By Jamey Dunn
An Illinois Senate committee approved two gun control measures today, after recent tragedies brought the debate over firearms to the forefront of national attention.
House Bill 1263 would ban several types of assault weapons, including semi-automatic firearms and high-caliber rifles. House Bill 815 would outlaw ammunition magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds. Gov. Pat Quinn has been calling for the passage of such bans since last summer, after a shooter killed a dozen people and injured more than 50 others in a Colorado movie theater. But the nationwide focus on the recent mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut—which took the lives of 20 students and six staff members—seems to have given the measures some momentum.
“These military-style weapons have no use in our street and cities across Illinois. ... Assault weapons have been used in three mass killings in our country in 2012,” said Colleen Daley, executive director of the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence. “The killings need to stop, and passing a ban on the sale of these weapons is a great first step in stopping the senseless violence.” Under the legislation, those who owned the guns before the law goes into effect would be able to keep them, but they would have to register the weapons with the Illinois State Police.
Opponents say the ban is a knee-jerk reaction to the tragedy. Jay Keller, executive director of the Illinois Firearms Manufacturers Association, called the Sandy Hook shooting “an incomprehensible, haunting horror.” But he said that banning guns is not the answer, and lawmakers should instead take a comprehensive look at the issue by evaluating the state’s mental health system and considering the value of violent imagery in entertainment such as video games. “We all want answers, preferably simple ones. Unfortunately there are none. This issue is a complex issue, and banning certain firearms will not solve it.” Keller said the bans would eliminate jobs by driving weapons manufacturers out of the state. “So I can stay here and pay you all [taxes], but I can’t do business here. The manufacturers will not stay here.”
Representatives from the National Rifle Association argued that the two bills step on the Second Amendment rights of gun owners and fly in the face of recent court rulings guaranteeing them access to guns, as well as the ability to carry weapons in public. Todd Vandermyde, the National Rifle Association's chief Illinois lobbyist, said the measure is much broader than the federal assault weapons ban, which expired in 2004. “I have never seen a piece of legislation that tramples on so many court decisions,” he said.
But Park Ridge Democratic Sen. Dan Kotowski, who sponsors the high-capacity magazine ban, said the legislation is not meant to take away guns, just to make them less lethal in the hands of potential killers. “We are addressing the fact that there are more people who can be shot in a period of time, and I call that lethal,” he said. “If you are a law-abiding gun owner, I don’t know what you have to fear here.”
The bills could come up for floor votes as early as tomorrow.
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2 comments:
What we have to fear is our government and other criminals. Look what happened years ago in Tennesse if the citizens didn't arm themselves to be sure the ballots were counted correctly. Check you history books. If the people who have done these mass shooting would have used a shotgun that held 5 shells, many would still be killed. If they would have used a shotfun that held only three shells, many would have been killed. If they would have used one that only held 2 shells, many would still have been killed. Where will government control of our lives stop? Do not allow them to ban our weapons. It is truly the only hope we have since our government has done such a wide ranging job of kicking God out of our country.
So our Illinois Senate Committee approved House Bill 1263 banning the possession and sale of semi-automatic assault weapons, and House Bill 815 banning the possession and sale of large-capacity ammunition magazines.
This is frightening similar to what Diane Feinstein did in California and Mayor Bloomberg is doing in New York. If you do your research, you can find plenty of video interviews and quotes from these individuals citing they are seeking full disarmament of their citizens in their states. It appears we are at a crossroads...
Illinoisans, instead of whining on the comments page or Facebook, we need to be a physical presence at the Capitol protesting this violation of our 2nd Amendment Rights. These are the actions of corrupt politicians, committed to Agenda 21 as well as the disarmament of the American people in order to facilitate the New World Order. These politicians continue to mismanage OUR funds, OUR taxes with no accountability whatsoever, and no prosecution for their pilferage of our retirement funds. Surrendering our firearms and having to register them so we can be tracked like registered pedophiles is the first step to enslavement (just as the Jews registered peacefully to the Germans so they could be exterminated; just as slaves registered to their plantation owners). The purpose of tracking is because government wants to know EXACTLY what they are up against. The 2nd Amendment exists EXACTLY for cases like this, to protect the citizens from a government that is out of control. Check out www.oathkeepers.org website and understand the implications of what the politicians are trying to do. As they oppress us even further, this is their attempt to insulate themselves from a public that will find out too late that they should have acted and stood up for their rights. This is just a prelude to the attempted passage of the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (United Nations Resolution L.11 - Arms Trade Treaty), scheduled for a passage vote in March of this year. President Obama, on the night of winning re-election, ordered our U.N. delegation to cast our vote, clearing the hurdle for this final vote, which if passed, will ban all firearms in our country, and giving the U.N. power to supersede our laws for enforcement. This is part of the Department of State Publication 7277 (Freedom from War) program started on September 19, 1961, the intentions of which are to disarm the world and give sole power and authority to the United Nations (only rights for the "state" with no individual rights). Don't believe me--look it up. Many of these recent shooting evens have been "false-flag" operations by our government (such as they were involved in Operation: Fast & Furious) to deliberately manipulate public opinion against firearms; and our corporate-owned media (such as our newspapers) have been misleading the public, contrary to FBI statistics, which conclusively show that crime rates and murder rates in the past 20 years have gone consistently down while gun ownership has gone up. As people have mentioned, Chicago has one of the highest murder rates now in the country, and citizens cannot protect themselves from these criminals (who will always have guns), nor for that matter, from an abusive police force at times. Our government wants to disarm us while they have purchased millions of hollow-point bullets (which are for domestic use), as well as 500,000 coffins (currently stored in Atlanta). Are you starting to wake up yet? Citizens, we need to draw the line at some point. Are you going to stand up when it counts or are you going to submissively walk to these FEMA camps yourself (which have been set up all around the U.S.) and allow yourselves to be exterminated like sacrificial sheep? Now is the time to show solidarity for our rights--NOW is the time to make your voices and presence heard. God bless the citizens of Illinois and this country.
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