Even though I don't have any official figures, I think yesterday went really well. According to reports thousands of firearms owners lent their support. I also don't have many pictures as I forgot the digital camera at home... again. Actually I remembered to grab it yesterday morning. Making sure I wouldnÂ’t forget it, I set it on the shelf next to my phone and some other items I was taking with me. Upon my return home, there it still sits. Yes, I had my phone with me, but for whatever reason, I left the camera here. I did try to snap some pictures of the event on my phone, only two really turned out. Sorry for the quality.

March to the Capital (We were in the middle of the the march.)

End of the March.

Rally at the Capital Steps.

Both of the pictures are from the march. My friend J-man went with to show his support. We started at the Springfield Hilton hotel where we received instructions, an agenda, lobbying cards and various speakers, Senators and State Reps gave speeches regarding the individual right of the public to have firearms. One of the speakers, whom I can’t remember his name, made the comment along the lines that “… as Firearm owners we all must stick together.” I can’t remember exactly what he said, but basically the Constitution does not guarantee your right to hunt or target shoot. It guarantees your right to own firearms. If you are a trap shooter, or a target sportsman or even just a casual firearm owner, we all need to stick together. Any law the effects one will sooner or later affect the other. Even if you only shoot shotgun and you don’t own a handgun, you still should stand up against the banning of handguns. No, it may not directly affect you, but they could use this later on as a stepping-stone to ban shotguns. I believe he called it the “The gun owners UN”. Not that I support the UN, but I do support this idea. I may not own a shotgun, but if they made a law banning shotguns, I’d be against it.

After the speech we all marched to the state capital building. It wasnÂ’t a long walk, but I think we made our presence known. We had permits and a police escort so everything was nice and legal. At the steps of the capital there was a quick rally with a couple of more speeches and words of encouragement for politicians. To be honest since I have a deep mistrust of 99.9% of elected officials, IÂ’m not sure I trust anything these politicians said for their actual beliefs or if they were campaigning. Especially since there were a couple of comments made regarding two of them possibly running for governor in the future.

After the rally we headed in to deliver lobbying cards to our State Senators and Representatives. I hit both Dave Syverson’s and Chuck Jefferson’s office. Neither one of them were in. As much as I believe Senator Syverson is pro-firearm, I also believe that Chuck Jefferson is anti-firearm. It would have been nice if either one of them had been in their offices when I stopped by, but they weren’t. I really wanted to speak with Chuck Jefferson since he has never returned a phone call or e-mail of mine over the last 3 years. I guess since either I’m independent or pro-firearm; I’m not worth talking to in his mind. We also had cards for the Senate and House Majority and Minority leaders. If I’m not mistaken the leaders of the Senate and the House are anti-firearm and deeply involved in the Chicago “good ol’ boy network”. Meaning they are heavily anti-firearm.

After delivering the cards J-man and I hung around for a while going to let our presence be known by the politicians. Most of the committees seemed to be scheduled early that day, so we didnÂ’t get in to too many of them. The ones that were being held were packed.

Overall we had a good time. I think we did good and at the very least I hope we hope to hold our ground so that no new anti-firearm legislation can be passed.

I would like to thank the Illinois State Rifle Association, Illinois Carry, Champaign County Rifle Association and the Sangamon County Rifle Association for organizing and hosting this event. Keep up the good work!

Posted by: Contagion at 04:00 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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