Pro-Gun Illinois Gubernatorial Candidate

[brolin1911a1]

Okay, given the fact that gun rights are permanently stalled in Illinois until/unless that state gets a pro-gun governor, I'm really surprised that Dan Proft hasn't been getting any attention from the media or, more importantly, from progun groups and organizations. I got an email from him back in July and responded by asking his stance on gun issues. His reply follows.

Mr. Meissen,

(1) I support right-to-carry. I believe Illinois should follow the lead of
the other 48 states that have some form of right-to-carry and allow
law-abiding citizens with proper training/demonstrated proficiency in gun
safety the right to carry.

(2) I do not believe and would not support gun bans, including any so-called
"assault" weapon ban. To the contrary, thanks to the Heller decision, I
look forward to the day when municipal firearm bans like the one in Chicago
are declared unconstitutional so that law-abiding citizens in Chicago and a
few remaining suburbs are finally allowed the full expression of their
constitutional rights.

(3) As a FOID card holder myself, I know exactly what you're saying. State
Police will have the necessary resources to process FOID card applications
so as to abide the very statutory provision you cite if I were Governor.

I am a lifetime member of the NRA. I am a long-time, outspoken advocate of
2A rights. I have written a number of commentaries on the topic long before
I ever thought of running for Governor, including for Human Events and for
the Don Wade & Roma Morning Show, for which I did weekly political
commentaries before I entered this race.

I hope this sufficiently answers your questions. If you have any others,
feel free to write or call back.

Thank you for your interest.

Regards,

Dan Proft

dan@danproft.com

Pardon me if this is the wrong forum for posting this. I didn't see one for discussion of pro-gun politicians but if we don't work to elect pro-gun candidates and defeat/retire antigun politicians then we're doing nothing here but spitting in the wind and playing word games.

[azreb]

My initial reaction to the first sentence in your post is that the media is unlikely to give any attention to a pro-gun candidate. We have to work at the grassroots level to ensure these guys have a chance.

[brolin1911a1]

Agreed, but one must not limit oneself solely to working for local candidates. I learned this while working for passage of CCW in Missouri. We had CCW introduced for ten years and it went nowhere. Each year there was always some perfectly plausible reason that it seemed to never quite pass. It was only when gun rights people all over the state started attending local Republican rallies (the Democrats controlled the legislature and governor's mansion,) volunteering to man campaign phone banks, and walk neighborhoods handing out campaign literature that things turned around.

We got a Republican-controlled legislature for the first time in over forty years. And those new legislators knew who to thank. I was personally told by my own state representative after the election that CCW was one of their top five priorities. When the governor vetoed, the veto was overridden. And that veto was one of the factors that helped him lose the next primary election. And the new, Republican, Governor knew to be progun.

Yes, we need to work at the grassroots level but that doesn't mean we need to target only local offices. What is necessary is to work at the grassroots to undermine and remove the anti-gun officials at the top.

[daveohno]

I just sent him an email to get his stances on the issues. So far he sounds like someone I could vote for. If he's right on all the issues, he'll probably get slaughtered in the primary.....Sigh.

[brolin1911a1]

And, if past Illinois politics is any guide, it will be because his own party, the Republicans, abandoned him to die politically.

I used to be an officer of the Adams County Young Republican club back in the mid-eighties. We had good candidates (back then at least) on the local level. But when it came to state-wide candidates the Party seemed to always ignore the true Republicans and support RINOs like Chicago-area antigun "moderate" Mark Kirk in statewide elections. Unless and until downstate Illinois starts loudly, repeat loudly agitating for the better candidates Illinois will continue to get the same old same old.

[DoubleTap45]

He always pandered to the Left and the media. He STILL thinks they're his REAL constituency even AFTER it became clear that many of us voted for him and a lot ONLY sent in money because of the Barracuda whom HE abandoned and threw under the campaign bus. :butthead:

Ray

[Dial 1911 for Help]

That's OK. In four years Sarah will have grown into a more viable, mature candidate without losing any of the appeal she has now. He'll still be McCain The Has Been.

[daveohno]

I really don't care for Mark Kirk. I suppose he thinks he's supposed to be a Republican since he represents a wealthier district. He really is only better than the Democrats that he'd run against because they are so bad they make him look palatable. He's really not a conservative except maybe on the military. I vote every election cycle and am nearly out of patience for these middle of the road moderate Republicans. It's not so hard to understand that the 2nd amendment was added to the constitution to keep the government in check and to allow people to defend themselves, not to wait for the cavalry to show up in the nick of time because they show up after you don't need them anymore, far too often.

I am beginning to miss Bill Clinton. I never thought I'd utter those words. Maybe after the congressional elections next year we can neuter these fools and make them irrelevant as they should be.

[brolin1911a1]

Mark Kirk brags on his website http://kirk.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1297&catid=38&Itemid=58 of co-sponsoring H.R.2324, "a bill to close the gun show loophole." In the Fox News video linked from his Congressional website, Kirk calls not only for closing that alleged "loophole," but also for background checks on all gun shop employees and banning sales to anyone who ends up on the "terrorist watch list" no matter the reason. Unmentioned in the video is his fourth goal, reenactment of an even more stringent AW ban than the one that expired in 2004. He introduced H.R. 6257 on June 12, 2008 to re-instate the Assault Weapons Ban indefinitely as well as to expand the list of banned weapons.

