ISRA Blasts Candidate Obama on His Record of Hostility Toward Law- Abiding Firearm Owners

CHICAGO, Aug. 24 /U.S. Newswire/ -- The following was released today by the Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA):

The ISRA is warning the state's 1.5 million law-abiding firearm owners not to be taken in by Barack Obama's recent claims of support for the 2nd Amendment published in downstate newspapers.

Obama, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate, has a well- established history of hostility toward hunters, sportsmen, and other law-abiding firearm owners. For example, in 2003, Obama voted in support of SB1195, which, if passed, would have banned most of the privately held hunting shotguns, target rifles, and black powder rifles in the state. If the ban was enacted, law enforcement officials would have been authorized to forcibly enter private homes to confiscate newly banned firearms. Fortunately, very few Illinois Senators shared Obama's extremist view on private firearm ownership and the bill was defeated.

More recently, Obama cast a total of 4 votes in opposition to SB2165. SB2165 was drafted to protect homeowners from prosecution in cases where they used a firearm to halt a home invasion. Once again, Obama found himself on the wrong side of the issue as overwhelming majorities of both the House and the Senate voted in favor of this important legislation. Obama's steadfast opposition to SB2165 is indicative of his misplaced priorities on issues of self-defense and personal firearm ownership.

Adding even further skepticism to Obama's claim of support for the 2nd Amendment is his previous service as a director of the Joyce Foundation. Since 2000, the Joyce Foundation has provided over $15 Million in funding to radical gun control organizations such as the Violence Policy Center and the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence. The Joyce Foundation is tightly linked to the Soros Open Society Institute -- an extremist group that advocates a worldwide ban on civilian firearm ownership. Certainly, Barack Obama would not have been invited to sit on the board of the Joyce Foundation had he not held similar views on private firearm ownership.

"It's easy for Mr. Obama to issue statements to downstate papers from the comfort of his Chicago office," commented ISRA Executive Director Richard Pearson. "But he's going to find it much harder to hide from a legislative record that paints him as one of the most active gun control advocates in the General Assembly. If Obama feels that he has a record on guns that he can run on, he shouldn't be shy about taking that record on the road. We want to see Barack Obama look downstate hunters and sportsmen right in the eye and explain why he has voted the way he has. We want to hear Barack Obama explain why he feels that he should be the candidate of choice for the law- abiding firearm owner."

------

The ISRA is the state's leading advocate of safe, lawful and responsible firearms ownership. For over a century, the ISRA has represented the interests of over 1.5 million law-abiding Illinois firearm owners.