Two members of the Peaceful Communities group protest outside Five Star Firearms. (Photo: Yadira Sanchez Olson / Lake County News-Sun)
Three lonely protestors stood outside Five Star Firearms in Zion, Il., last Saturday, holding “Renounce violence, Reject guns” signs and blaming the firearm industry for crimes committed with guns in the United States.
The Chicago Tribune was the only major news outlet to cover what may have been the world’s smallest protest. The tenth largest newspaper in the country didn’t offer any justification for highlighting an anti-gun group that has less than 600 Facebook likes, but it did give the protest organizer a chance to explain why he “opposes guns in the hands of citizens.”
“Too many people are being shot and killed, and the gun industry is making millions,” said Lee Goodman, founder of Peaceful Communities. “We need to speak up and say the industry should be held accountable.”
Another protestor, Chester Kulis, joined Peaceful Communities because his brother was shot to death during a robbery in Chicago in 1972. “When I was in school they used to teach us to hide under the desk in case a bomb hit,” he said. “Now they’re teaching children to hide in classroom closets from people with guns. Where are we headed with this senseless violence?”
Kulis doesn’t seem to realize that Chicago has passed the kind of gun restrictions he and Goodman are pursuing and that they haven’t done anything to reduce crime. Despite years and years of handgun bans and ammunition restrictions, Chicago still has one of the worst crime rates in the country.
To be fair, the Tribune article did allow employees and customers of Five Star Firearms to defend their constitutional right to keep and bear arms.
“A gun is a tool,” said Wadsworth, Il., resident Albert Clark. “The person using the tool should be held accountable for what they do with it.”
Another employee, Clinton Hartford, stressed gun owners’ responsibility to secure their firearms and noted that Americans can’t “pass the buck” to gun retailers.
“We do everything by the book here and follow the law,” he said. “If someone is irresponsible outside of that, they should be punished accordingly. If you plow into someone with your car, should the car industry be blamed for that?”
Goodman didn’t have a good response to either gun owner—at least, if he did the Tribune article didn’t include it. The article ends by restating Goodman’s belief that the gun industry should be “held responsible” and reports Goodman’s intention to continue his protests throughout the summer.
Peaceful Communities is doubtless trying to capitalize on Judge Barbara Bellis’s recent decision to allow a lawsuit to go forward against Remington Arms. The suit, which is being brought by families of the victims of the Newton shooting, holds that gun makers should be held liable for crimes committed by a third party.
Goodman’s group is yet another attempt by the anti-gun community to blame legal businesses for the tragic decisions of criminals wielding guns. Anti-gunners haven’t been able to get their policies through Congress, so they’re seeking to bring down the gun industry in the marketplace. With liberal judges as their allies, these groups are looking to circumvent the American people and push their agenda any way they can.
It is time for ALL of us who value are FREEDOMS, especially our 2nd Amendment Constitutional Rights, to go on the offensive and fight back against those who blindly want to convict us of being criminals just because we exercise our Constitutional Rights.
We should no longer accept that we are being pre-convicted as criminals just because we own guns. We need to take back our legal and societal status.
Fight back against ALL laws and proposed bills (especially insidious Red Flag proposes) that pre-convict us as criminals.
you can inform the ignorant , but you can not fix the stupid , thanks and have a nice day;-)
3? I can top that!
A few years ago there was a “group” calling itself “Brothers Against Guns and got itself a fair amount of publicity in this “politically correct” SF Bay Area. They made the evening news on several TV stations and were described as an outpouring of pent-up gun control desires in the African -American community.
So one weekend I went to the Cow Palace gun show and there was a table set up on the sidewalk outside of the parking lot, so I decided to take a few minutes to observe.
What it amounted to was 1GUY and about 1/2 dozen assorted reporters trying to make it appear that there were more than one person involved (as it looked on the news that evening). Pretty damn silly, but remember, many politically ambitious people have made their bones opposing the 2nd Amendment; DiFi, Don Pyrhana, Loni Handcock and many more. It was quite obvious why this guy was doing this and why the “reporters” were helping
A drunk driver, driving a Ford and got drunk on Budweiser. Now we got 2 more law suits on Ford and Budweiser. Maybe the employees making these items too. Sorry i just though another stupid comment was just needed..lol
Gregory,, You are spot on sir. If you had not of posted it I was going to !! Its only fair to sue the car makers and booze makers, knifes , anything that can cause harm to another. Seriously wake up America !!!
