Tuesday, October 24, 2017

Is It Time Yet, Sarah Huckabee Sanders? No? How About Us, Illinois?

Is It Time Yet, Sarah Huckabee Sanders? 
No? How About Us, Illinois?

October 25th  will be one month since the Mandalay Bay killings in Las Vegas, the worst mass murder by assault weapons in the history of the United States.

I am hoping that tomorrow the perpetually furrowed, dark eye-browed Sarah Huckabee Sanders will give us all permission to talk about the event and ask questions about whether or not we might want to do something to reign in or at least curtail the bloody mayhem that is able to be visited upon us all.  Something tells me that she won’t bring it up. 

You might remember that Sanders had suggested that this is a time for “mourning,” not a time for legislation or even a discussion of legislation.  “I think one of the things that we don’t want to do is try to create laws that won’t create — or stop these types of things from happening,” Sanders said. “I think if you look to Chicago, where you had over 4,000 victims of gun-related crimes last year, they have the strictest gun laws in the country. That certainly hasn’t helped there. So, I think we have to, when that time comes for those conversations to take place, then I think we have to look at things that may actually have a real impact.”

We’re all told to be in mourning and Chicago shows us anything we might try to do won’t work anyway?  What kind of answer is that?  And I thought Sean Spicer was insincere or at best befuddled?

We learned a bit more from the nearly 60 killings in Las Vegas and over 500 hurt.  On the federal level, anything or bill that might move to examine or prevent various accessories like “bump-stocks” and over-sized magazines has stalled – evaporated – vanished.  Just like Sandy Hook and Newtown.  Like Orlando and other future sites.

But Springfield Armory (in Illinois) and the NRA have not been quiet, although the NRA threw a fallacious bone to the media after the shooting in Las Vegas, suggesting someone should “look at bump-stocks.”  Well, a quick look has been followed by another call to arms by the NRA and Geneseo-based Springfield Armory to fight against any bill looking to undermine the sacred right to bear arms that can kill and maim nearly a thousand people wielded by one individual.   

In the Illinois House and Senate, a number of bills are being written and sponsored to do something about what has happened in Las Vegas in an attempt to prevent it from happening here – despite Sarah Huckabee Sander’s proposal that nothing can be done to save us.

At least three of the many bills collecting in the House and Senate in the General Assembly call for the elimination of “Bump-Stocks” in Illinois.  A bump-stock is an accessory that replaces an original stock on a semi-automatic weapon (firing a shot each time one pulls the trigger) to an almost fully automatic ability by creating a bouncing stock that jumps back and forth against the shooter’s finger, increasing the amount of firepower to nearly the same as fully automatic war weapon. 

Like Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Steven McKelvain, the President of Springfield Armory, believes that any move to suppress the availability of such accessories is a “knee jerk reaction.”  He is helped by the NRA and the Illinois State Rifle Association in his quest to warn we  place blame where it does not lie. These feel-good measures by anti-gun legislators never solve anything but infringe upon our constitutional rights. This has been proven time and time again in cities that have the most restrictive gun laws also have the highest gun-related crime rates”
Of course, McKelvain’s argument that cities that have the highest rates of gun crimes might also wisely impose the most restrictive gun laws does not enter his mind or anyone else in the NRA.  Causality is not one of the cognitive high-points in the minds of the NRA.  The answer is instead to stop any and all kind of thoughtful and rationale concern for the greater good’s numbers – at movies, ball parks, concerts, gatherings…
The bills coming up in the Veto Session include HB’s 4107, 4112, 4115, 4117, 4120 and SB 236, 1657.  HB4117 is my personal favorite.  HB4117 not only bans the sale and possession of bump-stocks in Illinois, but it also stops the use of tannerite (a trademark name) in personal possession. 
I’ll use an exhausted NRA argument.  You’re a hunter, and you have a military weapon allowed by law after George W. Bush let the assault weapons ban lapse.  You want to “hunt deer” but practicing is difficult because you want to be like Chris Kyle, famed sniper in American Sniper.  Deer can’t fire back, but you need to practice at long range, because “real snipers” shoot at a distances of nearly 2500 meters (1 and ½ miles).  This where Tannerite comes in. 
Tannerite is a mixture of two mixtures of ammonium nitrate and aluminum powder sold separately to would be snipers who mix the ingredients and apply to targets placed far downfield.  Rather than use a scope or walk the distance downfield to see if they have actually hit the target, tannerite causes an explosion upon being struck by a bullet.  Thus, the shooter can tell if he/she has hit the target where the tannerite has been applied.  Tannerite is an explosive, but as it is sold in separate packages before mixing, it does not fall into a category of “dangerous” or even fireworks. 
And, it’s fun to see things explode.  Nothing says power like blowing up a target at 1000 meters, unless it is a bump-stock at 500. 
You might want to call your Senator or Representative to urge them to vote in agreement with this bill.  My Representative is a co-sponsor, I am happy to say. Here are the others. 

Others you might call include Senate President Cullerton and House Majority Leader Michael Madigan.  The NRA has provided many thousands of dollars to our Illinois legislators to stall such action.  Please call your politicians and support these common sense restrictions. 

You might also want to call Sarah and ask her if it’s time yet?  Sadly, you won’t find a contact for her, but you may want to ask the White House if it is time to talk after mourning.  202-456-1111






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