Wednesday was Illinois Gun Owner Lobby Day at the Capitol in Springfield.
Hundreds of IGOLD members lobbied members of the General Assembly concerning gun owner rights.
In connection with the event, Illinois House Republicans held a capitol news conference to discuss their efforts to protect the Second Amendment and law-abiding gun owners in Illinois.
State Representative Patrick Windhorst of Metropolis said since he first took office in 2019, he has worked diligently alongside his fellow Republicans in the House to protect 2nd amendment rights for law abiding citizens.
"The people I represent take their responsibility to care for, store and use their firearms very seriously. Sadly, the fact is, they are often ignored as the super majority in both chambers of this General Assembly have time and again passed legislation that erodes the constitutional right to bear arms."
Windhorst said the FOID card system is broken because it imposes a state-level barrier to firearm ownership.
"which turns out what would be a federally guaranteed constitutional right into a mere privilege paid for by gun owners and regulated by our state. In previous General Assemblies, we've sponsored legislation that would eliminate the card and restore gun ownership as a guaranteed right under the constitution."
He also pointed to the state’s ban on automatic weapons, which Windhorst believes hurts the ability of law-abiding citizens to protect themselves.
"Illinois' ban on semi-automatic weapons outlawed the use and possession of multiple weapons that are in common use by law abiding citizens. The Supreme Court's 2008 Heller decision held weapons are protected by the second amendment."
Windhorst said members of the Democrat side of the aisle continue to push further restrictions on gun ownership, restrictions that hurt only law-abiding citizens.
"For example, Senate Bill 8, which was heard in a subject matter hearing last week in the Gun Violence Prevention Committee, is an unworkable law that lays out huge fines for law abiding gun owners. SB-8 is problematic in many ways. The legislation creates civil penalties up to $10,000 in some instances and ultimately allows for the denial or revocation of a FOID card is a person fails two or more times to report a loss or theft of a firearm within 48 hours of the discovery of that loss or theft."
The former Massac County State’s Attorney said laws that go beyond the federal firearm restrictions make for a confusing patchwork of laws that stand in direct conflict with the U.S constitution.
