WADR, Those " logical arguments" were not made back when these things were passed. There was no one on notice in sufficient time to challenge these " Scientific " studies.
That is why I have tried to tell everyone here that the Lefties are purposely trying to rush this kind of thing through, and oppose anyone who objects, and even are willing to stifle dissent, to win their way. Its part of their admitted game plan to seize political control and change this country.
I do have experience stopping the anti-freedom forces. I have been working at this for 40 years. Back in the early mid 1990s, after the shootings at Stockton California produced the first municipal " Assault Weapon " ban ordinance, the Dems, who actually had set Handgun Control,Inc. up in the White house, picked out 3 college towns across the United States where there were veto proof majorities of Dems on the Boards or Councils. Then they looked to see when they held their meetings, and how quickly any bill could be passed into law.
In the three they chose, Urbana, Il, Columbus, Ohio, and another town I have now forgotten, all the councils met on Monday nites, and had a " Study session" where new ordinances were discussed and voted to be considered for a final vote at a regular public meeting held every other week, or on the following Monday. Then, they took the Stockton, Cal. Ordinance, and sent it to their local members on these councils with careful instructions on how to go about getting it on the agenda at the last moment so that no opposition would be present at the study sessions, and that would give opposition only a week to find out about the proposed ordinance before it was voted on. They told the member council members that "only Crooks owned semi-automatic weapons." ( That came from one of the Democratic Council members who was shocked at how many people he knew who would be affected by the Assault Weapon Ban ordinance, and who also admitted that there was no one in the Democratic Caucus who knew anything, really, about guns.)
The Democratic Party council members caucused privately every Sunday afternoon, before the Monday study session, so that they would be " united " at the public council Study session.
Well, they added this ordinance to the Agenda at about 4 o'clock P.M. on Monday afternoon, just in time to get the agenda in final form to be typed to distribute to the public when the Council had its meeting at 7 P.M.
I got a call from an employee at the City asking me if I knew about the proposed ordinance, and, of course, I didn't. It had received no coverage by any of the many TV and radio stations that cover local news here. ( Again, help from their friends!) I started calling people, but you can imagine that I could not reach that many people before 5 P.M., when I got his call about 4:30 P.M. and people are heading home from work at either 4:30 or 5 P.M. I called and connected with several friends, who in turn called and got in touch with several others. We did turn out about 20 people to oppose the ordinance, which amazed us all considering such short notice.
The night they chose to introduce the ordinance, Either the Oscars, or some other popular TV show, like the Miss America Pageant was also being telecast. They knew from prior ratings, that local city council meetings were virtually ignored by the public on these nites, and chose this date specifically to minimize the exposure that local public Access TV would give to what they were doing. That was done at the National Level, and dictated to the local members.
The Dems sat up there knowing they had a ' sure thing " going, and were bored waiting for the public comment period to end so they could vote the ordinance to be put on the public agenda the next Monday nite. The ordinance actually was a typed copy of the Stockton ordiance, with White-out used to remove, almost, the name, Stockton, California, and then the name, Urbana, Illinois typed over it. That's how cheap a stunt this was.
The next Monday was the night of the NCAA finals, another high viewer nite on TV, when almost no man can be found doing anything other than watching the game. They again picked that Nite at the national level, by design, to limit the amount of opposition that would show up at the council meetings. When this was pointed out to some of the conservative " labor Democrat" members of the council, even they became annoyed that they were being USED! They were so fearful of opposition, that they ordered the Fire Chief to inspect the premises and determine a Maximum number of people who could enter the City Councilroom, and posted a sign, and arranged for several police officers to enforce the maximum occupancy standard at the front door to the city building. We turned out more than 300 people, and could easily have had more than double that number.
We also worked the Unions, and got statements of opposition from all the service unions for city employees to the ordinance. That included the Police Union, the Firefighters Union, and the Public Works Union. Even the Union that represented the clerical staff voted to oppose the ordinance.
