As many of you know, the Illinois General Assembly is currently considering HB3160 “The Lethal Violence Order of Protection Act." On the surface, a lot of folks might say, "Oh...it's a good idea to take guns away from wife beaters." However, if you peel a couple of layers of the onion, you will see that HB3160 has one purpose, and one purpose only - to set law-abiding citizens up for gun confiscation. HB3160 is designed to do so by broadening the definition of such terms as domestic partner, domestic violence, and stalking. The bill goes on to widen the envelope of people who may file complaints of domestic violence and who may also complain that another person is "mentally unstable."
The bottom line is, if HB3160 is signed into law, just about any one you know, and many other people you do not even know, can file a complaint with the police that will result in your guns being taken away from you. Not only will your Second Amendment rights be gone - but you can forget about your Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendment rights as well.
Right along now you may be thinking that this is too crazy to be true and that HB3160 only applies to the brutish lout down the block who routinely takes the strap to his hapless wife out in the front yard. If that’s what you’re thinking, get that notion out of your head and read the two following scenarios to see just how easily HB3160 could affect YOU.
Let’s say that you and your wife decide to hold a 4th of July BBQ in your back yard. Just to keep peace in the family, your wife decides to invite her lefty, gun-hating sister to the event. During the course of the picnic, you have a few beers and toss a few firecrackers around; you get in an argument with your sister-in-law over unbridled immigration; you hose down Fluffy the cat with a Super Soaker; you discuss the importance of life insurance with your brother-in-law and mention how you are worth more dead than alive; you relieve yourself over next to the toolshed because someone’s in the bathroom; and you cap off the evening by predicting that the Sox will slaughter the Cubs in the Crosstown Classic.
On the morning of July 5th, the cops are at your door to take you into protective custody and to confiscate your FOID, your CCL and your guns. If you’re wondering what happened, the answer is that your anti-gun sister-in-law utilized the provisions of HB3160 to swear out a special protective order against you because of your behavior at the BBQ. She told the cops that you engaged in reckless endangerment (beer and firecrackers); uttered right-wing hate speech (immigration argument); committed animal cruelty (Fluffy and the Super Soaker); threatened suicide (life insurance discussion); public indecency (using the back yard potty) and; promoted domestic terrorism (Sox vs. Cubs).
Again, if you think this scenario sounds silly you are right – but the scenario is 100% allowable under HB3160. In the end, you would have to hire a lawyer with your own money and go through all sorts of legal hassles to try to get your guns back – something that may never happen. And to top it off, if you even look sideways at your sister-in-law, the cops will be right back to arrest you all over again. The second scenario that could affect your family is equally ridiculous and equally possible under HB3160.
Let’s say that your 23 year-old live-in son, Hank, asks Betty-Lou out on a date. After dinner and drinks, Hank tries to sneak in a little kiss. Betty-Lou steers him away and asks him not to try to kiss her. Hank heeds her request and calls it a night. Upon arriving home, Hank phones Betty-Lou to apologize. She hangs up on him but nevertheless he phones her a second time with the same result. Hank thinks the better of it and decides to go to bed to sleep it off. Twenty minutes later, the cops arrive at the door to arrest Hank for attempted sexual assault and stalking. Since Hank lives in your house and you own guns, the cops also present you with a confiscation order and off goes your son, and your guns, to the police station. If, at this point, you’re shaking your head in disbelief, you better read the provisions of HB3160.
These two scenarios are two of many that would be allowable, and quite probably if HB3160 is signed into law. As is often the case, the gun grabbers are preying on the misfortune of others – domestic violence victims in this case – to further their morally bankrupt campaign of domestic disarmament. The gun grabbers will stop at nothing, and spare no misery, to achieve the goal of a gun-free Illinois and a gun-free Unites States.
Preservation of the right to keep and bear arms is a moral imperative. Thus, it’s up to you to stop HB3160 in its tracks. Please call your State Representative and State Senator, today, and politely tell them that you are a lawful gun owner and that you do not support backdoor attempts at gun confiscation such as those presented by HB3160.
Remember – gun control is a disease and you are the cure.
