State Rep. Pushes For Support Of Proposed Gun Legislation After Florida Shooting
CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A west suburban state representative is hoping that discussion, following the Parkland, Florida high school massacre last week, creates more support for gun legislation she's proposed.
State representative Kathleen Willis of Addison has proposed a Lethal Violence Order of Protection and a measure requiring gun shops to be licensed by the state.
She said the order-of-protection bill would allow family to accuse a relative of being a danger to him or herself or others which would allow police to take away the guns and the person's Firearm Owner Identification (FOID) card for a year.
"We know that family members are usually the first to see warning signs, and it's warning signs before something tragic has happened," Willis said.
"There are protections in the bill so people cannot put in false reports because they don't like guns."
People who lied to have someone's guns taken could be charged with perjury, much like someone could if they falsely accuse someone to get an order of protection placed against someone.
Representative Willis said the accused relative would have 14 days to appeal to a court to get their guns back.
"Standing on the House floor doing moments of silence isn't protecting our citizens. We need to do something better than that," she said.
Willis said she's a couple of votes shy of getting the Lethal Violence Order of Protection passed in the Illinois House but thinks she might have enough votes by the end of March.
But, Richard Pearson executive director of the Illinois State Rifle Association said the Lethal Violence Order of Protection is not needed.
"We do have mental health background checks in Illinois," he said.
He believes the bill would be abused and people would have their guns taken away just because someone didn't believe they should have them.
Pearson said you "can't protect everybody from everything."