We tried to work the labor Unions, but all the local managers were " just unavailable", or could not call a meeting of their councils to take a vote, before the meeting. I am talking Teamsters, Plumbers and Pipefitters, Electrical, Carpenters, and Laborers unions, as well as others. That is something that needs to be changed, since so many Union members are also avid hunters, and gun owners.
We set up and announced an organizational meeting for gun owners that met on the Wednesday evening after the Study session, We had about 80 people show up, including some current and retired police officers and sheriff's deputies. All our work to oppose the ordinance was accomplished by angry gun owners between that Wednesday, and the following Monday. We also called every VIP person we knew was a gun owner, and asked them to call these city council members personally to express their personal opposition. This included, bankers, doctors, lawyers, professors, accountants, other government officials( Township, County, State, and Federal) etc.
On Sunday afternoon, at their weekly caucus, one of the Democrat council members indicated that he would not vote for the ordinance. That would not have stopped the ordinance from passing by a majority vote, , but it would have removed the Veto-proof majority the Dems enjoyed. The mayor, a Republican, had already indicated that he would veto the ordinance.
So, to save face, after calling Washington, D.C., it was decided to table the ordinance permanently, on Monday afternoon. This is after the local press annnounced the opposition of all the city Unions, including the Police Union.
The only city that actually passed the " Assault Weapon Ban Ordinance " was Columbus, Ohio, but it was struck down as Unconstitutional under the Ohio Constitution. That was the prelude to the passage of the Clinton Assault Weapon Gun Ban in 1994.
I lay this history out for you because You need to know of our experience with the opposition, what we learned about how the national Anti-gun, Anti-freedom forces work, their goals and objectives, and the tactics. You need to understand that this is a WAR that is orchestrated at a National level, and taking cues at that level. The local anti-freedom people don't breath without permission from the National groups.
Our calls to the NRA got us NO help. You might think that such a powerful and experienced lobby organization like our NRA would have plans in place to send " Truth squads " out with facts, figures and data, or at least have all that stuff printed and ready to send out to members who call for help, at a moment's notice. That is not the case. Even after our experience when I talked to employees of the NRA-ILA, and suggested that they gear up for this kind of warfare, I was met with blank stares, and silence. The Boys in Virginia just don't get it. I love them, and respect all the work they do for us, but they are NOT prepared to be on the front lines for us. We have to do this ourselves, or its not going to get done.
Right now, there are some wonderfully thorough briefs filed in the Heller vs. D.C. case that you can get off the internet. They site cases, and sources that explain the original intent of the Founding Fathers.They also give studies, both private, and government paid for that show that Gun Bans don't work. Much of these studies were briefly mentioned by the task force charged by Congress to advise it about whether to extend, or let die the Assault Weapons Ban Bill in 2004, and the task force reported that there was NO evidence reported anywhere that indicated that the law prevented ONE CRIME of violence during the 10 years the law was on the books. Congress let the law die pursuant to the " sunset " provisions written into the bill, originally.
There are studies that indicate that whenever Private citizens are permitted to carry firearms, violent crime rates drop, rather than rise, as the anti-freedom forces always argue. Michigan recently announced that in the 6 years since they passed their CC permit law, violent crime rates have been lower than before the law was passed, and that NONE of the imagined " Blood in the gutters" events have taken place in that state.
48 of the 50 states now have some form of permit system or laws that permit law abiding citizens to carry firearms. Only Wisconsin and Illinois remain as the states that deny citizens their right to protect themselves.
Wisconsin is in the grips of a heavily Democratic government because of populations in Madison, and Milwaukee. The rest of the state is very largely pro-gun. Concealed Carry bills have passed twice in the past 4 years and then been vetoed by an anti-gun governor, and the vetos sustained because the same representative from Milwaukee has changed his vote, voting first to pass the law, and then voting against the override. So, Wisconsin is, literally, one vote away from passing Concealed carry.
Illinois is dominated by Chicago, it Anti-gun mayor, and a gerrymandered district system that guarantees Democrat majorities in both houses. We have a very unpopular, Democratic Governor, who is also anti-gun.
