Guns Save Life

Thousands of licenses went out in the mail Friday and Saturday, as we had noted last week.

It even made national news, as Hot Air and plenty of other sites covered the story.

Yes, almost fifteen months after the federal appeals court mandated Illinois adopt right-to-carry – “or else”, we finally have licenses in hand.

Yes, we are cutting edge here at Guns Save Life in reporting on how Illinois re-invented the wheel when it comes to carry licenses, pretty much ignoring the 49 other states that had carry initially.

Some of our critics are particularly eager and fond to point out when our reports of preliminary information turn out wrong, but then again, those same critics are about as cutting edge as the magazines you so typically find in doctor and dentist office waiting rooms.

Reports have it that 5,000 were mailed last week

It’s moving day today and tomorrow.

by John Boch

I really enjoy Liam Neeson.

“Taken” was one movie of his that’s among a handful that I keep around to watch from time to time – movies like Full Metal Jacket, Apocalypse Now and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

I guarantee you “Non-Stop” won’t be among that select few.

In Non-Stop, Air Marshal Liam Neeson is fighting about someone sending him text messages and killing people on an airliner.

It’s the guy who wants to go to Amsterdam that you see at the beginning of the movie.  The guy who says he’s a teacher with glasses.

Did I spoil the movie for you?

Good and I’ll tell you why:  This movie is pure Hollywood trash.

The bad guy in the movie is a former US Army Ranger – one of the nation’s most elite fighting men – who has gone off the reservation.  He believes in the Constituti

These two mutts broke into a house and attacked a teenager inside.

KANNAPOLIS, N.C. (WCNC) — A Kannapolis teen is recovering after his second home invasion in two weeks – but this time he managed to shoot one of his attackers during the assault.

“I pulled out a gun and shot one of them,” said Chris Ludwick, 19.

Ludwick said he shot at the men four times with a .22-caliber pistol that his father gave him after the first home invasion on February 7.  He was prepared when the men broke down the back door just before 4:30 a.m. Sunday.

“I was sleeping and was woken up to a disturbing outrage,” said Ludwick, “and they came inside my house and started trying to beat me up.”

Ludwick has cuts on his face and four staples in the back of his head from where one of the men grabbed the gun and pistol whipped him after the shooting.

Oka

IDNR released a Q&A on CCW & hunting in IL. (It’s a .pdf.)

Worth a read if you engage in hunting or outdoor activities on IDNR land.

Apologies in advance about formatting issues.

CONCEALED CARRY PERMIT QUESTIONS & ANSWERS RELATED TO HUNTING IN ILLINOIS

The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) reminds Illinois Concealed Carry Permit holders that they must comply with current wildlife code laws and regulations while hunting in Illinois. Below are some common questions and answers to help guide Concealed Carry Permit holders who hunt on or utilize IDNR properties
1) May a person possessing a valid Illinois Concealed Carry Permit carry a concealed firearm when deer or turkey hunting?

Under the cur

The political commentary segments from the NRA are masterfully done.

This one from Natalie Foster is very good.

One line early on that caught my ear:  “I can name five mass murderers off the top of my head but I couldn’t name five of their victims if I tried.”

“The media becomes complicit in the next tragedy,” she said.

She asks why the surviving Boston terrorist bomber rated a cover photo on Rolling Stone magazine.

She notes that we are rewarding these killers with the immortality that they are seeking.

That’s why, here at Guns Save Life, we will not publish the names of spree killers.  We’re reluctant to publish their likeness unless it’s to ridicule them.

Watch the video.  It’s good.

Miguel at Gun Free Zone (put it on your regular reading list) has a great story today comparing the nations of Iraq (where residents have some semblance of a right to keep firearms in their homes) to Venezuela (a supposed democracy where residents have NO right to keep firearms).

Interesting juxtaposition.

