Apparently, like Darth Vader, they appear to be altering the deal. I would work to kill anything worse than what they offered. What’s likely happening is they realized that while the previous offer wasn’t everything we wanted, it was strategically beneficial to us over the long term. They likely don’t find that acceptable. If you live in Illinois, call your Senators, and make sure they understand that you are not at all happy with this crap. Tell them to oppose Amendment 4 to HB183.
It’s been instructive watching this unfold, because it shows you how committed these people are to the hate. From a political standpoint, they’ve been backed into the corner by the federal courts, and not by us. You can always go back to constituents and tell them your hands were tied, and the court forced us to make those changes. Additionally, you can use weak gun laws forced on you by the courts to deflect blame for your own failures, as Philly politicians are expert at doing. Politically, this wouldn’t really hurt them, yet the obstinance continues. Why? Because they hate us.
Nail meet head. You got it.
To also show the hate, this is Senate President Cullerton asnd his chums fighting against House Speaker Madigan.
For note Madigan is thill Ill machine pol who runs the state machine and has enough leverage to deem what will pass in either chamber.
From this link.
http://www.gunssavelife.com/?p=7703
It seems Cullerton tried to get this deal with Madigan’s approval. And Madigan told him to pound sand.
So… crossing a machine boss of your own party.
Isn’t about time that we find some rich conservative person who can fund ‘research’ into all these idiots like Madigan to find out the dirt we need for leverage? He has to be dirty, there has to be something he doesn’t want people, or law enforcement, to know. I live in this cesspool state, between him and whatever Chicago mayor we have, anything north of Peoria is screwed.
Dirt on the lily-white Illinois politicians? You’re dreaming. Because nobody cares that they are basically mafioso. More accurately, even if they care, it makes no difference, since as the late Mayor Daley said, “It ain’t how the votes go in that counts, it’s how they come out.”
See, for example http://nalert.blogspot.com/2008/03/chicago-democrats-and-chicago-mob.html
which points out that the most powerful alderman on the Chicago City Council is a known mafia associate, and his wife is a judge on the Illinois Court of Appeals.
They hate us (me), fine. Then I hate them. Keep it up? It can’t end well.
Interesting times we live in, these days.
The last few months have made it very clear to me that a significant number of people actively desire for me and mine to be loaded into a boxcar or put into a ditch. I honestly believe that if some of these folks were “King for a Day” they would not hesitate to sic SWAT on people like you and me with very lax rules of engagement.
So yeah, of course they hate the fairly clean “shall issue” bill that Madigan cobbled together. That bill makes it harder to have the Chicago police department execute legal gun owners as their Chief of Police has already threatened to do.
What amazes me is that they don’t appear to give a crap about honest to goodness thugs and gangbangers with guns. But if a middle class person who owns a polo shirt has one — holy cow, call the SWAT team!
If I understand the ruling, if the politicians don’t come up with a plan for CCW, a default situation ensues where anyone can carry concealed (like Vermont).
I suppose the cops would try to impose some arbitrary enforcement for those who get caught(disturbing the peace, reckless endangering).
But wouldn’t that be the best result? The CCW law being offered was akin to “may issue” and then only if you pay a fortune and jump through endless hoops.
After a few months more and more folks will realize that IL hasn’t become the “Wild West” and that those who carry do so responsibly. Crime would also drop.
The reality would make it hard for anti-gun politicians to play on people’s fears and a genuine “shall issue” law would be possible.
Hank,
The key in Illinois isn’t concealed carry per se, it is preemption and getting rid of home rule. That is the victory, that is the decisive strategic win.
Without state preemption and elimination of home rule there will be no real “constitutional carry” in Illinois. There will be separate manner/place/time restrictions immediately enacted by every county and town barring carry in any real way as far as they think they can get away with. Chicago’s assault weapons ban and separate registration requirements and such will remain on the books. You could maybe conceal carry on your own land freely enough, anywhere else would require you to also pack a phone book of individual regulations.
Without preemption any attempt to fix the situation later will result in a failure to gain a super-majority; and there won’t then be leverage in the courts after June 9 because “you already have permitless carry (on paper).”
That’s why Madigan’s bad bill is worth taking, absent a realistic chance of getting something better. June 9th is the -death- of meaningful carry in most of Illinois and merely sets off an arduous campaign town by town, county by county, to try to get to where the Madigan bill would have started from in some few places.
The folks in IL are understandably impatient to catch up to the rest of the “shall-issue” states, but many are either too young to have seen how places, like my home state of Alaska, got to Con Carry or are so frustrated they are letting emotion override true reflection.
Alaska started with a “shall-issue” bill in ’94 that sucked, high fees, no reciprocity, signs had criminal penalties, all sorts of training requirements were on the permit and there were a host of other restrictions. However, because of state preemption and the lack of home rule (which Madigan’s bill would eliminate in IL), it only took a majority to incrementally fix those issues one at a time. Like Illinois, we had a pro-gun majority to stop the law from getting -worse-, so we chipped away at the bad bits and we got to “Alaska Carry” in 2004, 10 years after having -no- carry in 1993.
That’s the way to get carry in IL, take the long view and dig in from a position of advantage and exploit weaknesses as they arise.