Firearms arrive in many versions, so let’s stop calling EFT a “gun.” They are use for our military to protect our country, engage foreign enemies (which is why German is not our National Language) and to assist the friggin’ U.N. in it’s overblown efforts to save mankind. How about we employ these guy’s theories to automobiles and ban them for 40k plus “murders” per annum?
What liberals need to realize is that many of us are so serious about our God-given right to keep and bear arms that we will die rather than allow ourselves to be disarmed… literally!
Why can’t they understand the facts: Less guns = more crime. More guns = less crime. And it is not just most of the time, it is 100% of the time!
It’s just totally dumb to blame those legally selling guns when it’s those on drugs and stealing to get drug money doing most of the killing in cities like Chicago,plus it’s black crime mostly in low income gang invested parts of the town..I bet none of it was done by those who are allowed to legally carry a fire arm,unless they were trying to protect themselves. If we could see how the killings were broken down it would make the issue a lot easier to see,and for voters to understand..if we had free college for those under the age of 65.and under the income bracket of 65k a yr cities would have a lot less poor people,and a lot less people feeling they need to kill each other ..teach a man to fish instead of giving him a fish,and he can take care of himself,and his family for a life time…
I love the statistics about Chicago’s gun violence – Any correlation between 40% black illiterate unemployed, fatherless drug addicts, pimps and pushers doing the shooting? – How many registered concealed permit holders are involved? How about none!
Just walk right past em as you go into the store. Come out with your new purchase, take it out of the box, check the action for proper function, and ensure there are no blockages in the barrel. Then load up, cock it and lock it, and put the new gun in it’s proper place, in the rack attached to the rear window of your pickup and drive off. Whoops! Wait a minute! This took place in Illinois? Never mind. Plan B. Move to Arizona and never look back, lest you be turned into to a pillar of salt. That’s what I did. Screw the Tribune. I distributed that rag as an innocent child. I ought to get some money for the mental distress that caused me in later years over it.
They should be called the three Stooges,but would be and insult to Moe, Larry and Curly. benjy is nothing more than an anti-gun plant just spreading their bull s**t.
There are many people killed every year with hammers, young children drown in buckets, people killed with kitchen knives, and the list goes on and on. Do we ban everything. It’s a good thing these idiots weren’t around at the beginning. The first murder in recorded history was committed with either a rock or the jawbone of an ass, depending on who you listen to. Liberals would have wanted to ban rocks or asses. Both have been put to good uses, but that would make no difference. Where has common sense gone? And are Americans capable of finding it again.
Friends, there are morons all around us. Beware & carry 24/7.
I wish every liberal like you would quit trying to tell me and others what to do. Please, I wish I could believe you are done, but liberals never keep their word.
I’m really getting tired of all this bullshit of the gun industry and the NRA calling wolf. Everyday we hear the NRA and other pro gun people screaming they are going to take our guns so give us money. I for one am done.
“Bullshit of the gun industry and the NRA calling wolf.”???? I guess Benjy is a person who never, ever keeps up with the news. The liar in chief has put gun control of the law abiding as his number one project in his last year in office…Schumer, Feinstein, and many others that I guess you’ve never heard state that they want to do away with the lawful ownership of firearms. What a non-thinking statement!!
I totally agree with you. It is time to stand and fight physically. Not send money to the pencil neck lawyers.
It inevitable, as our children are brought up in this world with professors teaching liberalism/socialism. It will be the way they live, most won’t know any other life style. As the 60yr olds and older pass, the fighting will weeking over gun control or any control. Our newer generation will be controlled like robots. The young just like sitting down drinking latte on a sidewalk talking electronics and other stupid stuff. I have always hoped for a civil war while i still have it me. My 100 plus firearms and 20000 rounds of ammo will be left for the next generation, who will probably just sell it off anyway.
