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| PRITZKER: Offends gun-rights advocates |
Specifically,
Pritzker signed into law Thursday a measure that sets state guidelines that
firearms dealers would have to comply with in order to legitimately do business
in Illinois.
THE
CONSERVATIVE TYPES who believe its their “God-given” right to own as many
firearms as they wish are all upset. They’re outraged! They probably, deep-down
in their wildest fantasies, probably wish they could respond by going out and
shooting up everybody who disagrees with them.
Illinois
State Rifle Association officials went so far as to say that federal law
already adequately regulates gun dealers. Nobody needs the individual states to
get involved.
Although
none other than mayoral hopeful Toni Preckwinkle said she thinks federal law
has loopholes and that the new state regulations are meant to plug those
exceptions. Thereby ensuring that people are following safety-motivated
regulations when they go about selling pistols to people.
Of
course, the part about this that amuses me is that Pritzker chose this to be
amongst the first issues he dealt with as governor – albeit not the absolute
first.
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| PRECKWINKLE: Says federal loopholes plugged |
THAT
APPEARS TO be the measure involving pay raises for state government employees
that Pritzker approved, while claiming that such raises should have been
provided in recent years but were denied by now-former Gov. Bruce Rauner.
A
politically-partisan pot shot – further differentiating himself from his predecessor
who didn’t exactly leave public life on the best of terms with those who work
in government.
Now,
he’s willing to take on the so-called “gun nuts” who, in fact, were claiming
that Rauner would have used his veto powers to kill off this very measure.
Except
that the General Assembly that approved this gun-related measure deliberately
held off on sending the approved bill to the governor for consideration – UNTIL
they had a more favorable governor.
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| RAUNER: Denied last chance to use 'veto' power |
STATE
RIFLE ASSOCIATION President Richard Pearson went so far as to call it “political
gamesmanship” and to say he was “deeply disappointed” but “certainly not
surprised.”
Admittedly,
there was a certain gamesmanship involved. Had the Legislature rushed the bill
over to the governor immediately upon his approval, he would have used his “veto”
power, while likely issuing some high-minded rhetorical statement about the
redundancy of the state’s actions to federal law.
But
it’s also likely he would have waited until it would have been too late for the
General Assembly to come back into session during its final days last week to
vote to over-ride the gubernatorial veto.
In
such cases, what happens when the session ends is that the bill dies with the
governor’s veto standing with no chance of being overridden.
MEANING
WE’D HAVE the newly-elected General Assembly having to repeat the process of
approving a bill this spring so that Pritzker could sign it into law some time
during the summer months.
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| MADIGAN: Cunning kept bill alive? |
We’d
still have the State Rifle Association, along with all the other gun groups,
issuing their pompous statements in opposition. Which means their real
objection is that they don’t have someone with the political cunning of House
Speaker Michael Madigan on their side.
So
we now have new laws in Illinois giving local law enforcement more authority to
inspect gun dealers and their records, and also to keep copies of a gun-buyers’
firearms permits or other identification. It won’t be just a matter for federal
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents to deal with.
And
perhaps the ideologues who think President Trump is justified in thinking that
conditions along the U.S./Mexico border are worthy of an “emergency order”
ought to keep in mind that many people in our society would have an easier time
regarding the proliferation of firearms amongst the public as the real “emergency.”
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