For My Friends In Illinois

One of the most important annual gun rights events held in Illinois is the Illinois Gun Owners Legislative Day or IGOLD. That is the day when gun owners from around the Prairie State converge on Springfield to meet with their legislators gun rights issues. IGOLD 2017 is set for Wednesday, April 5th.

The important thing to remember about Illinois politics is that not all Democrats are anti-gun and not all Republicans are pro-gun. The bill authorizing shall-issue concealed carry was sponsored by Rep. Brandon Phelps (D-Harrisburg) while recently defeated US Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) was relatively anti-rights. Moreover, Gov. Bruce Rauner (R-IL) is relatively pro-gun and neither house of the General Assembly has a super-majority.

With the number of murders in the city of Chicago now topping 750 for the year, I would fully expect some stringent gun control measures to be proposed by Chicagoland politicians. This is where they usually come from. The election of Donald Trump as President has caused the gun prohibitionists like Bloomberg’s Everytown, the Brady Campaign, and Americans for Responsible Solutions to turn their attention on the states. They know they can’t win at the federal level but they have had some success at the state level as can be seen by the passage of gun control referenda in Washington State, Nevada, and California.

If you live in Illinois and are a gun owner, please try to clear your calendar so that you can make the trip to Springfield. Your rights may just well depend upon it.

Thousands of Second Amendment Supporters Will March on the Capitol in Springfield, IL!

IGOLD

Illinois Gun Owner Lobby Day

Wed. April 5, 2017
Prairie Capital Convention Center
Springfield, IL
Mark this important date on your calendar.  If you need
to reserve a vacation day before the end of the year –
DO IT NOW! 
Because
several pro-Second Amendment legislators lost in the recent statewide
election, we will have an uphill battle when the General Assembly
returns to Springfield for the new session in 2017.  Anti-rights
legislators will be more determined than ever to disarm law-abiding
citizens. 
We know disarming innocent people does not make us safer. We know gun free
zones are killing zones.  It is important we lobby our legislators and
Gov. Rauner.  It is important that we voice our opposition to any
further restrictions on our Second Amendment rights.  It’s important
that we voice our
support for:
  • Less restriction on where we can carry, so we can better protect ourselves and our loved ones.
  • Reducing the cost of concealed carry licenses, which is too high for many to afford.
  • Reciprocity with other states in order to  protect ourselves when we travel in those states.
Even if you have already received your carry license,
this is NOT the time to sit back and become lax! 
Those
who have taken the training and gone through the licensing process are
crucial to the fight and we need you to stand with us and be heard at
IGOLD! 
Save the date!  Be there!

Your 2017 New Year Assignment!

Your assignment for the New Year is to contact your State Representative and State Senator and express your concerns about: restrictions in the carry law, further attempts to enact firearm/magazine bans,
or attempts to make purchasing, owning, or transporting firearms more
difficult for law abiding citizens.  Contact your state legislators at
the State Capitol and at their home office. 
Don’t know who your state legislators are? 
Find them here:

Noted “Insurrectionist” On IGOLD 2013

That noted insurrectionist Roy Kubicek aka Thirdpower has a post up with full coverage of the Illinois State Rifle Association’s IGOLD 2013 on his blog Days of Our Trailers. IGOLD stands for Illinois Gun Owner Lobbying Day.

Thirdpower has some great pictures of the march through Springfield as well as the speakers at the Prairie Capitol Convention Center. Of particular note is Mary Shepard who was the lead plaintiff in Shepard v. Madigan.

Picture by Thirdpower, Mary Shepard next to David & Colleen Lawson.

Roy, for those that don’t know, was singled out by Joshua Horwitz of CSGV for attention during Horwitz’s testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Of course, Horwitz used a severely edited and selective quote of Roy’s blog post. More on that here.

* I just noticed that this was my 3000th post. I’m glad to see it was on the efforts of the gun owners of Illinois to preserve and protect their Second Amendment rights.

IGOLD 2013

One of the major annual events for the Illinois State Rifle Association is their Illinois Gun Owners Lobby Day. This is the day that gun owners from across the Illini State gather to lobby the Illinois General Assembly.

ISRA recently set the date for the 2013 event. It will be held in Springfield, Illinois on Wednesday, March 6th.  You can download their flyer for the event here.

To get an idea about the turnout, check out these pictures on the Days of Our Trailers blog. By contrast, here is the turnout for a Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (sic) event outside the White House.

Comparison Of Them And Us

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence lives for hyperbole. This afternoon they posted the following:

CSGV
PHOTOS of large Heeding God’s Call protest in front of Mike & Kate Sport’s Shop in Philly. #PA #politics #faith #peace http://fb.me/MdC2SsLF

Being the skeptical sort, I looked up the “large Heeding God’s Call protest” from yesterday. By my count, they have about 35 people standing out in front of Mike & Kate’s Sports Shop blocking the entrance.The rest of the pictures can be found here.

If that is large, what would they consider the picture below from ISRA’s IGOLD Day.

Courtesy of Days of our Trailers.