Senate President Don Harmon on Thursday indicated lawmakers will take another look at stalled legislation that aims to protect victims of domestic abuse from gun violence in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to uphold a law prohibiting people under restraining orders from their partners from owning guns.
Some lawmakers had been concerned that a ruling against such laws would have put the legislation, known as Karina’s bill, in jeopardy. Harmon acknowledged that he didn’t expect a high court dominated by a conservative majority to issue the ruling it did.
“We were waiting on the Supreme Court’s decision … and they surprised me in saying that we can, in fact, regulate that intersection of guns and domestic violence,” Harmon said at a City Club of Chicago event Thursday afternoon. “And we need to.”
The Network, an organization that advocates against domestic violence, said last month that that the Supreme Court ruling had reinvigorated efforts to pass the bill.
The Illinois legislation would require that law enforcement remove firearms from individuals who have orders of protection against them, clarifying when and how law enforcement can confiscate such weapons. As it stands now, firearms aren’t always removed from people involved in those situations even if the owner’s firearm identification card is technically revoked.
Many local police departments have filed opposition to the legislation. Balancing the needs of survivors and law enforcement is “one of the challenges” with the bill, Kathleen Sances, president and CEO of the gun violence prevention organization G-PAC said at Thursday’s City Club event.
Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly, who was also at the event, said that a key issue will be ensuring that law enforcement continues to have “budget stability” and resources to support them.
The legislation is named after Karina Gonzalez, a Little Village resident whom prosecutors say was shot and killed by her husband last year.
Her husband, Jose Alvarez, also killed his 15-year-old daughter Daniela Alvarez and wounded his 18-year-old son, prosecutors said at a hearing last year.
Gonzalez had obtained an order of protection against her husband about two weeks before she was killed, and Alvarez’s firearm owner’s identification card was revoked, according to prosecutors. But Alvarez never received the order of protection, and the Chicago Police Department said at the time its firearm investigation team had not received notification of the FOID card being revoked.
Harmon did not specify a timeline for when the legislation could come before lawmakers. Advocates are eying the two-week fall veto session in November, when the General Assembly will return to consider legislation for the first time since May.
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