Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights
Springfield, Illinois
|
Sangamon
County Rifle Association Right Reason on Second Amendment Rights Springfield, Illinois |
|
Legislative Report
Tom Shafer, SCRA
SCRA Meeting November 7, 2005 December 2005 GunNews Gun bigots' worst nightmare. SCRA's Tom Shafer is tough on gun-hating political weasels. Shafer said the legislative victory you haven't heard about nationally is that congress passed, as we expected, the Lawful Protection and Firearms Act. Shafer said he was at the Crown Plaza recently for one of their gun shows and who was coming up the escalator but Lane Evans, his congressman. A congressional sighting here in Springfield is rare, as you know. Shafer asked Evans how he voted on the immunity bill and Evans could not bring himself to say the word, all he wanted to do was get away from Shafer because he realized Shafer was one of his pro-gun constituents. Shafer checked later and Evans voted no. Of course the left-wing media, taking their loss right on the chin, just shut up and said nothing about it. Of course if it had failed to pass you would have read about it on the front page in big type on every daily across the country. They figure their big victory is that Blagojevich's veto in Illinois has been upheld by four votes. So you can see how they downplay their losses and up play their victories. It's classic media style. Shafer was at the Illinois veto session five days out of six. Three bills passed the general assembly, regulating transport all through the state, not having to wait if you trade in a gun and a third requiring the state police to destroy their data base. All three bills passed the legislature back in May during the regular session. Governor Blagojevich vetoed the bills, thwarting the will of Illinois residents through their representatives. His vetoes were overridden in the Senate. When the bills got over to the House side, the trouble started. Blagojevich pulled out all the stops by contacting representatives himself and by using House Speaker Mike Madigan to contact representatives. He also brought up one of his appointees, State Police Director Larry Trent, to make a big exclamation in so many words, "are you going to side with the gun lobby and criminals or are you going to support law enforcement?" Of course the media only quoted Trent, they never quoted anyone to rebut his scurrilous remarks. Trent's comments, Shafer says, are indicative of the fear and desperation of gun haters. They realized in an anti-gun state, with an anti-gun governor, and an anti-gun House and Senate, all run by Democrats that pro-civil rights folks came within four votes of overriding a sitting anti-governor on three major pieces of gun legislation. They are scared to death of us, because we are winning and their crown jewel "assault weapons ban" has gone nowhere. Of course, pro-gun folks are now looking for some payback with the ISP director. There are several scandals brewing, including two scandals and lawsuits aplenty including one that has cost Illinois taxpayers over a million dollars which Shafer says he is going to document for us next month. Shafer calls it the Furman and Carper caper. On a positive note, Shafer said that even though the Post-Dispatch called the veto over-ride a huge loss for civil rights activists, he says he sleeps like a baby at night because he realizes there will eventually be a new governor and a new session of the legislature. In the spring we'll start over. Shafer guarantees that at some point, with the legislature on our side, regardless of the governor's veto, law-abiding gun owners are going to win this fight. The anti-self defense people have bottled themselves up with foolish legislation because they want to continue to deny law-abiding gun owners right-to-carry. These are the depths they have to go to continue to deny us. In the end we will prevail. They can pull out all the stops and cheat all they want. It will not change the will of the people. Print and compare - See which house members changed their votes on this important bill in the fall Illinois Veto Session. House votes to pass SB2104 - May 05 House votes no to override veto of SB2104 - Nov. 05 From the Capitol Index Return to SCRA Home Page |