Assault Weapons Ban Approved By Illinois House, Heads To Senate

SPRINGFIELD, IL — State representatives approved a package of gun regulations introduced in response to last year's mass shooting in Highland Park, sending the measure to the state Senate ahead of the final hours of the lame-duck session.

The bill bans assault-style weapons, magazines that can hold more than 12 rounds, .50 caliber rifles and devices that increase the rate of fire of a semiautomatic firearm.

Shortly before 1 a.m. Friday, the Illinois House voted 64-43 to approve an amended version of the Protect Illinois Communities Act. The vote was almost entirely along partly lines, with nine members absent and two not voting.

The act was first introduced by State Rep. Bob Morgan (D-Highwood) during last month's veto session as House Bill 5855.

It initially included a provision restricting anyone under 21 from getting a FOID, or firearm owners identification, card unless they were in the armed forces, requiring owners of existing banned weapons to pay a registration fee and a 10-round limit on magazines.

Those portions of the proposal were dropped in the version eventually approved by the House, which was filed Thursday by Speaker Emanuel "Chris" Welch (D-Hillside) as a floor amendment to Senate Bill 2226.

An earlier version of that bill — which clarified that unsupervised or private slides were not covered under the Amusement Ride and Attraction Safety Act — won unanimous Senate approval in May 2021 before being sent to the House Rules Committee. Amending an already approved bill allows lawmakers to skirt the Illinois Constitution's requirement that legislation be read on three separate days in both houses.

If the Illinois Senate does not sign on to the bill before the end of the lame-duck session on Wednesday, the legislative process will need to start over following the swearing-in of the 103rd General Assembly. The Senate adjourned Friday without taking up the bill, but is scheduled to consider the bill Sunday. Democrats hold 41 of the 59 seats in the chamber.

"These are critically important issues, and the Senate Democratic Caucus is committed to enacting the most effective legislation possible," a spokesperson for Senate President Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) told WLS. "Senators are giving these proposals an extensive review and careful evaluation."

The bill had the support of one Republican state representative, House Minority Leader Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs).

Durkin, who announced following the November elections that he would step down as leader of the House GOP, reportedly said he was sickened by shootings across the state with weapons like those banned under the act.

Speaking before the vote, Durkin cited last year's mass shooting in Highland Park, where authorities say a 21-year-old shot more than 50 people from a rooftop overlooking the city's Independence Day parade, twice reloading an AR-15-style rifle with 30-round magazines.

“Seven deaths, five at the scene. Two later at the hospital. Two of the deaths, a husband and a wife, died shielding their 2-year-old son, a little boy who made it through. He’s going to grow up as an orphan without his parents," Durkin said, according to WBEZ.

"An 8-year-old boy was paralyzed by the shooting. He’ll never walk again. He’ll never live the life he dreamed of living nor the life his parents dreamed for him," said the outgoing Republican leader. "All of this happened in one minute — 83 shots.”

Morgan, the chief sponsor of the act, attended the Highland Park parade and witnessed the immediate aftermath of the bloodiest day in the city's history, helping people evacuate while the shooter remained on the loose.

The Deerfield resident chaired a working group of House Democrats in the wake of the shooting to develop the legislation. In a statement after the bill cleared the House, Morgan thanked Welch for his leadership in negotiations.

“This passage by the House is a monumental step, and all the activists, organizers and survivors who have flooded this building with their advocacy should be proud of this achievement. This is your victory," Morgan said in "We aren’t done yet–but this legislative action represents serious progress on the road to full passage."

The IL House just passed ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines.

This is a huge step forward—and it couldn’t have happened without the incredible volunteers and leaders who pushed us forward. But we’re not done yet. On to the Senate! pic.twitter.com/4fO3rQWwpi
— Bob Morgan (@RepBobMorgan) January 6, 2023

Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who has said he hopes to sign an assault weapons ban ahead of the first anniversary of the Highland Park shooting, welcomed Friday morning's House vote and thanked Morgan for his work.

Representatives of the Illinois State Rifle Association pledged to push for the bill's repeal and consider litigation should it be signed into law.

Executive Director Richard Pearson said in a statement that gun owners who follow the law will fear the law, but criminals will ignore it, as they do existing laws.

“What is most alarming is the impact this will happen on police departments as they try to determine how to implement this law on their law-abiding constituents,” Pearson said.

Under the bill approved by the House, people who already own banned weapons must submit an affidavit containing the serial number of their guns, their firearm owners identification card number and a sword assertion they owned the gun prior to the effective date of the ban.

In a survey of 800 likely Illinois voters conducted by Impact Research last month for the gun control group Giffords, bans on assault-style weapons and "high-capacity magazines that can hold more than 10 rounds" had support from all demographic subgroups — except downstate residents, households of gun owners, and white men, especially those without a college degree.

State Sen Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago) expressed confidence that the Senate would approve the bill over the opposition of gun owner advocacy organizations.

"I think part of the challenge that we're facing is some of the information that is sent to folks that are gun owners that are members of the Illinois State Rifle Association and the NRA," Villivalam said.

"We can't lose sight of the fact that we have over 2 million FOID card holders in the state of Illinois. That means one out of every six people has a FOID card," he told reporters Thursday. "And when you have a well-organized, well-funded gun lobby sending them disinformation, sending them essentially the worst of the worst — in terms of what we're trying to accomplish here in terms of common-sense gun safety measures — that does provide a challenge and an obstacle."