Sangamon
County Rifle Association
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights
Springfield, Illinois
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights
Springfield, Illinois
|
|
Sangamon
County Rifle Association
Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights Springfield, Illinois |
|
 IGOLD - This year is the "Perfect Storm" for gun owners Tom Shafer SCRA meeting 2/2/09 March 2009 GunNews Flyers with pictures of last years gun rally were passed around to members and then Shafer talked about last years rally and what a huge success it was. Even the weather cooperated. He talked about how the rally began in earlier years and how far we have come in making it the huge successful event it is now. Shafer thinks we have pretty much the perfect storm here this year. Obama has been sworn in, a vehement anti-gun president from Chicago. Blagojevich, a radical anti-gun governor, has been impeached, out on his ear, and IGOLD is coming up on March 11th. Everything is just kind of swirling around it. Shafer thinks this year could be really big. He is extremely proud of last years event. Our lawmakers have got it better than bankers hours, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays only. No Mondays, no Fridays, no late afternoons whatsoever. In fact Shafer was flattered, if you saw the picture on the flyer, when gun owners came marching down the street last year, the House and Senate adjourned. We're in essence, ironically controlling the Illinois legislature because they won't meet with all of us. The anti-gun Chicago contingent which is a huge contingent of the House and the Senate said, "Oh here come the gun guys from all the rest of the state. We know what they're going to say." Of course they know our mantra. We've said it to them a million times. We hate their anti-gun policies and we hate their anti-gun politics. We will not listen to their propaganda, we don't read the Trib and the Sun Times and if we do read them, we don't believe a word they say because half of it is lies and the other half is calling us names. So they all just adjourned. Shafer thought well that's good because now we understand each other. It's a mutual despisement society. They don't want to be next to us and Shafer certainly doesn't want to be next to them. So unless they are getting indicted or jailed, Shafer does go to stuff like that which is well worth going to, we understand each other. We're never going to meet up in a fair, friendly, mutually respectful situation. Shafer does not see it happening in our lifetime. The distance is vast between us, ideologically, morally, ethically, politically and financially, any way you want to name it. They're a mess. Anything they've got to say is not worth listening to. So we're going to do the same thing again. We're going march down to the place quietly, peacefully and as undemonstratively as possible. Other groups can only dream of doing what we did last year, filling Capitol Avenue with thousands and thousands of people who showed up at their own expense on a work day or a school day and having that successful of an event. Shafer has seen over 300 rallies at the Capitol where they have had to bus people in and promise them a free lunch and only 25 people showed up. They try to advertise and induce people to get a tenth of the numbers we have absolutely for free. We're heading for the high skies March 11th. Shafer encourages everyone to come and bring a friend and stay for as long as you want. Shafer does not know who all will be speaking but he thinks it is a wonderful time and it is effective. It just might not be as effective on the front page of the newspaper because they will not cover us, they hate it that we are so effective, they hate it that we are so organized and they hate it because we are going to outlast them. We have such longevity that they can't even believe it. We're doing all this outside of their organized media, all amongst ourselves. Shafer said it has been a pleasure to be a part of and he is certain that this will be successful. This is truly a family event. We have a lot of women and children. They usually try to play the media because they won't give us any coverage whatsoever although we totally deserve it because it cuts across their anti-gun agenda of whatever media happens to own or whatever big shot happens to own the media at the time whether its tv, radio or newspaper. They won't cover us so we've tried women, we've tried the youth movement and we've tried to put some kind of a spin on it so where they literally can't ignore us. If anyone has any ideas, Shafer said they have tried everything that he can think of, to get some kind of media coverage but they've resisted tremendously. Nothing succeeds like success and when you see that many people come together on their own dollar on their own time m coming down the street like that for one common purpose, you can just see these media publishers saying, "Man, we're never going to beat these people." We can try to lie, con them, propagandize them, and cajole them and they're not going to buy it. You can fool some of the people some of the time and you fool some of the people all of the time but you're not going to fool all of the people all of the time. And you're never going to fool us ever! Shafer thinks it is very satisfying to be a part of this group because we're definitely winning. Remember IGOLD, March 11th on a Wednesday, just feel free to show up with however many you want at the Convention Center at noon and Shafer guarantees you won't miss a thing! Tom Shafer's Commentaries Return to SCRA Home Page |