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During a committee hearing Wednesday, state lawmakers grilled
the Illinois State Police over the lapse of considering a 2019
clear and present danger report issued for the suspect in last
month’s Highland Park mass shooting.
Robert Crimo III faces dozens of charges in the Independence Day
shooting that left seven dead and dozens injured. He allegedly
used a gun legally purchased with a valid Firearm Owner’s ID
card that state police issued despite local police filing a
clear and present danger report in 2019 against Crimo over
reported threats to harm himself and family members.
During a Joint Committee on Administrative Rules hearing at the
capitol in Springfield, ISP acting chief legal counsel Kelly
Griffith reiterated the gap they hope to close with new rules.
“The person didn’t have a FOID card, they didn’t have an
application on file,” Griffith said. “And so that [clear and
present danger] report was actually not kept.”
The new rules allow such reports to be kept.
State Sen. John Curran, R-Lemont, supports the new emergency
rules, but said ISP always had access to clear and present
danger reports.
“There’s nothing in their old rule that required disosing of
that report until a determination was made that their standard
wasn’t met,” Curran said after the hearing. “It’s still very
vague and murky as to what happened here. We need a clear
answer.”
Other lawmakers Wednesday pointed to ISP lapses in enforcing the
FOID card law found in the aftermath of a shooting in Aurora in
2019 where a gunman had a revoked card, but ISP didn’t
confiscate the card or guns before people were shot and killed.
Separately, Gov. J.B. Pritzker outlined one of his priorities
while taking questions at the Illinois State Fair Wednesday.
“We’re gonna make sure that we’re banning assault weapons and
getting rid of high capacity magazines that are used in these
deadly, deadly attacks,” Pritzker said.
Curran said before any other gun control legislation is
considered, there must be clarity on problems with the FOID
card.
“Before we move on to anything else, that still hasn’t been done
here,” Curran said. “That’s step one in promoting better gun
safety and public safety, and until that’s done, I’m not sure we
should be moving on to two, three, four. We have to make sure
that this is done first.”
Greg Bishop reports on Illinois government and
other issues for The Center Square. Bishop has years of
award-winning broadcast experience and hosts the WMAY Morning
Newsfeed out of Springfield.
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