Tvandermyde Posted March 29, 2009 at 07:18 PM Posted March 29, 2009 at 07:18 PM Capitol CommentaryBy Todd Vandermyde3/29/09 For weeks the anti-gunners have been threatening, intimidating and hounding members of the general assembly in efforts to get the votes to pass their bills. Sponsors' of bills told members that if they didn’t vote for a bill, then there would be all kind of gun votes for the rest of the session. A clear attempt to brow beat suburban legislators into supporting gun control bills. Their coercive tactics failed. In Springfield we have assembled a team. Gone are the days when it was just us three amigos. When the face and voice of the “gun lobby” was an 80 year old volunteer and a forty year old lobbyist, with an over worked executive director tossed in for good measure. ISRA hired a contract lobbyist to help cover more ground and open doors. It’s worked. Springfield Armory has hired someone to help represent and plead the case of manufacturers. It too has helped. And so a year ago we won HB-758 by two votes. This year we won the same bill, HB-48 by 5. May not seem like much but it is. Considering the way the anti-gunners worked, they thought that by winning some elections, they would add to their numbers and have the votes to pass the bills they wanted. Let us just say that we do a better job of counting than they do. Then came HB-179 the mandatory storage bill, the next day, changing Illinois “mandatory” storage law in incredible ways. It would force you to lock up any firearm in your home if any person under the age of 18 was in your house. The incredible part of this is that this was one of the core holdings in the Heller decision. The fact that you cannot force someone to lock up and be defenseless in their own home. The sponsor’s response was that Heller was silent on the issue. What? The Court said: “The District’s total ban on handgun possession in the home amounts to a prohibition on an entire class of “arms” that Americans overwhelmingly choose for the lawful purpose of self-defense. Under any of the standards of scrutiny the Court has applied to enumerated constitutional rights, this prohibition—in the place where the importance of the lawful defense of self, family, and property is most acute—would fail constitutional muster. Similarly, the requirement that any lawful firearm in the home be disassembled or bound by a trigger lock makes it impossible for citizens to use arms for the core lawful purpose of self-defense and is hence unconstitutional.” The sponsor’s argument was that Heller was silent on the issue because it did not address home with children in them. Yup you read that right – and soon you will be able to hear it on the ISRA website for yourself. , But we digress. Heller was NOT silent. The Court noted “the lawful self defense of self and FAMILY”. One would doubt that their idea of the family was only those with two adults in the home. But what it does tell us that on many days, almost half of the Illinois House is willing to wipe their feet on the Constitution and toss aside a Supreme Court ruling. But HB-179 went down to defeat just as HB-48 did. And the anti-gunners seem to look as someone pulled the rug out from underneath them. We did. The question is now what? Will they run every single bill they have filed for the sake of trying to make suburban legislators uncomfortable and squeeze them for votes? Or will they take their losses and retire to come back another day. We don’t know. But what we do know, is that the election has already begun. Now just days after the votes, the Brady Campaign is trying to gin up protests at some of the legislators offices. They think they can co-op a few of these and run another bill, hoping to pick up the votes necessary to pass a bill. But as most can tell, it seems the sides are galvanized and the margins seem to be set for most issues. They have been doing automated calls – “robo” calls where people are asked a leading question, then asked if they would like to talk to their representative about the issue. Most hung up and did not complete the call. But we know from the polling data that the LCAV front group did that they are targeting women and seniors in their fear campaign. They are going back to the old soccer mom demographic and play book. Micro targeting republican women and independents hoping that with shift demographics, they can either scare some legislators, or try to beat one or two in the next election. They claim victory in the last election over a couple of seats to which they had very little to do in the wins. One was in Brent Hassert’s seat. After watching Speaker Madigan pour in hundreds of precinct workers week in and week out, the gun issue played very little in the final outcome. But we need to change that. The gun hating crowd is now threatening to spend $75,000 on a single race to take out a suburban legislator and make an example out of them to win more votes. More of the threats and intimidation they have been using is their losing lobbying efforts. But it is something that we will have to address. And we can address it one of two ways. First is money. It’s simple, raise money and spend it effectively in defense of our friends and work to take out an enemy or two and bodies. If we don’t raise the cash it will take to compete, then it’s all on bodies. Getting people into campaigns to walk precincts, put up signs, make calls, do friend to friend cards, walk parades and all the other things it takes to win a campaign. If 100 or 200 or even 300 “gun guys or gals” pound the streets for candidates that support our constitutional rights, and we win those elections, then we win the votes on the floor of the general assembly. 300 volunteers in a house campaign over the course of a few months beats out the threat of $75,000 in expenditures against a pro-gun candidate. As was discussed before, they made the first threats of the 2010 campaign. Now it’s time for us to step up and support those legislators that have supported us. Why of this is important seems to be obvious. But as we went through the actions of the past week, everyone is now asking about right to carry legislation. The votes are galvanized for most gun control issues. But RTC is not like most of the rest. And those vote totals may not be representative of what the roll call on RTC would look like. And we need to remember that the Speaker has ruled that we need a supermajority in the past – 71 not 60 votes. Let us not forget that a couple of weeks ago the Senate voted down a carry bill in committee. If we are to win the right to carry fight, we will need to show those legislators that are skeptical that we can and will defend them against everything the other side and a few editorial pages throws at them. If we do not or cannot then we are stuck where we are. Remember a shift in as little as two seats could change the whole dynamic of what is happening in Springfield. Next week sets up round two as more bills come to the floor for a vote. Time to take the gloves off.
