On Thursday, Illinois political journalist Rich Miller sent me a copy of a press release from Sen. Dan Kotowski’s office. (I posted on the ongoing police investigation into alleged threats against Sen. Kotowski earlier.)
Here is Sen. Kotowski’s statement:
Illinois State Senator Dan Kotowski (D-Park Ridge) says threatening phone calls, faxes, and letters his office received during the past few months were handed over to local law enforcement including the Illinois State Police.
Kotowski says, “When someone calls my office saying, ‘I have a gun. I am going to come and kill you’, I have to worry about my safety, and the safety of our staff.” Kotowski added, “That is why I followed proper procedure and forwarded any correspondence with threatening material to the Illinois State Police.”
A recent release by the Illinois State Rifle Association accuses Kotowski of infringing on the First Amendment Rights of our citizens but Kotowski says this is ridiculous and irresponsible. “You won’t find a bigger advocate for free speech in the legislature, but someone’s right to free speech stops when they threaten to kill you.”
Kotowski and his office staff received threats during the first few months of the Spring Legislative Session, most of which specifically referred to his sponsorship of gun safety legislation. “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 concluded, “I believe that everyone should have a voice in the legislative process, but the ISRA does their membership no favors by perpetuating suspicious threats, and standing up for those who have misguided intentions.”
It’s clear from this that the ISRA press release earlier in the week (and the follow-up release ostensibly condemning Father Michael Pfleger, but also throwing a false low-blow Sen. Kotowski’s way) were simplistic attempts to distract attention from the real heart of the police investigation — death threats against the Senator.
Here’s a reminder from junior high civics — the First Amendment doesn’t cover death threats. And the police take such threats damn seriously, especially in the wake of 9/11, etc.
Sen. Kotowski, despite the ongoing police investigation, has answered the ISRA’s petty demand for details as to why ISRA members received police visits.
It’s time for Richard Pearson and the ISRA to make good on their word and condemn the ne’er-do-wells who have allegedly threatened the Senator’s life. After months of heated vitriol, petty smears and outright lies from gun lobbyists attacking Sen. Kotowski’s work representing his constituents in our state capitol it would be a respectable change of pace for the ISRA and others to come out strongly against those making such death threats.
If the ISRA can condemn Fr. Pfleger’s poor choice of words in his overly firey rhetoric, they ought to be able to condemn someone who made an actual, clear-cut death threat.
And all those gun enthusiasts who gleefully copied and pasted those alarmist (and off-base) ISRA press releases? Maybe they’ll now come back to their good senses and stop calling Sen. Kotowski and the police who are just doing their jobs all those petty, kindergarten names like Nazi, goon squad and the like.
Send your state senators all the faxes (and letters and calls) for or against whatever issue you like… But someone needs to make it clear that the line in the sand is drawn well before threatening anyone’s life.
Then again, we are dealing with people who seem to enjoy making such threats as a routine matter of course as libertarian gun enthusiast Bill St. Clair makes clear when he tells us: “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.” (emphasis added)
If you don’t want folks to treat you like fringe extremists and you don’t want police thinking you could be the next Timothy McVeigh … learn some self-control.
And again, the ISRA and other leading gun advocacy organizations have plenty of culpability here given the copious amounts of fuel they’ve been pouring on this fire. It’s time they act like the leaders of the “safe, lawful and responsible firearms ownership” they claim to be.
(Update: c/p at Illinoize and Daily Kos. Full disclosure: I’ve noted before on Illinois Reason that I endorsed and volunteered for Dan Kotowski in 2006.)
11 comments
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June 22, 2007 at 6:47 am
Assman
So why did the police feel the need to knock on the doors of the folks who sent non-threatening faxes?
June 22, 2007 at 8:19 am
c-rockjr121
Ya man
500 folks were targeted for this. 500!!!!!!
500 folks got the police showing up at their door. And where asked questions on their mental health, and personal lifes.
That is wrong. Plus this man is from the ICHV. They lie. They use emotions, not facts for their idea of “gun control”. Bottom line, he belongs to a organization that lies on its issues. So the apple doesnt fall far from the tree.
He will not have a town hall, he does not return phone calls to voters in his district.
The horses are still out on this one. I for one would like to see the evidence. I would not be suprised if this was made up by him, to CYA himself. Just like anti-rights folks have done before in the past.
The so called priest, was recorded. I was just pissed off it wasnt videotaped. That speaks more than a recording on the violent emotions displayed by father “snuffy” during his rant.
