Chicago Mayor Moves to Shut Down All Gun Stores in Illinois

Illinois State Rifle Association
Feb. 13, 2010

Late last week, Daley sympathizers in the Illinois House passed HB180 out of the Rules Committee and on to the floor of the House. A vote on HB 180 is expected as early as this coming Tuesday.

Should you be worried about HB 180? ABSOLUTELY!

HB 180 would include the following:

1. Require all Illinois gun shops to secure a license to operate issued by the Illinois State Police. Under this bill, the State Police "may" issue a license to a gun shop and would establish all rules and regulations required to keep the license. You know what that means -- either nobody would be granted a license, or those who did get licenses would be so burdened by regulations that they could not make a profit. BOTTOM LINE: HB 180 would shut down all gun shops in Illinois.

2. HB 180 requires that all your gun purchases be registered with the state police. BOTTOM LINE: HB 180 is a licensing/registration scheme designed to keep track of how many guns you own so they may be easily confiscated at a later date.

3. HB 180 allows any police officer in the state go to any gun shop in the state to conduct so-called record reviews. BOTTOM LINE: The Chicago CAGE Unit could, and would, inspect gun shops across the state doing these record reviews. Shop owners, no matter where they are located, would be forced to cooperate with the CAGE unit or lose their licenses. The true purpose of these visits is to cost gun shops time and money and ultimately cause them to go out of business.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO SAVE YOUR GUNS:

1. Starting Monday morning, call your State Representative and politely tell him/her that you oppose HB 180 and that you would like to see him/her vote against the bill when it comes to the House Floor. If you do now know who your state representative is, go to the following web site and follow the directions for looking up your legislators: Illinois State Board of Elections. If you know who your State Representative is, you can look up the phone numbers of their Springfield and district offices here.

2. Pass this alert on to all your friends and family, ask them to make calls as well.

3. Please post this alert to any and all blogs and bulletin boards to which you may belong.

Thanks in advance for your help in this matter. The future of lawful gun ownership in Illinois depends on you!