My friend D and I talk almost every day on the phone, and of course we talk most days about guns and ammunition and inevitably we talk about the newest Illinois laws regarding guns and ammunition and the status of the legal actions trying to right that wrong-headed law enacted 1 year ago.
Laughably it was called something like “Protect Illinois Communities, oh and get liberals reelected for doing something Act” when in fact it has no provisions to punish any of the murderous gang bangers or protecting any community…just makes law abiding citizens criminals if they don’t register certain firearms which were open and legal when obtained in years past. Coupled with the law dropping bail for most crimes in Illinois, these firearms ban laws should more appropriately be called the “Protecting Criminals in your Communities Act.” And “Best of Luck to the Rest of You.”
Our fave data source, HeyJackAss.com, reliably reports 3,077 people were shot and 646 murdered in Chicago in 2023 alone. In fact, 18,150 humans have been shot in Chicago in the last 5 years…and not a single case would have been prevented by registering legally procured and possessed “assault weapons”. Zip. Zero. Nada.
So, while D and I chew over how we got to this sorry state of affairs, and how someone ought to do something about it, I came up with my $10 Idea.
What if everyone in the state of Illinois who is effected/threatened by this new registration law sent in $10 to a site or organization that would work to repeal this legislation or pass new less onerous law, or fund the legal fights in court, or even just worked to sponsor legislators for election or reelection. Ten bucks.
The Illinois State Police web site says there are 2,415,481 FOID card holders. No one knows how many guns or “bad assault kind of gun things” each FOID card holder possesses. Some national sources suggest law abiding gun owners have about four guns on average. Four? What if they sent in $10 per gun they are protecting? Four. Meh. Those of course are rookie numbers…
So what if those almost 2.5 million FOID card holders sent in $10 to an organization(s) which would support them directly? I asked my Executive Secretary Alexa to do the math, and she figured it would result in $25 million dollars-not an amount to sneeze at, and don’t blame me for the math. Blame Alexa.
Even if each FOID card holder only sent in a single dollar, suddenly a pile of two and a half million dollars could be used to directly fix/change/influence better laws. A dollar each.
Many times, the old “whose Ox was gored” spurs on complaints from the owner of the wounded Ox. Well, every FOID card owner has been wounded and their rights curtailed. Why not contribute to make it better? Most of us seem fairly inactive and are just waiting to see (1) What’s Next from the ultra-liberals in power and (2) I hope some court system- throws it out someday.
Well, what if that $10 idea took off and we wielded $25 million dollars? Kind of like a Go-Fund Me for the 2nd Amendment in our state.
I have joined several pro-gun initiatives in the last couple of years. In fact, I am not sure how many I am a member of-I just keep paying the renewal dues, but only to organizations who are challenging things in my state. If your organization has sponsored lawsuits to fight for my 2nd Amendment Rights I think it has become critical for me to support your efforts. I encourage you to do so as well. Pick your own organizations to support, not mine.
A lot of organizations beg for my money, but if they can’t show me real action they have taken, they don’t get my elusive sponduits. There is one real big organization I don’t pay any more. There are lots of reasons why, to include seeing the top dog live a life as espoused by the Grappling Philosopher Ric Flair – “Stylin, profilin, limousine riding, jet flying, kiss-stealing, wheelin and dealin son-of-a gun!” But more importantly, leading up to the new PICA act and after the PICA act I did not see that organization out in front or filing any sort of legal challenges or battles. Just did not see it. (Wait, what? That one guy retired last week? Well as Flair would say…”WOOO!”)
Well once you see the number of gunners in play, how about getting them all to vote? The Illinois governor only garnered 2,253,000 votes last time out to win an election he and his party spent $171 million dollars to win. 2.4 million FOID card holders who have families and friends who vote, vs 2,253,000. Working together, gun owners in Illinois could handily win any popular state election.
This governor only won 11 counties out of 102. Can you imagine gun owners getting out the vote, hanging together and winning? I mean, I mean…well it could rival the Alice’s Restaurant Anti-Massacree Movement! (Alice’s Restaurant? Geez how old are you Mike?)
I admit I have no idea how to pull off the $10 Idea. How to or where to have FOID card holders send money that would have direct impact. If you have ideas sound off. Maybe John Boch would weigh in, but D and I have our $20 ready to go.
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