ISRA Promises Suburban Chicago Mayors Tough Fight Against Gun Control Scheme

Contact: Richard Pearson of the Illinois State Rifle Association,
815-635-3198; Web Site: http://www.isra.org/

SPRINGFIELD, Ill., Jan. 31 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following was released today by the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA):

Lawful gun owners throughout northeastern Illinois are planning their response to a sweeping gun ban and confiscation scheme announced Wednesday by Chicago Mayor Richie Daley in conjunction with a dozen suburban mayors.

Under the announced plan, residents of affected towns and villages would be forced to surrender many of their lawfully owned target pistols, hunting rifles and shotguns to local authorities.  Furthermore, they would find themselves, and what little remained of their gun collections, registered on an insecure database readily available to the same crooked cops that sell confiscated drugs and weapons right out of the Chicago Police Department's evidence rooms.

In response to the proposal, the ISRA is mobilizing a grassroots effort to fight passage of any local ordinances that may be drafted as the result of Wednesday's announcement. Elected officials in the affected towns should expect heavy lobbying pressure from gun owners in their villages.

"I'm sure these small town officials jumped at the chance of a photo-op with a big city mayor like Daley," said ISRA President Richard Pearson. "But when they return home, they'll have to face their constituents."

"This is exactly the kind of fight our people like," continued Pearson. "Any attempt to pass these proposed gun grabs will require action on the part of individual village councils. You can bet that our people will be working this issue in those council chambers, and on the streets. With this being an election year, we won't be shy about making the Daley suburban gun confiscation scheme an issue in both state-wide and local elections."

"Village trustees work best when deciding whether to plant posies or petunias on the village green," said Pearson. "These publicity-hungry small town officials let Daley seduce them into becoming sacrificial lambs for the big city issue of gun control. They're going to find that they've stepped into a big stinking, rotten mess. They'll rue the day they ever met Richie Daley."

The ISRA is the state's leading advocate of safe, lawful, and responsible firearms ownership. For nearly a century, the ISRA has represented the interests of over 1.5 million law-abiding Illinois firearm owners.