Sharing Todd V  posts from illinoiscarry where discussion centered on apparent ISRA support of bump stock bill.   He comments on that as well as the current craziness in the legislature. Bolding is mine.

http://illinoiscarry.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=68721&page=5#entry1147412

..."Ok guys calm down.

I've been telling you since October that we were not goign to get out of this with out loosing some skin. There is no appatite from the overwhelming majority of legislators to defend bumpstocks after las vegas.

As with most things, trying to close off the bump stock issue the otherside over-reached. that over reach gave us the opportunity to beat down the orginal bill in Veto session. We did the whip count and there was no stopping the bill so we needed to minimize its impact.

No one in the nation was ready to define or deal with the issue so we were flying by the seat of our pants. The got cute witht he house bill in the senate due to Sentaor Raul getting beat up over the semi-auto issue in his race for AG.

That will mostlikely kill the house bill or force them to non-concur.

Is the new langauge better? I think so. But Drury is out there making all kinds of wild claims about the other language.

If all we do is say no to everything. Then its over. In 27 years I've never seen it this bad at the legislature, and the senate dems are just salavating over picking up as many as 5 seats in the suburbs and replacing good pro-2A types with devout anti-gunners. Do the math on that vote count.

We are already seeing some defections from dems on gun votes and even some republicans, again do the math.

Right now it is a game of defense and figuring out the right hills to plant the flag and draw a line.

This "forum" won't let me call people out by name, but Ed Sullivan is an asset to the game we have down here. I have know and workd with him for a number of years. and for people to call him anti-gun or lump him in the same catagory as anti-gunners is wrong.

None of this is easy. And none of it is fun. And trying to keep all that we can is a full time job. and right now at any given moment a significant number of members of the general assembly are willing to use the constitution and the 2a as toilet paper.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. being a leader isn't telling tyou its all sunshine and rainbows and unicorn farts. its telling you want you don't want to here and being upfront about it.

being an arm chair quaterback from behind a key board is not being a leader. Not everyone has the time or ability to put 6 months a year in down here, I get that. Those that us that do, are making hard decisions that we have to live with and again, saying no or opposing everything is not an option as this is not Texas or some other pro-2A state.

For God's sake Vermont just passed a mag ban and Florida passed a whole host of stuff. And we are here in Illinois and you expect us to do better by just saying NO? "...

http://illinoiscarry.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=68721&page=5#entry1147430

..."they would not let Ed talk at the committee hearing and ran right over the top of himj. his slip was no postion, but with oral testimony about the penalties. they finallay called him up after the bill was voted on.

We have all raised that issue and even talked about he CLEAR commission and how a peice of plastic get you 6-30.

We are not inthe drivers seat with this and are not being consulted about things despite knowing more about ti than anyone eles. Some staffers think its easy without understanding all the nauances The issue has been raised and is trying to be addressed."...

On most all "gun issues" I'm with Todd totally.  However, on the ISRA lobbyist Ed Sullivan position, I disagree.  I've been in several committees where he spoke and came away wondering which side he was on.  On this particular bill, he started off by signing as a proponent and then changed it (after push back) to neutral.  My feeling is that any ban and especially one that includes a FELONY 30 year penalty in prison for something as simple as possession of a bumpstock, should be opposed by any  2nd Amendment group!  And, I see nothing good by supporting or being neutral on these bans, especially when they contain language such as this!   We might not have any choice in a bump stock ban passing but if that’s the case, we need to get it pared down to a very simple, clean language with no felony penalty!  We have not seen anything like that yet in this miserable climate!  

ANY COMPROMISE OF OUR 2ND AMENDMENT RIGHTS IS NON-NEGOTIONABLE. Every time we compromise we give up something and they gain something. What part of that don't you understand?

We need a huge turnout for Igold this coming week.

Yeah, if there was no agreement and we were getting nothing out of it, I don't understand the public Proponent position.

Something about cake comes to mind.

This?

https://i.imgur.com/TO8BGgw_d.jpg

This.

Dave W.

If you read Todd's comments, it's pretty clear we're going to lose something no matter what happens. Every single bill that's coming out is doing so with language that's horribly problematic for gunowners. If memory serves, ISRA helped with the language last year...prior to that, it was so bad that it would have impacted aftermarket triggers and all sorts of other stuff.

The climate in Springfield isn't even giving us a voice at the table. We don't have the votes to stop a bumpstock ban. We don't even have the votes to prevent a veto override. This is a done deal...so with that in mind, what would you like it to say?

More pointedly, there are a bunch of things that are worse that are looming over us like the sword of Damocles, like the magazine ban, and a whole host of other bad things that our well funded, well organized opponents are dreaming up based on some of the worst gun laws in the country. Couple that with tremendous pressure to "do something" on legislators, numerous retirements, a number of friendly seats at risk, and a friendly governor losing by double digits in the polls...and your response is...."just say no"? And not just "just say no"...but "just say no" to a bumpstock ban, which is likely at the federal level anyway, with a manufacturer that is closing its business?

