State Republicans are pushing back against a provision of the Illinois gun ban that enforces a firearm registry, with several arguing that the rules are punishing lawful gun owners.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers on the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules approved guidelines on enforcing the registry for the state police on Tuesday. Republicans on the committee raised concerns about everything from the privacy of gun owners to what information will be available to police when they stop someone whose information is in the firearm registry, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The ban, which passed in January 2023, took effect on Jan. 1, 2024, after several legal challenges and attempts at the state and federal level. The law, called the Protect Illinois Communities Act, makes it illegal to sell or manufacture some weapons in the state. Residents who own those types of weapons could keep them but had to register them by Jan. 1.
However, most Illinoisans are refusing to do so, according to NPR, and GOP legislators such as state Rep. Ryan Spain are criticizing the state police for filing their proposed enforcement rules too close to the 2024 deadline. Gun rights advocates have also expressed confusion over the registration process, including the definitions of various firearm accessories that are required to be registered.
“I’m really quite frustrated that we could’ve approached this differently with a clear time frame and trying to resolve many of these issues much earlier on so that firearm owners throughout the state of Illinois trying to understand this very complicated and conflicting legislation, in many ways, could’ve had better guidance on what they need to do,” Spain said.
Under the law, the delivery, sale, import, and purchase of a long list of weapons are prohibited — such as some semi-automatic rifles, handguns, and shotguns. The law also prohibits the delivery, sale, or purchase of large-capacity ammunition magazines that hold more than 10 rounds for long guns and 15 rounds for handguns.
According to state data, 29,357 people had registered nearly 69,000 prohibited guns and more than 42,000 accessories by Dec. 31. Approximately 2.4 million Illinoisans have firearm owner’s identification cards, meaning about 1.22% of FOID card holders registered guns or accessories subject to the ban.
The consequences for failing to register banned guns could be a misdemeanor charge or a felony charge for repeated offenses.
Though the gun ban has been upheld at the federal level, state police officials told lawmakers that if the law is deemed unconstitutional, there would be a system in place to destroy gun registration data.
“This legislation made criminals out of law-abiding citizens from the get-go,” Republican state Sen. Don DeWitte said after the committee hearing. “Many people on our side of the aisle believe that it was unconstitutional going in.”
Republicans failed to stop the rules from moving into place, but their motion to object to the rules passed 6-5 along party lines. Now, the state police will have 90 days to address the objections.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Democratic state Sen. Bill Cunningham, who leads the committee with Spain, said he was pleased by the number of changes made to the state police’s proposed rules before the vote on Tuesday.
“It’s a very complicated law, there’s no question about that. So it’s understandable that there would be confusion,” he said after the vote. “But I think there’s been a good faith effort made to try to address confusion.”
