Sometimes, anti-gun legislation has a way of slipping through the cracks in certain states. However, if the comment sections on Illinois Gov. Jay Robert Pritzker’s social media posts about signing two new gun-control measures last week are any indication, many state residents are far out of step with the governor’s gun-control agenda.
Pritzker signed two laws into effect for Illinois residents last week. The first, Senate Bill 8, passed under the guise of the Safe Gun Storage Act, further increases already strict firearms storage requirements in the Land of Lincoln. It also increases penalties for anyone found to have stored a firearm in a way that is “unusable by anyone other than the owner” and cuts reporting times for stolen firearms from 72 hours to 48 hours.
The second law signed by the governor, House Bill 1373, amends the state’s criminal code. That code now requires law enforcement to use the ATF’s National Tracing Center eTrace platform, or any successor platform, to trace and record the ownership of nearly any firearm that comes into law enforcement possession. Effectively, it expands gun tracing and registering from a tool law enforcement can use as needed to a de facto requirement.
Pritzker and fellow lawmakers championed the necessity of the new gun-control measures, despite Illinois’ extensive list of existing laws making it one of the most restricted states in the nation.
“We know now that approximately half of shootings nationwide never get solved. Only about a third do here in the city of Chicago,” said Democrat Sen. Bill Cunningham, representing Chicago, the lead sponsor of the bill, who seemed oblivious to the meaning of his own statement. “We need to do something about that. That’s what this bill does.”
Observers on social media, however, took to their keyboards with some pointed criticisms of the move. One commentator astutely noted some flaws in such logic, responding to the governor’s post:
“My dude I've already been through 16h of CCL training in person. This is registered. My gun is registered through the same system that tracks IL foid cards. Trying to trace guns used in criminal acts is honestly a waste of taxpayer money since those of us who follow the law are already in the system.”
The wave of some 2,300+ Facebook comments leaned heavily toward the same sentiments.
Lurking in the shadows throughout the entire signing event were federal court cases challenging Illinois gun-control measures, including a challenge to the state’s 2023 assault weapons ban. On top of that, Trump’s Department of Justice has signaled its disapproval of such measures, recently backing challenges to other state gun-control legislation.
At our last count, there were more than 2,300 comments on the governor’s Facebook post. Those were backed by an additional 1,100+ comments on the platform X. Comments were shut off on some YouTube postings of the bill signing, but a scroll through any open comment section reveals a wave of dissenting voices doomed to go all but unheard by state leadership.
