New Illinois Law Mandates Secure Gun Storage to Protect Children
In the near future, firearm-holders in Illinois will have to adopt new practices to ensure their guns are not accessible to children, according to a fresh regulation endorsed by Gov. JB Pritzker. State law enforcement agencies, as part of this new initiative, are also mandated to begin tracing the provenance of any guns gathered from a location of criminal activity or employed unlawfully, or believed to be connected to a criminal act.
The changes were enacted by Governor Pritzker just as there is growing skepticism at the federal courts level about the efforts made by state and local entities to control firearm-related violence. A federal appeals court is set to consider a challenge to Illinois’ recent significant legislation concerning firearms – a prohibition on assault-type weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines.
Senate Bill 8, the Safe Gun Storage Act, creates a statutory obligation for gun-holders to not leave their firearms unsecured at any venue, if they have reasonable knowledge or suspicion that a minor or an at-risk individual could gain access to it. The same applies if they know that the gun could be reachable by an individual who is barred by state or federal rules from having firearms.
In the context of this regulation, the term ‘secure’ stipulates that the firearms must be kept within a locked container or similar, remaining inaccessible to, and unusable by, anyone other than the owner. Non-compliance with this law may result in the gun owner being subjected to civil penalties.
Advocates for this bill cited recent data, which indicates that firearms are currently the principal cause of deaths among children below the age of 18, surpassing deaths due to motor vehicle accidents and cancer. Besides mandating stricter storage protocols, the Safe Gun Storage Act (SB 8) also asks firearm owners to report a missing or stolen firearm to law enforcement agencies within 48 hours of becoming aware of the loss or theft.
This legislation will be implemented from the beginning of the new year, January 1. Accompanying this, another law has been enacted requiring police departments to trace the ownership of every firearm that they recover from a crime scene or seize for reasons of unlawful possession, illicit use, or if they have reasonable grounds to believe it was employed in a criminal act.
To facilitate these tracing efforts, law enforcement agencies will need to use a web-based system called eTrace. This online platform is run by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. eTrace provides comprehensive information about the ownership of firearms for investigative purposes.
Since assuming office in 2019, Governor Pritzker has endorsed numerous pieces of legislation that impose new limitations on gun transactions, ownership, and possession. One of the most substantial among these was a plan to enact a 2023 prohibition on assault-style guns and high-capacity magazines through a law known as ‘Protect Illinois Communities Act’.
Nevertheless, the interpretation of the Second Amendment (the right to bear and keep arms) by the U.S. Supreme Court has been broadening, thereby establishing more stringent legal criteria that make it challenging for local and state gun control regulations to stay within constitutional bounds.
Most recently, a California regulation that made background checks mandatory for individuals intending to purchase ammunition was ruled unconstitutional by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on July 24. Similar legal reasoning is being used by gun rights organizations as they look to challenge the new law in Illinois.