Iraq: 
Area: 435,052 km2  (169,234 sq mi)
Population: 36,004,552
Deaths in 2013 (Deadliest year since 2008): 7,000+

Venezuela: 
Area: 916,445 km2 (353,841 sq m

The National Rifle Association has an affinity program with VISA, whereby its 5 million plus members earn sort of an equivalent of a “cash back” program for the NRA on purchases made with the cards.  The NRA says over $20 million has been raised through the program over the years.

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence Ownership can’t stand that.

Their naive handful of “members” (useful idiots) are herded by paid shills prostituted by grants from Soros, Bloomberg, et al.

In recent days, the paid shills herded a merry band of fifteen or so to turn out at a satellite office of VISA in Washington to deliver petitions with — wait for it — more than 5100 people urging VISA to abandon the NRA VISA affiliate program.

5100 signatures.

Truly now, CSGV must be mentally ill to think VISA is going to abandon a profitable business arrangement that has netted VISA tens of millions of dollars because they received 5,100 signat

Nancy Grace and CNN are meant for one another.

She’s a complete drama queen, completely willing to try to make a dry dog turd into a major news story to retain her handful of low-information viewers.

Then again, what do you expect from CNN, a network who tries to peddle make-believe analysis about gun ownership rates as fact?

In recent days, she tried to make George Zimmerman’s meager assemblage of self-defense firearms into, well, an OUTRAGE!

“STUNNING… new evidence revealing GEORGE… ZIMMERMAN’S… SHOCKING… ARSENAL… of guns and ammo.”

Here it is if you want to subject yourself to her idiocy.

You won’t miss any

The Quad City Times reported it and one of our sources confirmed it:

Look for the ISP to hold a news conference late Friday to announcing the mailing of CCW permits.

Some may have them as soon as Monday.

At this point, we’re unsure how many folks they are going to release licenses to – licenses that in some cases were approved weeks ago.  Our best guestimate is that they will keep everyone waiting about ten weeks before they get their license – if they got fingerprinted.  If not, add four weeks.

It’s Illinois, after all.  We can’t make things easy.  Or fast.  Or cheap.

In any event, criminals beware.

The rules of the game have changed and your world will become a lot more hazardous starting next week.

From the QC Times:

by John Boch

We posted a story about the extremely low rates of Firearm Owner Identification Card revocation earlier today.  In short, Illinois gun owners have less than four-tenths of one percent rate of FOID revocation, and most of the reasons for revocation have nothing to do with a criminal conviction – but in fact many are pulled for mere arrests.

We know of one case where a life-long FOID cardholder and GSL member was arrested by Urbana Police early last year on charges of burglary and felony theft related to metal theft.

Trust us…  we have zero sympathies for thieves.  Doubly so for scrap metal thieves who destroy perfectly good machines and structures to steal a few hundred bucks’ worth of scrap metal.  Our philosophy on people who do such things is about the same as we would do for child molesters, rapists, murderers and corrupt politicians:  Lightpole.

We broke the story to gun owners nationwide about Connecticut mailing a pre-confiscation letter to that state’s gun owners who were late with their registration applications.

Over 200 gun and magazine owners, with notarized statements and descriptions of their property listed on completed registration applications, were sent the letters, bringing that state one step closer to gun and magazine confiscations and gun owners being made into felons.

Here’s the letter.  Courtesy of The Truth About Guns.

The source is confidential, and unimpeachable.

We’ll let the numbers speak for themselves.  (Hat tip to The Truth About Guns)

Let us put the overall number of valid FOID cards into a graph for your enjoyment…

You probably noticed the numbers of FOID cards revoked has stayed in the 6,xxx range for the entire time frame – despite the 33% rise in valid FOID cards from 2009 to 2013.

Let’s talk about FOID revocations for a moment, shall we.

As this is an anti-gun state, it won’t surprise you to know that the Illinois State Police r

*Paid advertising*

It’s almost March.  The snow and sub-freezing temperatures will soon be gone.   It’s time to think warm thoughts and concealed carry!

The Illinois State Police will begin mailing concealed carry licenses any day now.  Yes, it’s really going to happen.

