After the Trib suggested he trade the bills, it appears that is what Blagojevich is going to do. 18 year olds can get a FOID card without parental permission, but a state ban on assault weapons is put in place.
Dumb, dumb dumb. First, the assault weapons ban is pretty damn near useless. The differences between weapons allowed and banned are miniscule. Worse, at a state level, it won’t do any good because someone can go to Indiana and buy the same gun. Or Missouri or …….
Second, there is a bigger problem–that of non-dealer sales at gun shows. Already, Illinois has pretty restrictive laws regarding gun shows–compared to virtually no laws in Missouri. But one thing that can happen legally is an unlicensed dealer can sell without a background check. This should be closed. To buy a gun in Illinois you essentially need to meet the minimal federal rules, have an FOID, and have a background check. It’s been a while, but that background check used to cost $3 and be done through a 900 phone call to a state police line. None of these requirements hinder legitimate gun owners who want to hunt or defend themselves. There is no excuse not to require every gun transaction to go through a background check–private sale or not. It is cheap and easy to do and does nothing to threaten responsible gun owners.
Other possibilities mentioned in the Trib article are really not that helpful unless they are national policy. The reality is that putting limits on gun sales other than checking the eligibility of buyers doesn’t work well given other states don’t have similar restrictions. This just results in gunrunning of the type mentioned in this article.
A law on private sales could go along way to making the obtaining of illegal firearms difficult. Beyond that, making cross state transactions difficult is a national issue that Illinois cannot effectively deal with alone. If the Governor wants to trade, trade for mandatory background checks and put pressure on the Congressional Delegation for other laws. Responsible Illinois gun owners are simply held to reasonable laws and allowed to continue on their own.
In my weird world pols always make wrong compromises on hot button issues.
No one wants to talk honestly about root causes of the violence in this country. So we get stupid concealed carry laws and “assault weapon” bans.
I’ll bite: what ARE the real causes of violence in this country?
I have no idea. Maybe more people benefit from the violence than are hurt by it. Wealth is generated and power consolidated.