Recent Media attempts by anti-gun columnists, such as Steve Neal of the Chicago Sun Times, have tried to distort Rod’s record on HB-183.

Neal even went so far as to claim hunters in Southern Illinois are trying to distort Rod’s record on HB-183. In a March 1st column Neal wrote:

“In letters that are being mailed to sportsmen in southern Illinois by Vallas allies, Blagojevich's '93 legislation is distorted. In the form letter, which was developed with the cooperation of the Vallas camp,
hunters are being told that Blagojevich wants to increase the gun-registration fee from $5 for five years to $500 for five years."Everyone knows this is simply a financial approach at making it impossible for us to own a firearm," the letter states.
This is a flat-out distortion of Blagojevich's position.”

Not so fast Mr. Neal. HB-183 did exactly what downstate hunters and gun owners say it was intended to do. Tax the right to own a gun, to the point that it would be prohibitive for people to exercise that right. But don’t take our word for it, read what Gunban-Rod said in Mr. Neal’s paper back in 1993…

“Blagojevich said the price was set high to make people think twice about buying a gun.

"This is, in a small way, another part of the cooling-off period," he said. If the cost of owning a firearm is raised, he said, people will put more thought into the decision to buy one.

Blagojevich defended the increase, saying $ 100 per year is "not a significant burden. People interested in buying guns for the right reasons would
certainly (pay) that."

-- Chicago Sun Times 2-15-93 Monday, Final Edition By John O’Brien

Neal Also went on to say claim that the new tax on your rights would be “targeted new revenues to the Wildlife and Fish fund”. Wrong again Mr. Neal. The Sun Times also reported:

“Blagojevich's plan also calls for changes in the distribution of proceeds from the fee. Of the present $ 5 fee, $ 3 goes into the state's Wildlife and
Fish Fund, $ 1 into the General Revenue Fund and $ 1 into the Firearm Owner's Notification Fund, which helps pay for the administration of the registration
program.

The proposed legislation would give $ 20 of the $ 100 annual fee to the Wildlife and Fish Fund and $ 79 to the general fund. The remaining $ 1 would go
for program administration.”
Sun Times 2/15/93

So in an effort to increase the FOID card to $500 A 1000% increase on the Tax of your right to own a firearm, only 20% was going to where Mr. Neal would like you to believe that it was and 79% was going to the General Revenue Fund to support all those pet projects for the City of Chicago.

Gunban-Rod’s campaign is fond of saying that they pulled the bill after talking with downstate democrats, but that’s not true either.

Gunban-Rod offered an amendment to the bill to bring it down to $25 a year, what a guy, but it appears that that money was slated not to go to hunters and wildlife, but as the Sun Times described it:

“The proposal by Rep. Rod R. Blagojevich (D-Chicago), would have boosted the cost of obtaining a firearm owner's identification card from $ 5 to $ 25 and
earmarked the proceeds for law enforcement, trauma care and the administration of the identification card program.”

Chicago Sun Times April 3rd, 1993

In fact the amendment was offered only after Gunban-Rod saw he had opened up a can of worms and was trying to save face. Gun Owners from across the state called wrote and met at the capitol to put a stop to the fledgling Gunban-Rod. Gunban-Rod said he had:

"Heard a thunderous human cry in opposition to the bill,” No the talking with southern legislators must have been about something else, because Gunban-Rod seemed unapologetic as he waxed to reporters:

Blagojevich's plan originally called for increasing the fee to $ 100 and requiring gun owners to re-register every year, rather than every five years as
the law now requires. It was amended, though, after legislators "heard a thunderous human cry in opposition to the bill," he said.

"In Illinois there is a real sanctity in regard to guns that, frankly, I don't understand," Blagojevich said.
Sun Times 4/3/93

But Mr. Neal calls all of this hoopla about Gunban-Rod’s $500 FOID card a “flat-out distortion of Blagojevich's position.” The record says otherwise. And while Mr. Neal appears to have taken on the role of deputy press secretary for Gunban-Rod’s campaign, it is he who has distorted the record on the $500 FOID card fee that Gunban-Rod introduced and made a case for in Mr. Neal’s newspaper. Not the downstate hunters who are trying to shed a little light on Gunban-Rod’s record.
**************************************
Rods own words

“There is in the state of Illinois a real sanctity, with respect to guns that I frankly don’t understand.” – Judiciary Committee hearing April 2nd, 1993

“The fact that if you try to make any adjustment on guns, gun owners rise up in anger and I think it’s interesting” – Judiciary Committee hearing April 2nd, 1993

The fact that it would hurt law abiding citizens who own guns, in that it increases their registration fee which presently is $5 every five years, that original bill would raise it to $100 every year.” – Judiciary Committee hearing April 2nd, 1993

“We pay $50 every year to register – reregister our license plates for motor vehicles, I think to raise the registration rates on guns is not that unreasonable.” – Judiciary Committee hearing April 2nd, 1993

"This is, in a small way, another part of the cooling-off period," he said. If the cost of owning a firearm is raised, he said, people will put more thought
into the decision to buy one.” -- Chicago Sun Times February 15th, 1993

Blagojevich defended the increase, saying $ 100 per year is "not a significant burden. People interested in buying guns for the right reasons would
certainly (pay) that." -- Chicago Sun Times February 15th, 1993

“Blagojevich said the price was set high to make people think twice about buying a gun.” -- Chicago Sun Times February 15th, 1993

Since taking office, approximately half of the bills that Blagojevich has sponsored have been on the topic of gun control. Few, if any, of the bills proposed restrictions that would be considered reasonable by anyone other than the most radical gun control advocate.

