Firsthand Account of Snuffy Pfleger's Lobbying Day

INDENTTonight the irrepressible and inimitable Tom Shafer regaled the monthly meeting of the Sangamon County Rifle Association with tales of his up close and uncomfortably personal encounter with Father Michael "Snuffy" Pfleger:

Pro Tip: Lobbying Days Require Grassroots, Not Astroturf

INDENTYou may remember that Illinois gun owners had our Lobbying Day at the state capitol in Springfield on March 11. One week later, Snuffy Pfleger had his own Lobbying Day on March 18. He brought several buses down from Chicago to lobby for passage of HB0048, the bill that would have made it illegal to transfer a gun in Illinois without first giving it over to a federally-licensed gun dealer--even if you were loaning or giving the gun. This bill was the absolute top priority for the gun banners in Illinois, so Snuffy organized a bus trip for three groups of people: members of his St. Sabina's Catholic Church, students from the Simeon Career Academy in Chicago, and students from Howard University in Washington, D.C. The Simeon kids were here in memory of a classmate who was killed at a basketball game, while the Howard University kids were on an "Alternative Spring Break" on which they were supposed to be "addressing gun violence."

INDENTThe interesting part is that Tom lucked into the chance to attend the event when he was visiting the capitol on other business that same day and happened to hear Rep. Edward "Don't You Know Who I Am?" Acevedo say something about going out to "the gun rally." He followed the group outside, where Pfleger's folks were disembarking from their buses, and joined the demonstration.

INDENTTom estimated that the crowd at its largest was between 80 and 100 people. I found that very interesting, since I've had a chance to crunch some numbers. Remember the kids from Simeon Career Academy and Howard University? Well, here are the numbers for those:

• 54 students from Howard University in Washington, D.C.
• 14 students from Princeton University in Princeton, N.J.
• "over 50" students from Simeon Career Academy in Chicago
  

INDENTMy arithmetic makes that 54+14=68 college students bused in from 900 miles away, in addition to ~50 students bused down on school buses on a school day to be used as political props (nothing new for Chicago Public Schools.) That's 118 blades of astroturf. If we're extra generous, assume Tom was wrong, and they must have gotten 150 or so, that still means that roughly 80% of their "grassroots citizen lobbyists" were school kids taking the day off or college kids from four states away. Compare that to the numbers IGOLD generated--with everyone paying his own way--and you can see why legislators were not jumping on the Pfleger bandwagon.

"I Love You, I Hate You, I Just Don't Know Anymore"

INDENT"Ma'am, I'm from Springfield. Can I get some of your materials, please?" Tom asked the big, happy lady at the door of the bus.
INDENT"Well, of course!" she said. "You're doing the right thing. I just love you!"
INDENT"I do appreciate that, ma'am, but I'm from the pro-gun side of things . . . ."
INDENT"Well, then, I guess I just hate you!"
INDENT"Well, ma'am, I still love you."

Good Touches and Bad Touches: The Hand of Pfleger

INDENTAt one point, after Pfleger was done haranguing the crowd and embarassing Dan Kotowski, Tom walked up to him and asked him whether he regretted calling for John Riggio and state legislators to be "snuffed out." That's when things got weird. According to Tom, Pfleger reacted by grabbing his shirt with one hand, which caused both police and Chicago school students to close in a bit and look edgy, then began "stroking (me) with his other hand. I wasn't sure what was going on, so I just told him to keep it above the waist, buddy," Tom told the group. As he "stroked" Tom, he explained that his comments had been taken out of context and that he'd never actually said he wanted anyone to hurt John Riggio. The video is at the top of this post; I'll let you decide for yourself whether Pfleger was unfairly taken out of context. Also whether he's a howling maniac.

