Shadoglare sent me notice of a story in the Chicago Tribune. Boy, 4, wounded on South Side after gun hidden in oven discharges, cops say.

This whole thing is a tragedy, fortunately it sounds as if the kids are going to be okay. What really gets me about this story is

Smith, a felon, had hidden the revolver in the oven in a home in the 4800 block of South Racine Avenue, Bright said.

First I thought handguns are banned in Chicago. Wait, they are. See how well banning handguns and firearms works from people getting hurt?

Secondly this guy is a felon. Which means that even if he left the city of Chicago to buy a handgun, he can't legally own one in Illinois. That means he bought it... ILLEGALLY! That's right, he probably bought it on the streets. I know he didn't buy one in the store because he can't have a FOID (Firearms Owners Identification) card that you must have in Illinois to even buy a firearm. As soon as he's convicted of a felony they suspend the card and when the background check was run, they would have red flagged this guy.

If the mighty Mayor Daley and the Chicago police can't even keep a felon from obtaining and owning a firearm with in the limited confines of their little kingdom, what makes them think that they can do anything about the rest of the state.

We don't need more gun laws. We need to better enforce the laws that we have. Banning doesn't work.

Posted by: Contagion at 05:24 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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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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I'm getting ready to head down to Springfield (The State Capital of Illinois for clarification). I'm picking up my friend J-man and we are off to IGOLD 08. We are doing this to speak up for our rights as legal firearm owners in the state of Illinois. If we are lucky we'll at least do as well as last year and stall out all of the anti-firearm legislation. If things go really well, maybe we can get some looser laws. And in my dreams, concealed carry.

Wish us luck.

And for those of you that wanted to make the trip but just couldn't. I'll make sure to speak up even louder for each of you. If you have my cell phone and want an update on how things are going live. Feel free to call or text me.

Posted by: Contagion at 06:25 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 Rights? For peasants? Bwahahaha! Good luck with that.

Posted by: Ogre at March 11, 2008 07:27 AM (oifEm)

2 Thanks for going. I wish I could have made it. I have talked to my State Rep on this issue and his view as far as stopping this horrid legislation that is currently in the General Assembly. Look forward to hearing about the day and seeing the good you do today stop the idiocy in this state.

Posted by: Petey at March 11, 2008 09:21 AM (tmnSV)

3 Illinois is a state? Here I thought it was some sort of third world dictatorship loosely affiliated with the US like Puerto Rico

Posted by: BloodSpite at March 11, 2008 10:34 AM (pOo0j)

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When I saw this article: Weather Channel Founder Wants to Sue Al Gore, I laughed. I laughed for multiple reasons.

ohn Coleman wants to sue Al Gore for fraud. Coleman, who founded the Weather Channel in 1982, thinks taking legal action against Al Gore would be a great "vehicle to finally put some light on the fraud of global warming." Coleman rejects the notion that people must take drastic actions to reduce their energy use.

First I don't buy the global warming alarmist stuff, I don't see enough scientific data to prove anything. I'm sorry, the earth has been around more than the 100 years worth of reliable data they are basing this on. There is other evidence that the earth goes through cycles like this over large spans of time. So we are on a warm up, well in so many years we'll have a cool down. If Coleman won, I would love to see Al Gore's reaction. Which would probably be the same he has for everything else, damn robot.

Second, As much as I would love to see this happen, I think the guy would be throwing his money away. There is no way that any judge would let this go to court. Most of them wouldn't want to stand in the middle of this kind of political mess. Even if it did go to court, I highly doubt a judge would rule in favor of Coleman.

Anyways, It made me chuckle.

Posted by: Contagion at 04:48 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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