Most Dangerous Democrat in Illinois Scores New Victory Against Freedom with Politicized “Killing Machines” Ban
Radical progressive Governor J.B. Pritzker shut down Illinois with his authoritarian shelter in place order the moment case counts began to rise:
The order takes effect 5 p.m. Saturday, March 21, 2020. In addition to the stay at home provisions, it also orders all local government units across the state to halt all evictions and bans gatherings of more than 10 people.398
Pritzker’s COVID authoritarianism proved he was a national player in the progressive assault on freedom.
Just like that, workers weren’t working. Schools and businesses shut their doors. Restaurants were reduced to take out and delivery. Residents suffered. Kids didn’t learn. Deaths continued unabated, but Pritzker scored a big political win. He proved he was a player in the unspoken national contest to see which extreme progressive governor could enforce the most draconian pandemic rules.
Like other Democrat leaders, Pritzker trampled Illinois residents’ freedom and rights to unheard of extremes. Americans stripped of their freedom sat at home in their pajamas waiting for the next government check while California’s Gavin Newsom dined at the French Laundry. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer socialized in a bar. Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi got their hair done.
The Illinois Auditor General just reported that the state Department of Employment Security overpaid unemployment benefits by an estimated $5.24 billion, in part because:
Several of IDES’ defenses against fraud could not handle the exponential increase in claims.399
This was the cost of freedom added to the economic and social blows inflicted by Pritzker’s shutdown. The governor has moved on to other things, but freedom is still in his sights. Now he knows how much he can get away with.
From COVID to killing machines: it’s all about freedom
Pritzker is a billionaire who represents a party that claims to despise wealth and privilege. Living paycheck to paycheck is not something he’s acquainted with, but he is very familiar with extreme progressive politics and how jargon, propaganda, and clever rhetoric can sway the masses into voting away their freedom whether that means bowing to COVID authoritarianism or acceding to an attack on the constitutional rights of gun owners.
Early Semi-Automatic: 1922 Bang rifle
Springfield Armory NHS archives, US NPS
Pritzker boasted his anti-Second Amendment victory on Friday after the Illinois Supreme Court approved the Protect Illinois Communities Act:
I am pleased that the Illinois Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the Protect Illinois Communities Act. This is a commonsense gun reform law to keep mass-killing machines off of our streets and out of our schools, malls, parks, and places of worship.400
Handguns don’t qualify as mass-killing machines despite the daily carnage in Illinois’ largest city or the fact that assault rifles are used in a minority of mass shootings. This is a politicized attack on the freedom of gun owners. It’s not about preventing crime. If it was, protecting residents in Chicago’s disadvantaged neighborhoods would be the focus and there would not be a no cash bail law.
Pritzker’s remarks don’t seem to include Chicago. Is it because taking away the Second Amendment freedom to own a semiautomatic firearm won’t do anything to help city residents feel safe?
Illinoisans deserve to feel safe in every corner of our state—whether they are attending a Fourth of July Parade or heading to work—and that’s precisely what the Protect Illinois Communities Act accomplishes. This decision is a win for advocates, survivors, and families alike because it preserves this nation-leading legislation to combat gun violence and save countless lives.401
“Nation-leading legislation” points to politics, headline-seeking, and bigger career plans. Pritzker also sought the spotlight for the “historic reform” of his SAFE-T Act’s elimination of cash bail that takes effect on September 18:
I’m pleased that the Illinois Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of the SAFE-T Act and the elimination of cash bail. We can now move forward with historic reform to ensure pre-trial detainment is determined by the danger an individual poses to the community instead of by their ability to pay their way out of jail.401
Illinois Republican Rep. Mary Miller highlights the obvious:
By ending cash bail and ordering the release of dangerous criminals, JB Pritzker has made our neighborhoods and our families less safe in his desperate attempt to make Illinois more radical than California so that he can run for President,” added Miller.402
The Highland Park Fourth of July mass shooting was a national tragedy that provided the impetus for passing Pritzker’s semiautomatic weapons ban. No one refutes the gravity of what happened that day, but we also have tragedies that play out daily in Chicago that are ignored because they offer no political benefit and risk proving that the Democrat Party’s progressive criminal and social justice narrative is a lie.
Saving “countless lives” with an assault weapons ban is an easy victory for the governor even though we can’t possibly know what would happen without it. Unlike Chicago shootings which are very predictable, mass shootings are unpredictable. His credit-taking is just more empty propaganda. It’s probably safe to say that few, if any of the gun owners impacted have mass murder in their hearts.
