The Governor is out of touch. In order to pass this bill, we need a supermajority vote of the legislature, beginning with the House. That's 71 votes, 3/5s of the House that has to vote in favor in order for it to pass. "No" votes are meaningless, absentee's don't count as, only votes in favor of the bill make any difference because we have to have 71 vote yes.

The members of the Illinois House of Representatives are up for election by the people of Illinois every two years. In other words, they are ALWAYS running for reelection. They are home in their districts nearly every Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. When home, they are attending many different functions each day, sometimes 18 hours a day. They talk to their constituents and they have a much more intimate relationship with their voters that a Governor ever would.

Right now, the vote count by our team of lobbyists is in the upper 60s to lower 70s. If the tally board hits 71 votes when the bill is called, we expect to see a lot of fence sitters vote in favor of the bill so they can say they were a part of it.

The Governor, can not, and does not, have the kind of pulse of the people of Illinois that the Representatives have, because he can't be in all of their districts 4 days a week talking to the people of Illinois. There simply isn't enough of him to go around. It would be wise, if instead of trying to apply artificial political pressure to this bill based on what he is being hand fed from special interest groups, he listened to the House members that really know how the people of Illinois feel.

To do otherwise is political folly that is sure to follow him and those he pressures into voting against their own constituents in the next election.

The ISRA is committed to moving this issue of family and personal self-defense forward, and we will.

What can I do tonight and tomorrow morning? First go to http://www.ISRA.org and consider joining or making a donation. While you are on the site, subscribe to our e-mail alerts and if you are a Twitter user, follow us on Twitter.

HB148 will likely be voted on sometime Thursday of this week in the House. For the bill to pass, it's vital to keep calling your Reps on HB148 and thank those who support it!
Find your rep here:
http://www.elections.il.gov/DistrictLocator/DistrictOfficialSearchByAddress.aspx
In the rare event that the search tool does not work for your address, you can call the Illinois State Board Of Elections at 217-782-4141.

We cannot stress the importance to also call the Speaker of the House at 773-581-8000 & 217-782-5350 and the Governor at 217-782-0244 & 312-814-2121 and ask them to support passage of HB-148!