THE ILLINOIZE...I don't know what to say anymore

July 5, 2022

I live exactly 15 miles from the spot where a gunman started shooting over an Independence Day parade in Highland Park yesterday morning. Had we all not currently found ourselves on the COVID list, there’s a pretty good chance we would have been at the parade in our suburb.

It could have easily been our town.

It could have been a 22-year-old deranged kid with a rifle and an axe to grind against someone, Jews, Blacks, government, or a girl that dumped him.

I could have desperately been shielding my 7-month-old from gunfire.

It could have been us. It could have been you.

I’ve said before and it has lost me subscribers on the right, but I’m both pro-gun and pro-gun control. I grew up on a farm with both a .30-06 and a 12-gauge in a closet by the front door. I’m trained and licensed and know how to protect myself and my family. But even in a situation like that, a good guy with a 9mm is overpowered by a much stronger, more damaging round.

As I write this, police haven’t updated the type of weapon the suspect (who I will not name here because I refuse to allow him to become a celebrity or martyr) used, how he got it, or if he were legally allowed to own or possess it. A quick search of court records in Lake County shows no serious criminal charge in his past just a minor ordinance violation when he was 16.

If he were legally allowed to own or possess a firearm, we need to have a serious discussion about who we are allowing purchase guns. Where was the failure? FOID? The national firearm background check?

I don’t know if he owned it legally or not, though I’m sure those details will come out.

As your politicians talk about this incident and others like it in the coming days and months, don’t let them retreat into their traditional partisan corners. As your Republican officeholders how they plan to keep guns out of the hands of people like this person. They’ll hem and haw about following the laws already on the books, but we haven’t been told of any laws that were violated up until he pulled the trigger.

Your Democrat officeholders need to be asked how they want to limit firearms, but they need to give you a plan about how to do it without infringing on the constitutional rights of gun owners. There aren’t a lot of rights laid out in the constitution, so clearly the founders meant something about personal protection.

This society needs to change. Instead of blaming Republicans or Democrats for laws or positions, let’s remember that a clearly troubled 22-year-old man is alleged to have committed these heinous murders. This isn’t hypothetical. He climbed on top of a building, pulled out a rifle, and started shooting.

Every single one of us, no matter our partisan affiliation needs to accept that can’t happen. Now, how do we get together and stop it from happening again?

PRITZKER: “I AM FURIOUS”

Governor JB Pritzker made a short statement before the start of an Independence Day Parade in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood Monday morning, confirming he was aware of the shooting in Highland Park and was leaving the southside to monitor the situation.

Pritzker appeared in Highland Park late Monday afternoon visibly frustrated at the news of another mass shooting in Illinois.

“If you’re angry today, I’m here to tell you: be angry,” Pritzker said. “I’m furious. I’m furious that yet more innocent lives were taken by gun violence. It does not have to be this way.”

In a video posted to his campaign Facebook page Monday, Republican gubernatorial nominee Sen. Darren Bailey (R-Xenia), speaking from a canceled parade in Skokie, offered a prayer and said the public should “move on.”

“Let’s pray for justice to prevail and then let’s move on and let’s celebrate the independence of this nation,” he said.

Numerous elected officials and observers have criticized Bailey’s language in the video.

His campaign issued a formal statement asking to pray for the victims and those who lost a loved one.

“We hope we can all come together in prayer and action to address rampant crime and mental health issues to ensure these horrific tragedies don’t happen again,” Bailey said.

While Pritzker stopped short of endorsing specific state or federal legislation, he did appear to want action.

“Our founders carried muskets, not assault weapons,” he said. “I don’t think a single one of them would have said you have a constitutional right to an assault weapon with a high capacity magazine. Or that is more important of the right of the people who attended this parade today to live.”

More on potential legislative action below.

Here’s the Governor’s full statement:

NO SPECIAL SESSION THIS WEEK

Originally, we were told this week the Senate would be in, likely Wednesday or Thursday, to address abortion-related legislation. I confirmed last night there will not be a special session this week as Democrats and pro-abortion rights groups hammer out details of their next move.

Here’s how that ties in to the story of the day…

GUN LEGISLATION COMING?

It didn’t take long yesterday afternoon to start getting some texts about possibilities Democrats would quickly move on some sort of gun control legislation, even as early as this week, had the Senate still been planning to return.

From both sides of the aisle, I heard a lot of different possibilities, including limiting purchase and ownership for those under 21 to an all out “assault rifle” ban. Highland Park, by the way, has an existing assault weapons ban that has been challenged in court multiple times since 2013.

Rep. Bob Morgan (D-Deerfield), who was in attendance at the Monday parade, issued a statement urging action.

“What I do know is that there are families that have been torn apart; children who will have nightmares from their trauma; a community that will never fully heal,” he said. “I will fight every second of every day to do whatever possible in the General Assembly to make sure this tragedy never happens again.”

Morgan declined to discuss legislative options in more detail.

Rep. Marcus Evans (D-Chicago), a member of House Democratic leadership, called for “gun control and regulations now” in a statement Monday.

“At some point we have to put politics aside and focus as a nation on gun control,” Evans said. No community is safe, there are just too many guns in this country and too many guns in the hands of individuals with criminal intentions or mental challenges.”

A spokesperson for Senate President Don Harmon said Monday “no specific measures are under review” right now.

Sen. Dave Syverson (R-Cherry Valley), a pro-gun lawmaker, said Monday Democrats are overreacting to the latest crisis.

“They may look at the need to fund another program or implement more restrictions, like have worked so well in Chicago,” Syverson said, cynically. “What’s so sad is the fix is so simple, but requires personal responsibility and accountability for a person’s own actions.”

The debate likely won’t go away anytime soon.

Keep those involved in your prayers and remember reasonable people can disagree without being terrible to each other.

Have a good day.