Your guy dan the ban, has better things to do in the State Senate. Our state is going bankrupt, and attacking law abiding citizens with “agents of the state”, and trying to make them into felons,
AINT GOING TO PAY THE BILLS!!!
So unless you like to see your taxes go even higher, you need gunowners.
June 22, 2007 at 9:00 am
Don Gwinn
You’re going to ride Bill St. Clair until he drops, aren’t you? I’m not going to spend a lot of time here because I want to comment on my own blog, but I don’t agree with Bill and I won’t be lumped in with anybody. I’m me, see?
Two points, then I’ve gotta go:
1. Kotowski says free speech doesn’t protect death threats and he has to protect his family. On that, we agree. I’ve received a few death threats in my time, but none from anyone I took very seriously. He also says that the ISRA should have been the first to condemn the threats. Actually, they were–at least publicly. The ISRA’s press release describing what happened to one ISRA member contained a denunciation of any threats that might have been made, along with anyone who made them.
Both Kotowski and Illinois Reason seem to have concluded that it was only a fig leaf to cover the ISRA’s butt while it continued to send out coded assassination orders to its robotic, fanatical army of radical gun owners, but that doesn’t change reality.
2. We’re all still waiting for some real evidence–and I still want to know what evidence tied these threatening phone calls to the constituent who says he sent only non-threatening faxes–and even had a friendly phone conversation with Kotowski when DK called him at home.
3. I have an email in to Pam Althoff’s office to see if she will confirm that the investigation consisted of over 500 home visits. Today’s a “travel day” so I don’t know if a phone call will reach anyone, but I’ll try a little later.
June 22, 2007 at 9:04 am
robnesvacil
Assman,
When the police conduct an investigation they also contact other people who may not be directly involved in the alleged crime purely for the sake of gathering additional information or possible evidence.
Have you never seen Law + Order? While fictionalized, the show does give a sense of how investigations are done. Neighbors, work colleagues, people involved in similar activities… all get asked questions.
–
C-Rock,
Your fellow gun enthusiast 45superman already revealed the original remarks regarding that 500 statistic to be wildly inaccurate, as I’ve explained twice now on other threads.
What Sen. Althoff told Mr. Warchof was that Sen. Kotowski had rec’d about 500 correspondences in total. Sen. Althoff did not tell Mr. Warchof anything related to how many homes the police had contacted. To my knowledge, “Cam & Company” has not corrected the error.
Now that you’ve been told the truth (again), will you please stop spreading this fallacy and let your fellow gun afficianados know the truth of the matter?
As for any town hall meetings, Sen. Kotowski is barely 6 months into his first term. If he had had no meetings whatsoever with constituents I would say you have a point but for much of that time he’s been in Springfield working. And while in Springfield, he does in fact regularly hold meetings with constituents.
I know because I attended one of those meetings myself in the Capitol Building a few weeks ago.
And please explain your assumptions that the ICHV “lies”. You can’t just call someone a liar without evidence, that’s defamation. As I count them, the Illinois State Rifle Association and other gun lobbyists have racked up several lies regarding Sen. Kotowski in these few short months he’s been in office (the 50 cal bill does not forbid transportation, current owners are grandfathered in so no one will have their gun “taken away”, professionals such as military or police can still buy these weapons for their practice, etc.; the high cap magazine bill did not outlaw “cowboy-style” magazine because those are integral and the bill only dealt with detachable magazines of the sort used in the Virginia Tech shootings, etc.)
And you keep implying that Sen. Kotowski has only this one issue that he’s worked on which is a complete lie. Just ask those interested in healthcare, veterans’ issues, education and Springfield ethics reform.
Finally, please explain how it is you think having the police ask some questions is any sort of “attack”? Some person or people allegedly called Sen. Kotowski and threatened the man’s life. The police are investigating these alleged death threats.
You say the jury’s still out and you want to see the evidence … but you jump all over the guy as if you’re judge, jury and executioner yourself (and that’s precisely the problem in all this).
June 22, 2007 at 9:21 am
robnesvacil
Thanks Don for being reasonable, rather than blindly partisan, on this.
To your points:
1a. The Illinois State Police clearly found the threats credible enough to investigate. Would you not take seriously someone who says they have a gun and they’re going to come and kill you, especially given the context of approx. 500 gun owners who disagree with your actions in the State Senate (even as those gun owners were generally cordial, with a few very rotten apples thrown in)?
