Illinois Couple Sues over Requirement to Give Up Handguns for Day Care

FILE - In this Jan. 26, 2015 file photo, a supporter of open carry gun laws, wears a pisto
Eric Gay/AP

Illinois couple Jennifer and Darin Miller are suing the state’s Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) over a mandate that that homeowners give up their handguns in order to house day care facilities.

Jennifer and her husband both have Firearm Owner’s Identification (FOID) cards and are therefore legal gun owners in the eyes of the state.

The Herald & Review reports that Jennifer has run a licensed day care out of the couple’s Shelbyville, Illinois, home since 2017. Their suit claims that twice this year a DCFS official told them “they could not keep handguns in their home while operating a licensed day care.”

Their lawsuit says, “The Millers would possess and carry loaded and functional handguns for self-defense and defense of family, but refrain from doing so because they fear Jennifer’s day care home license being taken away from them by the State.”

Jennifer said, “We’re just average, law-abiding citizens trying to make our way in the world.”

The Miller’s attorney, David Sigale, suggests the Miller’s desire to have access to handguns for defense of themselves and the children is in line with the Illinois Firearm Concealed Carry Act. That Act does not prohibit a day care operator from having a handgun “if no child under child care at the home is present in the home or the firearm in the home is stored in a locked container when a child under child care at the home is present in the home.”

Sigale added, “This is not a lawsuit about keeping guns in the toy box or keeping them on the coffee table. This is about saying we want to behave safely but we also want to be able to defend ourselves. What the … state rules do is take that ability away.”

AWR Hawkins is an award-winning Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News, the host of the Breitbart podcast Bullets with AWR Hawkins, and the writer/curator of Down Range with AWR Hawkins, a weekly newsletter focused on all things Second Amendment, also for Breitbart News. He is the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com. Sign up to get Down Range at breitbart.com/downrange.

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