Fido Posted March 29, 2009 at 07:32 PM Posted March 29, 2009 at 07:32 PM Welcome to the site Todd!!!Thanks for the update and thanks for fighting the good fight!Keep reminding us of what we can do to win!
Buzzard Posted March 29, 2009 at 08:06 PM Posted March 29, 2009 at 08:06 PM Welcome Todd, from an old ABATE buddy! I'll be looking forward to your posts!!
SirMatthew Posted March 29, 2009 at 09:42 PM Posted March 29, 2009 at 09:42 PM Welcome! I'm sure most of us here see you as one who is literally on the front lines. We not only read your words (e.g. Capitol Commentary) as much-anticipated news from the battle front, but use them to decide how and where our efforts can best serve in this fight. Don't hesitate to issue a call to arms (so to speak) when necessary. Phone calls, emails, letters, protests, campaign efforts...we're eager to help win this fight!
Tvandermyde Posted March 29, 2009 at 09:47 PM Author Posted March 29, 2009 at 09:47 PM The best call to arms is going to be the "Freedom Bridages" I'm working on setting up by senate district. We have a targeted list of senate districts that we need to organize in. My goal is to have 500 campaign volunteers with a command structure in place starting in June. We start circulating petitions in August for the 2010 election. If you want to pass RTC we need to win more seats, beat back the anti-gunners in a couple of chanllenges and give the suburban legislators the peace of mind that they can vote with us and still win elections. We don't win many floor votes by the debate or arguements we make. We win them by helping the right people get elected. Get them elected and the lobbying gets easy/ Todd
SirMatthew Posted March 29, 2009 at 09:59 PM Posted March 29, 2009 at 09:59 PM The best call to arms is going to be the "Freedom Bridages" I'm working on setting up by senate district. We have a targeted list of senate districts that we need to organize in. My goal is to have 500 campaign volunteers with a command structure in place starting in June. We start circulating petitions in August for the 2010 election. If you want to pass RTC we need to win more seats, beat back the anti-gunners in a couple of chanllenges and give the suburban legislators the peace of mind that they can vote with us and still win elections. We don't win many floor votes by the debate or arguements we make. We win them by helping the right people get elected. Get them elected and the lobbying gets easy/ Todd I don't know all the details, but count me in already.
Ol'Coach Posted March 30, 2009 at 03:22 AM Posted March 30, 2009 at 03:22 AM Welcome to this site, mr. Vandermyde. I'm sure that as you get better acquainted with the site, browse particularly some of the locked threads on some of the forums, and take note of the number of members that regularly hang out here. you will realize that this is not a site composed of folks that just..........chat! Hard-working dedicated folks on this site, basically the reason IGOLD has become what it has become, and together with your work in Springfield, the reason why it's been 2 yrs since any anti-rights firearms legislation has been passed! We keep the phone lines hummin' and the keyboards strummin'! Again, welcome aboard, Sir!
pyre400 Posted March 30, 2009 at 05:12 AM Posted March 30, 2009 at 05:12 AM Hi Todd - nice to see you here So what are we gonna do? Slice up the districtsidentify member leadership in those districtsget the date time and carpool locationsmeet for coffee for briefinghit the bricks, talk, distribute flyersthen debrief on private forum (to be distributed to participants only) I'll take a few vacation days to help out. Let me know the plan and I'm there. I'll also try to get a few friends to donate some time too - I can fit 5 comfortably in the cab of my truck, and I have some very comfortable shoes.
