Second Amendment Activists Speak at Town Hall Meeting

[mauserme]

https://www.effinghamdailynews.com/news/lifestyles/second-amendment-activists-speak-at-town-hall-meeting/article_0e4dc711-0d4d-5bfd-8655-9665cdba2216.html

 

 

 

 

Second Amendment activists speak at town hall meeting

• Charles Mills Daily News

• 7 hrs ago

 

EFFINGHAM — With Election Day approaching, a couple who is strong supporters of the Second Amendment spoke during a town hall meeting at Accuracy Firearms Friday.

 

Valinda and Mike Rowe are both volunteer activists for the Second Amendment in the state of Illinois through IllinoisCarry.com, an organization that advances the right to carry firearms. IllinoisCarry.com works with the Illinois State Rifle Association and the National Rifle Association to support Second Amendment rights.

Valinda Rowe serves as spokesperson for IllinoisCarry.com and holds Second Amendment Town Hall meetings throughout the state.

 

Valinda Rowe and her husband became activists for the Second Amendment after they were told they could not carry a weapon to defend themselves from a mentally ill family member who was stalking them in 2003.

 

In 2004 when Missouri became a concealed carry state for firearms, the couple became members of the IllinoisCarry.com organization that at the time had only about 30 to 40 members who wanted to bring concealed carry to Illinois. Membership has since grown to about 10,000 members.

 

“They wanted to get a fair, decent concealed carry law passed in the state of Illinois,” Rowe said.

 

Rowe said she and a few of the members traveled to Missouri to see how they got their law passed.

 

“We asked them, “How did you pass concealed carry?” Rowe said. “And they told us three things.”

 

The people in Missouri told them it had to be a grassroots movement from inside your state, they needed to get women involved in communicating with the legislators and it would take about 10 years to get the law passed.

 

“When our group went to our legislators, they just laughed and said it's not going to happen,” Rowe said. “In nine years, a concealed carry law was passed in Illinois.”

 

“We don't want to see that rolled back,” Rowe said. “It was hard enough getting that done.”

 

“We have a lot at stake if we can't protect that right after Tuesday's election,” Rowe said. “That's why we're here. We do not want to loose the ground that we have gained.”

 

Mike Rowe said he was content retiring early having run a successful photography business.

 

“We got into this by accident and mostly it's her fault,” Mike Rowe said. “I don't know how it happened to me, but the next thing I know we are in Springfield all the time.”

 

“We thought we were done when we passed the concealed carry law,” Rowe said. “After it passed, we had to deal with the implementation and dealing with the Illinois State Police. So our role has kind of increased since it passed.”

 

“We are involved all the way up to the level with the governor,” Rowe said. “We are volunteers. We don't get paid.”

 

Valinda Rowe said the last legislative session has been the most brutal since the couple started advocating for gun ownership rights in 2004. The Las Vegas massacre, Parkland High School shootings and Waffle House murders in Tennessee by an Illinois man, in addition to the fact it was an election year, really had an impact on gun laws in Illinois, they said.

 

“We had a tsunami of bad gun legislation that was introduced in the State Capitol,” Valinda Rowe said. “The bills that they introduced would not have prevented a single one of the mass killings.”

 

Rowe said the Republicans were even helping with the passage of gun legislation.

 

“Usually, we would have three or maybe four Republicans that would vote anti-gun,” Rowe said. “This year there was a dozen of them.”

“We had Republican leadership who was not holding to the Second Amendment line,” Rowe said. “That's how those bills got to the governor's desk.”

 

“And the governor was the only thing standing between us and total destruction of our Constitutional rights.” Rowe said. “So we worked very closely with Governor Rauner and his staff.”

 

Before Rauner took office, Valinda Rowe said their organization never made it pass the glass doors of the governor's office.

 

Rowe said they would go to the governor's office with a list of issues and would sometimes be asked to sit in meetings with Rauner and his staff along with the Illinois State Police to fix issues the organization had with legislation.

 

...

 

Valinda and Mike Rowe stressed the importance of electing Illinois candidates who support Second Amendment rights so their organization could continue to have a voice in formulating state legislation.

 

[byxlaw]

Thank you for all the good you do! And thank you members of ilcarry for support!

 

Sent using Tapatalk

 

 

[cybermgk]

We clearly are not worthy.

[tchostler]

very thankful you and others were willing.

[Scipio24]

Thank you, Valinda & Mike (and everyone else at IC carry) for all that you do. So happy I stumbled upon this site!

[ChicagoRonin70]

It's annoying and contemptible that the need for such indefatigable activism to protect a Constitutional right is even necessary. But it's mightily appreciated the effort that is being done by people who are so committed.

 

Keep up the excellent work and fighting the good fight!

[GeekDad]

What he said ^^^^

[MSD]

In Boone County there is an advisory referendum on the ballot essentially asking if the electorate supports the County Board opposing any attempts to infringe upon the constitutional right to own and bear arms (see below).

 

A friend of mine (firearm owner but not an activist at all) asked me why we need a referendum like this? How can anyone pass an unconstitutional law anyway?

 

“Shall Boone County oppose any law restricting law-abiding gun owners from their second amendments rights as guaranteed by the US constitution and to protect them from unconstitutional gun laws which have or may be passed by the Illinois general assembly?"

[MrOwl]

In Boone County there is an advisory referendum on the ballot essentially asking if the electorate supports the County Board opposing any attempts to infringe upon the constitutional right to own and bear arms (see below).

 

A friend of mine (firearm owner but not an activist at all) asked me why we need a referendum like this? How can anyone pass an unconstitutional law anyway?

 

“Shall Boone County oppose any law restricting law-abiding gun owners from their second amendments rights as guaranteed by the US constitution and to protect them from unconstitutional gun laws which have or may be passed by the Illinois general assembly?"

It's a dumb House Bill, IL HR1197, where Rep. Kathleen Willis, (the biggest IL Rep out to destroy the Bill of Rights), and a rookie Rep. Jonathan Carroll, is actually stupid enough to try to make a law that condemns places like Boone County that wants to protect its citizens from infringing draconian worthless gun restrictions!