An Actual Sensible Gun Law

Illinois enacts harsh sanctions against trafficking stolen and straw-purchased guns:

Gov. Bruce Rauner has signed legislation to dramatically increase the penalties for those caught illegally transporting guns into Illinois.

First-time offenders could face up to 20 years in prison, and repeat offenders could face up to 30 years under the new gun trafficking law, which takes effect immediately.

The governor was joined by top Republican lawmakers as he signed the measure at the Illinois State Police crime lab on the Near West Side. He said the goal is to reduce the growing epidemic of gun violence in Chicago. There already have been at least 460 homicides and more than 2,700 shootings in 2016; during all of last year, there were approximately 490 homicides, and just shy of 3,000 shootings in Chicago.

Illinois is basically doing what Obama’s useless USA Attorney for Northern Illinois was too lazy and politically-focused to do; the USA trumpeted to Chicago’s criminal underclass that sending your mom or girlfriend to Indiana to buy a Glock wasn’t worth his time.  

And you have to ask yourself – why is it that “Protect” Minnesota or Everytown for “Gun Safety” never, ever suggest measures like this, and focus exclusively on attacking, defaming and bullying the law-abiding gun owner?

4 thoughts on “An Actual Sensible Gun Law

  1. Yeah, we can see where this is headed.

    After a couple months, Al Sharpton, Jesse JAckson, and the ACLU will be calling everyone that voted for this racisss, because Negro gangsters will make up the bulk of people that get snapped up.

    Anyone that cooperates with coppers will be an Uncle Tom, and reparations will be demanded to heal the community…free phones at least.

  2. Notice this is from last August. In my mind, the trouble with this is that state and county prosecutors may suffer the same reticence to prosecute as the federal attorney, in part because the names of those prosecuted might be politically very interesting.

    Another part may be the difficulty of the enterprise–you’re more or less telling people to testify against people who (a) they know are armed to the teeth, (b) they know got the guns via crime, including crimes of violence, and (c) have partners in crime and long memories.

    So sensible, but I don’t see much coming from this. Too many reasons for it to fail.

  3. One other thing here is that it makes straw purchase/trafficking in a stolen weapon worth at least a 20 year sentence, more than for murder or rape. I think it’s safe to assume that prosecutors, police, and juries are going to refuse to impose this penalty a lot of the time, especially as they figure out that the guys sitting by defense lawyers are not kingpins, but are rather low level couriers–kids who get threatened by the older guys in their gangs, more or less.

    Sorry, I think this is a horribly bad idea.

  4. Price of an illegal gun purchase will go up, leading to more brazen attacks and higher incidence of robbery because lawful peops are STILL not allowed to protect themselves. Unintended consequences for what seems like a common sense bill, because it is done in a city completely devoid of common sense.

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