Illinois lawmakers on Tuesday handed an assault weapons ban, 6 months after a mass taking pictures at a Fourth of July parade in the Chicago suburb of Highland Park left 7 lifeless and dozens wounded.
The point out is the ninth in the country to prohibit assault weapons.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said in a statement he programs to “instantly” indication the Guard Illinois Communities Act, which incorporates a ban on assault weapons and significant-ability journals, among other gun protection reforms.
“For too lengthy people today have lived in concern of becoming gunned down in faculties, though worshipping, at celebrations or in their individual front yards,” Pritzker explained. “This laws will stop the unfold of assault weapons, significant-capability publications, and switches and makes our point out a safer area for all.”
What to know about assault weapons bans
- Frequently, assault weapons are semiautomatic firearms that have beat-type characteristics letting a shooter to promptly discharge large quantities of ammunition.
- 9 states and Washington have handed assault weapons bans, and a few some others have added basic safety specifications on the weapons.
- The U.S. had a federal assault weapons ban from 1994 to 2004. The law prohibited the sale and manufacture of selected navy-design semiautomatic weapons and higher-potential magazines.
- The U.S. Residence handed an assault weapons ban this summertime, much less than a thirty day period just after the Highland Park shooting. But the monthly bill has not gained traction in the Senate.
Which states ban assault weapons?
Assault weapons utilised in mass shootings
Assault weapons have an “outsized effects” on personal injury and demise, Kyleanne Hunter, a senior political scientist at the RAND Company, testified just before a Senate committee this summertime. Although the weapons are employed in the minority of firearm homicides, they are disproportionately utilised in mass shootings, specifically general public mass shootings, Hunter claimed.
“When an assault weapon is utilized in 1 of these shootings, there are much more than 14 instances more injuries and twice as quite a few fatalities than when any other kind of weapon is utilized. And it really is for the reason that these weapons had been intended to get rid of as quite a few people as swiftly as probable,” Hunter stated.
Shooters applied assault weapons geared up with significant-capacity publications in the mass shootings in Las Vegas, Orlando, Newtown, Sutherland Springs, El Paso, Uvalde, Parkland, Aurora and Dayton, according to the gun basic safety advocacy team Giffords Legislation Heart to Reduce Gun Violence.
In the Highland Park shooting, the gunman used a semiautomatic rifle to hearth 83 rounds into the crowd in much less than a moment, killing 7 men and women and wounding about 30 other folks, according to Highland Park Mayor Nancy Rotering.
What the Illinois assault weapons ban does
The regulation prohibits the sale, manufacture, possession and obtain of assault-style weapons, assault weapon attachments, and .50 caliber cartridges in the state of Illinois. Persons who at present personal assault weapons are not be necessary to surrender them but have to register them with point out law enforcement.
Though some lawmakers proposed increasing the age for firearm operator identification card candidates to 21, the law does not increase the age, which remains at 18. Extended guns will have a limit of 10 rounds for every magazine and handguns will not be permitted to have far more than 15 rounds of ammunition.
The restraining get for all those wishing to order a firearm but who have been located to be a “considerable danger of causing personal personal injury to himself,” for each the invoice, was also elevated to a most of 12 months — up from 6 months.
Activists want to see federal ban
Highland Park resident Rachel Jacoby, 26, an organizer with March for Our Lives, reported it shouldn’t have taken a tragedy to spur lawmakers to go an assault weapons ban. At the identical time, the legislation is a “major earn,” she reported.
“As young folks, we shouldn’t have to worry about staying shot with an assault weapon each time we go to university, parks, film theaters or parades,” Jacoby stated. “This legislation will make that doable.”
Kitty Brandtner, 35, founder of March Fourth, an advocacy organization that shaped in the wake of the Highland Park taking pictures, stated activists approach to keep on placing strain on federal lawmakers.
“Just about every day they hold out to ban assault weapons nationwide is a further prospect for senseless tragedy since guns never regard condition strains,” Brandtner said.
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Contributing: Patrick Keck, Point out Journal-Sign-up
