Governor Pat Quinn's "Assault Weapons" Ban Defeated (Illinois)

[Glaug-Eldare]

95. Sen. Frosh tried that trick here

Last edited Sat Dec 8, 2012, 01:52 AM - Edit history (1)

There was a bill to exempt police officers from the free online training requirement for handgun (and certain rifle) purchasing, and it had passed the House of Delegates unanimously. A few days before sine die, Senator Brian Frosh (HUGE gun control advocate, and chairman of the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee) amended it to remove the no cost requirement for the training, and add an additional undefined training requirement for handgun permits, to be established by the state police. They tried similar schemes before, and their hope was to create a training regime so expensive, complicated, and inconvenient that people would give up on trying to legally purchasing a handgun. The (exaggerated) example I gave was "three days of appointment-only training at a single MD-certified residential facility west of Cumberland which runs one class of ten students every three months Monday through Wednesday, at a cost of $1,500 per student, not including gun or ammunition. OR, an online safety video for those deemed eligible by the Secretary of Police or his designee."

Anyway, Maryland Shall Issue jumped on it and absolutely flooded the General Assembly with phone calls, letters, e-mails, and visits. Every single legislator knew exactly they were being watched, and took the politically sensible route of not voting on it. The amended bill never passed either chamber. That's grassroots.