Rahm's Gun Bill Pulled

Someone counted the votes and realized Zalewski's bill was going to fail and embarrass Rahm, so he pulled it:

• Mayor Rahm Emanuel's plan to impose mandatory minimum sentences for illegal gun possession was pulled from a House panel's agenda Tuesday for further negotiations after it faced almost certain rejection from state lawmakers.
  
  Rep. Mike Zalewski, D-Riverside, made the decision to yank the measure from the House Judiciary Committee, saying progress was being made to allay fears of gun-rights advocates that law-abiding citizens who make a simple mistake could face mandatory prison time under the Democratic mayor's plan.

Those with legitimate concerns are trying to point out the problems in the bill's language:

• Gun rights advocates fear the legislation is written so broadly that it would catch far more than gang members and other hardened criminals. Rep. Brandon Phelps, D-Harrisburg, the leading gun rights voice in the legislature, said the unintended consequences of the legislation need to be addressed.
  
  "If we want to go after the criminals and the bad guys, there's a way to do that and a way to write it," Phelps said. "I want to make sure that we protect the first-time offenders that make a mistake — an honest mistake."

But the liberal gun grabbers (like McRahm'sHandUpHisAss) are having none of that "making sense" stuff:

• McCarthy dismissed fears of gun rights advocates who have pointed out scenarios in which a law-abiding person could mistakenly face prison time, contending that prosecutors would have discretion on the charges they level. But he also had little sympathy.
  
  "People aren't realizing that the awesome burden of carrying a firearm doesn't leave room for the hypothetical," he said.
  
  "This isn't like your car keys that are in your pocket or a ChapStick or chewing gun or your wallet. It's a firearm that's capable of killing somebody, and the awesome burden that surrounds that is not being paid attention to here and that's what we really have to start," he said.

And you never know when a raging streetlight is going to jump out of the shadows and attack you either. This is the last guy in existence who should be lecturing anyone about the "awesome burdens" of carrying a weapon.