Here is what the Illinois State Rifle Association has to say :
Executive Directors Message
The situation leading up to and including SB1966 and its various amendments that now become the bill has been deceitful and slimy to say the least. SB1966 is an out and out attack on the Second Amendment and the private ownership of firearms. The excuse for filing SB1966 was the shooting that occurred in Aurora earlier this year. Of course, in the end, SB1966 does nothing about that.
In the beginning, Representative Kathleen Willis, Queen of the anti-gun mob, called for a meeting which included all stakeholders. The ISRA and the NRA were there as well as representatives from the police, Cook County State’s Attorney, and the anti-gun side. The ISRA and the NRA did not tell Representative Willis what she wanted to hear and we were never invited back. We were never informed of any more meetings but we know they did occur because some of our friendly legislators relayed that to us, those who Willis couldn’t kick out.
The Judiciary Committee hearing on Monday, Memorial Day, was classic shadow government theater. Amendments to SB1966, HFA 2 and HFA3 were to be heard in the Judiciary Committee. These two amendments lower the price of the FOID card, fix prices dealers can charge for a transfer, and fix prices that fingerprint vendors can charge. They also take $20,000,000 out of the IDNR over 10 years by cutting out their share of the FOID card fee. While fixing prices might sound good it actually forces people to work so cheap that they will simply not do it or go broke. Either way, this is government price fixing. If a couple of local gas stations did this they would be fined severely. Another way of looking at it is this is a type of theft of services by the state. The goal here is to make it harder, if not impossible, for you to exercise your Second Amendment Rights.
The Judiciary Committee is made up of 19 legislators. To pass a bill, 10 yes votes are needed; to defeat a bill, 10 no votes are needed. The permanent members of the Judiciary Committee are 7 Republicans and 10 Democrats. The good news is that some of those Democrats are pro-gun. For the lobbying team it was a doable task to get 10 no votes, if nobody tampers with the makeup of the Judiciary Committee. Not easy but doable. The Speaker of the House can replace members of the Judiciary Committee or any other committee, for that matter, with temporary members. The President of the Senate can do the same thing.
One of the first tasks a committee chairman does after calling the committee to order is read the substitutions, if any. As expected, after the Judiciary Committee was called to order, the Speaker substituted out all the pro-gun Democrats and replaced them with anti-gun Democrats. As I like to describe it, the fix was in. So much for the meaning of permanent in Springfield. We, of course, suspected this would happen. You are probably wondering why you went to all the trouble of filing witness slips. Those become a record that goes along with the bill. Heck, who knows, a court somewhere might be interested in that. You just never know. Thanks, by the way, you did a great job under lousy conditions.
On Sunday, we saw the same thing happen in the Agriculture and Conservation Committee (Ag & Con) with HR398, a resolution calling for the banning of lead shot shells. Lead shot is a favorite target of the left. The Ag &Con Committee is a very pro-gun pro-hunting committee. Resolutions are not binding but passing HR398 Is a camel’s nose under the tent idea. Nevertheless, every pro-gun, pro-hunting Democrat was substituted out of the committee. The people who replaced them probably heard of farms or maybe have even driven by a farm while on the interstate.
Wednesday was one of those very hard days in Springfield. Despite the arguments being on our side the left prevailed. SB1966 passed by four votes. It is now headed for The Senate. The vote should be an affront to all the law-abiding citizens of this state, FOID Card holders or not. The left wingers always claim that they are for the poor, the elderly and the disadvantaged, though all those people end up under the politically expedient bus. The bill now heads for the Illinois Senate for concurrence.
Anyway, how do you change all this? 2020 is coming up. Every gun owner needs to vote. The ISRA will never abandon the fight for Second Amendment Rights for all Illinois Citizens. Remember the ISRA never gives up. We will simply reload and get back in the fight. Thanks for all your support.
I don’t think the Governor and the General Assembly will, thankfully, get everything done by the 31st of May. We may be back this summer.
Thanks for being a member.
If you are not an ISRA member, pl=ease JOIN today!
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Here is the House Roll Call:
