Taking aim at gun safety in Illinois invites tragedy

As Chicago mourns more victims of gun violence, including the horrific shooting of Police Officer Andres Vasquez-Lasso on Wednesday, some willfully misguided lawmakers in Springfield are busily working to make things worse.

In the new legislative session, gun apologists have introduced a flurry of bills that would have the effect of increasing gun violence. If the bills are enacted into law, there would be more slain police officers, more Highland Park-type mass shootings and more gunfire on community streets every day.

There is a bill to allow guns on public transit and another to allow guns both on public transit and at rest stops. There’s a bill to allow guns on college campuses. Another bill would do away with licensing for firearms dealers. A proposed constitutional amendment would guarantee the right to carry firearms.

There’s a bill to allow employees to bring guns onto school property and one that would reduce the penalties for the unlawful carrying of weapons. Several bills would repeal the requirement for Firearm Owners Identification cards.

One would keep the cards but lower the age at which a person can apply for a FOID card without parental approval from 21 to 18. So 18- through 20-year-olds whose parents don’t think they should have a gun could get one anyway?

These lawmakers are doing everything but proposing to change Illinois’ motto from “State Sovereignty: National Union” to “Gun Sovereignty.” Maybe that’s next.

Two of the bills would repeal portions of Illinois’ assault weapons ban, which Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed into law on Jan. 10. The law, called the Protect Illinois Communities Act, also banned rapid-fire devices known as switches because they turn firearms into fully automatic weapons.

The assault weapons ban also has been challenged in court. On Thursday, Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul filed a brief defending the ban. The law was drawn up carefully to be within the bounds of the Constitution, and the courts should uphold it. Meanwhile, we trust the bills that would lead to more gun violence will go nowhere in the Legislature.

Too many Americans are killed by guns every day, every week, every year. Everyone should be working together to make the nation and its people safer, not to profit or score political points off the sale of dangerous and unneeded weapons.

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