ISRA Thursday Bulletin - August 16, 2018

ISRA Thursday Bulletin - August 16, 2018

Executive Directors Message

In 82 days, it will be Election Day in Illinois and the rest of the country.  Unless gun owners turn out and vote it will be a grim day.  J. B. Pritzker is the most anti-gubernatorial candidate we have ever had in Illinois.  Last Sunday, in an Op-Ed in The Chicago Sun Times, Mr. Pritzker outlined in a paragraph what he wants to do with gun owners.  Here is the paragraph:

 "Without a doubt, we need common-sense and long-overdue gun safety legislation.  Criminals and those who want to do harm shouldn’t have access to guns, and no one should have access to weapons of war or be able to obtain guns illegally.  We need to ban assault weapons, bump stocks, and high-capacity magazines, and we need to stop the importation of illegal guns across Illinois’ borders.  It’s also time to enforce universal background checks and enact a gun dealer licensing bill."

These are code words for “I want to take your firearms away and make life tough for both firearm owners and dealers.”  It is clear what our future as law abiding gun owners will be unless you and every other gun owner gets out and votes like a gun owner. 

The Rock Island Auction Company (RIA) is the premier firearm auction company in the world today.

The M1 Garand of John Cantius Garand

I have followed them for years and their auctions feature one fabulous firearm after another.  On September 7, 8, and 9, they are going to auction off the M1 Garand Rifle that John C. Garand received as a presentation from the Department of the Army in in 1953, serial number is 1000000.  Mr. Garand gave all of his patents to the United States, at no charge.  He could have made a fortune on the some six and half million Garand’s that were produced but he was only interested in being an American Patriot, particularly interesting because he was born a Canadian. 

There is one more piece of good news from the National Rifle Championships.  ISRA Junior shooter, Alex Vitous, has been selected to be on the 2019 Under 21 United States International Palma Rifle Team.  Next July, Alex will be shooting in the world championships in New Zealand.  The Palma Matches were started in 1876.  The match is fired at 800, 900 and 1000 yards.  Rifles must have iron sights and be either .223 or .308 caliber.  Well done Alex!

The Tuesday Night Rifle League conducted the first test of our new electronic targets.  I thought they worked wonderfully well.  This is the future of long range high power shooting.  I’m sure in the next few years we will be astounded by some of the advancements.  The great advantage is that no one has to be in the pits on every target and no need for pit changes.  Instead of pasting targets, we change sensor batteries and occasionally place new targets in the frames.  I was watching the scores on a Kindle tablet during rapid fire.  When the string of rapid fire was completed the shooter’s score came up immediately.  The shots were also numbered in the order they were fired.  As soon as the scores were accepted the next relay came to the line.  The system will do much more but we are still learning how to operate it.  This makes shooting high power faster and much more fun.

The ISRA Range is hosting John Farnam’s Urban Rifle Course on September 22 & 23.  You can register for this excellent course of instruction directly at http://defense-training.com/.

Thanks for being a member.

Upcoming Events: ISRA Calendar

For more information, visit www.isra.org

Saturday, August 18, 2018

Intro to Home Defense with Carbine

Sunday, August 19, 2018

ISRA Bullseye Match & Combat Match

Springfield Pistol Match

ISRA Marksmanship League

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Tuesday Night Irregular Rifle League

Combat Paper Steel League

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Bench Rest League

Wednesday Night F-Class League

Thursday, August 23, 2018

Homeland Security Firearms Training

ISRA Smallbore Rifle League

ISRA Smallbore F-Class League

Saturday, August 25 & 26

MTG Presents: Advanced Tactical Pistol

Illinois Gun & Trade Shows

New Berlin Gun Show

New Berlin, IL – Sangamon County Fairgrounds

Dates: August 18 & 19, 2018

Hours: Saturday: 9:00am-4:00pm

            Sunday: 9:00am-3:00pm

Admission: $4.00

Belleville Gun & Knife Show

Belleville, IL – Belle-Clair Expo Center

Dates: August 25 & 26, 2018

Hours: Saturday: 9:00am-5:00pm

            Sunday: 9:00am-3:00pm

Admission: $6.00

Lake County Gun & Sportsman Show

Antioch, IL – Antioch VFW

Date: August 26, 2018

Hours: Saturday: 8:00am-2:00pm

Admission: $7.00

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