IL Gun Owners Finally Wake Up
Daley's gun limits rebuffed
Democratic pull no help in Senate
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By Ray Long and Christi Parsons
Tribune staff reporters
March 14, 2003
SPRINGFIELD -- Despite the Democratic takeover and a turn to the political left in the Illinois Senate this year, the bulk of Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's high-profile gun control agenda went down in flames in a chamber committee Thursday.
Members of the Judiciary Committee killed Daley's proposals to restrict handgun purchases to one a month, require background checks at gun shows and increase the application fee for a Firearm Owners' Identification card. Sponsors still shoring up support decided not to call proposals that would increase the waiting period for handgun purchases and require gun dealers to provide police with sample bullets before guns are sold.
And while the panel advanced a measure banning the sale of semi-automatic assault weapons, senators did so only after the sponsor promised to delay a floor vote until one member's concerns are quelled.
The action disappointed gun-control advocates, who had hoped the Democrats' Senate takeover would give them a boost this spring session. For years the conservative Republican lock on the upper chamber has meant a tepid response to most anti-gun initiatives.
But as Thursday's action made clear, the politics of guns in Illinois is defined by a regional parochialism that transcends traditional party lines. Democrats may be in charge--and giving a hearing to the most progressive social agenda in the Senate's recent history--but that doesn't mean the National Rifle Association is on the ropes.
"Our issue is not necessarily partisan," said Todd Vandermyde, the NRA lobbyist. "Our issue is geographical or principle. All your Downstate Democrats do not share the same beliefs on this issue as the city Democrats. They're conservative and grew up hunting. There are two very different classes within the same party."
At the same time, many lawmakers outside the Chicago area perceive gun-control efforts as attempts by urban officials to export their solutions to crime problems.
"It comes out of ... distrust in the hunting community as well as the rifle association," said Sen. John Cullerton (D-Chicago), a chief advocate of the measures. "It's just a distrust of the people, of what they perceive as the city trying to take away their guns. And the people in the city are faced with different concerns of crime and the use of weapons for crime."
Even Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a Chicago Democrat and a gun-control supporter, acknowledged the geographical divide as he courted Downstate Democrats during his campaign and vowed to oppose fee increases for identification cards.
Further illustrating the party split, two Downstate Democrats voted against parts of the Daley package. Though many prosecutors support gun control, Sen. Bill Haine, a former Democratic state's attorney in Madison County, opposed three major Daley bills.
"The vast majority of gun owners in this state are law-abiding citizens, and these measures are a tremendous imposition on them without the gain to law enforcement," Haine said.
And though many of his colleagues in the African-American caucus usually vote for gun-control measures, Sen. James Clayborne (D-East St. Louis) was against some of the bills.
On the GOP side, Sen. Kirk Dillard (R-Hinsdale) opposed a bill to limit sales to one gun per month per person, which he said was "drawn too broadly" by Daley and prosecutors.
"I understand they're prosecutors and they're zealous," Dillard said. "But they're like the rifle association. Both sides tend to go to the extremes. And it's up to the General Assembly" to balance things out.
Dillard, supplying the key vote needed for approval, won a promise from sponsor Sen. Tony Munoz (D-Chicago) to work out major amendments on the semi-automatic assault weapon ban before the bill is voted on in the full Senate. His demands included excluding restrictions on hunting rifles, members of law enforcement and the military, firearms sporting events, collectors of military weapons and major gunmakers.
"We'll take lots of input from the rifle association," Dillard said. "But they don't control the General Assembly."
Adding to the tension in the room was the heavy presence of secretary of state police, which assigned a security officer to accompany Sen. Iris Martinez (D-Chicago). Martinez complained that dozens of racial and ethnic slurs had poured into her office because of her support for fee hikes and other changes in the identification card rules.
One piece of the mayor's agenda that cleared the Judiciary Committee was a bill to increase penalties for having a secret compartment in a vehicle.
And after failing the day before in a House committee, a bill to require gun dealers to get state licenses in addition to federal licenses won approval and went to the House floor.
Dave Stopher, who said he served as a member of the Air Force and was wounded in the conflict made famous in the movie "Black Hawk Down," said he will have to close his gun shop in Collinsville if the semi-automatic gun bill passes even though most of his customers are police officers and competitive shooters. Stopher said he resented the idea that he "was good enough to take bullets" for his country but that Illinois might restrict gun rights.
Despite the setbacks, the Daley proposals have a better chance of getting a full hearing and passing than at any time in the last decade because Senate Republicans have been deposed and Chicago Democrat Emil Jones is in charge of the chamber.
Daley spokesman Roderick Drew said city lobbyists will keep fighting for passage of the entire proposal this spring, adding, "The session isn't over.
Copyright © 2003, Chicago Tribune