FoxNews brought Governor J.B. Pritzker’s inept “leadership” to the national stage, reporting on the mass non-compliance with the measure by Land of Lincoln gun owners. While 29,257 gun license holders registered their self-defense guns for Da Gov, 2.4 million registered… nothing.
Now the governor, who has designs on the White House either in 2024 or maybe 2028 at the latest, looks weak and feckless. His gun control measure was supposed to be a big pillar of his presidential campaign. “Look, I passed a gun ban in Illinois. Elect me president, and I’ll pass one through Congress too.”
Pritzker spent millions to lure the Democratic National Convention to Chicago this year. He wants to appear as a strong and effective state leader ready for the big time in Washington. Appearing feckless and impotent in the face of this gun ban no doubt causes him anger and frustration in private.
And FoxNews spreads the truth of Pritzker’s feckless leadership far and wide:
Illinois gun groups are reporting confusion from gun owners as the state pushes for them to register “assault” weapons under the state’s new ban.
Jan. 1 marked the deadline for Illinoisans to register their assault weapons with the state before the ban signed by Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker takes effect on Jan. 10.
Second Amendment advocacy groups told Fox News Digital that there is “confusion” among gun owners in the state due to the vagueness of the new law.
Dan Eldridge, president of the Federal Firearms Licensees of Illinois lobby group, told Fox News Digital that “one of the aspects” of the noncompliance is simply “ignorance of the law.”
Eldridge said “the confusion is that nobody can tell you what’s covered by this act.” For example, one county prosecutor posted a notice that by Jan. 1, everyone must register their assault weapon and high capacity magazines — but Eldridge noted that magazines “aren’t required to be registered.”
“Nor could they be,” Eldridge said. “They have no serial number.”
“Then more recently, you had this governor stating on camera that automatic and semi-automatic firearms and high capacity magazines must be registered,” he said. “Well, automatic is not mentioned once in the act, and as we talked about just a second ago, magazines aren’t covered, so, well, one out of three is pretty good for this governor on anything gun related…”
Dan had more in the original piece… And then I had my turn.
John Boch, executive director of the Illinois Second Amendment advocacy group Guns Save Life, told Fox News Digital that while “thousands have registered their self-defense firearms…. MILLIONS have not.”
“The 98.8% non-compliance speaks volumes for what the average gun owner thinks about gun registration schemes,” Boch said.
“Why the low compliance?” he continued. “We all know that confiscation follows registration.”
Boch said that “there is confusion” with the ban and that plenty of gun owners “remain completely unaware that they own guns that are supposed to be registered.”
“The State Police didn’t mail out anything to FOID cardholders, nor did they even email everyone to let them know about their obligations to remain completely legal,” Boch said.
“Due to the vagueness in both the law and the ISP’s rules that don’t follow the language in the law, many people aren’t sure what they need to do,” he continued.
The coup de grace came from my friend who serves as president of the DeWitt County Sportsman’s Club:
Ted Riva, president of the Dewitt County Sportsman’s Club in Illinois, told Fox News Digital the group’s opinion is that the lack of compliance is “a glaring slap in the face to the governor and his traitorous cronies.”
“The compliance numbers are low because law-abiding gun owners are sick and tired of being blamed and punished for the actions of criminals,” Riva said. “We have reached a point where we are no longer willing to accept our constitutionally guaranteed rights being trampled on by politicians that swore an oath to uphold that same constitution.”
“‘Shall not be infringed’ [is] pretty plain and simple wording,” he added.
Riva said there “have been several people that have asked questions about the law itself” and that the “[state’s] rush to implement this illegal piece of trash has left too many questions to answer and continues to confuse law-abiding citizens all across the state.”
That’s a pretty candid assessment from the DeWitt Co. Sportsman’s Club president, a guy who works for a living.
