SPRINGFIELD – A hot topic among Second Amendment rights advocates in Illinois is whether the Carhartt jacket wearing, hunting rifle toting Bruce Rauner we saw in the days leading up to the 2014 GOP primary will "stick to his guns" and veto three gun control bills that passed the Illinois legislature last week and are now sitting on his desk.
There's little doubt the governor will wait until after the March 20th GOP primary to make his move – but those conservatives that were disappointed and angered by Rauner's rejection of the IL GOP Platform positions on abortion and immigration expect him to sign those laws into effect. Why wouldn't he?
Wednesday, Governor Rauner was asked if he was going to sign the bill requiring all gun dealers to be licensed.
The governor didn’t say whether he would sign a bill to require gun retailers to get state licenses, saying that he’s ready to work on “a number of things," the Chicago Tribune reports.
And here's the mushy response that should make hunters and gun rights advocates very nervous about the governor adding them to his list of betrayed Republican faithful:
“We need to have a good conversation about how do we keep our citizens safer, how do we protect our students, our children, our families,” Rauner said when asked about his position on gun store licensing. “And this should be done on a bipartisan basis. I believe we need to come together and we can come together to do a number of things.”
Yep. That's what we expected. He's going to betray the last bastion of conservatism in the IL GOP. Just watch.