For example, Blagojevich has sponsored legislation that would ban most, if not all of the rifles favored by deer hunters in Illinois. Other federal legislation sponsored by Blagojevich would register sales of ammunition to target shooters and prohibit many of our returning war veterans from owning handguns.

Blagojevich's cockeyed definition of "reasonable" is illustrated well by a bill he sponsored in the 106th Congress. HR 1049 would have actually provided federal government assistance to plaintiffs in lawsuits designed to run firearm manufacturers out of business. Who, other than a determined anti-gun zealot like Rod Blagojevich could find such a proposal "reasonable?"

Much to the dismay of Blagojevich and his supporters at the extremist Violence Policy Center, 44 states allow their law-abiding citizens to carry defensive firearms. In a cynical attempt to undermine states' rights, Blagojevich sponsored HR 4876, which would have banned the ownership of firearms small enough to be
concealed for defensive purposes. In effect, Blagojevich's message to those 44 state legislatures is that Rod Blagojevich, and Rod Blagojevich alone, knows what is best for them -- a notion that is hardly "reasonable."

The list of Blagojevich's attempted attacks on the rights of law-abiding gun owners, both as a congressman and as a state representative, go on to include rationing of firearms, punitive taxes and burdensome regulatory hurdles.

Based on the number of antigun bills Blagojevich has either sponsored or co-sponsored during his tenure as congressman, one would think that gun control is the only issue facing the people of the 5th District. "Reasonable" people know that it is not.

New statistics out late this week indicate that armed thugs are propelling Chicago toward a repeat performance as the nation's murder capitol. Nonetheless, Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner Rod Blagojevich persists in advancing the notion that targeting lawful hunters and sportsmen is the "reasonable" approach to fighting gun crime.

We trust that Illinois voters have a better-grounded sense of what is "reasonable" than does candidate Blagojevich.

The ISRA-PVF is a political action committee affiliated with the Illinois State Rifle Association. The Illinois State Rifle Association represents the interests of over 1.5 million law-abiding Illinois firearm owners. A copy of the ISRA-PVF report is available for a fee from the Illinois State Board of Elections, Springfield, Ill.

********************************************

ROD's Gun Bans

Prohibits the sale of more than one handgun per month to an individual, even if they trade one in.
Bill Summary & Status
H.R.315

Allows the ATF to ban guns it feels are unsafe and sets up phoney safety standards that turn into gun bans.
Bill Summary & Status
H.R.515

GUNBAN-ROD wants to use your tax dollars to buy back and cut up guns
Bill Summary & Status
H.R.3724

Bans the tranfer of any magazine of 10 rounds that is currnetly owned, even if it was protected under the '94 semi-auto ban.
Bill Summary & Status
H.R.1037

Requires you to get permission from your local police chief before you can buy a handgun. Also allows them to keep a list of all people wishing to buy guns, or who own guns.
Bill Summary & Status
H.R.1062

Another one of GUNBAN-ROD's deceptive handgun bans
Bill Summary & Status
H.R.1342

GUNBAN-ROD's attmpt to suck up to the animal rights extremists to outlaw trapping.
Bill Summary & Status
H.R.1581

Yet another one of GUNBAN-ROD's attempt to ban handguns through regulation
Bill Summary & Status
H.R.2003

Questions continue to be raised about McAuliffe's recent business dealings and role in turning a $100,000 investment in Global Crossing into an $18,000,000 gain while employees lost their retirement savings in the now-bankrupt company. According to Fortune magazine the "scandal at Global Crossing has many of the same ingredients as Enron's: a colossal bankruptcy, a politically connected chairman who walked away with millions, dubious accounting, and inadequate disclosure."

The American people aren't looking for more negative attacks, they are looking for results and President Bush has delivered. Here are some thoughts from someone in Chairman McAuliffe's own party:
James Carville
"What Terry ought to do, and I'm sure he will,' Mr. Carville predicted in February, 'is release his trading records."
Those would be the trading records relating not only to the $18 million profit he made from his initial $100,000 investment in now-bankrupt Global Crossing.The records would also explain how he made millions more trading its stock and options, as he claimed to the New York Times in late 1999." Here are a few more questions asked in a Washington Times editorial.

*Precisely how many millions of dollars did Mr. McAuliffe earn trading Global Crossing's stock and options? $2 million? $5 million? $25 million?

*Did Mr. McAuliffe buy significant blocks of Global Crossing stock in the months preceding the May 17, 1999, merger announcement with US West, when the stock was priced significantly below US West's tender offer of $62.50 for 39 million shares of Global Crossing? If he did, did he buy the stock on margin?

*What sort of call-option activity did Mr. McAuliffe pursue during the months before the merger announcement?

*In the weeks before the merger with US West was canceled, did Mr. McAuliffe sell Global Crossing stock "short," in effect making a potentially exorbitantly profitable bet that its price would plummet — as, in fact, the share price did following the merger's termination?

*Given that Global Crossing shareholders tendered 240.4 million shares in response to US West's tender offer, did Mr. McAuliffe receive special treatment by being put at the head of the line of those wishing to sell out?

*The day after Global Crossing went bankrupt in January, Mr. McAuliffe told CNN that the firm's share price "continued to go way up after I sold my stock." This begs a few more questions: What share price did Mr. McAuliffe pay in 1997 (before the March 1999 2-for-1 split) when he made his original investment of $100,000?

==>Vice President Cheney's speech to VFW 08/26/02