by When the legislature returns to town, it is always a time be on guard. It doesn’t matter if it is Washington DC, Raleigh, or, in this case, Springfield, Illinois. The Illinois General Assembly reconvenes tomorrow, October 21st, and the anti-gunners are seeking to cut back some of the items contained in the shall-issue concealed carry act that passed in July.
The Illinois State Rifle Association has sent out an alert regarding four bills that the gun prohibitionists are proposing including ones that would ban concealed carry in restaurants that serve alcohol, increase penalties for carrying in prohibited areas, and eliminate safe havens for gun owners near school zones.
On the good side are three bills including one that would provide for reciprocity between Illinois and a number of other states. Currently, the only way a non-resident of Illinois may carry once the Illinois State Police implement the concealed carry law is by getting an Illinois non-resident carry license.
The full alert from ISRA is below:
ANTI-GUNNERS BEGIN CAMPAIGN TO DISMANTLE CONCEALED CARRY
The Illinois General Assembly returns to session Monday, October 21st, and the anti-gunners are wasting no time in attempting to dismantle the concealed carry bill passed last spring. Your help is desperately needed to shut down the gun control movements efforts to strip you of your fundamental right to defend yourself and your family from muggers, murderers, robbers and rapists.
We also need your help to support 3 pro-concealed carry bills that have been introduced. The details on all the bills are below:
PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION CAREFULLY AND TAKE THE ACTIONS LISTED TO HELP SAVE YOUR RIGHTS
HB3646 DANGEROUS BILL Bans Concealed Carry in any restaurant that has alcoholic beverages on the menu. Drastically reduces your choices on when and how to protect yourself. This bill is a foot in the door to create a growing list of places where you will be prohibited from protecting yourself and your family from dangerous criminals.
HB3669 DANGEROUS BILL – This bill eliminates safe haven provisions for areas near schools meaning that you could not even have a firearm locked in your trunk if you drive on to ANY property controlled by a school district. Once again, this bill would severely limit your self defense options and would make you a felon for doing nothing more than possessing a firearm. Under this bill, you would have to leave your defensive firearms at home if your plans called for you to enter any lands controlled by a school district. The real purpose of this bill is to pave the way for sweeping prohibitions on concealed carry that would make self defense impractical and a serious legal risk for most Illinois citizens.
HB3675 DANGEROUS BILL This bill would severely increase penalties for persons found to be carrying firearms in restricted areas. This bill is designed solely to scare law-abiding citizens out of carrying defensive firearms. This bill in no way targets gang-bangers or other violent criminals.
SB2594 DANGEROUS BILL This is another bill that would prohibit carry in restaurants that have alcoholic beverages on the menu.
HB3651 GOOD BILL This bill lowers the burdensome 16-hour training rule to a more reasonable 8-hour requirement. This bill also eliminates the re-training requirements for carry permit renewals. In short, this bill undoes that anti-gunners attempts to discourage people from applying for carry permits by easing burdensome training requirements.
HB3650 GOOD BILL This bill provides for concealed carry reciprocity between Illinois and dozens of other states.
HB3649 GOOD BILL This bill reduces the exorbitant fees the State Police plan on charging people for permit applications. The state should not be allowed to price-gouge citizens who want to defend themselves. This bill would make fees more reasonable and thus allow greater access to self defense for Illinois citizens.
HERE IS WHAT YOU NEED TO DO TO PROTECT YOUR RIGHT TO SELF DEFENSE:
1. Call your State Representative and politely tell him/her that you are a law-abiding firearm owner and you do not want your right to self defense diminished for political reasons. Ask him/her to vote AGAINST HB3646; HB3669; HB3675.
2. While on the phone with your Representative, tell him/her that you would like them to vote FOR HB3649; HB3650 and HB3651.
3. Call your State Senator and politely tell him/her that you are a law-abiding firearm owner and that you do not want your right to self defense diminished for political reasons. Ask him/her to vote AGAINST SB2594.
4. Post this alert to any and all Internet bulletin boards or blogs to which you belong.
5. Pass this alert along to all your gun owning friends and family members ask them to take action as well.
6. Please consider a generous donation to the ISRA so that we can continue to fight against those who would take your gun rights away from you.
If you do not know who your State Representative or State Senator is, the Illinois State Board of Elections has an interactive search page here:
www.elections.state.il.us/DistrictLocator/DistrictOfficialSearchByAddress.aspxIf you already know who your State Representative and State Senator are and just need the contact info, you can find that here: www.ilga.gov/house & www.ilga.gov/senate .
