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Illinois capitol protest 3/6/13.....It's IGOLD day!!!!

Tim4k5

.270 WIN
Today was IGOLD here at the State capital. IGOLD stands for Illinois Gun Owners Lobbying Day.....it's backed by the Illinois State Rifle Association, IllinoisCarry.com, GunsSaveLives and every other pro 2A group in the state. Day started with a rally at the convention center, a march to the statehouse steps for some VERY loud protests and an afternoon spent going office to office talking to our reps.

I have to preface this pic by saying that the northern half of the state got buried with 8-14" of snow last night......there were 11 fully-reserved charter buses from the Chicago area that were unable to run as well as those who had planned on driving themselves but were unable. So our turnout was probably 1k-1,500 less then what we were expecting......but I think the numbers still spoke pretty loudly.

Here's what about 7,500 people tired of having their 2nd Amendment Rights trampled on marching to the Statehouse looks like.

Click on the pic for the full view......It's big, lol.


I've got a few more pics I'll put up after I get home.......Awesome Day!!!!
 
Looks like a good day.Wonder what will happen this summer (attendance) if Illinois has another rally like this.
Good luck to you folks in Illinois,from across the river in Iowa :) .
 
IGOLD is a once a year occurance......The main 2A groups in Illinois have chosen to place their focus on getting everyone together for one day, on a day when the General Assembly is in session and we can't be ignored. As awesome as the symbolism of the smaller protests are, it doesn't accomplish much to protest in front of the Statehouse on a day the politicians aren't there.....and they all go home for the summer. But there WILL be some rallies all summer long, just not as big as this was.

Here's a few more pics from today.....my camera died so these were taken by a friend of mine.

In the Convention Center about 45minutes before starting.....most of the Buses weren't there yet.
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Wanna buy a T-shirt?
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Convention Center filling up
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Lining up to head out and march
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We had the Statehouse SURROUNDED on every side!
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Truly an incredible experience and completely different than past years. This year you could feel the sense of "WE ARE WINNING!!" in the air. It wasn't just a group going through the motions with no hope of accomplishing anything. So all you other States out there fighting this fight.....keep your heads up. We ARE winning!!!
 
Hell, yeah!!!! We should be able to have that many at our rallies in Ohio if certain "pro gun" organizations would quit telling people it is dangerous for "their" cause...
 
Nice going Tim! Being there does pump things up. I sure hope that the courts hold up and you guys get concealed carry.

people it is dangerous for "their" cause...
sounds like a bunch of candy asses OA, that sucks.
 
Thanks for the support Mike. The past few years IGOLD has kind of had the feeling of "we're never going to win this war but we're going to keep fighting"......and this year was different. It honestly didn't feel like we were banging our head on the wall.

As of right now and the way the Courts have ruled, they have until June 9th to pass a CCW Bill or we go to Constitutional Carry......not an ideal situation because of Illinois having home-rule and the patchwork of local level Carry laws it would cause. We WANT to see a Bill passed, but we aren't going to compromise on what WE want out of the Bill to get it done. They either pass OUR Bill or we go for Constitutional Carry and have all the local ordinances overturned in Court one at a time......that will be a multi-year process, but we will win and the anti side knows it.

The other possibility would be Attorney General Lisa Madigan appealing the case to SCOTUS. Nobody has any idea if she'll file for cert or not.....She has higher political aspirations and the recent backlash against new gun control laws may have her looking to cover her own rear end in the future. She may also be getting pressure from other Liberal States to not appeal to SCOTUS, as the Illinois case could very well turn into the end-all, be-all case that finally defines the 2A and gun control at the Supreme Court level......several of the "may issue" states don't want to see that decision made. Either way.....THE FIGHT IS ON!!!!
 
congrats Tim,looks like you had a great turn out despite the weather. keep up the fight!
 
Well featured on multiple forums - great feet-on-the-street support 8-12,000 est attendance!!
 
Awesome!! Looks lik a good turnout.
 
A little off topic but we had the one twit here wanting to ban all semi autos (pistols/rifles) after Sandy Hook, and our Gov made the statement (paraphrasing)"I don't see any new gun laws coming to pass in the near future",and haven't heard much since.And some years back we went from a "may" issue to "shall" issue state.
So again I want to say good luck to you,hope you get your bill passed.
 
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