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Gun raffle was more than just insensitive

Here's why we protested the Lake County GOP fundraiser that raffled off at least a dozen guns and featured an AR-15 style semi-automatic rifle:

The massacre in Las Vegas was so horrifying, it defies description. I was so shocked to see that the Lake County Republican party thought raffling off a semi-automatic rifle and other weapons would bring in more attendees just 12 days later in order to fund their candidates' election campaigns - insensitive beyond words. Regardless of the timing, the Lake County GOP is using guns to get their candidates elected.

I am fed up with the powerful NRA lobby. My own representative, Peter Roskam, has taken more than $20,000 from various NRA PACs in the past eight years, and those PACs contributed more than $8 million to Republicans last year alone. How long are we going to allow the National Rifle Association to buy elections?

The Lake County GOP chairman was interviewed and said the 100-plus protesters are anti Second Amendment. Not true at all - in fact, some of us hold FOID cards and are gun owners; others are against all gun ownership. What we all do share - along with more than 75 percent of the American public - is the need to enact federal gun laws with background checks that tighten gun purchases and ownership and a ban on all semi-automatic weapons along with the kits that can turn a weapon into an automatic weapon.

The GOP cites the Second Amendment, but the Declaration of Independence gives all citizens the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." We have the right to go to a concert, theater, school, or theater without fear of being mowed down by anyone with the money for raffle ticket.

Jill Davis

Kildeer

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