All of that makes me ask which Democrats make him look good. He only looks "moderate" next to other radical antigun Cook county politicians of either party. This man is a radical Liberal and could define the term RINO. Yet the Illinois Republican party hierarchy seem to be supporting him as their party's front runner for Sen. Burris's seat. The failure of the Illinois State Republican Party to support true Republicans and to support anti-gun Liberals like Mark Kirk instead is symptomatic of the internal rot which has kept the Republicans a minority party in Illinois.

[daveohno]

Mark Kirk is better than the current 2 Senators or the last one that now serves in higher office. They all support ACORN, which is the poster child of an illegal organization that promotes any hanky panky that is detrimental to our society as it stands. But Mr. Kirk is only somewhat better than they are.

I can only hope that sanity will prevail and we get someone that actually supports the 2nd amendment and those causes that appeal to conservatives. I certainly hope the downstaters assert themselves and cause a shift in this state away from the corruption of the Cook County political machine. It is hard for that to happen as nearly half of the state resides in Crook County and too many of the voters are just drones that vote Liberal Democrat every time the get to the polls. I find it difficult to understand just how these large urban areas in our country just vote to be given tax dollars and to let the government take care of them. It's like they are willing to put up with the continual government interference in their lives because they get a couple of bucks from it. They just accept it, which bewilders me. Any time you call the government for help, there are hours worth of papers to fill out, constant hoops to jump through and you have some nit wit government employee interfering with your very existence, ordering you to do as your told or you get nothing.

[Dial 1911 for Help]

Mark Kirk is better than the current 2 Senators or the last one that now serves in higher office. They all support ACORN, which is the poster child of an illegal organization that promotes any hanky panky that is detrimental to our society as it stands. But Mr. Kirk is only somewhat better than they are.
Like the guy said: Kirk only looks good if you compare him with statist liberal traitors (can you be a statist and a traitor at the same time?). Shoe polish is less harmful than rat poison, but you won't catch me eating any.

[brolin1911a1]

And as long as the best that can be said for the Republican candidate is that he's not quite as bad as the Democrat candidate Illinois will keep electing Democrats. Republicans who want reform will see that he's not worth voting for because he'll change nothing and stab them in the back once in office so they'll stay home and not bother to vote. The Democrats know that their candidate is trustworthy, i.e., will stay bought and will see no reason to vote for a Democrat-lite in Republican clothing.

I remember when Ryan was first being proposed as a Gubernatorial candidate. There were, as I recall, at least two other down-state, clean, conservative, pro-gun primary candidates but the State Republican Party hierarchy got behind Ryan and froze the others out. He was known then to be anti-gun and pretty much a clone of his Democrat opposition. But that didn't matter because Chicago's political bigwigs have, essentially, sewn up both parties' selection process. Letting Kirk be elected Senator will be worse in one way than electing an equally Liberal Democrat; Kirk is a cancer within his party, working for the Liberal side while taking part in the strategy sessions and caucuses of the Republican Party. Better the enemy outside the gate than the traitor within.

[DoubleTap45]

When Ryan's hottie ex-wife (Jeri Zimmerman Ryan aka Seven of Nine) divorced him she threw tons of salacious stuff at the wall just to get loose from him. Most involved sex clubs in London. IL, I believe hasn't got "no fault" divorce so she had to sling accusations at him. The SLEAZE BAG, LOW LIFE, DemocRAT Activist judge released the sleaze to the press with no cause or justification. :scared:

At the time a promising (by Socialist standards) black female candidate was waiting to take Ryan's place. A lying low life sack of manure state assemblyman from Chicago got her thrown off the ballot and walked off with Ryan's seat in the 2006 elections. I think you've heard of him. I think his middle name is Hussein. :(

-Ray

[brolin1911a1]

http://www.proft2010.com/news-room/contentview.asp?c=189825.

"I look forward to the day when residents of Chicago will be given their full complement of Constitutional rights, including the individual right to the means of self-protection. Given the Supreme Court's recent decision in the Heller case in which the Court clearly held that the right to keep and bear arms is an individual right, I cannot see how municipal gun bans like that in Chicago can pass constitutional muster.

"Overturning the Chicago gun ban would not only be good constitutional law, it would be good public policy. The City of Chicago is routinely at the top of the list nationally in per capita murders. Mayor Daley's wrongheaded policies have made people less safe, particularly those in violent neighborhoods, by disarming law-abiding citizens in favor of well-armed criminals.

"Restricting the rights of law-abiding citizens based on the actions of those who exercise their rights recklessly runs counter to the principles of a free society. If my neighbor yells "Fire!" in a crowded theater, he is punished. But my First Amendment rights are not restricted. Similarly, if my neighbor commits a crime with a gun, he should be punished. But my Second Amendment rights should not be restricted.

"I am hopeful that the Supreme Court's decision to take up this case will result in a newfound respect for people who play by the rules in Chicago and throughout Illinois; law-abiding citizens who have long been denied the exercise of their fundamental, Constitutional rights because of Chicago Democrats who think they can make up the rules as they go."

Compare that statement with anything by any of the other candidates of either party.

[Dial 1911 for Help]

Ballsy. I like him.