On the morning of the IGOLD rally

[S.B.]

This was reported:
http://www.pantagraph.com/articles/2009/03/11/news/doc49b6ea204cbf0577910297.txt
So all the monies ISRA spent on buses,advertisement, Tee shirts, hats has gone for naught/zilch. Wouldn't the people doing the lobbying for ISRA have know this was going to happen?
This is a slap in the face from the Chicago political machine!
I've been a life member of ISRA for several years now and wondering if we are doing something wrong or employing hiring the  wrong people with our approach to dealing with these people? Have we ever tried a frontal attack on their campaigns by spending our resources to get them out of office at election time? I don't know, guess I'm grabbing for straws?
Who actually organized this for ISRA and how much was spent on this rally? I've never heard who or how much, have you?
I do know it's been a hard long fight(Illinoians have spent an awful lot of their hard earned money on this) and we don't look any closer to winning now than 20 years ago.
Steve

[GRIMJIM]

It would have been good to have our "show of force" right before the vote instead of after.

[S.B.]

My point, exactly, Grimjim. Who in the world is planning these things? Don't you think they'd be in the know about what's happening in Springfield, and how much was spent on this event and then mutiply that by the number of years it been in Springfield. Is the ISRA really trying to win this fight?
Steve

[Cement Man]

Guys,
I think IGOLD was planned well before anyone could know the date that the senate committee on public health would put the hatchet to the CCW bill.  My understanding of how the schedules are set would make it wrong to blame the ISRA for not being there PRIOR to the senate committee meeting.  It was assigned to the Public Health Committee on March 4 - a week ago today.  IGOLD has been planned for longer than a week. Just as likely to me is that the senate committee on public health purposely "Pearl-Harbored" IGOLD by speeding up their review of this proposal to pre-empt IGOLD. 
As far as who pays for the buses, I understood that the buses were sponsored by various businesses - like Midwest Sporting Goods in Lyons, Illinois.
News Channel 13 (Rockford) reported today that 55 gun-related  bills were introduced.  The purpose of IGOLD (Illinois Gun Owners Lobby Day) was for gun owners to lobby legislators.   It seems to me that that they timed this event pretty well to coincide with that legislative strategy.
I think the ISRA works very hard to protect the rights of the law-abiding gun owner, but they can't work magic.

[S.B.]

Cement Man, I don't disagree with ISRA working hard for gunowners but, we've spent a lot of our money for this to happen before we get there? Maybe we need new people to lead these things within our organazation?
You have to admit, this looks very bad for ISRA to sponser something like this and have it preempted like this.
Do you know who set this up or how much we spent on this? I understand your support of the ISRA but, I've been involved with this for several years now without much results!
Steve

[Cement Man]

It would have been good to have our "show of force" right before the vote instead of after.

You have to admit, this looks very bad for ISRA to sponser something like this and have it preempted like this.

Steve

My point, exactly, Grimjim. Who in the world is planning these things? Don't you think they'd be in the know about what's happening in Springfield, and how much was spent on this event and then mutiply that by the number of years it been in Springfield. Is the ISRA really trying to win this fight?
Steve

First remember we are all on the same side.

OK, I am looking at a letter from the ISRA written in January (printed on gold colored paper, no less) from the ISRA which talks about the legislative agenda and the IGOLD schedule (hour by hour) for March 11, 2009.  At the time this letter was written, it states: "all bills will have to be renumbered and rewritten.  We will not have the bill numbers until February 2009 - we will keep you informed".

What that tells me is that IGOLD was planned before they even had the bills or the bill numbers.  Since things like IGOLD require advance planning, and the agenda for the Senate public health committee could not possibly have been known at that time, I am failing to see what you think could have been done differently regarding the timing or planning.  Should they have tried to re-schedule everything in the past week, after the bill was assigned to this committee?  Changed the motel and meeting center reservations, the bus schedules, people who took off work to attend, etc., etc.?  Just in case the public health committee decided to meet?  Please tell me how you think that should have been handled in a different manner.

The other thing I'm not understanding is that you imply that IGOLD and the ISRA is a failure because this bill got bushwhacked by the by the usual Chicago anti-gun liberals who happen to have all the power.  What about the other 54 gun-related bills this year? 

[Cement Man]

Here is a solution to the problem:

The Ill. Senate Committee on Public Health bushwhacked this bill.  The committee is generally Chicago machine politicos who are antigun.  Maybe, in accordance with Chicago politics, the committee members are looking for a little "grease" for the skids. They are mad because we have neglected them! 

Here is a beautiful, handmade presentation model revolver we can give each and every one of them.

[GRIMJIM]

You need more firepower

[S.B.]

Why haven't we(ISRA) brought a law suite(maybe even Federal court) against the state of Illinois for any of the tragic deaths caused by the lack of a "Right to Carry" law? Wouldn't that be a viable avenue to pursue?
Steve

[Glanceblamm]

Why haven't we(ISRA) brought a law suite(maybe even Federal court) against the state of Illinois for any of the tragic deaths caused by the lack of a "Right to Carry" law? Wouldn't that be a viable avenue to pursue?
Steve

This would seem to be a good point Steve. It would definately be giving them a taste of their own medicine!