Tvandermyde Posted March 30, 2009 at 05:29 AM Author Posted March 30, 2009 at 05:29 AM your on to it, but with a little more stucture and some incentives for those who step up for the leadership positions. todd
ishmo Posted March 30, 2009 at 11:58 AM Posted March 30, 2009 at 11:58 AM Welcome to the board sir and thanks for the update. I hope we see you here a lot. Count me in for whatever you have in mind and I'll help out as much as I can wherever I can. Any chance you're free June 26? There's a little event in Chicago that day and imho you'd be an excellent person to make a speech there.
johnyt101 Posted March 30, 2009 at 01:00 PM Posted March 30, 2009 at 01:00 PM The best call to arms is going to be the "Freedom Bridages" I'm working on setting up by senate district. We have a targeted list of senate districts that we need to organize in. My goal is to have 500 campaign volunteers with a command structure in place starting in June. We start circulating petitions in August for the 2010 election. If you want to pass RTC we need to win more seats, beat back the anti-gunners in a couple of chanllenges and give the suburban legislators the peace of mind that they can vote with us and still win elections. We don't win many floor votes by the debate or arguements we make. We win them by helping the right people get elected. Get them elected and the lobbying gets easy/ Todd Welcome! Great to see you here. Sign me up for District 24 (Kirk Dillard)! PS Everyone I talked to loved your comment about Mein Kemf when they heard it played on the Don and Roma Show. Way to think on your feet.
Jeff Johnson Posted March 30, 2009 at 01:37 PM Posted March 30, 2009 at 01:37 PM Todd, Sincere thanks for joining us here and for all you do on our behalf. I look forward to helping in any ways I can.
Ol'Coach Posted March 30, 2009 at 03:19 PM Posted March 30, 2009 at 03:19 PM I'm not in Naomi's district, but it borders mine. (Shane Cultra) She needs to be GONE! Sign me up!
illinisnare Posted March 31, 2009 at 12:50 AM Posted March 31, 2009 at 12:50 AM I'm not in Naomi's district, but it borders mine. (Shane Cultra) She needs to be GONE! Sign me up! I'm thankfully in Cultra's district also. Moving to a new house in two weeks - also in Cultra's district. I would love nothing more to help unseat Naomi. Let's get the GSL members ready to mobilize.
Ol'Coach Posted March 31, 2009 at 01:20 AM Posted March 31, 2009 at 01:20 AM I'm not in Naomi's district, but it borders mine. (Shane Cultra) She needs to be GONE! Sign me up! I'm thankfully in Cultra's district also. Moving to a new house in two weeks - also in Cultra's district. I would love nothing more to help unseat Naomi. Let's get the GSL members ready to mobilize. Hey, Illinisnare...make yourself known at the next GSL meeting, OK?Let me know how you will identify yourself.
Harley Dave Posted March 31, 2009 at 02:56 AM Posted March 31, 2009 at 02:56 AM Todd, Glad to see a familar name where I already know the face. Welcome to the site!
Topper Posted March 31, 2009 at 04:21 AM Posted March 31, 2009 at 04:21 AM Awesome Todd, You are a GREAT American !
Drylok Posted March 31, 2009 at 05:54 PM Posted March 31, 2009 at 05:54 PM Mr. Vandermyde,Thank you for the post and thank you for joining us at illinoiscarry! Keep us posted DL,
drdoom Posted March 31, 2009 at 06:22 PM Posted March 31, 2009 at 06:22 PM Thanks for joining the site! I encourage you to have your colleagues join us here too, the more people we can get connected here, the faster we can spread the word out.
Xwing Posted April 2, 2009 at 05:57 PM Posted April 2, 2009 at 05:57 PM Todd, Thanks for the update. Please keep us all informed as your plan for more grassroots organizing takes place. I’d certainly be interested if anything is set up in my area (far western 'burbs)
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