ISRA PAYS ICHV $98K
It is no longer just a court order. The Illinois State Rifle Association has paid $98K of our money to the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence. This makes the ISRA the single largest cash contributor to the number one enemy of gun rights in Illinois: The ICHV.
BACKROUND: Previously the ISRA agreed they had indeed infringed on the ICHV tradmark in a big way. U.S. Judge James Zagel then ordered the ISRA to pay the legal fees of the ICHV. The question then was who would pay? Insurance? The indivduals involved? Or the ISRA?
SUMMARY: According to the report below the insurance company for the ISRA would have paid, but only on the condition that ISRA Second VP and NRA Lobbyist Todd Vandermyde be booted permenantly off the board. However as Todd Vandermyde is the heir apparent to the throne at the ISRA, if and when current ISRA President "For Life" Richard Pearson gives up the ole' ghost, having insurance pay was not an option. Further it is unlikely Todd has $98K in his wallet.
Nope, I'm afraid the members paid. At $20 a year dues you do the math how many members funded the ICHV instead of the ISRA. It will make you sick. Worse, the $98K is just legal fees for the ICHV. On top of that you have the ISRA legal bills so the amount spent could easily be double. Imagine what that kind of money could have done to get a concealed carry law passed?
So far no one is calling for the ouster of any responsiblie parties. The ISRA board has taken no action against any ISRA Officer from President Pearson on down. I suspect they don't want the ISRA membership to even know about this. And the members won't know about it unless YOU TAKE ACTION.
Now Listen Up: You can keep this a secret like the ISRA wants (you will not read of this in the Illinois Shooter) or you can pass this around. Not just to your gun lists, but to your local press as well. Hopefully the ISRA board members (and there are some good ones) will then clean house before it's too late. To make it easy here are the contacts the media would want to speak with if they take an interest:
Richard Pearson, ISRA President, (815) 635-3198
Todd Vandermyde, ISRA Second VP, [email protected]
Thomas Mennard, Exec Director, ICHV, (312) 341-0939
John Boch, Editor for GunNEWS, (217) 649-3702
John Birch, President, Concealed Carry, Inc., (630) 660-3935
 
To complain to the NRA you can contact our state representative, Michael Huber at [email protected] 
 
If you pay dues to the ISRA you can complain to them at (815) 635-3198 or [email protected] and make sure to CC [email protected] so I can make sure you email is read by other ISRA board members.

ISRA PAYS HUGE $98,000 JUDGEMENT TO ICHV
Refuses insurance company payoff contingent upon removal of Vandermyde, Flanagan from Board
Chatsworth, IL (GunNews) The Illinois State Rifle Association Second Vice-President Todd Vandermyde and former director Peter Flanagan had a good idea when they registered a new, gun-rights friendly "Illinois Coalition Against Handgun Violence, Inc." with the Secretary of State's office in 2002. The "old" ICHV had failed to properly renew its corporate registration with the State of Illinois in 2001 and as such, the 25-year-old corporation which lobbied tirelessly against civil rights technically no longer existed.
Problems arose in May and June 2002 when the "new" coalition with Vandermyde as its spokesman issued press releases claiming the ICHV now supported gun rights legislation in Illinois.
At this point, ICHV's attorneys became involved claiming trademark infringement and sought a restraining order from federal court barring further releases. A short time later, the ISRA agreed to stop using ICHV's name and in return, the old ICHV would not sue the ISRA.
The matter of legal fees incurred by the old ICHV remained, and ICHV sought reimbursement of roughly $210,000 spent on lawyers. U.S. District Judge James Zagel ruled in March 2003 that the ISRA would be liable for $98,013.20.
The ISRA allegedly characterized the registration of the new "ICHV" as "as overly cute joke."
A cute joke, stupid stunt or waste of money?
The Illinois State Rifle Association, it has been reported by sources close to the ISRA leadership, sought to have
its insurance company pick up the tab for the wreckless misadventure of two of its inner circle, Vandermyde and Flanagan, as well as Flanagan's wife, Medina.
The insurance company allegedly agreed to pay the award, our source says, if Vandermyde and Flanagan were both barred from holding any position of leadership in ISRA in perpetuity.
ISRA's President Richard Pearson, apparently with the blessing of the ISRA's Board of Directors, chose to pay the award from ISRA's assets rather than remove Vandermyde as Second Vice-President.
We have confirmed that the ISRA did in fact pay the judgement to the ICHV in September with a check drawn from its money market fund.
The ISRA's business office and President Richard Pearson were each contacted by GunNews for comment. Neither responded to comment on the allegations.
GunNews was unable to uncover how much additional money was spent in legal costs incurred by the ISRA defending the organization and Mssrs. Vandermyde and Flanagan for their "overly cute joke."
============================================
John Boch
[email protected]
Certified Pistol and Personal Protection Instructor
Vice-President, Champaign Co. Rifle Assoc.
Editor, GunNews Magazine
Visit http://www.gunssavelife.com

A letter I just banged out to NRA:

Sir,

I've just read the conclusion to a long running saga
involving the NRA affiliated Illinois State Rifle
Association having to pay the Illinois Council Against
Handgun Violence $98,000.00 to settle an ill-advice
stunt wherein ISRA Vice President and NRA Lobbyist
Todd Vandermyde obtained the ICHV trademarked name and
issued pro-gun press releases from "The New ICHV".

