SPRINGFIELD — A bill that would require gun owners to keep any firearms in a locked box whenever a minor is present will soon head to Gov. JB Pritzker.
Senate Bill 8, also referred to as the Safe Gun Storage Act, is the latest gun safety measure pushed by Democrats in the General Assembly. It passed the House 69-40, with Republican lawmakers warning that it could be found unconstitutional if challenged in court.
The bill mandates that gun owners store their firearms in a secure, locked box in any place where they know or “reasonably should know” that a minor without permission to access a firearm, an at-risk person or someone who is prohibited from obtaining a firearm can access the weapon. Gun owners who violate the act would be subject to civil penalties.
The law would apply to both handguns and long guns, such as rifles and shotguns.
Under the state’s current criminal code, firearm owners are required to store their guns in a place that’s inaccessible to a child under the age of 14 – SB8 raises the age requirement to a child under 18 and mandates that the gun must be locked away or equipped with a device making it temporarily inoperable.
It also defines an at-risk person as someone who has shown behavior or made statements that a “reasonable person” would consider indicative that the individual may physically harm themselves or others.
“An estimated 30 million children in our country live in a home with at least one firearm, with 4.6 million children living in homes with unlocked and loaded guns,” bill sponsor in the House, Rep. Maura Hirschauer, D-Batavia, said during floor debate. “We are all familiar with the chilling statistics that guns are the No. 1 cause of death for our children in the United States.”
The bill exempts firearms carried on a person who has a concealed carry license. The gun owner also would not be liable if a minor, at-risk or prohibited person uses the firearm in self-defense or uses it after accessing it illegally – for instance, in circumstances like breaking and entering.
The Safe Gun Storage Act also makes changes to a variety of existing Illinois gun laws, including a mandate that firearm owners report a lost or stolen firearm within 48 hours of the owner finding the firearm missing, instead of the current 72-hour timeframe. Illinois State Police would also be given the ability to revoke a firearm owner’s identification, or FOID, card if a gun owner fails to report a stolen or lost firearm twice or more under the bill.
If a minor, at-risk or prohibited person gains access to an unlocked firearm, the bill provides the gun owner could face civil penalties ranging from $500 to $10,000 if the gun to hurt or kill another person in a crime.
A separate section of the bill allows for a $1,000 fine and a Class C misdemeanor charge against a gun owner if a minor under the age of 18 causes death or bodily harm while accessing a firearm without permission. That language previously only applied to minors under the age of 14.
“Safe firearms storage and responsible gun ownership are practices on which all of us in this room, gun owners and non-gun owners alike, can agree,” Hirschauer said. “Safe gun storage can reduce unintentional injuries, suicides and intentional harm, like school shootings, by stopping unauthorized access.”
Under SB8, if a firearm owner fails to store their firearm in a secure, locked box and a minor, at-risk or prohibited person illegally obtains the firearm and uses it to hurt themselves or others – the owner could be charged with negligence.
The Safe Gun Storage Act also requires Illinois State Police to expand an online database that was required under a previous law to house all information on the make, model and serial number of reported lost or stolen firearms. By Jan. 1, 2027, ISP would have to make the portal accessible to licensed firearm dealers, who would be required to cross-reference the database to ensure any firearms they are selling or transferring are not a firearm listed in the database.
Another aspect of the bill classifies anyone traveling through the state with a firearm that’s prohibited under state law as gun trafficking – a felony charge that can result in up to a 15-year prison sentence.
Arguments of unconstitutionality
During debate about the bill on the Senate floor in April, Sen. Neil Anderson, R-Andalusia, took issue with the bill giving Illinois State Police the ability to revoke a person’s FOID card.
He said that aspect of the bill would not pass the Rahimi test – referencing the 2023 United States v. Rahimi Supreme Court case, which ruled a court can temporarily revoke a perron’s firearm rights if the court determines the firearm owner is a threat to public safety when in possession of a firearm.
SB8 would allow Illinois State Police to revoke a person’s FOID card, which Anderson said is in direct conflict with the Rahimi decision – which said only courts had the power to revoke a person’s firearm rights.
Bill sponsor Sen. Laura Ellman, D-Naperville, disagreed with Anderson, saying the Rahimi case did not exclude law enforcement from being able to revoke a person’s FOID card. The bill passed the Senate on a vote of 33-19.
A similar debate happened on the House floor Wednesday before the bill’s eventual passage.
Rep. Patrick Windhorst, R-Metropolis, took issue with the bill’s creation of a potential negligence charge for gun owners who do not safely secure a gun that’s used by a minor, at-risk or prohibited person to harm someone. He said he believed such a burden shift to be unconstitutional.
Hirschauer responded that the burden shift only applies when the reasonable standard is met – when it’s reasonably found that the gun owner should have known to safely store their firearm – or, if “some terrible negligence” occurs.
Windhorst also raised concerns about the fact that cable locks, which are locked cables inserted through a firearm’s chamber and out of the magazine well, are not considered “safe storage” under the bill. Under existing law about storing guns away from minors, a cable lock is considered safe storage of a firearm. Windhorst said that conflicts with the new language pertaining to gun storage, which does not mention devices that render a gun temporarily inoperable.
“Under the criminal code of this bill where we are changing our current child access protection law, a cable lock would suffice,” Hirschauer said. “Under the new Safe Storage Act, it would not.”
He also argued that the bill impeded the rights of concealed carry license holders who carry a gun in a vehicle, as some firearms owners currently store their gun in the center console or glove box. Under the Safe Gun Storage Act, the center console or glove box would have to be lockable in order to render the firearm safely stored.
Windhorst also voiced concerns that the gun trafficking charges in the bill could be brought against a person passing through Illinois with firearms in their vehicle that are legal in their home state – a point which Hirschauer responded to by reading language in the bill that expressly excluded non-residents from the charges.
“If someone is a non-resident of Illinois and is passing through and they are a legal gun owner in the state in which they reside, if that state doesn’t have a FOID card system and if they are authorized under federal law to own a gun, then they would not be subject to this,” she said.
Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer, R-Murrayville, raised concerns about the bill’s definition of “lawful permission” and its limitations on minors who hunt. The bill requires firearm owners to safely secure their firearm in a locked box when around a minor who does not have “lawful permission” from a parent or guardian to access a firearm. On the House floor, Davidsmeyer asked what constitutes “lawful permission,” to which Hirschauer answered it, “could be several things.”
When asked whether permission must be written down or notarized for parental permission of a minor using a firearm to hunt to be considered lawful, Hirschauer answered that “hypothetical points are fact dependent.” Davidsmeyer said the question was not a hypothetical, and that it is an issue that will crop up in “daily life” for minors who hunt.
“This bill, I believe, violates recent Supreme Court decisions under the Second Amendment and will likely be found unconstitutional,” Windhorst said at the end of debate.
Hirschauer disagreed.
“Firearm theft compromises the effectiveness of our commonsense gun laws and often results in these weapons being acquired by people who are legally prohibited from possessing them,” she said. “The reporting measures strengthened in this bill will give law enforcement the tools they need to crack down on lost and stolen guns.”
Opponents to SB8 include the ACLU of Illinois, Illinois State Rifle Association and the Illinois State Crime Commissions; the Illinois State Police did not officially oppose or support the bill. SB8 passed the Senate 33-19 last month and awaits approval from the governor before it can become law.
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