Sangamon County Rifle Association
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights
Springfield, Illinois



Tom Shafer

Immunity bill great
Tom Shafer
SCRA meeting, 8/1/05
September 2005 GunNews






Shafer told members that on July 29, 2005 the U.S. Senate voted  65 to 32 to pass S. 397,  the Gun Manufacturers Dealers Immunity Law.  Obama and Durbin voted no. Shafer said that if you follow how the Illinois delegation votes, you will notice all the republicans yes votes, and then you see Obama no and Durbin no.  Its seems quite standard that anything we're for, Obama and Durbin are against.  Shafer opined that Obama has fallen right in line as Durbin's underling, resolutely defending the Democrats. This includes everything from military procurement to Second Amendment, to everything you see on the nightly news, anything that needs to be filibustered or hung up, he's right there in lock step with Durbin.  Naturally Lane Evans is right in there as well.  He certainly seems to cast a lot of Democratic-leaning votes for a representative for a predominately republican district (after they cut up Shimkus' district and give it to Evans).

The Senate passed 65 to 32  the immunity bill, and now it goes over to the House, where Shafer believes its passage is assured.  Bush has already said he will sign it. Shafer said there are a couple of different dynamics at work here.  Right when the feds have realized the assault weapons ban expires, immunity has now passed.  The only reason it didn't pass the last time was, they allowed the Democrats to attach an assault weapons ban provision on to it.  As a result the Republicans said, we'll drop the whole shebang, immunity and assault weapons and we'll bring it up again in what Shafer calls a clean bill.  Which is just one piece of legislation, this immunity bill.  Frisk, who Shafer says is our ally in the Senate, said "That is exactly what's going to happen, I'm not going to allow any amendments to be attached."  However, they did attach a trigger lock amendment which is a nothing piece of legislation.  So they have to give you a trigger lock with the purchase of your handgun that you can either throw away or use.

Shafer explained that the immunity bill passed as a clean bill right at the time when the feds have gotten off the gun issue.  And the national Democrats have not spoken about gun control, because they're beginning to realize, "Hey, we keep losing elections on this issue and on this issue only."   Gun owners may have noticed that on the national scene it hasn't been an issue.  In fact some traditionally anti-gun Democrats were part of the sixty-five votes that said yes to immunity, one of their core issues for their trial lawyers.  So they've stopped it at the federal level and yet now guys like Blagojevich, who Shafer considers an ex-fed (he was a U.S. rep for years with an anti-gun agenda), are going to try to put the hammer on gun owners at the state level.  Shafer believes gun owners have their work cut out for them but that's just for Illinois.  The rest of the country doesn't have to worry about the feds.  In fact the feds are off our backs, and the Democrats in the federal congress are off our backs tremendously.  However, gun owners still have plenty of work to do here in Illinois simply because we're saddled with guys like Blagojevich and Daley.

Shafer believes a call to your U.S. Rep concerning S. 397 would be helpful at this point, because coming up quickly after the summer recess, the House of Representatives will hold a debate on the gun immunity issue.  The  NRA has pushed big money for many years into this immunity issue because they represent the gun industry, as well as gun owners and other Americans.

Warren Drake said as near as he could figure about forty dollars of the cost of a .22 Ruger rifle goes for litigation. Shafer said litigators have sued ammo makers, gun makers, gun wholesalers, and  individual gun dealers, all for criminal activity with firearms.  So this is going to be a major breakthrough for our industry. It throws out immediately all the lawsuits  that are pending industry-wide.  Remember Chicago put in a 435 million dollar liability claim against the gun industry. The lawsuit was thrown out of the Illinois courts by a district judge from the federal courts of Illinois.  So gun owners and  gun manufacturers win at the court level because now lawsuits won't even be able to be brought after this bill passes.  The House of Representatives needs to pass S. 397, and President Bush needs to sign it, and Shafer said that will occur. He believes it gets the feds off our back,  but gun owners will still need to fight battles at the state level.

Shafer said he's been following Governor Blagojevich in the news. He vetoed three good pro-gun bills.  He's reared his head now to speak about an "assault weapons" ban and a .50 caliber ban during the fall veto session, which is the wrong place to pass legislation.  They call it a veto session for a reason.  It's for overriding potential vetoes of other bills that have passed during the regular session. Blagojevich is a master at behind the scenes maneuvers.  He is crafting his moves carefully and is going to be every bit as sneaky as he was with the stem cell money.

Shafer believes gun owners have plenty of work cut out as the battle rages on.  But the passing of the immunity bill in the Senate is a huge victory at the federal level.  Anything that has the liberal Democrats in Washington screaming has Shafer sitting back laughing.  Shafer said to just sit back and revel in it.  We don't need to do anything except call our rep to make sure he says we want this to pass in the House and the Senate.

Shafer concludes however that gun owners will not be able to savor the US Senate victory here in Illinois because they're on the opposite side.  Obama and Durbin are bitter enemies and rivals. They absolutely hate us as gun owners and they hate even more  the extremely powerful gun owners alliance NRA members and ISRA members have forged.

The Chicago Tribune editorialized against the federal immunity bill and buried the story about its passing in the Senate way back in the back of the Tribune on the same day they said "Blagojevich Signs Gun Bill".  The closing of the "gun show loophole" was on the front page above the fold and the Senate passing the tort immunity bill was on page fourteen buried with some other innocuous stories.  Editors who own newspapers are as every bit as smart as gun owners are.  They highlight their victories and bury their defeats exactly like any other group does.  Shafer concludes their recent actions only prove how much this victory troubles them.

Shafer believes if the courts were for real they would have filed against the people who filed these types of frivolous lawsuits and said "you can't clog our courts with this kind of garbage law".  Nowhere can someone be sued for using a legal product illegally and take it back to the manufacturer of that product.  These scurrilous types of lawsuits went on for a long time and the thinking was that people wouldn't figure out that they just clog the courts and cost the gun industry money.  Such lawsuits do absolutely nothing to reduce crime and certainly they have stopped no one from committing a crime. They are a ridiculously absurd use of the law and the federal immunity bill law should have been passed a long time ago.  It is all finally going to come to an end in our lifetime and Shafer has chalked it up as a huge victory and says the NRA does as well.  It clearly proves just how powerful the NRA is to have succeeded in getting such a bill passed through a largely anti-gun federal system.

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Sangamon County Rifle Association
Springfield, Illinois
 Jim Butler, President
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