Posted: 3/16/2005 12:04:06 PM EDT
www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-daley16.html
Mayor Daley rallied survivors of gun violence and victims' families Tuesday in opposition to an offensive by the National Rifle Association that, he warned, would make Chicago a more dangerous place by allowing "everyone in Illinois, including Chicago" to carry concealed weapons.
The mayor warned Illinois lawmakers not to "listen to extremists" as he sloughed off claims by Gov. Blagojevich that City Hall lobbyists are to blame for the perennial failure of the mayor's gun-control initiatives.
Earlier this week, Blagojevich advised the mayor to "hire some new lobbyists" with a "little more energy and a lot less lethargy" if he wants to get his anti-gun bills passed. The governor said he would have taken a more active role in pushing for the bills if only the mayor's lobbyists had let him know they were coming up for a vote.
"They call [the bills] quickly. They get annihilated in committee, then they start pointing fingers and throwing blame around," the governor said.
On Tuesday, the mayor fired back. He said Chicago has a seasoned team of lobbyists that maintain "good communications" with the governor's office on a package of gun-control bills that "everybody knows about" because they "come up every year."
He said he never once "pointed fingers" at the governor, even though he couldn't hide his disappointment that the State Police had formally registered in opposition to one of his bills. "It is a diversion. . . . That's all it is. . . . I come back every year. This is nothing new. . . . Everybody knows these bills. These are the hottest bills down there," the mayor said.
He added, "Everybody wants a fight [between] Mayor Daley and the governor. This is bigger than Mayor Daley and the governor, I want to tell you that. This is just all sideshows."
NRA counter-offensive
Until this year, the NRA has been satisfied to shoot down Daley's gun-control legislation with relative ease. Not anymore. The group's new strategy is to launch a legislative counter-offensive that seeks to undermine gun laws already on the books, forcing Daley and gun-control advocates to defend their turf.
The cornerstone of that strategy is a pair of concealed-carry bills approved by an Illinois House committee earlier this month.
Although Chicago banned new handguns in 1983 and required existing handguns to be re-registered every year, police would be powerless to stop someone from carrying a concealed handgun within the city limits if the NRA gets its way.
"This is just what we do not need in Chicago or Illinois: more guns on our streets, around our schools and churches, parks and shopping malls. . . . More arguments settled with firearms. More bodies in the morgue and more gun victims in the rehab hospitals," Daley said.
"It's a shame that we have to devote so much energy toward stopping bad legislation in Springfield and Washington, D.C. We should be spending our time advocating good legislation that would make all our streets safer without restricting anyone's rights."
Todd Vandermyde, the NRA's legislative liaison in Illinois, branded such talk as "fear mongering" with no factual basis. "It hasn't happened in the 46 other states that have a system that allows people to obtain a permit to carry a concealed firearm."
The mayor's rocky record in Springfield continued Tuesday when the Senate Judiciary Committee voted down two Daley-backed efforts to allow shooting victims and cities to sue gun manufacturers.
But in a separate vote, the committee OK'd requiring criminal background checks for people who buy guns at gun shows, a measure backed by both Daley and Blagojevich.
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