Last night ISRA issued news on the vote that took place on the House floor yesterday on HB148.  The vote was 65-52 with consideration postponed.  What that means is that no record is kept of the vote by the Illinois General Assembly, and keeps the bill alive for further consideration.

Many, if not most of you, following the progress of Right-To-Carry in Illinois have strong personal feelings about the success of this effort.  This has been a long road, and the mission is not complete.  ISRA members answered the call of several alerts issued in this past week to reach out and communicate with your Representative, and this resulted in a great showing when the vote was taken, but that vote was short of the supermajority that was needed.

Without an official recording of the vote, some of you are left wondering how your Representative voted on the bill, perhaps depending on who your Representative is or where your district is located. 

Thanks to coverage of the Illinois General Assembly by Illinois Statehouse News, you can see how the votes were cast yesterday before being pulled from consideration, in the image below. Green is "Yes", Red is "No" in the votes cast.   This picture is taken from a screenshot of a very short video that you can watch at Illinois Statehouse News' YouTube Channel.



Now that you've seen how your Representative voted, what to do? 

If your Representative voted for HB-148, please take the time to thank them.

If you are disappointed with their vote, of course you will want to share your disappointment, but please use this information in a constructive manner, try to use it to build a rapport with your Representative to bring them over to your viewpoint.  Please don't burn any bridges with your elected officials.  Remember, not everyone can be brought over to our way of seeing this issue, even though it revolves around a civil right.
 

ISRA needs your continued support.  McDonald v Chicago was not the end of the fight but the beginning. The ISRA is the front line in the battles for your firearm rights here in Illinois, such as the new lawsuit to prevent Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan from forcing the Illinois State Police to release your FOID information to the Associated Press.