Gun rights advocate see Pritzker as a committed threat

Make no mistake: our firearm rights are on the ballot in the governor’s race this November. Firearm ownership is a part of our heritage, a source of pride for many Illinoisans, but it’s also a grave necessity for self-protection. JB Pritzker, the Democrat candidate for governor, disagrees.

His record reveals a decades-long hostility toward firearm rights and firearm owners. He has repeatedly displayed a willingness to trash the Constitutional rights of law-abiding citizens. Worse, it is not out of political convenience or the result of playing to his liberal base. His anti-Second Amendment stance is a genuinely held belief for a man vying to be our next governor. Even by the standards of the modern Democrat Party, Pritzker is as extreme as they come.

Just take a look at where he stands on the issue of firearm ownership.

In his failed bid for Congress in 1998, Pritzker openly proposed banning the sale of handguns. He is also on record supporting a 100 percent tax on the sale of handgun ammunition. With nearly 250,000 Illinoisans possessing concealed carry licenses — which require possession of a Firearm Owners Identification card and rigorous training — Pritzker would prefer to make it impossible to own a handgun and make it much too expensive to afford ammunition.

Handguns are the go-to method of defense for countless Illinoisans and Americans. They provide safety, security, and peace of mind for those wishing to defend themselves — the law-abiding citizen who wants that extra layer of protection, the mom looking to protect her children and home, or the family that lives in an area where law enforcement response times are longer than in a city or the suburbs. Pritzker apparently has little consideration for our safety or our rights.

Unfortunately, Pritzker’s hostile view toward firearm ownership does not stop with handguns. Following the lead of national anti-firearm groups, Pritzker has called for banning our modern-day sporting rifles and calls them “assault” weapons. He has called for banning our standard capacity magazines and wants to limit us to reduced capacity magazines. He justifies this outrageous idea by saying it would end mass shootings. But disarming innocent victims does not make them safer. Stripping people of certain firearms will not curb violence. We have seen in recent tragic examples that sick individuals bent on mass murder resort to a wide array of ways to carry out their heinous crimes.

But to Pritzker, the facts matter very little. Seizing on political division and employing scare tactics aimed at needlessly disarming lawful gun owners is what motivates him. That is why he has thrown his full weight behind the state gun dealer licensing bill — a bill that Gov. Bruce Rauner has already vetoed once — a bill which would hurt small gun shops with onerous and duplicative regulations and would do nothing to enhance public safety.

Pritzker has contributed more than $100,000 to anti-Second Amendment groups such as the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence and the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence. He does not just pretend to oppose lawful firearm ownership for political gain; he is a true enemy of our Second Amendment rights.

Instead of embracing firearm safety that focuses on keeping firearms out of the hands of violent criminals and addressing the very real mental health issues facing our country, Pritzker prefers to run roughshod over our constitutional rights.

Nearly 30 percent of all Illinoisans are firearm owners. Pritzker’s policies would put Illinoisans in danger and deprive us of our inalienable right to bear arms. If we value our Second Amendment rights, we have no choice but to oppose Pritzker in November.