Illinois passed a bill on Wednesday that would require gun owners to be fingerprinted before receiving their license, according to a report from ABC 13.
If the measure gets signed into law in its current form, any gun owners in the state would be required to provide their fingerprints to law enforcement in order to receive their firearm license. Additionally, the cost of firearms licenses would increase by four times.
The Hill said that after a heated debate, “the measure narrowly passed on a 62-52 vote despite fierce opposition from Republican lawmakers.”
GOP State Rep. Darren Bailey reportedly said that the bill was “a total and complete infringement of the Second Amendment and the Bill of Rights of the U.S. Constitution.”
Tim Butler of Springfield, Illinois said that supporters of the bill were “creating a police state” by creating and maintaining a database of fingerprints and personal information that could potentially be used for other purposes.
Others fought back, saying the initial red tape for obtaining a license would reduce gun violence.
Kathleen Sances, president of the Gun Violence Prevention PAC said, “If we can do that on the front end, the person is not going to get the gun in the first place. And then we don’t have to go and revoke it.”
The bill also calls for the creation of a state task force that would directly handle the surrender of guns for citizens who have lost their firearms licenses. Supporters of the bill say this stops a loophole that allegedly allowed a man suspected of killing five people to keep his gun.
The new legislation also notes that gun owners would be facing an increase in cost on their firearm ID cards, from the previous $10 for a 10-year card to $20 for a five-year card.
Supporters of the bill took a shot at law enforcement for not going after gun owners whose licenses had lapsed or been revoked.
They referenced a study that reportedly showed that “more than 34,000 Illinois residents had their FOID cards rescinded during the past four years, but nearly 80 percent still could be armed since law enforcement did not follow up on revocations.”
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What this measure fails to address is the fact that the majority of murders in Chicago are reportedly committed with stolen firearms. How will this clean up violent crime in cities with explosive statistics?
The new task force would be funded through part of the license fee and would be focusing on those revocation followups.
The bill now moves on, putting the state at odds over how to handle their violent crime issues.
Illinois House approves bill to fingerprint gun owners https://t.co/M4cObFah3T pic.twitter.com/tOTD6Fe59K
— The Hill (@thehill) May 30, 2019
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