Even if you’re not sure you want a carry license, it’s always good to learn how to use your handgun to defend yourself and your family should danger appear near.  Like the Guns Save Life highway sign set says, “Remember sonny:  That rabbit’s foot won’t save no bunny!”

GSL Defense Training is offering the finest Illinois Concealed Carry classes  – courses that vastly exceed the State of Illinois mandated-minimums. Better still, we’ve having a sale on class registrations received before March 31, 2014!  SAVE BIG MONEY!

Our instructors have roughly 200 years of instructional

Lots of good news today.

We crested 100,000 unique visitors, blowing well into six-figure land for the first time in our short 18 months online in the gun blogging world.

In other good news, Hostek came through bigtime, helping to alleviate the heavy load our server was groaning under.

It turns out we weren’t under a coordinated denial of service attack, but simply an attack of people seeking more information about Connecticut state officials violating their oaths of office.

Hostek doubled the number of concurrent connections available to our readers and it made things tolerable, even if it was running sluggishly for most of the day.

Thanks to all who came by to visit us…

Lots of good news today.

We crested 100,000 unique visitors, blowing well into six-figure land for the first time in our short 18 months online in the gun blogging world.

In other good news, Hostek came through bigtime, helping to alleviate the heavy load our server was groaning under.

It turns out we weren’t under a coordinated denial of service attack, but simply an attack of people seeking more information about Connecticut state officials violating their oaths of office.

Hostek doubled the number of concurrent connections available to our readers and it made things tolerable, even if it was running sluggishly for most of the day.

Thanks to all who came by to visit us…

As if we needed yet another example of the mainstream media’s anti-gun bias, we have it for you today.

You probably heard about the “terrible” incident where a man confronted someone text messaging in a theater and ended up pulling out a gun and shooting the jackwagon who was ruining his moving-going experience by texting during the movie.

Well, that’s not exactly how it went down.

Hard to believe, I know.

Turns out there’s video from inside the theater.  Yeah, night vision.  Tell that to your teenage kids or grandkids, and caution them not to be getting too hot and heavy inside the theater unless they are wanting to show off for the audience in the security booth.

Anyway, the incident has gone to a bail hearing.

The defendant – the man who had the concealed carry license – is 71-years-old.  His name is Curtis Reeves and he’s a retired captain from the Tampa PD.  After retiring, he took over security for Busch Gardens.  Clearly, he was a good cop who knew his stuff.

CNN has the video, along with some fair analysis, particularly for CNN.   You can see by clicking here. 

Click for full-size image.

First off, our apologies for a sluggish website.  If you’re like us, you’re having difficulty getting on (we’re able to access the site only about one out of two tries, and trying to get to the admin side of things is much more difficult than that).

We have good news and bad news to deliver; first the good news.

Our friends at Hostek are getting their workout today.

Guns Save Life has already broken traffic records with over 45,000 unique visitors as of this writing at 7:50am and it’s not even peak hours of the day.  We expect to crest six figures for the first time in our history, or easily ten times the average traffic of about 9k uniques.

Yes, everyone’s reading the Connecticut gun confiscation letter story.

Then there’s the bad news.

Not everyone has reacted po

Redefining high speed – low drag.

The boys over at Arfcom are bragging about taking training to the next level.

We’re pretty sure there’s some satire going on there.  We hope.

Gun confiscations is one step closer in Connecticut.  The mainstream media spins it as “one more chance” for non-compliant gun owners who failed to register their scary guns before the January 1 deadline.

In reality, these letters - 106 to rifle owners, and 108 more to residents with standard capacity magazines – are the first step in the Connecticut State Police beginning to round up guns arbitrarily made illegal last year in that state.  These guns include America’s favorite rifle, the AR-15 and magazines over 10 rounds, which include the standard capacity magazines made for that America’s favorite rifle.

Failure to register is now a felony now in Connecticut.

How long will it be before there is bloodshed over this law?  We’re not sure, but we’re confident it is coming unless the law is rescinded or struck down by the courts.

Mike Vanderboegh of the edgy Sipsey Street Irregulars released an open letter a couple of weeks ago,