Playing In Traffic

INDENTDuring IGOLD, several thousand gun owners marched across 2nd Street in Springfield and gathered in front of the Lincoln statue on the capitol lawn. We had to get them all across the street safely and then keep everyone out of the street, because 2nd Street is a city bus route and we couldn't block it (it can be done, with the right permit, but there's so much extra work fitting yourself to the bus schedule that it isn't worth it.) Pfleger's group didn't have a permit to block any streets, much less a main artery like 2nd, but according to Tom, they decided that was the best way to get some attention. There were scattered shouts to the effect that they would jump into 2nd Street and stop traffic. I'm not sure what the purpose of that was supposed to be; maybe just pure mischief. In any case, the kindly police officers escorting the group quashed that particular brainstorm so early that no one was hit by a bus, which I suppose is for the best.
INDENTFinally, Snuffy, sensing that no one was going to cover this circus and knowing that the planned vote/spectacle on HB0048 was not going to happen because the votes weren't there, decided to try one last attention-getting tantrum: he and his merry band announced their intention to "storm the Governor's Office and occupy it." Contrast that with IGOLD, when Governor Quinn refused to meet with us, but Thirdpower and I chatted amiably with his secretary and the Ladies of IGOLD presented an assistant with Quinn's plaque.
In any case, it was not to be. The Secretary of State's Police officers suggested, as Tom put it, that "that would be a very bad idea." Disappointed, and with opportunities for mischievous street theater exhausted, Pfleger loaded his merry band on the buses and went home.

There Can Be Only One

I haven't commented on the whackjob who stabbed a guy to death and then cut him into convenient pieces--on a Greyhound bus full of passengers. In Canada. It's gruesome, but others have said it all better. There's just one thing: I carry a gun in accordance with Illinois law. That means I carry an unloaded pistole in a case; specifically, I carry a SIG-Sauer P220 and two magazines in a Maxpedition Versi-Pack. This is so slow on the draw as to be virtually useless for self-defense. I know; when I practice with the P220, I practice opening the compartment, drawing the gun and a magazine (moving laterally off the line of attack all the while) loading and charging the gun, putting all the rounds in a target and then drawing the next magazine and reloading. After over a year of practicing this way, I've got it down to such a science that, while the bad guys would have time to stop for a cup of coffee while waiting for me to draw and fire, they probably couldn't have dessert. I tried to time it once, but there was no calendar at the range.

I don't carry it for self-defense, really. I carry it because it pisses off politicians and busybodies. But then again, there are these incredibly rare freak occurrences when something terrible is being done to someone right in front of you, and it might be nice to be armed when you try to stop it. From the accounts, it doesn't sound like anyone tried to stop the MFIQ (it ends with "In Question), but we can't know from news reports. What's more, although I know such times are rare, the time my sister was nearly abducted on the street in broad daylight was another. Her assailant was never caught. If the guy who beat him off her had been armed, he may have been able to hold the attacker--and if she'd been armed in a fashion illegal here, but perfectly legal in Missouri, Iowa, Kentucky and Indiana, she may have been able to do it without him.

Anyway, Second City Cop had the best comment, upon noting that one witness said, and I quote, "While we were waiting on the side of the road, [the MFIQ] was taunting the police with the head in his hand."

"We don't know for sure, but if some guy is taunting us with a head, he's going to get lit up. We're pretty sure we could beat it in court somehow."

Well, one permits oneself to hope, gentlemen. For the record, I agree. If you're taunting the armed men with the head of your victim, well . . . . personally, I would simply say that I considered it necessary to stop him as quickly as possible in order to maximize the chance that the head could be reattached. Any prosecutor who would dare take that to a jury deserves to win.

Oh, Crap

I think I know what happened to my new PC.

It has a massive air intake with a small venturi-style funnel built in, which tunnels outside air directly to the fan mounted on the processor. It has a grid directly below that one, through which air tends to return to the outside.

Both are located on the right side of the case. My old computer had neither opening, and I kept it on the floor against the left side of my desk. I put the new computer in the same place--which meant there was an inch-thick pine board completely smothering both the cooling intake and exhaust.

That can't be good. And you know who who has to take all the blame, of course. That's right: Tom Kotowski.