That's really the hill you want to die on?

I agree with SwanHunter...ISRA should have opposed this one. In my mind, based on the penalties, they should have been in the Opponent column. If memory serves, that was their position on the CCW bill also...anybody remember that?

It would be wonderful if the millions of gunowners in Illinois would look at this situation and decide to do something proactive. Sadly, it's a lot more likely that most will do nothing until something very bad gets passed. At that point, they'll get all sorts of pissed off about what happened and cancel their NRA membership.

Something I post regularly to many groups, but that's worth repeating....as an Illinois gunowner, your rights are far more vulnerable in Springfield right now than they are in Washington. Even if there is a federal "wave election", that is unlikely to change.

This is where we need to focus.

I'm assuming we know who, but probably don't want to say at this point.

What can we do, now, to help?

@InterestedBystander
@SwanHunter

Gun owners need to get noisy!  Not ugly but, they need to go to home offices...preferably in small groups and have friendly conversations with their legislators...even if they are gun friendly.  They need to be seen!  They need to emphasize that they don't want their gun rights peddled and they will work hard to unelect anyone that takes that does so.  A good turn out at IGOLD would be a good message them also.

https://slidefire.com/

..."On Sunday, May 20, 2018 at midnight CDT, Slide Fire will cease taking orders for its products and shut down its website. Orders placed prior to May 20th, 2018 will all be processed and shipped. We thank you for your support."...

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More from Todd:

re: Dealer License Override

http://illinoiscarry.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=68743#entry1147765

..."Make no mistake about it they are hard to try and squeeze the votes out and think they can scare republicans into voting for this

keep calling your senators and reps "...

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re: the slew of House bills

http://illinoiscarry.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=68742#entry1147779

..."Word is there is a lot of talks going on behind the scenes with different working groups.

They relaize that the Original House bills are very screwed up and they now realize some of that and its causing them problems. So we may see a whole new bill somewhere as they try to figure this stuff out.

We are not out of the woods yet by any means."...

Agreed we dont want to give the other side more ideas on whom to target and apply extra pressure to.

Swanhunter and our other lobbyists I expect have a better handle on what is effective with our legislators.

From my laymans perspective it would seem to be what has been repeated over and over:

• Get involved


• Contact your legislators by mail, email, phone, and/or an office visit.  Not sure what is most effective but I tend to go with email, phone and/or office visit.


• Attend IGOLD or other gatherings

Hopefully one can educate/convince the antis or even your legislator regarding semi auto platforms are 100 years old and black plastic does not make a weapon of war; how does banning body armor or a 10 round mag limit stop a criminal, etc   As the recent viral video went...we are the majority, law abiding citizens yet we are the ones always subject to new laws and restrictions.

If you can't convince, maybe your legislator will vote based on constituent feedback regardless of personal position...or they just want to get re-elected

There will be some that are hopeless like my House Rep, or those retiring or probably lame duck officials after election which I dont know there is much to influence them.

Vote in elections and encourage others to vote

I wish we had a more organized front sometimes...Moms, EveryTown, GPAC, ICHV, etc present to be a bit more organized whether they are or not, but they do have national support behind them while we are really more grassroots...illinoiscarry, FFLIL, ISRA, GSL, etc, but as such we arent always on the same page or coordinated.

But with 2M FOID holders and 250k+ CCLs it seems the influence should be greater.

Just rambling throwing some things out there

A lot of those 2M FOID holders could care less, at least from what I can see of the gun owners I know personally. It's frustrating but they won't care until the state tries for their hunting guns.

My friend there is no 'hill to die on'.
Both my wife and I are members of the NRA and ISRA. I am a lifetime member of GOA & JPFO and yearly member GSL. We both have voted in every election, even the primaries. We are lifetime members of our local gun range. We have donated $'s way above our membership dues in many pro 2nd arenas.

And yes we have marched and attended IGOLD in the past, although not the last couple years.

We have wrote our so called 'representatives', both state and federal, so many times that we had two binders full of responses (I just recently threw them out in disgust)...not to mention the e-mails.

I talked with our past mayor, alderman and police chief when they were wanting to implement a local law to confiscate citizens guns in times of turmoil...this took place during the flood of New Orleans. They thought it a good idea seeing what the policing authority got away during that upheaval. They wanted to be 'prepared' just in case.

I even used to take the 'Guns Save Lives' papers to many businesses in our area for a time.
And this, while my wife and I were raising/supporting four children and our jobs had us both on call and working extended hours.

The elephant in the room, as we all know, is that most of our representatives have no intention of representing us...just controlling us.
So how is saying NO to their anti-gun bills 'dying on a hill'? After all, it's not a battle to be fought if it's already lost...right?