Illinois groups debate more gun laws as answer to gun violence

[September 27, 2022]  By Greg Bishop | The Center Square

(The Center Square) – The debate around gun laws in Illinois continues.

During a recent Illinois House Public Safety and Violence Prevention Task Force hearing on addressing gun violence, Christian Heyne with The Brady Campaign praised the state’s Firearm Owner Identification card law.

“The license to purchase, the FOID system in Illinois, is something that has a tremendous impact on the flow of illegal guns in ensuring that the people who are purchasing weapons are adequately screened and that they are purchasing the guns for themselves,” Heyne said.

Kathleen Sances, president and CEO of G-PAC, said the statewide priorities should be funding community violence intervention programs and “community healing centers,” and providing more justice to victims and families, but also banning large capacity magazines and banning assault weapons.

Gun rights advocate Todd Vandermyde gave a litany of cases where gun laws in Illinois and elsewhere have been struck down by the courts.

“And these are just the beginning of the lawsuits,” Vandermyde said. “There’s more coming and I think the question you need to be asking yourselves is when you have less than you have on the books today in a short time from now, what are you going to do.”

There are several pending lawsuits in state and federal court challenging a variety of Illinois' gun laws, including the FOID Card Act.

Ed Sullivan with the Illinois State Rifle Association said an assault weapons ban is not the answer. He warned enforcement would only impact minority communities.

“Who do you think is going to get arrested for having an assault weapon,” Sullivan said. “There’s 72 counties in the state of Illinois that are [Second Amendment] sanctuary counties. They’re not going to arrest anybody. So, it’s not someone who looks like me that’s going to get arrested for the carrying or the owning of assault weapons.”

While advocates pushed for more regulations on the sale and ownership of firearms, more information on gun purchases and more accountability for sellers and owners, Sullivan said the better path is to evaluate the Legislative Black Caucus’ agenda.

“You might not like all the four pillars, but those four pillars will do more to stem the flow of violence than any gun law you want to do,” Sullivan said.

The four pillars of the Legislative Black Caucus Agenda are criminal justice reform, education and workforce development, economic access and health care.

Lawmakers return for legislative action in the fall session, the week after the Nov. 8 election.

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.