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Year: 2013
Hi Cap and Assault Weapons Ban Pass Committee in Illinois
This is fucking serious folks. This is moving fast. For those people saying this can’t be for real, it’s for fucking real. This is on the verge of passing the Senate. Illinois is on the verge of being the worst state in the nation to be a gun owner. We must bury them under an avalanche of phone calls, letters, and if necessary, make them swim in a sea of yellow. We can turn out those numbers. If this happens there, this play will be repeated elsewhere. None of us are safe.
UPDATE: More here:
MESSAGE FROM COMMITTEE DEMOCRATS: “Eliminating law-abiding gun owners is a good ‘first step’ towards a ‘civil society.’â€
Included at the link is good and proper action to take, and yes, sometimes it helps tremendously to THANK lawmakers who stay with us. Positive reinforcement.
This is very serious. We are at DEFCON 1 in Illinois, folks.
UPDATE: From a comment in another post:
There will be a floor vote on these issues as early as tomorrow. Â HB1263 (assault weapons ban) and HB 815 (magazine ban) have been passed out of committee and will be brought to the floor for a general vote by tomorrow morning. Â As written, the ban will outlaw not only most rifles and shotguns used for hunting and sporting purposes, but also most handguns used for home and self defense. Â There is very little time to contact your legislators and express your outrage at this blatant gun grab.
This is truth. Act now.
Boehner Out?
That’s the rumor. Either he bows out gracefully or is forced out. I am of the opinion that a deal with the devil Obama Administration was going to have to happen. As Jim Geraghty noted in today’s Morning Jolt:
Fume at Speaker Boehner and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell all you want, but here’s the problem: The chance to gain leverage in these negotiations was on Election Day, and the GOP came up with bubkes that day. Sequestration and the expiration of all of the Bush tax cuts presented an awful status quo to begin with, and there was really no better alternative that would get A) passed in a Senate controlled by Harry Reid and B) signed by President Obama. They don’t want what we want, and we don’t want what they want. And time was on their side in several ways, not least of which was that as of noon Thursday, a new Congress, with even more Democrats, is sworn into office.
That’s pretty much what I think, but you have to pass a budget, and run the government. What we definitely don’t have to do is any new gun control. Gun control the Republicans ought to be counted on to stop. If they can’t, they are truly useless. Does the GOP really want to believe the gun control issue went from being toxic stew for Democrats for more than a decade to suddenly being a winning issue? Personally, I’d feel a lot better heading into this fight with a solid speaker. I appreciate that Boehner had to cut a deal, ultimately, but he’s damaged goods and a poor leader. Time for some fresh leadership.
Bill Details for Illinois Gun and Magazine Ban
Multi-Front Attack in Illinois
Contacts I have in the Land of Lincoln indicate the attack from the anti-gun folks is far broader than initially indicated.
- There is a shooting range bill that would essentially shut down most recreational shooting in the state, and bring the remainder under strict regulation.
- There is a magazine ban. The grandfathering is practically non-existent for existing magazines. Transfer is not possible except to an heir or out of state. Magazines must be registered to be legal.
- There is a lost & stolen requirement for magazines. Do you know where all your magazines are? I don’t. I haven’t even counted. Why? Because it’s a box with a spring.
- The assault weapons ban is charitably worse than Feinstein’s. Basically if it’s not grandpa’s deer rifle, it’s pretty much illegal. It will outlaw just about all popular semi-automatic firearms. What about .50BMG? Can’t have those either. Grandfathering is as non-existent as it is for magazines. Registration is required for them to be legal, only transferrable to heirs or out of state.
- The anti-gun folks in Illinois also seem to believe the only legitimate sport shooting is Olympic shooting. The rest of us who do other shooting sports, sanction by NRA, USPSA, or IDPA can get bent, apparently.
So if you’re in Illinois, get calling. Get your friend to call too. Know an old guy that has an M1 Carbine or two he thinks are safe? Get him involved too, because the M1 could be affected. We have to stop them here. It was inevitable that the Chicago machine would lash out after losing so badly in Court, but we have to stop them here. Illinois gun owners are now at the front line of the first battle in what’s going to be an awful, multi-year war.
The goal here is to throw everything at us, wear us down, and keep wearing us down until we capitulate; until people are so tired of calling and writing, that we stop doing it. Are we going to let them do that to us? We have to stop each and every one of these.
Truer Words Were Never Uttered
Thanks to Glenn Reynolds for reminding me of this gem:
Most politicians aren’t voting their conscience. Some of them have been in this business so long I’m convinced they have one. They are voting what’s politically expedient most of the time. If you change what that is, you can change their position.
What is Often Attributed to Malice …
… is often just plain stupidity. Every town, including the small borough I grew up in, had a cop where everyone thinks, “I can’t believe they let that guy walk around with a gun.” In big cities there are more people, and much bigger departments.
Wednesday Tab Clearing
Tabs are getting built up again, and there’s a lot of stuff happening now:
The Journal News apparently has hired armed guards to protect them. See, guns are only dangerous in the hands of the little people.
An analysis of Senator Feinstein’s claims the assault weapons ban was effective.
Newtown-style assault rifle? Really? All this time I’ve been carrying a Virginia-tech-style handgun. I didn’t even know it.
Just Noticing Now?
We noticed this “easter egg” in the health care bill when it happened, so did Politico. But the Washington Post is just now getting around to noticing. Harry Reid, who <sarcasm>was of course not worthy of an NRA endorsement</sarcasm>, got that put in there for us. The provision prevents the federal government from using doctors to create a database of gun owners. More broadly, it seems to prohibit the inclusion of information about gun ownership in medical records at all.
Hey, if you’re going to force government health care down our throats, everything becomes political. And I think a requirement like that is on better First Amendment grounds than the bill that gagged doctors from talking about gun ownership at all. The WaPo, however, is pretty obviously doing it’s part to try to discredit the NRA. But consider that this was sent by a reader who though this was a good catch on NRA’s part.
What Bloomberg Wants
Article by Jeffery Goldberg appearing in Bloomberg’s publishing empire, debunking the myths of gun control. Take a careful look at “Myth No. 3” I think Bloomberg would be perfectly OK with conceding everything else that’s been thrown at us if he got a gun show loophole bill. I view their placing an article by Goldberg as an attempt to work that particular field while the President is busy doing his thing.
Glenn Reynolds summed it up best: “Divide, weaken, and rule.” Hey, it works for Chicago. It was only a matter of time before he executed this tactic on gun rights.