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State Rep. Patrick Windhorst, R-Metropolis, warned legislators
of the taxpayer cost of passing measures later challenged in the
courts on constitutional grounds.
“I think there are serious issues with the Second Amendment and
with the Commerce Clause of the Constitution that will cause
this bill to be ultimately found unconstitutional, which will
mean we will spend dollars through the Attorney General's office
of trying to defend a law that, as was pointed out in other
comments, is unnecessary,” Windhorst said during a news
conference Thursday.
House Bill 4471 would ban the sale and manufacture of certain
handguns defined as “easily convertible” with a cheap device
called a switch. Switches are already illegal.
State Rep. Justin Slaughter, D-Chicago, sponsored the bill.
“We can't say with certainty that initiatives like this will
stop criminals from committing crimes, but we must do all that
we can to minimize the harmful impact of fully automatic machine
guns,” Slaughter said during a committee hearing Wednesday.
The underlying measure had more than 600 people file in support
of the bill. More than 4,200 filed witness slips in opposition.
State Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer, R-Murrayville, urged legislators to
take a different approach.
“I think everybody sitting at this table wants to get rid of gun
violence,” Davidsmeyer said. “But the problem that we're having
right now is that we need crime control, not gun control.”
He asked what Democrats are doing about crime.
Slaughter said they have the Reimagine Public Safety Act passed
several years ago.
“It's not just looking at crime. We're actually getting to the
root causes of crime,” he said.
Legislators have until May 31 to pass bills for an immediate
effective date with simple majorities.
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