ISRA: Mayor Emanuel's Gun Control Proposal is Merely a Cynical Publicity Stunt

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Feb 10, 2012, 10:34 ET

CHICAGO, Feb. 10, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The following was released today by the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA):

"A promise of false hope to the people of Roseland" is how the ISRA is characterizing Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's carefully-staged announcement of his latest gun control scheme. During a Thursday press conference in Chicago's war torn Roseland neighborhood, Emanuel announced his support for a state-wide handgun tax and registration package. This latest attack on law-abiding firearm owners features a $65 per handgun tax along with a host of oppressive regulations designed to discourage private firearm ownership. In his address, Emanuel tried to dupe Roseland residents into believing that taxing and regulating law-abiding firearm owners was the key to solving the growing problem of criminal violence in their neighborhood.

The ISRA believes that Emanuel's scheme is unnecessary, divisive, and unenforceable. Currently, there are dozens of federal and state laws that prohibit criminals form owning and transferring firearms. As with other gun control proposals, Emanuel's scheme pits the interests of law-abiding citizens against one another while ignoring criminal enterprises and the terror they spawn. And, of course, nowhere in this proposal is there any suggestion as to how the government would extract the $65 fee from gang bangers and street thugs. All in all, Emanuel's proposal is a bad idea that comes at a bad time for the law-abiding citizens of Illinois. If this measure reaches the General Assembly, the ISRA will vigorously oppose it and defeat it.

"Rahm Emanuel offered nothing yesterday to the people of Roseland," commented ISRA Executive Director, Richard Pearson. "If he really cared about protecting the good citizens of Chicago, he'd be announcing his support for concealed carry and not telling citizens about plans for disempowering them further. Just like his predecessor, Rahm Emanuel is long on media fluff and short on real solutions to real problems faced by real people every day."

"I did find it interesting that Emanuel was flanked by Garry McCarthy and Mike Pfleger during his rail against law-abiding gun owners," continued Pearson. "McCarthy, of course, is Emanuel's police superintendent and the guy responsible for suppressing reports of last summer's flash mob attacks on the Mag Mile. And, we all know Pfleger as the renegade priest who called for the murder of gun shop owners and legislators who vote against gun control bills. Thus, Emanuel's credibility on the issue of violent crime is no better than that of the joker that preceded him."

The ISRA is the state's leading advocate of safe, lawful and responsible firearms ownership. For more than a century, the ISRA has represented the interests of millions of law-abiding Illinois firearm owners.

http://www.isra.org

SOURCE Illinois State Rifle Association