Illinois is considering boosting gun control measures, even as its laws are under fire from Second Amendment advocates concerned they undermine constitutional rights.
Illinois is one of two states that require residents to obtain a government-issued license to legally possess or purchase any firearm, giving state police up to 30 days to approve or deny applications. While the New Civil Liberties Alliance is suing to block the Illinois Firearm Owners Identification Card Act, gun rights proponents could find themselves facing yet another hurdle in the coming months, as state Democrats begin to eye a bill that would effectively ban Glocks.
The trend toward stricter gun control has sparked intense opposition from Second Amendment activists, with NCLA senior litigation counsel Jacob Huebert telling the Washington Examiner that the licensing case is especially important “because it involves the licensing of a constitutional right.”
“Illinois has had just about the least respect for gun rights of any state historically,” he said. “Forcing someone to get a license to exercise a constitutional right at all violates due process, because that’s not how rights work. The right is something you’re supposed to have, and it means you can do something without the government’s permission. When you flip that, putting the burden on the citizen, you’re depriving people of liberty without due process of law.”
“It’s very doubtful that this law does much to prevent crime, but it certainly prevents law-abiding citizens from getting a firearm when they urgently need one because it’s not like you can get this thing instantly,” Huebert continued, pointing to FOID card wait times, which averaged between eight and 17 days last year. “A lot of people may suddenly realize that they need to defend themselves urgently if they face a threat, and if you have to apply and wait, you’re out of luck, and you don’t get to exercise this right when you need it the most.”
Now, Illinois could be poised to embrace another gun control measure and become the next state to pass legislation targeting Glocks after Connecticut recently passed a similar measure into law. Democrats hold a supermajority in the Illinois legislature, making the blue state far more amenable to such measures.
Democratic State Rep. Justin Slaughter spearheaded the Illinois legislation, House Bill 4471, which would make the firing mechanism design of Glock guns illegal. The bill seeks to ban the sale of any semiautomatic pistol with a cruciform trigger bar, due to concerns the weapon could be altered to install a switch that turns a pistol into a machine gun.
Such switches are already illegal in Illinois, as they are in Connecticut, where Gov. Ned Lamont (D-CT) signed the “Glock switch bill” into law in late May. But Illinois lawmakers are under intense pressure from gun control groups such as Everytown for Gun Safety to pass the bill, citing fears that criminals are using cheap conversion devices to turn pistols into machine guns within minutes.
“It is to put pressure on Glock; it’s eaten away at one of its markets, like California, and New York, and Maryland, and Illinois, and anyone else who will join in this fight to make sure they can’t continue to sell guns that they know are this easy to convert into machine guns,” Everytown for Gun Safety Director Sam Levy said.
“For students and young people, this issue is terrifying because we are the generation growing up practicing lockdown drills while weapons capable of firing dozens of rounds in seconds continue spreading in our communities,” added Ajani Crenshaw, a student activist with Everytown.
The Illinois Glock measure did not pass the legislature before the last session ended May 31. But it could be revived during the next session, as Slaughter touts the bill as “a consumer product safety measure” that “continues to support smart, sensible gun ownership.” Slaughter’s office did not respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.
Gun control issues are sensitive in Illinois, as the state is home to some of the country’s most intense laws regulating firearms.
Massachusetts is the only other state that requires residents to obtain a license from the government in order to own a firearm.
The law was challenged in court in Massachusetts due to its impact on nonresidents. Two New Hampshire residents were involved in the lawsuit after they were arrested on suspicion of carrying guns while traveling in Massachusetts. Over two dozen states joined the lawsuit, and it made it all the way to the Supreme Court before justices declined to consider the case in January.
In Illinois, NCLA’s Huebert said the pushback against gun regulation is real, arguing it penalizes law-abiding citizens while failing to achieve real gun safety reform.
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“Emails, voicemails are flooding in from people who want to say that they support what we’re doing, want to join what we’re doing, really like, I’ve never seen within a case I’ve done before,” he said, musing on feedback to NCLA’s lawsuit challenging the FOID law. “​​It’s been a really big response, one of the biggest responses that I’ve got in my career as a constitutional litigator.”
“If you want to murder somebody or be involved in crime and want firearms for the commission of crimes, why would you care about complying with the FOID law if you’re going to break other laws anyway that could get you in even bigger trouble?” he added. “Law-abiding citizens of course are the ones who are going to apply for the FOID card if they want to respect the laws on the books, and they don’t want to get in trouble with the government … If you’re not law-abiding, then you are not going to abide by the FOID crime requirement.”
