Pritzker signs state's new ban on high-powered weapons: The final details
SPRINGFIELD - Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday signed legislation banning the purchase, sale and manufacture of some semi-automatic weapons, .50 caliber rifles and ammunition, and large-capacity magazines in the state while still allowing people who already own such weapons to keep them.
The House passed the legislation after it had passed a similar bill early Friday morning and sent it to the Senate, where it appeared over the weekend to run into roadblocks. But negotiations continued behind the scenes throughout the weekend and into Monday when a final deal came together and the Senate approved the measure just as Pritzker, who campaigned on a pledge to pursue such a weapons ban, was being inaugurated into his second term.
The law takes effect immediately.
As recently as Sunday, the House and Senate seemed to be far apart. But by Monday night, House Speaker Emanuel "Chris" Welch, a Hillside Democrat, Pritzker and Senate President Don Harmon, an Oak Park Democrat, announced that they were all in agreement on a final proposal.
One of the key sticking points concerned a requirement that people who currently own such weapons register them with the Illinois State Police. Those individuals would be required to disclose the make, model and serial number of the specified weapons to obtain a special endorsement on their Firearm Owners Identification, or FOID card. The House had included that in the bill it passed shortly after midnight Friday morning, but an early draft of a Senate plan reportedly proposed dropping it.
The final version of the bill, contained in a package of amendments to House Bill 5471, includes the requirement but extends the deadline for compliance to Jan. 1, 2024, instead of 180 days after the governor signs the bill into law, as the House had proposed.
The Senate language was unveiled during a committee hearing Monday morning, only a few hours before inauguration ceremonies for the governor and other constitutional officers were about to begin blocks away in a downtown Springfield convention center.
Other changes included a more up-to-date list of weapons that would fall within the banned category along with authority for the Illinois State Police to modify the list through administrative rules to capture new and copycat models as they come onto the market.
The Senate bill also clarifies that any device that makes a semi-automatic weapon fire more rapidly - whether it converts the weapon into a fully automatic one or merely increases the rate of fire - will be illegal. And it defines large-capacity magazines as those capable of holding more than 10 rounds for a long gun or 15 rounds for a handgun.
The Senate version also does not change the age limit to obtain a FOID card, meaning 18-, 19- and 20-year-olds will still be able to obtain one with the consent of a parent or guardian. The House had proposed eliminating that exception.
"It really is the House structure," Harmon said of the bill after a Monday committee hearing. "We have been careful to be precise, that we are articulating the list of guns where an endorsement would require the make, model and serial number so that owners know exactly what they need to do."
In an effort to ease concerns from hunters and sportsmen, the bill also contains a provision authorizing the Department of Natural Resources to adopt administrative rules exempting weapons used only for hunting that are expressly permitted under the Illinois Wildlife Code.
That, however, was not enough to quell the opposition of gun rights advocates who argued that the weapons to be banned are "commonly used" weapons in American society and thus, under standards of recent U.S. Supreme Court rulings, will likely be deemed unconstitutional.