Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner (R) signed legislation empowering police to confiscate firearms from citizens and extending the wait period for gun purchases to 72 hours.
The new waiting period means a single woman being pursued by a stalker now has to hide and/or live behind locked doors for three days while she waits to get a gun for self-defense.
NBC 26 reports that the confiscatory law is called the Firearms Restraining Order Act. By signing it, Rauner made Illinois the 13th state to empower police to confiscate guns and he joined a growing list of Republican governors who signed such laws into place following the February 14, 2018, Parkland high school shooting.
Governors Rick Scott (R-FL), Phil Scott (R-VT), and Larry Hogan (R-MD), signed gun confiscation laws following Parkland.
The problem with these laws is that they would not have stopped the Parkland shooting, because the family with whom the gunman lived actually took up for him when police came to the house after being alerted that he was a possible threat. (Gun confiscation laws require family members to attest to the danger posed by another family member.) Moreover, such laws would have not have prevented the May 18, 2018, Santa Fe High School shooting in Texas because that gunman used someone else’s firearms.
Additionally, the Maryland gun confiscation law certainly did not prevent the June 28, 2018, attack on Annapolis’ Capital Gazette newspaper. Five people were killed in that attack.
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.