Seven Illinois House Republicans, including Rep. Michael McAuliffe (R-Chicago), voted on May 29 for a measure Illinois’ independent local gun stores say would put them out of business.
McAuliffe joins Reps. Jim Durkin (R-Western Springs), Peter Breen (R- Glen Ellyn), David Olsen (R-Downers Grove), Christine Winger (R-Wood Dale), Steven Andersson (R-Geneva) and Patti Bellock (R-Hinsdale) in voting for Senate Bill 337, which passed the Illinois House 65-49 and moved to the state Senate.
The bill, aggressively opposed by all gun owner rights groups in Illinois, seeks to create new state gun regulation boards, state regulations and licensing fees for Illinois’ federally licensed gun stores and their patrons.
Critics say the bill’s backers, including sponsor Sen. Don Harmon (D-Oak Park), a vocal advocate for not just gun regulations but also confiscation, want to use “onerous red tape and regulations” to shut down local gun stores.
“SB337 is designed to appeal to the hysterically uninformed and misinformed,” wrote Richard Pearson of the Illinois State Rifle Association, in an email to his members. “(The bill) is an attack on gun owners, dealers, distributors, wholesalers, and anyone else in the firearms industry that use and enjoy the Second Amendment.”
Four Democrats — Reps. Monica Bristow (D-Godfrey), Natalie Finnie (D-Harrisburg), Jay Hoffman (D-Collinsville) and Lawrence Walsh, Jr. (D-Joliet) — voted with gun owner groups and against the measure.
