Senator caught in lie about the .50 and other neat doings by our "public servants"

Shafer talked very briefly about Gregory Hullom, the serial armed robber. Hullom shot a man right across the street at the currency exchange. Fortunately the man lived. Hullom was just sentenced to 100 years in prison.

Shafer said Lobby Day was absolutely wonderful. It's hard when you get a group of pro-gunners together and moving in one direction, where do you put them, where do they go while they're there, what do they do while there're there? What can we do to make their experience more enjoyable so we can have that type of turnout year after year?   If you have any ideas jot them down and give them to Shafer, Brian or Jim. We will make sure they get to the Kickapoo State Park Meeting where the groups are going to get together. They need your input as to what activities these people can participate in rather than, after spending five hours on a bus, just being told to go see their lawmakers. Shafer would like to see people take away lasting, tangible benefits from coming and participating in the IGOLD rally.

Shafer telephoned Jesse White's office after the rally because truthfully, when you have 2,000 people show up and have to put them through a metal detector, that's a struggle. However, the guards, the weather gods and Jesse White's people treated everyone well. The parking was a nightmare as was the security check where you had to go through a hoop but they made it as palatable as possible.

Shafer said this isn't always the case as he has spent a great deal of time at the Capitol and has seen things get ugly with other groups, seen them treat folks poorly with an inconsiderate attitude and locked doors.

Shafer thanked the people in Jesse White's office for treating IGOLD members decently. Shafer says if you complain loudly when you're treated poorly, you should also express gratitude when you are treated well.

Shafer believes that sets the stage for next year. He has found that a little bit of gratitude gets people treated even better the next year with even more access to facilities and even more curtesy extended. Butler and Shafer have been up to the capitol lobbying and seen other groups lobbying and seen how they are either well treated or mistreated. They can make your life miserable or they can make your life really pleasant by how they treat you. So a little bit of gratitude goes a long way.

The .50 caliber ban and Senator Kotowski

The .50 caliber ban is in committee, they don't have enough votes to pass it, and you'll notice when they don't have the votes, the issue quietly fades away.

One of the fascinating side stories to the .50 caliber ban is a fellow named Dan Kotowski. Shafer knew Dan back when he had hair, fifteen years ago at least. He's a short guy from northern Illinois whose senate seat is Des Plaines, Illinois, a far western suburb of Chicago, Illinois.   Dan Kotowski was a funny guy, a rabid anti-gunner with no group, no base, and no grassroots support. He was what Shafer calls laughingly, one guy, a roladex and a speed dial. But who he called the most was the Chicago Tribune and they covered him like a tent. They gave him the best quotes and the best press coverage at any imaginative press conference he put on. They would give him page three with paragraph after paragraph of Dan Kotowski's rantings about how horrible guns were.

Kotowski parlayed that Chicago media coverage into a campaign for Illinois senate and got himself elected. He has now been an Illinois state senator for four months. So to say that he is brand new, that really tells you something.

Senator Kotowski's first piece of legislation out of the box was to ban .50 caliber rifles.   So he's changed, moved up into the world in his social strata, in that he parlayed that good media coverage into votes, because of the Chicago Tribune, the powerhouse of newspapers up in northern Illinois. With heavy name recognition in his area, he figured maybe some people up there were thinking his way. But he also realizes that people downstate are not thinking his way. We're kind of his nemesis down here which is great. Of course his bill is going nowhere. We've cut the state at I-80. The northern senators from Chicago and the urban senators from Chicago are all going to vote for it but they have no downstate support at all.

Kotowski was one guy with a group called the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence, but apparently he has moved on because his first bill is not about handguns at all.

So that's what brings us to this fantastic story. Kotowski had this .50 caliber rifle to support his .50 caliber ban which was being heard in committee but he didn't bring it into the capitol, probably because they were going to hassle him over it. They made him keep the rifle outside the capitol complex at his hotel room. So the press conference happened in the lobby at his hotel.

This gun which weighs forty pounds, costs six thousand dollars and has never ever been been used in a crime for obvious reasons, is a specialty rifle that is used for long distance target shooting, mostly in the western states where they have six hundred acres, six thousand acres and a mountain range behind you. Out there their scale is so vast and their sky so big that they can shoot at two thousand yards. Shafer says good luck if they've got the space, they're a better shot then he is because his ranges are real small here in Illinois.

So who happens to show up at the press conference but the owner of the Armelite Corporation. And right when Senator Dan, the big liar, one man band with a roladex and a speed dialer, is going on about how these rifles are used by the military. At that very moment his press conference is crashed by the President of Armelite, an Illinois Company. The President stepped up and said, "That's not true. I own the company. The military has bought none of my rifles!"

All the media cameras went over to the President of Armelite, Kotowski's mouth fell open, all the press people started writing and of course Kotowski had no comeback whatsoever. The media people all ran over and said, "What's your name? "to the President of Armelite.

All Shafer could think of was, "Man, I wish I had been there to see that deal because that's as good as it gets!"

It's as good as it gets when it shows up the fallacy of someone leaning over backwards trying to twist the truth. You can lie to the Chicago Tribune all you want because they don't call you on it, they don't challenge you on it, and they don't ask any hard questions.

But when you're down here, the press is glib, is known knowledgable, and people show up. People like Shafer, Butler, and the man who owns Armelite, to challenge such assertions and speak up when you're not telling the truth.

So here we have a four month senator caught blatantly lying at his own press conference. If you've ever appeared before a committee and they start firing questions at you, it's awfully easy to just start talking and pretty soon you don't even know what in the hell you are talking about.

