came to a screeching halt, you could have heard a pin drop. All the off duty cops swarmed around and all the kids from the suburban Chicago high school swarmed around. Pfleger is a hands on kind of guy. He's grabbing onto Shafer with one hand and started stroking and pawing Shafer with the other hand. Shafer was thinking, "Keep it above the waist." "A little to the left." The guy said, "Oh, Oh, let me tell you. I never said it like that. It was taken out of context. We were just trying to get his home address." Shafer said, "For what, so you could picket his house?" Every line Pfleger had, Shafer had an instantaneous comeback for it because he knew this guy's history. Shafer said it's really off putting to have a guy stroking you the whole time you're speaking to him. There was a lot of media around and they heard Shafer's quotes knocking everything in that little flier right there, that little screed of propaganda. Shafer set them straight on all of it. While that interview was going on Shafer took that time to confront Pfleger. "Your Bishop, your Cardinal told you to apologize and never say it again. Do you regret saying it? He really started stroking Shafer then and he said he would never say it again. Shafer said is was really unnerving to have a guy do that to you. That's his modus operandi. And you have to remember Shafer was surrounded by 80 urban minority blacks who were hostile because they've been fed this anti-gun propaganda, this anti-gun slop all their lives. And here he is personafied and now he's accosting their priest from the fellowshop of Saint Sabina. It was a very tense moment but Shafer was bound and determined that he was not going to let this guy spew this crap down here. As Shafer walked off, the police breathed a big sigh of relief, Shafer breathed a sigh of relief and Shafer is certain this Pfleger fellow breathed a sigh of relief. Pfleger went on up there to get arrested by the governor's office but Shafer guesses he never did. They just tolerated him and kept the door locked so he couldn't get in. He got zero coverage and he deserved zero coverage. Shafer loves comparing contrasts because just days before Shafer had participated in what clearly was one of the most successful pro-gun demonstrations anywhere in the state. Tom Shafer's Commentaries Return to SCRA Home Page |