Today is Sunday. Tomorrow we’ll get another tally of the weekend’s Chicago gun violence. Most, if not all of it will be committed with handguns. With the assault weapons ban checked off his list, Pritzker will move on to other things. He won’t call Chicago’s shooters killing machines or some of the city’s neighborhoods genocidal slaughterhouses. This would contradict his party’s anti-freedom, anti-conservative, anti-Constitution focus on using semiautomatic gun ownership to erode the Second Amendment.
While the rights and freedom of law-abiding Illinois residents are attacked by Pritzker’s radical progressive regime, criminals and repeat offenders released from jail will continue to hurt and kill innocent people. On September 18 they will receive a get out of jail free card courtesy of Illinois Democrats and a governor whose refusal to acknowledge the real gun violence problem in his state while he attacks our freedom earns him the title most Dangerous Democrat in Illinois.
398“Gov. Pritzker Announces Statewide Stay At Home Order to Maximize COVID-19 Containment, Ensure Health Care System Remains Fully Operational.” Illinois.gov. March 20, 2020. https://www.illinois.gov/news/press-release.21288.html, retrieved August 12, 2023.
399“IDES Unemployment Insurance Programs.” auditor.illinois.gov. July 26, 2023. https://www.auditor.illinois.gov/Audit-Reports/Performance-Special-Multi/Performance-Audits/2023_Releases/23-IDES-Unemployment-Ins-Prgms-Perf-Digest.pdf, retrieved August 12, 2023.
400“Gov. Pritzker Issues Statement on IL Supreme Court Ruling Upholding the Protect Illinois Communities Act.” gov.illinois.gov. August 11, 2023. https://gov.illinois.gov/news/press-release.26872.html, retrieved August 12, 2023.
401“Gov. Pritzker Statement on IL Supreme Court Ruling on SAFE-T Act.” gov.illinois.gov. July 18, 2023. https://gov.illinois.gov/news/press-release.26729.html, retrieved August 12, 2023.
402“Pritzker Safe-T Act Will Flood the Streets With Criminals.” marymiller.house.gov. July 18, 2023. https://marymiller.house.gov/media/press-releases/miller-pritzker-safe-t-act-will-flood-streets-criminals, retrieved August 12, 2023.
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People do not understand how the Democrats and the Obama administration are slowly strangling the very freedoms that the Revolution was fought for. The facts are clear when you see the Constitution being trampled on by Obama, and then realize that he could not pass a gun owner background check, which is why he has sealed “ALL” of his records.
If congress were to pass any new legislation on background checking it must include the requirement that “ALL” politicians running for public office must “PASS” those requirements or be disqualified.
As it stands right now, Obama could not ” PASS” a standard FBI check from the details that were written in his book, which is why his certification was challenged. The judges that had cases before them refused to hear the arguments and thusly dismissed those cases. What gutless wonders we have in the justice system including the Supreme Court.
Obama is tearing our nation apart. and he is banking on the ignorant that don’t pay attention. obama has a shady past and i am not convinced that he is a true citizen of the united states. If you vote democrat you are voting to end america as a freedom country. Obama is taking it all away and people are not paying attention. when it’s gone and you are under the control of a dictator you will wish you had paid attention. but this country has been under attack before obama but now it’s speeded up so much it will be a miracle if we can keep it
We’ll find out next week how well people are paying attention, won’t we, Sandy? I agree, it’s pretty amazing that no matter how bad things are or how misguided the actions of public officials, they still manage to convince people to support what they do. Watch what happens in the Illinois governor’s race next week. If Pat Quinn wins, it’s a pretty good sign that we are truly lost.
freedom from harm is not a reasonable freedom. Freedom from unjust aggression is reasonable, and the primary reason for government.
Thanks for your remarks, Ed. Interesting how some of what’s happening now at the hands of government could be considered unjust aggression, like the searches they conducted in Rhode Island looking for New Yorkers. It’s difficult to know where to draw the line between government overreach and the public interest, but that was quite a line to cross.
Obama signed a bill to allow the media to profess false narratives for the peoples ow good HR4310
Joseph Goebbels would be so proud.
I don’t know if the intention was to turn lies into the sole means of communicating with the people to the complete exclusion of the truth, but it has certainly paid off for Democrats and the White House.
Wow, the RWNJ is strong with this one.
I’m listening, John.