That's what happened to Senator Kotowski and it was absolutely delicious. Naturally it didn't get the coverage it deserved but Shafer said he never forgets and this group never forgets. Now Kotowski has to roll on and try to be a senator for the length of his term and we're always going to remember that press conference.

The reaction to the D.C. Court ruling

As you all know a federal appellate court in D.C. overturned the gun ban as being unconstitutional. The City of D.C. said you can't have your gun assembled and you can't have a handgun at all. Your gun must be disassembled and unloaded. So you have absolutely no protection at all if you live in the District of Columbia. It's been that way for thirty years.

There have been gun rulings in eight other appellate courts that have gone against us. This is one that has gone for us. When you have a conflict between the appellate courts, you have to take it up to the bigger father, the Supreme Court. If they take the case, which they don't have to, and they rule, which they might, they could uphold the Second Amendment as an individual right. It would be a stunning victory in our lifetime. To see a redefinition, which has not happened since 1934, of a Second Amendment case taken by the Supreme Court and ruled as an individual right. The gun banners day will be over. Maybe not today because the states will still need to do some things but it will be a stunning victory in our lifetime.

In fact it was such a monumental achievement that Jesse Jackson ran right over to the Sun Times and put in a big editorial. Jackson called the judges that made this ruling "activist judges". He said, "Oh these activist judges have taken a crazy line."

When it's in black and white in the U.S. Constitution and it says the right of the people, it is the right of the people.

And Jackson says, "Oh you're an activist judge."

It's just delicious. All the talking heads for all the newspapers are weighing in on this because they're seeing the handwriting on the wall for their entire gun ban movement.

The Chicago Police beating story

Shafer's final comments were about the Chicago Police beating story. He encourages everyone to go on the internet and look up Anthony Abbate.   It's all over the web, the Anthony Abbate police video, Anthony Abbate beating video, etc.

This ten year tactical officer from the Chicago Police Department who weighed 260 pounds was blind drunk in a Chicago bar when a 22 year old 115 pound bartender said, "You can't drink no more, you're too drunk." Minutes before he just put a patron in a headlock and started pummeling him.

So he took it poorly, this 260 pound guy came around behind the bar, kicked her, stomped her, and beat her while she was on the ground. The first time you watch it kind of let it flow over you. The second time you watch it, think, "What if that girl had had a gun?" "What if she had been armed?" At what point do you feel, when you watch the video, that she should have just shot this guy to get him off of her? When he was kicking her or when he was drawing back, to this 22 year old 115 pound woman with an eighteen month old son at home? When he was drilling her as hard as he could in her head? When does her right to self-defense kick in? Watch the video the second time and think about that.   This guy was an animal, very disturbing story, very shocking. When should her right to self defense have kicked in?

Now of course it's big news. Felony charges have been filed. He's off the force.   This is an Illinois state crime so it's going to be in an Illinois court so Abbate is going to do time in the Illinois prison system. That means we'll get to follow the case easily.

When Abbate was arraigned, first they tried to file misdemeanor charges thinking the whole thing would go away. Thank God for the video tape. The video tape this bar had was fantastic. It was a digital video, clear as a bell with sound. You see everything including facial expressions. It's shocking and a stunner.

This Cook State's Attorney saw this video and said, "Oh my God in heaven, felony". They upgraded it to felony, aggravated battery. When he got arraigned his buddies on the Chicago Police Force blocked the Chicago Streets with Chicago police cars and the Captain of the Chicago Police district where he was arraigned ordered his police officers to ticket and harass anybody who tried to film it. So the Captain was demoted by the Chicago Police Chief.

This case is not going to go away. Arcing above it all there is a fantastically graphic video that has now shocked the entire country.

Shafer intends to do a story on his tv show. This is what the tv show will be.

Ok, run it forward a little bit, watch when he kicks her in the face. Ok, again, ok again.

Watch when he draws back. Full face. Shafer says he would have blasted him right there.

Now he hits her with garbage can. Shafer says he would have blasted him right there.

So that's going to be the episode of the show. The Anthony Abbate video. This is crime in progress that's rarely captured on good quality tape like this.

In yet another bar, three businessmen gave six Chicago officers some lip service and the officers beat the hell out of them. And then the on-duty officers came up and one of them flipped out his badge and said I'm a sergeant with the Chicago police, go away. And incredibly the on-duty officers went away and now they're all indicted. So Shafer understands why the Chicago Police Superintendent decided he had better retire. Shafer said if he had to ride herd over 11 to 13 thousands guys like that in a city like that, it would be a tough job, in fact he would want a big raise.

Shafer is going to follow both those cases just like he followed Hollum. People tell Shafer he doesn't cut anyone any slack. He doesn't care whether its a Hollum who just did eighteen years for home invasion or if its an on-duty Chicago police officer. Shafer's standard is real high. Its decency, dignity, honesty, fairness, fair treatment, equal justice under the law, just like it says in the Constitution. Shafer will follow these cases and give us an update each month. But in the meantime, watch the video. You will know something afterwards that you do not know now, the true nature of crime the way it really is on the streets.

Shafer said the Chicago Police came down here to Springfield to lobby against our rights as gun owners. They claimed because of the way crime is in Chicago, Shafer can't have a gun collection???

When Shafer puts that video on his show he reaches a potential 87,000 viewers. It's impossible to say how many will be tuned in. He is going to show it and he's going to tell it the way it really is. He is going to tell viewers over and over again this is an off-duty Chicago Police officer doing this. By the time they get done with this Abbate guy, he's going to wish he had never been born.

Until next time, keep your powder dry!