A "Republican" that only a Chicago Democrat could love...
I bash the Stupid Party plenty, but I won't use this piece of work to do it. I'd like to know the whole story on him. It's beginning to look like Illinois is a whole 'nother country...
...What should have been even more obvious to voters was George Ryan's planned assault on gun owners. In campaign literature, Ryan reminded the soccer moms of suburban Chicago that he supported the Brady Bill, even when it was unfashionable among Republicans; that he was in favor of mandatory trigger locks for guns inside homes where children are present, and that parents who resist should be charged with felonies. Surprise, surprise: When elected governor, George Ryan pushed for gun-control laws even beyond what he had promised, insisting that anyone transporting a gun—even one contained in a case—in a vehicle in which ammunition is "readily accessible" should be charged with a felony. This was part of his version of the Safe Neighborhoods Act—a piece of legislation designed to reinstate Draconian gun-control measures found unconstitutional by the Illinois State Supreme Court. Governor Ryan tried to ram his Safe Neighborhoods Act through the Illinois House last Christmas, by calling a special legislative session that forced many of the state reps to stay in Springfield during the holiday break. The bill passed the following spring, but only after the charge for a first-time criminal offense (say, for some hunter who travels with his box of bird-shot shells in the floorboard of his pickup) was reduced to a misdemeanor—and that's only for the first offense. All bets are off, though, if your pistol is loaded and under the seat (say, in the case of some honest, taxpaying citizen who has to drive through a gangland every day on his way to work). -Aaron D. Wolf