However, the Dems are running scared on this issue, and this year they have introduced their own " Permissive issue " bill, that would require you to get the permission of your local sheriff to get a permit to carry, rather than a " Shall Issue" bill that we have drafted, and introduced every session since 1998.
Our law takes the discretion to issue a permit away from government officials. All the bills are bottled up in the Executive Committees, which means that they only go out on the floor for a vote if the Democratic leader of that House wants a vote on it. We consider the bill simply window dressing, and a sap to the downstate Democrats who are pro-gun, and want a concealed carry law in Illinois. It will probably not even be voted on in committee sessions. And, that committee is notorious for Not holding public hearings on bills its going to pass on to the floor.
What we have done as Pro-freedom advocates is to organize an Illinois Gun Owners Lobby Day( IGOLD) schedules for March 11( Tuesday) in Springfield. We also have drafted a Pro-second Amendment Resolution that states opposition to further Chicago style anti-gun laws, and have had the resolution passed by 69 of the 102 counties in Illinois, all since November, 2007. We continue to present the bill to the remaining counties. Last year, we turned out 1500 plus supporters to lobby in favor of pro-gun bills, and surprised the heck out of the House and Senate members, as well as leaders in traditional gun organizations here in Illinois.
This year, we are planning to turn out 3,000 or more supporters to be there that day. We are meeting at Noon at the Hilton Hotel, and then marching to the capital. Parade permits have already been obtained. We have T-shirts for sale, and hope to have hats with Igold on them. There will be a meeting, dinner at one of the hotels that afternoon, before we all head home. We have rented buses to take people there from all parts of the State. YOu can keep up with the activities by going to
www.IllinoisCarry.com.
We know that our marches and appearances do make a difference. Just like the Urbana City Council was scared to death that a huge mob of angry gun owners might appear at the city building to oppose the passage of the assault Weapons Ban ordinance, back in 1993, the current Anti-freedom crowd is scared to death of angry gun owners. The more we turn out, the more they fear doing anything that might anger us.
Sometimes fear is the only emotional tactic left to use. We don't have to threaten them, or carry firearms to appeal to their own fears. All we have to do is appear. That is the lesson I have learned about
politics.In fact, after I debated an anti-freedom force member some years ago, I asked her, " if you ever do manage to outlaw guns, who are you going to get to try to take them away from gun owners? " The look on her face was priceless.
BTW, all the anti-freedom forces are waiting to see the outcome of the Heller vs. D.C. case before the Supreme Court. Oral Arguments will be heard on March 18. A Decision is expected by June, 2008. the briefs have been filed, and frankly, the brief filed on behalf of the city is an embarrassment. They know it. What the Anti-s are looking to see is just how far the Court goes, so they can restructure their plans to push more gun control laws.
You will note, I am sure, that there have been a spate of bills offered all over the country to require that bullets be micro serial numbered to permit tracing to original purchaser. This is not a serious crime fighting proposal. Its sole purpose is to raise the cost of ammo so high that most hunters( working class and poor people) can no longer afford to fire guns, or hunt. This is the lefties' callous assault on what they euphemistically call the " Nascar" voters.
We do have to oppose these proposed laws, with logic, but we have an unacknowledged ally in the CSI TV shows that have been such successes these past few years. Most people admit watching one or more of them, and the public has become very educated about how evidence is used to prove guilt in criminal cases. Proposals like this one are not going to be met by the same gullable, untrained, political hacks that were so easily convinced to pass an Assault weapons ban ordinance 15 years ago. And the public now knows that crime rates go down when law abiding citizens are allowed to protect themselves. The enthusiasm for gun control is waning, not growing, and the politicians know it. They also know supporting gun control cost them the Congress in 1994, and the Presidency in 2000. They don't like the fact that the US Supreme Court took the Heller Case this year, or that this decision will come out just before the National Party conventions. Gun Control will be an issue again this year, and that means that gun owners- angry gun owners are going to be motivated to vote in November. Their plans of putting a Left Wing Democrat- Clinton or Obama - can be upset if gun owners turn out an vote against them. I can assure you that neither Mrs. Clinton, or Sen. Obama has ever seen a gun control law they don't like.
