Legislation to Ban Assault Weapons Moves Forward

By Ashley Badgley, Illinois Statehouse News

SPRINGFIELD — Legislation to ban assault weapons passed through an Illinois House committee Wednesday, a week after several concealed carry bills did the same.

Rep. Edward Acevedo, D-Chicago, is sponsoring legislation banning all Illinois residents from “knowingly” owning, selling, manufacturing, purchasing and possessing assault weapons, including certain weapon attachments. The House panel approved his initiative on a 7-to-4 vote.

Currently, Illinois residents seeking to acquire or possess any firearms must apply for a Firearm Owner’s Identification card, or FOID, from the Illinois State Police.

The legislation has caused mixed opinions among legislators. Some lawmakers think an assault weapon ban would be beneficial, while others see it as a nudge toward banning all guns.

State Rep. Al Riley, D-Hazel Crest, said he supports the ban. He said the weapons that are being banned in Acevedo’s legislation are not used in hunting, and banning them would be a safe measure to take.

However, he said, he does not believe all guns should be banned. He said issues need to be worked out between downstate representatives and Chicago-area lawmakers.

“This country was created with people having guns, but some of the firearms are just meant to kill people,” Riley said. “And I think that is where the distinction needs to be drawn.”

State Rep. Pat Verschoore, D-Milan, disagrees with Riley and said this is just another attempt to ban all guns in Illinois. He said the issues in Chicago are different than the issues in his district and the two cannot be compared.

“I think they’re just trying to get a bill passed to not bear arms,” Verschoore said. “I’m against banning weapons. Granted, Chicago has a problem, but they want to ban [guns] for the whole state.”

While Verschoore said the ban is an attack against the Second Amendment, some lawmakers think the ban would be fiscally irresponsible for Illinois because gun manufacturing, selling firearms and hunting generate a lot of jobs in Illinois.

State Rep. Dan Brady, R-Bloomington, said if the state bans certain assault weapons, many jobs will be lost and people will go to other states to buy them.

“If [Illinois residents] can’t have the weapons within their own state, where their manufacturing company is, they’re going to look elsewhere,” Brady said. “That’s just more jobs out of the state of Illinois.”

State Rep. Brandon Phelps, D-Harrisburg, said that with Illinois’ budget problems, the timing is wrong to ban something that brings revenue to the state of Illinois.

“Illinois is in a tremendous deficit right now, as everybody knows,” Phelps said. “I don’t think some of the sponsors understand with this bill, the effects this would have on the hunting. Especially in my area where we have a lot of hunters come in, they spend a lot of money and it brings in a lot of revenue to the state.”

The legislation now goes to the full House for a vote.