Gun owners beware: Jim Ryan announces run for Illinois GovernorThe last time Illinois gun owners heard from former Attorney General Jim Ryan, Illinois government was in turmoil and Ryan wanted to be Governor. The more things change, the more they stay the same . . . . . Ryan was eager to position himself for a run at the Governor's Mansion, and he was convinced as many politicians were in those days that there was only one correct side on the gun issue: moderate to anti-gun. But what could he do to establish his anti-gun bona fides without alienating the deer hunters? He settled on a dramatic sting operation to catch people selling "assault weapons." Unfortunately, there was no practical way to crack down on such weapons using his jurisdiction as Illinois Attorney General, so he set his investigators the task of buying as many "assault weapons" as they could, as illegally as they could. In the end, the only way they could accomplish their task was to find people who wanted to sell their firearms legally in interstate commerce, then convince them that it would be legal to circumvent federal law in some specific way.
Link to Youtube video of Ryan's announcement.
The last time Ryan was discussed on gun boards, it was because of his "online sting" operation from 2000. He was the Attorney General of Illinois back then, and he had his investigators try to buy "assault weapons" illegally from out of state buyers over the internet. They couldn't find anyone willing to do that, so they took the legal sellers and told them that what they wanted to do was legal. They went as far as to claim that they had checked with local FFLs and gotten legal advice . . . and then they tried to put people in jail for trying to follow the law. Now he wants to be Governor again.