This story was covered in the Chicago area press and
is featured on the real ICHV's website. Needless to
say, it's a great embarassment to the law abiding gun
owners of Illinois, and makes us out to be
under-handed goons.

Furthermore, it is a shocking waste of ISRA member
dues.

I let my ISRA membership lapse a couple years ago, in
protest to the cronyism and "Old Boys Club" attitudes
of the ISRA. They will never again see a cent from me.

If the National Rifle Association does not do
somethinng about this, you can expect to see many
Illinoians voting with their wallets and leaving the
NRA.

The actions of the Illinois State Rifle Association's
leaders have brought shame to gun-owners and to the
NRA. I hope that the Nation Rifle Association will see
fit to take action and remove the NRA affiliated persons who have forfeited a king's ransom to the enemy for a childish stunt gone wrong.

Christopher K. Morley

Damn !

We're an active and talkative bunch !

CKM

Chris, Steve Here, you and I know that the ISRA must die.  A slow painful death if necessary so that gun rights can be reborn in IL.

Wouldn't it be nice if gun rights orginizations had the money of, say, Larry Flynt?

Yep, we said it. Sue me. I have more money than God.

If it was a joke, they should have gone after it, as parody and satire are protected speech. Realistically, we all know that's not the case. I do think it's good that the word gets out, because it's good to clean house. Pearson strikes me as being totally useless. I'm not sure that the best solution is to undermine the largest group on our side at the state level.

These are just my thoughts. I'm interested to hear others.

The solution is to clean house at ISRA.
There are others on the Board and in the Assoc. who are OK, but the entrenched old guys need to go.
NRA should realize this and do something. Vandermyde, after all, is the NRA's Lobbyist here in ILL., so it is their business to get involved.
Without Pearson and Vandermyde, ISRA could be reborn into a more active fighting machine.

The old farts can keep the ISRA Range in Kankakee and stroke their  Garands until they croak if  they want......but they need to step aside and let the next generation take the wheel.

It takes more signatures to get on the ISRA Board election ballot, than it  does to run for US Congress.


CKMorley

This is a major problem everywhere in America, the folks that are years past their prime refuse to ge out of the way. Pearson is utterly useless if the ISRA served any purpose at all we would have concealed carry, Daley would have been launched years ago and the Commies wouldn't of dared even bringing something like SB1195 to the table out of fear for their political careers. Can we start a thread on how many of us have emailed the NRA to complain? I am doing it right now. We are the people guys, we need to take control of our state.

Just emailed Michael Huber-IL NRA REP and vocalized my outrage about this. I was reading on Conceal Carry this morning about a group downstate holding a meeting next week to discuss SB1195 and the attack on our rights in general. WE NEED to have a meeting like this in Northern IL, this is where this crap originates. Screw the ISRA I wouldn't let Richard Perarson mow my lawn. We need to get organized. Who's in? When and where? Chicago area guys, speak up!

I'm in ! !    I've written many letters, most go unanswered.  I agree that we need to mobilize and organize,  but I also know how difficult this will be.  Do we have a candidate that we can stand behind ??  Or do some of you have political aspirations ??  Where should we start ??  Those of you who are perhaps more politically saavy than me, any ideas ??  

Snojet, I think a good idea would be to first organize as a group, a watchdog group perhaps. I am a marketing guy and I know that we need to get exposure, media exposure, but all that is secondary. We should form, hold monthly meetings, or as needed to let "them" know we are watching and come election time, all assaults on our rights will be dealt with by ballot. If we make noise, a candidate will come our way, believe me. I was thinking today that we should be passing out flyers to all the young girls in the Lakeview neighborhood who are currently getting raped and letting them know that their mayor would just assume they are raped and that their Mayor doesn't feel they are qualified to defend themselves. The Chicago PD solution to these attacks is to have 911 pre-dialed into their cell phone in-case of attack. Cell phone batteries die, handguns don't need batteries.If we took on these grass-roots efforts, eventually it would stick. A woman who has been attacked and raped will never emotionally recover, their lives are destroyed, there is no more horrific crime against women. We need to let people like this know they don't have to be prey to sexual predators and that true feminism comes in the form of a hollow-point. Just one idea for our meetings. We could also have fund-raisers to raise cash to buy print ads in local media i.e. Daily Herald, Trib, Sun-Times, radio spots. I buy advertising for a living, this would be a no-brainer for me. Snojet, you and I are close, who else is by us? This isn't something we should do but something we need to do. The ISRA is a joke.

I agree.  Let's get together and come up with some ideas.  I'll be at Jesters in Palatine tonight if you can stop in for a cold one tonight.  IM me and let's work something out !  !

I can't tonight but if we plan something out and a place, I will be there. How are we going to get others??? Who else is with me and the Snojet???


P.S. I haven't been to Jesters in a long time, can't believe it's still there!!!!

Yup.  Still there, it's a shithole, but the people who run it are good folks.  We shoot pool there on Wednesdays.  Idols and Fox and Hound too.  Every Wed night ! !