Fresh off big news in three court cases involving guns, Illinois gun owners will rally in Springfield Wednesday. Given the scores of anti-gun bills introduced so far this session, and a governor inclined to sign any gun control bill that makes it to his desk, the good guys need to let the Land of Lincoln politicians know that gun owners aren’t the problem. And that we aren’t going away.
Illinois Gun Owner’s Lobby Day came about after a Guns Save Life board member, Gene Martin, worked with the Illinois State Rifle Association to bring all gun rights organizations, ranges and clubs together under one banner for a mega-rally in Springfield.
Last year’s event took place on the last day for an override of a veto of the first Gun Dealer Licensing Bill. Initially it looked like the onerous bill’s sponsors had the votes to over-ride, but the sea of gun owners tipped the balance against them with legislators agnostic on guns.
After the 2018 elections that saw significant numbers of Land of Lincoln conservatives and Republicans sit out because of anger at then-Governor Bruce Rauner’s “run as a conservative, govern as a Democrat” tenure, Illinois Democrats now control a super-majority of the House and Senate.
Current governor JB Pritzker once campaigned to ban handguns and has already signed Gun Dealer Licensing that has already caused some dealers to close shop because of increased costs and regulatory burdens.
In fact, if we didn’t have those recent court wins striking down the ban on TASERS, a permanent injunction in Guns Save Life’s suit against the Village of Deerfield’s gun and magazine bans and a circuit court ruling the Firearm Owners ID cards as unconstitutional, things might seem pretty grim here in the Prairie State.
However, Illinois gun rights organizations and activists have plenty of experience working to stop gun control under adverse conditions in a deep blue Illinois. In fact, without many of these same people that turn out for IGOLD and the organizations behind them, gun control proponents would have passed semi-auto bans, magazine bans, gun rationing, and all manner of other draconian legislation.
So tomorrow we do it all again. We expect a much larger turnout than the previous three or four years.
Former NRA head David A. Keene will speak to participants at a rally inside the Prairie Capital Convention Center ahead of the march to the Capitol Complex.
The march itself looks impressive, with gun owners stretching for blocks through downtown Springfield on their way to the seat of power in the state.
Come out and join us in the festivities. The program at the Prairie Capital Convention Center begins at 11:30am. The march happens a few minutes past 1pm.
