From State Rep. Steve Reick:
Representative Steve Reick Serves as Leading Republican Voice on Bill to Allow Emergency Firearms Restraining Orders
Steve Reick
A bipartisan coalition of lawmakers has responded to incidents of mass gun violence across the nation with new legislation that would provide the courts with the ability to remove firearms from mentally distraught individuals while protecting the civil liberties and constitutional rights of law-abiding gun owners.
The version of HB 2354 that came to the House from the Senate in March represented an extreme overreach into the rights of lawful gun owners.
As soon as that bill arrived, I contacted the sponsor and asked to collaborate with her on improvements to the bill.
For the last six weeks I was a leading Republican member of a negotiation team for a rewrite of HB 2354 which was filed in Springfield on Thursday.
I am also a Chief Co-Sponsor of the new bill.
The common thread with most recent acts of mass gun violence is that there were warning signs.
In almost every instance there were clues- comments made to others or behaviors that sent up red flags.
With the passage of HB 2354, family members or law enforcement would have the legal means to get guns out of the hands of mentally distraught people.
Equally as important, law-abiding gun owners would not be faced with another legislative mandate that diminishes their rights because of the actions of a small number of troubled individuals who commit criminal acts.
The Chicago Triubne editorialized in favor of the bill about which Steve Reick writes.
There’s a mental health component of these violent crimes that cannot be ignored.
Rather than passing legislation that infringes upon the constitutional rights of lawful gun owners, we need to turn our attention toward mental health issues that allow some people to use their firearms to harm others.
Click here to read more about the details of this bill.
This is total nonsense. They are pushing their agenda.
This just in.
The Springfield brain trust, has determined that people that shoot up schools and Waffle House’s, are nut’s.
Glad we got that cleared up.
The devil will be in the details.
Family members who feel threatened by a relative’s mental status must be given some credibility, but police with no independent review or psychiatric training cannot be trusted to unilaterally decide to confiscate private property. Arrest them or leave them alone. That is why we have laws.
This was a classic tactic of Socialists like Stalin, Hitler, and Mao tse Tung to achieve totalitarianism.
NICE JOB STEVE!!!
You are on the right side of history.
My compassionate conservative brothers and sisters shed more tears for one confiscated gun than for 20 first graders massacred in their own school. They are entertaining, but sick. 188 days…tic, tock, tic, tock, tic, tock, meow, meeeeeoooooowwwwwww.
This law is better than the original, but it still has some problems.
It will be seriously misused for leverage in divorce or child custody cases.
The provision that someone who files a false petition may be charged with perjury is not a strong enough protection – perjury cases are notoriously difficult to prove and rarely prosecuted.
Oh brother!
I’m so sick of gun nuts (yes, you are) grasping at any straw to make sure any hothead can get his itchy finger on a trigger.
If there is a chance that guy who just got busted for assault, domestic , stalking, making threats, illegal possession,TAKE THOSE GUNS AWAY!
You can give them back if he proves himself stable.
There is a conclusive link between Domestic Violence and mass shootings….and individual shootings too. Show that you gun nuts are not nuts and will allow sensible protections!!
Umm they already do JoeK.
@JoKe
There are already laws in place in this state that allow someone to seek an order of protection for most of those crimes that you mention.
A person subject to an order of protection in Illinois has to surrender his FOID and firearms.
It’s downright Kafkaesque to require someone to prove that he is stable in order to exercise rights that are specifically enumerated in the United states Constitution – how, exactly, does a person ‘prove’ that he is stable, and since when do we put the burden of proof on the individual rather than the State?
Uhh…. psych evaluation?
Does anyone here even understand the term “freedom”? You are all begging for more government tyranny. Keep living in fear like you have been taught. Keep begging the government for more and more curtailing of your freedoms to live your life how you choose. Too stupid to see how you are being used! Fools!
Why is Cal deleting comments?
Because they say F***?
Reick is another RINO sicko.
He’ll whittle the 2d Amendment down over a longer period of time, that’s all.
Reick must go! And we don’t need a 2nd Reick or 3rd Reick either! We need a representative who will not cotton up to Illinois cultural Marxists like Reick.
Reich has that sad sack loser mug.
He supports transgendered nonsense and same sex ‘marriage’ all the way!
He doesn’t represent what’s left of McHenry County. I agree with McSweeney’s comment about him that he’s a ‘lightweight’ ‘lobbyist-pawn (or was that lobbyist-prawn’ and that he needs to attend to personal hygiene –at least occasionally!
The most recent reason is the use of a swear word.
Understand that most people that would be doing this so called psych. test are liberals.
Even if you are of sound mind they can say you are not! When someone steals your identity I am sure most people have no idea how much trouble it is to get your identity back.
But the whole process is on you!
You will have to go through more evaluation, more screenings and possibly even after you get your firearms back you still will have to do more because this law will only produce more laws!
Billy Bob is correct there are laws in place but you see that they are now adding more laws.
Just keep adding more laws instead of holding people accountable.
No matter which side of the gun control argument you are on you have to remember a few things………………….
Criminals do not follow the laws. That is why we call them criminals.
Mentally unstable people also do not care if they follow the laws.
How do you stop that?
Cal, can you edit the comment to douchebag instead of dumb f**k .
Glad I am moving from this state!
Please send me a photo of the moving van.