Illinois Democrats have once again taken aim at lawful gun owners in the state. It was only a couple of years ago that the Democratic majority and Gov. J.B. Pritzker enacted a ban on so-called assault weapons and large capacity magazines. Now the anti-gunners are making demands on how firearms are stored.
The bill, nicknamed “Safe At Home” by its supporters, would impose a number of new restrictions on gun owners in the state. All firearms would have to be kept in a locked container, “properly engaged so as to render the firearm inaccessible or unusable to any person other than the owner or other lawfully authorized user,” if the gun owner “knows or reasonably knows” that the gun could be accessed by minors or those prohibited from possessing a firearm under state or federal law.
There is an exception to that requirement so long as the gun owner or authorized user is actively carrying their firearm or it’s “under their control”; a vague phrase not defined by the bill.
Gun owners would be fined up to $1,000 if a minor or prohibited person gains access to a gun that is not safely stored. The fine could increase to $10,000 if the person kills someone with that firearm.
House Republicans and advocates argue the proposal could be unconstitutional following Supreme Court cases like Heller vs. D.C.
“I wish we had more opportunity to talk this through. This is going to be challenged in court,” said Rep. CD Davidsmeyer (R-Jacksonville). “This is going to be another case that the Attorney General is going to have to handle case after case after case. You’re trying to do something that makes people safer, but you’re actually infringing on their rights.”
Gun owners would not face any fines if their firearm is stolen by an intruder. However, owners must report the crime within 48 hours.
Ostensibly, this is meant to reduce illegal access to guns. In reality, it’s about punishing gun owners whose firearms are taken by criminals. Illinois lawmakers want to hold someone accountable, and with arrests for non-fatal shootings hovering around 6% in Chicago, it’s much easier to find someone who had a gun taken from them than it is to find the thief or the thug who used the stolen gun to commit a carjacking, home invasion, or cold-blooded murder.
Last year alone, there were 2,300 nonfatal shootings in Chicago. The police made arrests in just 141 of them — a “clearance” rate of about 6%, a Chicago Sun-Times investigation has found.
Mayor Brandon Johnson pledged during his campaign to hire 200 more detectives. But records show the number of detectives assigned to at least one shooting actually has fallen by nearly 20%, with 40 fewer investigators in 2024 than the police department had the year before.
Experts say the chronic lack of arrests is a big part of the reason for as many shootings as there are in many Chicago neighborhoods plagued by gunfire.
Those who did the shootings remain on the street, free to hurt more people. Seeing no arrest, victims’ friends in some cases try to take justice into their own hands and retaliate. Witnesses who already might be in fear but also don’t think arrests are likely might be less willing to cooperate with detectives — part of a widespread “no-snitch code” — making it harder to make arrests.
The vagueness of the gun storage bill coupled with the incentive to sue gun owners whose firearms are obtained by an unauthorized user is meant to have a chilling effect on legal gun ownership. The existing Illinois storage law requires gun owners to keep their guns “temporarily inoperable”
and in a locked container or a location a minor under the age of 14 wouldn’t be reasonably expected to be able to access it. That’s already problematic, but expanding the storage mandate to include access by a minor of other age and other prohibited persons will give gun control groups no shortageo of targets to sue over the use of a gun used in a crime, even if it was stolen.
I’m all in favor of storing my guns so their not easily accessible to strangers or prowlers. How I choose to do that, though, should be up to me. A one-size-fits-all policy that doesn’t allow gun owners to make a rational decision about storing their own firearms is a step in the wrong direction. Unfortunately, Pritzker likes gun control laws as much as he likes fried food, and this heavy-handed mandate is almost certain to become law in the coming days.
Read the full article here
