SPRINGFIELD, ILL (IRN) - A measure that would have stripped local governments from regulating how gun owners store their weapons has failed in the Illinois House.
State law requires gun owners to keep their firearms either locked up, or stripped down and fashioned with a device so that the gun is inoperable. The law’s intent is to protect children from gun related accidents. But local governments can pass ordinances that fine tune the gun storage regulation and apply it to their residents.
State Rep. Wayne Rosenthal (R-Morrisonville) sponsored the bill that would have created a blanket gun storage law, preventing local governments from having individual laws.
“It’s just another case of where we’re trying to make the laws concerning guns and gun storage and the ownership of guns consistent across the state, so we don’t have a patchwork of laws statewide where individuals don’t know, going from one municipality to another, what the laws are that govern them,” said Rosenthal.
Home rule units, or larger communities in Illinois like Chicago, Urbana and East St. Louis, would also have been subject to the law.
Because it would have pre-empted home rule units, Rosenthal’s bill (HB2045) needed 71 votes to pass. It only got 61, and of the 48 “no” votes, 26 were from the city of Chicago. Rosenthal said he doesn’t think his bill’s failure is any indication of how the Illinois House will vote on another controversial gun bill coming up – concealed carry.
State Rep. Brandon Phelps is sponsoring a bill (HB148) that would allow law abiding citizens to carry concealed weapons. Phelps agrees with Rosenthal and says he’s counted the votes for the concealed carry bill.
“We’re three to four votes short right now,” said Phelps, who would also need 71 votes for concealed carry to pass.
”But, someone asked us too, someone said, ‘well why don’t you exempt Cook County and that way you don’t need 71, you need 60 (votes)?’. And we’ve talked about that with the NRA and that’s their decision. They think with the Supreme Court cases, the two on their side, they don’t want to leave anybody out. It’s all or none in their eyes, so I’m just going along with them.”
Phelps says the biggest opponents of the bill are from Chicago.
“There is definitely a big push from the city of Chicago right now trying to beat this…a huge push. They know it’s close, and they know this is the closest we’ve ever had in the history of Illinois of passing this.”
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