Illinois State Rifle Association (ISRA) executive director Richard Pearson hints that he thinks Chicago Ald. Ed Burke’s current legal woes might be a little payback for the way he has long been a thorn in the side of legal gun owners across the state.
“The fun part of this situation is that for gun owners, it is a little retribution for what Burke and former Mayor Jane Byrne did to gun owners in the 1980s,” he wrote in a recent bulletin sent to members. “If you owned handguns or long guns, each one had to be registered each year. It was a loathsome process that took three months, was expensive, and if anything went wrong and the time period was not met, the gun could never be registered in the city ever again—even if it was the city’s fault.”
The “scheme,” as Pearson referred to it, was finally addressed roughly three decades later when lawmakers passed the Concealed Carry Act in 2013.
Ironically enough, Pearson said, when FBI agents recently executed search warrants on Burke’s home and offices they found at least 23 firearms.
“Burke’s hypocrisy and the hypocrisy of the entire anti-gun Left is spotlighted by this incident,” Pearson added. “This is elitism at its finest. Not only do I hope they throw the book at Alderman Burke but the entire library."