Kotowski Death Threats Pt. 3: The Press Release

. . . . in which Senator Kotowski's press release is posted in full. Rich Miller posted this at The Capitol Fax blog, which has many, many readers, but he's had to disable comments for some reason after racking up 84 in short order. Miller made another important point, too: the "mainstream media" is ignoring the whole issue. He posted a link to Google News showing that GN had picked up exactly zero (0) stories on this topic. The only thing GN had to offer was a link to the ISRA's press release; it hasn't even picked up Kotowski's press release, although, to be fair, I can't find it anywhere except Miller and people who got it from Miller. Weird.

Anyway, here it is. Although Illinois Reason got this from Rich Miller, I don't think Miller posted the whole thing for public view, so I'm getting it from IR:

Illinois State Senator Dan Kotowski (D-Park Ridge) says threatening phone calls, faxes, and letters his office received during the past few months were handed over to local law enforcement including the Illinois State Police.

Kotowski says, “When someone calls my office saying, ‘I have a gun. I am going to come and kill you’, I have to worry about my safety, and the safety of our staff.” Kotowski added, “That is why I followed proper procedure and forwarded any correspondence with threatening material to the Illinois State Police.”

A recent release by the Illinois State Rifle Association accuses Kotowski of infringing on the First Amendment Rights of our citizens but Kotowski says this is ridiculous and irresponsible. “You won’t find a bigger advocate for free speech in the legislature, but someone’s right to free speech stops when they threaten to kill you.”

Kotowski and his office staff received threats during the first few months of the Spring Legislative Session, most of which specifically referred to his sponsorship of gun safety legislation. “If Illinois State Rifle Association members were as law abiding and anti crime as they claim, then they would be the first to condemn these threats and help to champion the cause for measures designed to get guns away from those with criminal intent.”

Kotowski concluded, “I believe that everyone should have a voice in the legislative process, but the ISRA does their membership no favors by perpetuating suspicious threats, and standing up for those who have misguided intentions.”

I love the part where the ISRA should prove that it opposes assassination for political gain by joining Kotowski in sponsoring more gun control. Yeah, that would work.

“I believe that everyone should have a voice in the legislative process, but the ISRA does their membership no favors by perpetuating suspicious threats, and standing up for those who have misguided intentions.”

Wait, what? Do you suppose Kotowski intended to accuse the ISRA of supporting and "perpetuating" (or the English-language equivalent) the people doing the threatening? And again, all this assumes there were any threats made in the first place, which Danny Boy still refuses to prove. The ISRA has so far supported and "perpetuated" one guy--Tom-of-the -Mysterious-Last-Name. They haven't supported anybody making any threats whatsoever. Kotowski wasn't in the Senate the last time a Senator claimed to have received death threats from a fanatical, evil gun nut, but I wouldn't be surprised if he'd been in the conference room that day as the President of the ICHV. If he was there, then he heard the ISRA's lobbyist , Todd Vandermyde, address the crowd of hundreds of the hardest-core activists in the Illinois pro-gun-rights movement. Unlike the other side, we weren't getting paid to be there; we had taken days off on short notice and driving ourselves to Springfield from all over the state. Vandermyde was the only "pro" or "staffer" in the room on our side.
The disgust and dismay in that crowd when we were told that a legislator had been threatened was palpable. The anger when we found out that we'd been lied to and the "threat" was no real threat wasn't exactly minor, either.

Before anyone asks, yes, I have received death threats in the past and I do know what it's like. I'll grant you that Kotowski has a lot higher profile than I do, and I wouldn't blame him at all if he considered threats against him more serious than the ones I've gotten over the years, but that does not excuse using any threat he may actually receive as an excuse to send cops out to tell innocent people that they should "stop sending FAXes to Senator Kotowski."
Any way you slice it, that last bit is a HUGE allegation. I'd like to see Kotowski's evidence that the ISRA in any way supported, directed, or encouraged anyone to threaten to hurt Kotowski, his family, or anyone else. Let's see it, Danny Boy--unless that was unintentional, in which case a simple acknowledgment and change would do fine.