Natalia Chi
SPRINGFIELD — Hundreds of Republican lawmakers join hundreds of gun rights advocates outside the Illinois Capitol on Wednesday, two days after gunmen shot and killed six people at a Nashville school, as the U.S. vote passed. I protested against gun control measures like that. Democrat-controlled Congress earlier this year.
“It’s all too easy to point out guns as a problem, but no matter how strict our rules are, criminals will always find ways to commit crimes that law-abiding, conscientious gun owners cannot do.” Dixon’s Republican freshman state legislator Bradley Fritz told the crowd.
The rally, which took place after marching through downtown Springfield, was part of the annual Gun Owners’ Lobby Day event organized by the Illinois Rifle Association, Illinois’ leading gun rights organization. ISRA filed its first federal lawsuit in January challenging the gun ban bill signed by Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker, arguing that the law violates the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Marchers said, “Illinois gun owners marching, we’re gonna keep the powder dry.” yo,” he chanted.
As they arrived at the Abraham Lincoln statue outside the Capitol, Fritz said of Monday’s shooting at a Christian school in Nashville, “Behind the tragedy today,” it was “more than ever for politicians.” And gun owners are “to protect our rights and protect our way of life.”
Another speaker, freshman Rep. Jed Davis, a Newark Republican, denounced the gun control bill that came out of the General Assembly, declaring “enough is enough.”
Davis, a member of the Illinois Liberals caucuses, the House Republicans’ contingent of the most conservative lawmakers, said, “We can’t give up another line and the madness going on behind us here.” We are free citizens of the United States of America, and it is time to stand firm against the Constitution and the freedom God has planted in our hearts. “
Fritz calls for the need to address mental health and advocates for accessibility to mental health services and sustainable wages for workers, echoing a common point among Republicans in the national gun debate said to include
Over the years, Republicans in the state legislature have regularly voted against budgets that include millions of dollars in funding Pritzker-backed mental health services.
A ban on many high-powered guns and high-capacity magazines in Illinois, passed after a shooting in Highland Park that killed seven and injured dozens, is underway. I am facing legal challenges.
In addition to federal lawsuits, several state lawsuits allege that the ban violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Illinois Constitution. It was brought in Macon County by Rep. Dan Calkins, a Republican.
Caulkins, who is also a member of the Illinois Freedom Caucus, was in the crowd outside the Capitol on Wednesday but did not speak out as he said, “We are going to take the case in court.”
He told the Tribune that the event was planned well before the Nashville shootings, saying that “this attack on the Second Amendment will only further erode our rights and liberties.” was not surprised to see a healthy crowd.
At an unrelated event earlier Wednesday, Pritzker took a more cautious approach in his comments about opponents of gun control measures.
“Everyone should be heard. If people want to come together and make their case, this is clearly the city to do it with lawmakers,” he said of the Nashville shootings. I told you before.
“We all mourn the three adults and three young children who died that day. “I hope that doesn’t happen in Illinois. A ban on assault weapons helps limit that possibility.”
