THE ILLINOIZE: Thursday Free for All...Some sheriffs say they won't enforce assault weapon ban...Gun shop owners complain...Legislature sworn in with plenty of new faces and familiar partisanship
January 12, 2023
Good morning, Illinois.
The new General Assembly is sworn in. An assault weapon ban is law. Jesse White is retired. A pretty eventful week in Springfield.
We talked about the assault weapon ban on our Livestream and podcast yesterday. You can watch the video version here or listen to the audio version here. (You can also subscribe on your podcast app by searching “The Illinoize.”
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Let’s get to it.
YOUR THURSDAY FREE FOR ALL
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Sheriffs across northern Illinois say they won’t enforce gun registration under new ban (Shaw Media)
County sheriffs across northern Illinois announced Wednesday they won’t enforce a new law which in part requires owners of semiautomatic firearms to register their weapons with the state, arguing in nearly identical prepared statements they believe the law is unconstitutional.
Most of the news releases were nearly identical, changing only the names of the county and sheriff.
DeKalb County Sheriff Andy Sullivan said the statements were drafted with the Illinois Sheriff’s Association.
“As the custodian of the jail and chief law enforcement official...[I] proclaim that neither myself nor my office will be checking to ensure that lawful gun owners register their weapons with the State, nor will we be arresting or housing law-abiding gun individuals that have been arrested solely with non-compliance of this Act,” Sullivan’s statement read, which echoed nearly identical statements sent out by nearly two dozen other agencies.
With each news release Shaw Local News Network received from 11 counties, every one of them used almost word-for-word the same language to say the sheriffs apparently shared belief that the gun law was a violation of the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
Sheriffs with nearly identical releases were: Carroll, DeKalb, Grundy, La Salle, Lee, McHenry, Ogle, Putnam, Stephenson, Whiteside and Winnebago.
Not all opposed enforcement, however.
In an independent statement released by the Lake County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff John Idleburg said he supports the ban, saying a “weapon of war” was used after a gunman opened fire on a Fourth of July parade in the Chicago Suburb of Highland Park, killing seven people and injuring 30 more.
Related: McLean County sheriff: New gun law in 'total conflict' with Constitution (Bloomington Pantagraph)
Iroquois sheriff: 'Assault weapon' ban unconstitutional; department won't check to ensure existing weapons are registered (Champaign News-Gazette)
Several Central Illinois sheriffs say they will not enforce new gun law (Decatur Herald & Review)
Adams County sheriff, state's attorney weigh in on new gun law (Quincy Herald Whig)
Rockford, Freeport area sheriff's offices won't enforce new assault weapon ban laws (Rockford Register Star)
Whiteside, Lee sheriffs weigh-in against gun bill (Shaw Media)
Toledo gun shop owner loses sales, worries about losing store under new law (Journal Gazette & Times Courier)
Gun sellers, after sales spike ahead of state assault weapons ban, say law won’t survive (Chicago Sun-Times)
In the days before Illinois’ assault weapons ban was signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday, business ticked up at Maxon Shooter’s Supplies, a gun shop in suburban Des Plaines.
Handgun sales doubled, and rifle sales were 10 times what they were over the last year, according to owner Dan Eldridge.
“There’s been quite a rush of people trying to get in under the wire,” Eldridge said. “Obviously, the law-abiding gun owners are concerned. And they’re voting with their wallets.”
But now that hundreds of thousands of dollars of his inventory is illegal to sell, Eldridge and other gun shop owners are navigating what steps to take next.
Eldridge and other gun store owners believe the ban is unconstitutional and are holding on to their now-illegal stock in hopes of one day selling it in Illinois.
Eldridge is also president of a state association of gun shop owners, Federal Firearms Licensees of Illinois. The group plans to file a lawsuit next week challenging the constitutionality of the assault weapons ban, he said.
“The gun-rights people are going to win,” he said. “The law infringes on constitutionally protected activity.”
Related: New Lenox gun shop owner on Illinois assault weapons ban: ‘It’s devastating’ (Chicago Tribune)
Central Illinois gun owners and advocates confused, upset over ban (Bloomington Pantagraph)
Turnover and change are backdrop as new General Assembly is sworn in, despite continued Democratic dominance (Chicago Tribune)
Every two years, when a new Illinois General Assembly is inaugurated, the leadership offers rhetoric filled with hope, bipartisanship and a message of unity in which both political parties promise to work together for the state’s residents.
But it traditionally is a short-lived kumbaya moment that soon gives way to a political climate filled with contentious social issues and sharp partisan divisions in a legislature that in recent years has been dominated by Democrats with little need for Republican input. And then it all leads up to the next election season less than two years away.
Such was the case on Wednesday, as the new 103rd General Assembly was formally inaugurated with a record 78 Democrats in the House, compared with 40 Republicans, while a 40-19 Democratic majority was sworn into the Senate. Democrats picked up five House seats in the Nov. 8 election, while Republicans picked up a lone Senate seat.
Democratic Senate President Don Harmon of Oak Park, reelected to a two-year term as leader, made a symbolic show of bipartisanship by casting his vote for president not for himself, but for new Republican leader John Curran of Downers Grove, at the Senate’s inauguration ceremony at the Old State Capitol.
In the University of Illinois Springfield auditorium, where the House inaugural was held, Speaker Emanuel “Chris” Welch of Hillside, who was reelected to the leadership post, urged members and the audience to applaud new Republican leader Tony McCombie of Savanna as the first woman to head a House partisan caucus.
Turnover and change was the backdrop for the inaugural, where 16 new senators and 24 new representatives were sworn in — with two House vacancies yet to be filled — as several veteran lawmakers in both parties departed due to resignation or election losses.
“Illinois is better served when our public policies are crafted from two, not one, participating parties,” Curran said. “There are millions of Illinoisans who support the Republican principles of freedom and economic opportunity for all. It is my job as leader to ensure their votes and their voices are represented.”
But Welch warned that any interest in working with Republicans involves only those who value “civility and respect.”
“Those who choose discord, those whose blind allegiance to extreme ideology that would dismantle our fundamental institutions, those who would derail the work people have sent us here to do, they will find that this House will not waste the people’s time on any of their games,” he said.
Related: After frenzied ‘lame duck’ session, 103rd General Assembly is sworn in (Capitol News Illinois)
Welcome warning? Illinois Senate president’s message to newly sworn senators: Fly right or get lost (Chicago Sun-Times)
A month after lawmaker nephew's passing, Tom Bennett hopes to be 'uniter' in Senate (Decatur Herald & Review)
How 23-year-old Nabeela Syed wants to make space for more people in Illinois state politics (WBEZ)
State Rep. Brad Fritts makes history as youngest elected member in General Assembly (Shaw Media)
SOME OF OUR TOP STORIES FROM THE WEEK SO FAR
Pritzker Signs Assault Weapon Ban, Gun Supporters Promise Lawsuit
Outgoing GOP Leader Durkin: Republican Party Has "Lost its Way"
Pritzker Lays Out Agenda of Free College, Preschool, Child Care in Second Term
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Link to some of the statements released:
https://m.facebook.com/100064478118702/