Now that this thread is on this forum, I guess I'll jump in again.
Swiftman, I am also from Illinois (now rural, but was born, raised, and mostly a Chicago boy)now retired and 62 years old. I have loved guns, hunting, and fishing all my life. I first joined the NRA in 1962. I have devoted many years and a lot of money to teaching shooting, hunting safety, starting young folks into the shooting sports and hunting. I have always obeyed the law and tried to emphasize morals and character in the outdoors. I have seen all manners of new gun control, FOID cards, background checks, etc. etc. I have seen my home state enact some of the goofiest restrictions and some of the worst laws for preventing law-abiding citizens from posessing firearms for legal purposes. More frightening are some of the really absurd regulations that have been and will continue to be proposed and put into effect.
I have seen this state evolve into a liberal/urban anti-gun, and yes - for all practical purposes an anti-hunting majority over the past 50 years. The lib penetration into the schools and therefore the children, is frightening. My grand-daughter and nieces see my mounted deer on the wall and question "Papa" with an accusing look on their face - "Papa, why did you kill that poor deer to put on the wall?" Both my son-in-law and daughter were/are deer hunters, so they aren't getting that BS at home. It's the schools and the teachers, the media, and the soccer moms.
When I went to HS 48 years ago, there was a shooting range in the basement and a rifle club. That stuff is a distant memory today.
Times and attitudes have changed. People can go the the Illinois State Police website and check how firearms and ammo are defined to include everything but water pistols (maybe next). Try to order a flintlock muzzleloader kit from Cabelas anymore. Living in Illinois, you can't do it. Defend your life and family in your own home in some of the Chicago burbs with a handgun and find yourself in jail. Even with some of the strictest gun ban laws in the country, Chicago has more deaths than Iraq year to date. Through all of these changes over the years, we have tried to reason, to demonstrate legitimate, lawful, and safe use of firearms and it makes no difference whatsoever. None. These people want NO GUNS.
Illinois is a sad but accurate example of the progression of urbanization and liberalism, and the pattern is pretty standard. It's not California - yet, but give it time. Maybe in some ways it is already worse here. You and I both know the political influence and the Chicago machine's power not only in this state, but nationally. Without the machine, Obama wouldn't be where he is. They are powerful, relentless, and they hate guns. Period. Obama owes them and there will be a payback required.
I think that people who live in other states with less of this cultural change, or at a lesser progression of it can't grasp or understand it as it isn't in their world - yet. They are naive to this problem. That's my theory. Missouri is still a relatively gun-friendly state. I don't think a Missouri suburbanite really understands or believes the incremental creep of this problem. It's not real to them. But it will be. It will be for sure. The Dems look to be gaining the trifecta - exec. congress, and ultimately the court. Look out gun owners.
The myopic Kumbayah singers who think they have it pretty good now and forever are in for some surprises.