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The war of words between state Sen. Dan Kotowski, a
fierce gun-control advocate, and the Illinois State Rifle Association has
apparently escalated to the point that the nutballs are coming out of the
woodwork. Kotowski’s staff claims to have turned over
information to the Illinois State Police about 10 contacts or so from
apparent pro-gun people, including a call during which somebody allegedly
said, “I have a gun. I am going to come and kill you.”
The Park Ridge Democrat was a gun-control advocate
long before he was elected to the Illinois Senate, and the association and
other gun groups have targeted him for abuse ever since he won his first
term, last November. A mailer sent to Kotowski’s district earlier
this year claimed that Kotowski wanted to take guns from the hands of
soldiers fighting overseas. The Illinois State Rifle Association also slammed
Kotowski recently for “dancing in the blood of the Virginia Tech
victims” after he introduced a bill banning certain ammo clips. The
gun-rights group’s Memorial Day message included several digs at
Kotowski, including: “Millions of brave Americans did not die just so
that Dan Kotowski could reinvent America.”
The association tried to get in front of the Kotowski
death-threat story earlier last week by sending out a press release
claiming that Kotowski was overreacting and stomping on the free-speech
rights of its members. The group examined a series of faxes sent by a
single person who claims to have been visited by the state police. The
faxes released by the ISRA don’t appear to contain any direct
threats. A Kotowski spokesman explained last week that because
the senator’s staff has been on the receiving end of most of the
calls and faxes, it was left to them to decide which ones to turn over to
the police. The spokesman insisted that the office had received two direct
death threats and that about 10 had “creeped out” the staff to
the point that they felt that the cops ought to see them. “If Illinois State Rifle Association members
were as law-abiding and anti-crime as they claim, then they would be the
first to condemn these threats and help to champion the cause for measures
designed to get guns away from those with criminal intent,” Kotowski
said in a press release, adding that he is a strong proponent of the First
Amendment right to free speech. Several weeks ago the association was all a-twitter
after Chicago priest Michael Pfleger called for pro-gun legislators and a
gun-shop owner to be “snuffed out.”
I seriously doubt that Pfleger wanted to actually kill
a pro-gun legislator, but his remarks were irresponsible and
Chicago’s Cardinal Francis George was right to publicly rebuke him
for his stupid statements. However, after complaining about Pfleger, as of this
writing the association has not yet condemned the threats on
Kotowski’s life. The ISRA has expressed zero concern for the
senator’s safety or the safety of his staff and his family. The group’s silence is deafening . . . and
informative. It’s Johnny-on-the-spot when a priest makes inflammatory
remarks about the ISRA’s own allies, but the association looks the
other way when somebody on the other side of the political fence is
threatened.
As Pfleger prepared to speak at another anti-gun rally
last week, the association sent out a press release whining that the state
police exhibited a “double standard” when they refused to
investigate the Catholic priest but did check in on people who contacted
Kotowski’s office. Later in the release, the gun group asked whether
Pfleger would show some “dignity” at the anti-gun rally or once
again behave like “an absurd, yet malevolent, cartoon
character.”
But over the past several months when I, and others,
have repeatedly pointed out that “malevolent” comments were
popping up all over the Internet about Kotowski, the association has
remained mum. “Sounds to me like Sen. Kotowski deserves to be
threatened. Why, if he were to commit suicide by shooting himself in the
head three times, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit,” wrote one
person the other day on a pro-gun Web site. The people who run the ISRA ought to look in the
mirror the next time they scream about double standards.
Rich Miller publishes Capitol
Fax, a daily political newsletter, and thecapitolfaxblog.com.
This article appears in Jun 21-27, 2007.
