Naperville's high-powered weapons sale ban hangs over 41st House race

Despite being a late arrival to the race in the 41st House district, Republican Rich Janor aims to unseat Democratic incumbent Janet Yang Rohr on Nov. 8.

Yang Rohr, a former Naperville Unit District 203 school board member, was elected to the seat in 2020 after beating an incumbent. Now, it's her turn to defend the seat against Janor, a Naperville Park District commissioner who, in August, replaced Jennifer Bruzan Taylor as the Republican nominee after she dropped out due to personal reasons.

While the 41st House district serves portions of Bolingbrook and Warrenville, a large number of constituents are from Naperville. In August, in the wake of mass shootings in Highland Park, Texas and elsewhere, the city council voted to ban the sale of certain high-powered weapons.

It's a decision that looms over the 41st House district race.

Yang Rohr, a sponsor of state legislation that would ban "assault weapons" and high-capacity magazines, supports the strengthening of "red flag" laws to prevent potentially dangerous people from owning weapons.

"These are broadly supported measures," Yang Rohr said. "These are absolutely noncontroversial issues that the majority of people in Illinois support, and the residents of the 41st district absolutely support."

Janor, while embracing local control for communities like Naperville, also is focused on maintaining Second Amendment rights. He said law enforcement agencies must be supported in attempts to take weapons from people who should not have them, like in cases of revoked FOID cards.

Janor stressed the importance of school resource officers and law enforcement officials monitoring social media, where past shooters have hinted at their intentions.

"Obviously we need to keep the guns out of the hands of dangerous people, but also we need to protect the Second Amendment rights of our citizens," Janor said. "And I think, reasonably, we can do both."