SE Illinois News

Rep. Patrick Windhorst (R-Metropolis) spoke with Rep. Dan Swanson (R-Alpha) on a Facebook livestream regarding HB5855, the Protect Illinois Communities Act. 

The bill would criminalize the ownership of several types of firearms and magazines. 

“They use assault weapon terminology," Windhorst said on the livestream. "Basically, it's a ban on certain semiautomatic pistols and rifles and shotguns. The requirement is, though, for those that meet the definition or are specifically listed in the bill, that anyone who owns those would have 300 days to register them with the state police. Any new manufacture or sale, or transfer in the state of Illinois would ... be prohibited.” 

Windhorst added that the bill "also bans what are called large capacity magazines or magazines that hold greater than ten rounds. No grandfathering-in of those magazines and would be effective upon signing and they would be illegal that day, meaning anyone who owns them would be guilty of a class three felony." HB 5855 would also prohibit "anyone under the age of 21 from owning a firearm or hunting without being with someone with a FOID card over the age of 21 while they're hunting."

During one of the three hearings on the bill, the Illinois State Rifle Association testified that there are about 4 to 5 million firearms in Illinois that would be covered by this ban. Windhorst said such firearms "would be required to be registered and there are 6 to 10 million magazines that will be covered. And they said that magazine estimate was a conservative estimate on the low end.”

“And so that's a large number of firearms and magazines that were affected," Windhorst, a former state's attorney, told Swanson. "And I know in our discussion, if I get into some of the law that the Constitution protects under the Second Amendment, the right to keep and bear arms, the Supreme Court in Heller 15 years ago and in the Bruen case earlier this year, has upheld the Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms is not a second class right. And it protects its first class. And it protects the right to own guns that are in, 'common use' is the phrase used and I would think be hard to argue that firearms and magazines that are in the millions or anything, those are in common use. And so they would be protected by that definition applied by the US Supreme Court. Some of the Second Amendment advocates today basically said if this passes in this form, we really can't negotiate anything on it. We just have to go to court and fight it. And they believe they have a good chance of succeeding in court.” 

House Minority Leader Tony McCombie (R-Sterling) previously called the bill unconstitutional. “While HB 5855 is likely far from in its final form, the constitutionality of the bill will certainly go before the courts,” she told Prairie State Wire. 

Guns Save Life founder John Boch spoke out against the legislation. He noted that HB 5855 would criminalize the owners of semi-automatic weapons and will bring out a pro-gun sentiment. “I think this bill is going to be what’s gonna wake up the sleeping giants who say ‘hey, no, we’ve had enough. You never are satisfied by taking little pieces so we’re going to take a bigger chunk of the pie back this time,’” Boch told WMAY, Lake County Gazette reported. “(Bill sponsor Rep.) Bob Morgan 9D-Deerfield) is going to lose in court, and not only is he going to lose this, but I anticipate he’s going to get a whole lot of Illinois gun laws that are currently on the books struck, and that’s going to lead to a much safer society for all of us from criminals.”

Critics have contented the legislation will criminalize law-abiding Illinoisans and would have only a marginal effect on criminals. “I would say it’s somewhere between two and 10 million magazines, and it’s a massive impact,” Dan Eldridge, of the gun dealers’ association Federal Firearms Licensees of Illinois told The Center Square. “These are the standard magazines that come with a duty-sized pistol even, they’re the standard magazines that come with a rifle. These are not aftermarket extended capacity magazines.” He further said that “With an immediate effective date, mere possession of a – and I’m not going to use their words, I’m going to use accurate words – mere possession of a standard-capacity magazine is a crime. There’s no getting around that. So you’ve got Second Amendment issues. You’ve got Fourth Amendment issues. You’ve got Fourteenth Amendment issues. You can’t do this.”