Benjy: The unfortunate truth is that the NRA (and the other Pro-gun groups) are right. If we ever relax for a minute these anti-gun morons will prevail and we will lose our 2nd Amendment rights and it will be forever. It IS tiring to constantly get requests for money but what are YOU actually doing to fight for YOUR right to keep and bear your guns? Nothing. So you need a group to do it for you and you need to support that group financially. Only if you give up your guns and don’t own any do you have the right to complain about the NRA, etc. asking for money to work to help you keep them. If you don;t think that the NRA is a factor and that you will just always have the right to keep and bear arms look at what Hillary and friends say, “We will stand up to the NRA.” If the NRA was not a factor would they be saying that? Don’t support the NRA = loss of our guns.
You forgot to mention what WILL happen if hitlery gets in
True to their liberal beliefs these mental midgets are proof that true liberalism is a disease. If they don’t like guns, DONT BUY ONE, OWN ONE OR HANDLE ONE. Stop trying to impose your mental illness upon others. We have enough of that illness trying to be imposed upon us by Washington D.C. And at the state level. Proof that the meaning of true liberalism is that if I don’t like it nobody should be allowed to. there is your 15 minutes of fame guys. You have just proven that you are mentally deranged.
Even “Forrest Gump” understood that “Stupid is as Stupid Does”
I would guess that these liberal people have not really thought out their”We need to hold gun manufactures accountable” . Being an idiot conservative my brain tells me that we should be able to hold car companies-airplane companies or even the govt that sent us to places like Vietnam accountable for the deaths that took place there.. We don’t need another Remington arms defense fund as we already have the NRA.Dont just talk join the NRA be a life member and fund them to fight for our gun rights.
I own one or two beautiful guns. I despise concealed carry and open carry bubbas in general. I agreed with most of what THIS bubba wrote. I would strike the bit about joining NRA. They are the toy of the arms business. Believe me – the car biz AND the aircraft biz have paid dear for deaths attributed to their products. No reason why arms makers shouldn’t take their medicine too. It is unjcomfortable that this is a device designed particularly to kill.
The difference is that they are suing a manufacturer for a product working as designed. If it had a mechanical failure in the act (as in a critical aircraft component failing prematurely in mid air) there’d be more of a basis for a suit…though I’d doubt anyone would pursue that one.
This stuff was tried in the Clinton Era. Some small hand gun manufacturers went away. It didn’t fly then and likely won’t now. It’s illogical to pursue a manufacturer for misuse of a product.
These parents are following the money and exploiting their tragedy for political purposes.
People get beaten with bats, bludgeoned with hammers, and stabbed with screwdrivers. Should all these situations make for lawsuits against manufacturers?
You are so wrong. The car and aircraft industry pays up when their product fails. If you have a criminal/moron behind the wheel, or gun, No liability on the product. Civil law, 101.
If you are out to save lives, bring down the auto industry first since they lead the nation yearly in deaths.
Protest till your hearts content. We The People have had enough of turds like you and the rest of your delusional failed anti-gun policies. I suggest if you don’t like firearms then don’t own them. Not you or your daddy ovomit or any other government libturd controled politicians are going to disarm REAL AMERICANS and that you can count on !
I dont know how to do it but we as gun owners need to start a Remington Arms defense fund. If this ridiculous suit stands it will be the end. It is our responsibility as gun owners to defend the gun industry. Someone please get the ball rolling I for one will gladly contribute.
There are morons everywhere and most of them vote for the libtard candidates. What are ya gonna’ do?
I wish MORE People
Thought that way.
NRA MEMBER
If we would go back,to hangings on the courthouse lawn, a lot of the gun violence will stop. People need to get a grip. Guns don’t pull their own trigger. People do.
These idiots and the political hacks that they support cannot understand that the purpose of a gun is to kill living things. We all know this, and target practice to hone our shooting skills. To blame or hold accountable the gun maker for which a criminal murdered another using that makers product, which operated perfectly is illogical, and stupid, and should have no basis in the annals of law history. Now, should that gun fail to work and not discharge as designed to, I could see a lawsuit directed against the gun maker for selling a defective product. But to sue the gun maker for the criminal act of an other, and for a judge to approve such a law suit reeks of a Communist conspiracy. No one should be surprised at how far the Communists have infiltrated the legal system and Judiciary, but we must not allow the Communists to further their conspiracy to destroy the Constitution, and Americans inaliable rights.
Should another Democrat AKA Communist take over the presidency, the 2nd Amendment will become toilet paper and mass confiscations of guns will begin. This is why gun owners must prepare now for such an eventuality, and never submit to such tyranny.