Pritzker Aims For Assault Weapons Ban By Anniversary Of Mass Shooting

CHICAGO — Gov. J.B. Pritzker endorsed legislation banning the sale of assault-style weapons and large-capacity magazines and banning most people under 21 from obtaining gun licenses.

House Bill 5855, the "Protecting Illinois Communities Act," was introduced last week by State Rep. Bob Morgan (D-Highwood), who was present at the July 4 Highland Park parade mass shooting.

Speaking Wednesday at an unrelated news conference, Pritzker said his administration had consulted with Morgan about the bill while it was being drafted.

"I campaigned on this, getting an assault weapons ban passed, a high-capacity magazine ban passed, so it's very important to me," Pritzker said, "whether it happens during the lame-duck session — which I know is the expectation — or it happens during regular session."

There are five days of a lame-duck legislative session scheduled in January before the 103rd General Assembly — the lawmakers who were elected last month — are sworn into office, and pending bills expire.

"It's important that we do it as fast as possible, there's no doubt," Pritzker said. "But I just want to be clear that our aim is to get it done in the first half of the year."

The governor said he was hopeful the bill would have bipartisan support. As of Thursday, Morgan's bill had 28 co-sponsors, all Democrats.

"I think there are Republicans, in the suburbs particularly, who should vote for this and whose constituents want this," Pritzker said.

House Bill 5855 also allows prosecutors to act as a friend of the court in cases involving firearm restraining orders under the state's "red flag law," restricts people under 21 from obtaining Firearm Owners Identification, or FOID, cards unless they are under 21 and bans so-called "Glock switches," federally prohibited devices that are deemed to turn semiautomatic weapons into machine guns by increasing their rate of fire.

Representatives of gun dealers estimated there are between 2 million and 10 million magazines that would be made illegal under the law.

“These are the standard magazines that come with a duty-sized pistol even, they’re the standard magazines that come with a rifle. These are not aftermarket extended capacity magazines," said Dan Eldridge, of Federal Firearm Licensees of Illinois, who said the proposal potentially violated the Constitution's Second, Fourth and Fourteenth amendments.

Highland Park's ordinance defining and banning assault weapons has previously been upheld by federal courts, although a pro-gun group and a resident filed a fresh challenge to the ban in September. Attorneys for the city have argued the group lacks standing and should be removed from the suit.

Pritzker said that he believed Morgan's proposal would pass constitutional muster, despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that struck down New York state's strict restrictions on the Second Amendment right to carry firearms for self-defense.

"My expectation is that there will be lawsuits," the governor said. "Because once it's passed, the people who oppose it, that's really all that's left for them is to take it to court. They want to slow it down. They want to end it if they can, find a friendly judge if they can."

Related: Assault Weapons Ban, No FOID Under 21 In House Democrat Proposal