1b. Let’s be honest, that ISRA press release was Mr. Pearson’s attempt to distance ISRA from what may be found in the course of the investigation. I acknowledged that he included that line of general condemnation in my earlier post. But when the other 3/4ths of the ISRA press release is highly inflammatory, claiming that Sen. Kotowski is “using” the state police to “intimidate” gun owners, what is one supposed to think about that release? It’s over-the-top rhetoric like that which dumps gas on the fire, esp. given that we now know (from Sen. Kotowski’s own press release) that the police are investigating alleged death threats… a serious matter.
2. That Sen. Kotowski had a friendly phone conversation with your fellow gun owner puts the lie to C-Rock’s repeated claims that Sen. Kotowski is somehow “unresponsive” and “doesn’t return calls.”
For better or worse, as you mentioned on the other thread, gun owners are lumped together on this one as the police need to gather information and evidence from as many sources as possible, including the innocent bystanders as it were.
And yes, allowing people like Bill St. Clair to ostensibly speak on other gun owners’ behalf without clearly enunciating just how such remarks are wrong and even immoral does reflect poorly on you and other reasonable gun owners (and he’s not the only one, as a quick glance at IllinoisCarry.com and other gun owner blogs reveals).
Folks on “the right side of the aisle” repeatedly claim that reasonable Muslims need to do more to denounce Islamic extremists … this is the same thing, a case of the reasonable folks needing to clearly and forcefully denounce and even ostracize the few extremists.
3. I too plan to contact Sen. Althoff in some manner. Kurt Hoffman (”45superman”) has indicated the story surrounding the 500 stat is erroneous.
June 22, 2007 at 11:20 am
mikew
Hey, C-rock:
Video takes bandwidth…
and in this case the video is not all that much better than listening the audio.
See you all tomorrow.
June 22, 2007 at 11:44 am
robnesvacil
Mike W, C-Rock is a big fan of YouTube … that’s where he gets his bandwidth.
June 22, 2007 at 1:10 pm
c-rockjr121
Ya,,
thats right. Use a free video service to get the word out. Youtube does that. Look at what its doing for Ron Paul. Folks who want info, can find it. You can even find the anti-rights folks using it.
Mike, folks are visual people. Its easier to see anger in someones face, than to hear it. Plus video works better in scandals. It gets played over and over. TV likes it, cause it fills up time. Audio does not do that.
You know from our conversation on the phone, what I am out to cause on this one. I am still working on my next idea.
Hey Rob,
I am willing to meet you at a thrid party location in Wheeling. We can use this as a promotion for our respective sites. I will guarantee your safety too. No one is wanting to make you into a matryr, including myself. I am willing to meet with anybody who thinks gun control is a good thing, as long as I can post it on youtube. Lets create something new in this debate.
Again
you have shown numerous times on here, you have no friggin clue on how guns work. So why should I believe you on your points? Cowboy guns were banned. It said it. Only .22 Long Rifle, tube fed guns were not. Anything that held more than 10 rds, and was centerfire, were banned.
Guess what? .22 LR is not a centerfire round!!! Its a rimfire round. Way different. The primer is fired in a different way. Anything else bigger, is centerfire, and was banned.
Guys in the guard would not be able to buy their guns. Sure they can train once or maybe twice a yr with the guard, but thats not enough time to train. Most guys train with their own weapons. They pay for everything.
Your guy would stop that. He would kill those guys, with bills like this.
Well,
I know folks who live in his district, called on these bills, and never got a call back. He doesnt call folks back. Which is ok with me, he is the only one who won with few 100 votes. Next time is going to be harder for him.
He is trying to make alot of folks into Felons, so I am not going to give him the benefit of the doubt. So what a ton of folks called you on this? Deal with it Dan. You cannot ban the right of folks to address their state senators.
June 23, 2007 at 12:04 am
robnesvacil
C-Rock,
It’s exactly that sort of hyperbole and smear (”he would kill those guys, with bills like this” among other choice quotes) that led some of your comrades to think it was somehow ok to phone in death threats.
Not everyone sees the world with as much strident anger as you. Consider taking a chill pill every now & then lest your arteries burst or something.
June 25, 2007 at 7:33 am
c-rockjr121
Hey anger isnt the point these days, its discust. Only ones attacking me in my home, aint any terrorist. Its guys like Dan the ban. Attempting to make good folks into felons, doesnt get me all warm and fuzzy inside. I am just tired of all the attacks on the sport I love.
He would kill those guys. He would limit their training. You need to train, to keep your skills sharp. With these bills, that would stop them. It would also stop those who wanted to join the guard.
If they really wanted to solve crimes, they would keep felons in jail, they would allow folks to vermont style carry too.
July 11, 2007 at 10:44 am
ISRA and Blago, sittin in a tree « Illinois Reason
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