People who sell guns in any way, shape, or form are required to be licensed by the federal government. If you make them to sell, you need a license. Import them? A license. Have a gun store?
These require background checks and open these folks up to ATF inspections.
In short, we’ve got a system in place that, while it sucks, it sucks because this is still a constitutionally protected right we’re talking about here.
However, for Illinois, that’s not good enough. They want their own licensing scheme for these guys, and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms want to rally the troops, so to speak, to oppose this measure.
From a press release sent out on Wednesday:
The Illinois House Gun Violence Prevention Committee is holding a public hearing today in Springfield on House Bill 3320, the so-called “Responsibility in Firearm Legislation (RIFL) Act, and Prairie State gun owners are encouraged to contact committee members and ask them to reject this measure.
“This bill requires firearms manufacturers, importers and retailers to obtain a state license in order to sell their products to Illinois residents,” explained Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. “It’s nothing more than a massive revenue generator to feed the state coffers at the expense of everyone in the firearms industry, starting with gunmakers and ending with gun dealers, who will pass these costs onto consumers.
“The legislation essentially penalizes law-abiding businesses and individual gun buyers to finance the public health costs and financial burdens incurred as a result of violent crime in the state, for which gun makers and dealers, nor their customers, are responsible,” Gottlieb added. “Essentially, honest business people and their customers are being financially scapegoated by politicians in Springfield who have repeatedly failed to prevent or even reduce violent crime, much of which is caused by repeat offenders who shouldn’t be out on the streets.”
The committee hearing is scheduled to begin at 2 o’clock Wednesday afternoon in the Capitol Building, Room 118 and Virtual Room 2. To contact members of the committee, click on the individual names below:
Representative Maura Hirschauer, Representative Yolonda Morris, Representative Kelly M. Cassidy , Representative Christopher “C.D.” Davidsmeyer, Representative Martha Deuter, Representative Laura Faver Dias, Representative Norine K. Hammond, Representative Tracy Katz Muhl , Representative Chris Miller , Representative Bob Morgan, Representative Adam M. Niemerg, Representative Nabeela Syed. Representative Michael Crawford’s office number is (217) 782-4207.
“It is imperative that Illinois gun owners contact committee members and make their voices heard,” Gottlieb said.
Gottlieb is absolutely right about this being nothing more than a revenue generation scheme, except that it also raises the costs of operating a business making or selling firearms to the public.
It’s just one more hurdle in an industry that is already more tightly regulated than anything other than, maybe, the pharmaceutical industry.
Yet, regardless of any of that, it’s vital that Illinois gun owners turn up the heat on these lawmakers. This is going way too far, and while this is anything but a pro-gun state, it’s not universally anti-gun. This is Chicago, and cities like Springfield, that are behind stuff like this. Much of the state values their right to keep and bear arms, and they don’t want anything like this.
So, lawmakers have to know that. They have to be concerned that if they vote for this bill, they might be out of a job very soon. That’s the only thing that will change the laws in the Land of Lincoln.
Even anti-gun lawmakers will be willing to rethink their support of stuff like this if it means they’re out of a job. Especially when this really doesn’t somehow open the flood gates to unlicensed gun deals or anything.
Read the full article here
