Supporters of assault weapons ban in Illinois tell lawmakers bill doesn't go far enough

Patrick Keck
·5 min read
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A lengthy list of schools provided the virtual background for Joseph Saunders as he testified Thursday during a legislative committee hearing on a proposed assault weapons ban for Illinois.

The schools were connected by one issue: having a mass shooting in the past 25 years.

Saunders, a southside Chicago resident, cited statistics and incidents including more than 700 deaths and 2,800 people shot in his city this year for a House Judiciary Law Committee meeting in Chicago.

The changes promised in the proposal — House Bill 5855 — will fall short, Saunders said. "If this bill will pass, no more assault weapons, things will be still happening on the streets," he said. "They (illegal weapons) are out here in a major way."

Saunders and other proponents said the bill introduced by state Rep. Bob Morgan, D-Deerfield, earlier this month is long overdue but more steps are needed to address gun violence in the state. Gun rights advocates, however, called out the proposal for infringing on constitutional rights.

FILE - Illinois state Rep. Bob Morgan, D-Deerfield, speaks during a press conference surrounded by anti-gun violence advocates, many of whom have a connection to the recent Highland Park shooting, at the Capitol in Washington on July 20, 2022. Researchers and community activists told lawmakers Thursday, Dec. 15, that removing guns from the streets of cities in the state will help curb gun violence like the mass shooting at a July 4th parade in Highland Park, Ill., but that it must be followed up with programs to change attitudes and give people alternatives and hope. (AP Photo/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades, File)

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The committee is conducting hearings on the proposal, also known as the Protect Illinois Communities Act, which would ban the manufacture, sell or purchase of an assault weapon, assault weapon attachment, .50-caliber rifle, or .50-caliber cartridge in Illinois.

The bill also raises the age for a Firearm Owner's Identification Card from 18 to 21 and requires those with said weapons and ammunition to either do away with them or register with the Illinois State Police within 300 days of the bill's effective date.

Democrats who control the General Assembly are positioning the wide-ranging gun law for a vote as early as next month, during a lame-duck session, a five-day period Jan. 4-10. That follows Gov. JB Pritzker’s call last summer for a semi-automatic weapons ban, following the parade massacre that killed seven and injured 30 in Highland Park.

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Constitutional concerns

Andrew Guadarrama described the bill's title — The Protect Illinois Communities Act — as a misnomer in some ways. Citing high rates of turnover within the Chicago Police Department, the 26-year-old Chicago resident thinks the bill will lead to more violence.

"While the name itself seems innocent, there are concerns with it being unconstitutional and it doesn't protect citizens in the immediate or possible long-term," he said.

Guadarrama pointed to several Supreme Court cases to indicate the constitutional questions, including one where the court overturned a 30-year ban on handguns in Washington D.C. in 2008. Other limits on the number of magazines a gun can carry, 15 being that number in Colorado, are already facing lawsuits. He said passage of HB 5855, which limits that magazine total to 10, would bring legal action against the state.

"Most handguns are 10-plus (number of magazines)," he said. "This severely restricts access to firearms, which has already been ruled unconstitutional."

Just a start?

HB 5855 lists more than 100 semiautomatic firearms and assault-style weapons such as the AR15, yet some advocates say that list is incomplete. Others such as Dr. Karen Sheehan, a pediatric physician at Lurie Children's Hospital, said more needs to be done to keep firearms out of the hands who may be a risk to themselves or others.

The state's Firearm Restraining Order allows family members and law enforcement to withhold weapons from those "in crisis," she said, but does not allow licensed health care providers to do so. HB 5855 expands the temporary restraining order to 12 months, up from six, and creates the Commission on Implementing the Firearms Restraining Order Act.

"This is important because, as clinicians, we may know that a patient may be at risk before the family member does," she said at the first hearing on Monday.

Newly-elected House Minority Leader Rep. Tony McCombie, R-Savanna, asked whether lawmakers should expect a larger package based on the testimony of supporters. House Judiciary Committee Chair Rep. Justin Slaughter, D-Chicago, indicated that more could be coming but that conversations for the committee were to be focused on HB 5855.

Why now and not earlier?

The Protect Illinois Communities Act puts gun violence back at the top of lawmakers' agenda following the Highland Park shooting — as it did after a man killed five co-workers at an Aurora warehouse in 2019 and five students were fatally wounded and 17 injured at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb in 2008.

There are enough Democrats in both the House and Senate to approve the legislation without Republican assistance. But firearms restraints are always a tough sell for Democrats from central and southern Illinois, where hunters and sports shooters see guns far differently than their counterparts in urban areas like Chicago.

The Illinois General Assembly attempted to pass similar legislation during the term of Pritzker's Republican predecessor Gov. Bruce Rauner in the aftermath of the Parkland, Fla. shooting. A series of bills passed in March 2018 that would have increased the age to purchase an assault-style weapon to 21 and institute a 72-hour waiting period for those wishing to buy them.

Rauner called for the waiting period to apply to all types of firearms in an amendatory veto to House Bill 1468, but also supported a reintroduction of the death penalty for those convicted of murdering law enforcement officers. The bill would later die in May 2018.

House Bill 1465 would have changed the age to legally purchase an assault-style weapon from 18 to 21, yet also failed to pass before the session ended.

Former Gov. Rod Blagojevich pushed for an outright ban in Illinois following the lapse of the federal assault weapons ban in 2004. House Bill 2414 would have accomplished this and set a limit of 10 rounds of ammunition, as seen in the current HB 5855. The 2005 bill, however, never made it to a third reading in the Illinois House of Representatives and failed as the session concluded in 2007.

Another hearing on the proposal is scheduled for Dec. 20.

The Associated Press contributed.

Contact Patrick Keck: pkeck@gannett.com, twitter.com/@pkeckreporter.

This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Assault weapons ban advocates say Illinois bill doesn't go far enough