Aurora police Chief Kristen Ziman’s last week on the job started with a moment she’s been working toward ever since an employee at the Henry Pratt Co. warehouse who’d just been terminated opened fire two years ago, killing five co-workers and wounding a sixth, along with five of Ziman’s officers.
The shooter was a convicted felon whose state firearm owner’s identification card had been revoked. But the system broke down when authorities failed to make sure he turned over any weapons in his possession, including the gun he used in the Feb. 15, 2019, mass shooting.
“What has kept me up at night since that horrific day is that the shooter used a gun he never should have had,” said Ziman, who will retire Friday. “He used that gun to steal these precious lives.”
Aurora police Chief Kristen Ziman stands near the podium during a vigil Sunday, Feb. 17, 2019, outside the Henry Pratt Co. plant where on Friday six people, including the gunman, were fatally shot in Aurora. Five Aurora officers were also wounded in the shooting. (Armando Sanchez / Chicago Tribune)
Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Monday signed into a law a measure that Ziman, gun safety advocates and lawmakers from both parties say could prevent similar tragedies by charging an Illinois State Police task force with the task of taking guns from people who’ve had their FOID cards revoked but haven’t turned over their weapons.
The measure also aims to streamline the process for renewing FOID cards and concealed carry licenses and requires background checks for private gun sales or transfers beginning in 2024.
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“In an America where gun violence has become a scourge to so many neighborhoods, Illinois is taking a common-sense approach to reform, and we’re doing so with votes from both sides of the aisle,” Pritzker said before signing the measure in a ceremony at the Aurora Police Department.
At an event earlier Monday, Pritzker signed a separate package aimed at helping immigrants in Illinois. It includes a measure that would bar county jails from contracting to detain people on behalf of federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and prohibits local law enforcement officials from participating in immigration raids.
Under the new gun law that takes effect Jan. 1, the state police would be required to continuously monitor state and federal databases for information that would trigger a revocation of someone’s FOID card or concealed carry license.
The measure directs the state police to create a database of guns that have been reported stolen and would require background checks for private sales or transfers, with a requirement that sales records be filed with a federally licensed gun dealer within 10 days.
Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly acknowledge that these steps alone won’t curtail the violence in Chicago and other cities during the pandemic, but said they will be helpful tools in keeping guns out of the wrong hands.
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“Public safety, and particularly when you’re talking about gun violence, is often a game of inches, and it’s every little inch that matters, every little measure that you can take that will reduce the chances that someone will have access to a firearm that shouldn’t,” Kelly said.
A 2019 Tribune investigation found that as many as 30,000 guns were potentially in the hands of people who’d had their FOID cards revoked in the previous four years. A follow-up review last year found improved compliance but also an increase in the number of firearms that were unaccounted for.
The new law also looks to address another problem that has plagued state police: a backlog of applications and renewal requests for FOID cards and concealed carry licenses.
To cut down on red tape for gun owners, FOID card and concealed carry license expiration dates would be synced and the two permits would be consolidated onto a single card, with a digital version available. Gun owners also would be able to have their FOID cards automatically renewed if they submit fingerprints.
The approach to fingerprinting stops short of what many gun safety advocates and Democratic lawmakers sought: requiring fingerprints from every applicant.
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Fingerprinting became a focus of gun safety advocates in the wake of the Aurora shooting because it showed the potential for keeping guns out of the hands of people who aren’t legally allowed to possess them. The shooter had his FOID card revoked after fingerprints he submitted to speed up his concealed carry application flagged an out-of-state felony conviction that made him ineligible to own a gun in Illinois.
The House twice passed proposals with fingerprinting requirements, but they were never taken up in the Senate.
State Sen. Dave Koehler of Peoria, who sponsored the proposal Pritzker signed Monday, said downstate Democrats like him and sponsoring state Rep. Jay Hoffman of Swansea “had a responsibility to make sure that we had a bill that was fair, that protected responsible gun owners as well as trying to get at the problem.”
While the measure Pritzker signed largely was backed by Democrats, it received a handful of Republican votes, including from House GOP leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs and other members of his leadership team.
The Illinois State Rifle Association didn’t take a position on the measure, but Republicans who voted against it argued that fingerprinting is unnecessary for law-abiding gun owners and that it won’t stop criminals from acquiring guns illegally.
dpetrella@chicagotribune.com
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