Pritzker to consider bill mandating gun owners lock up firearms near
minors
[May 30, 2025]
By Jade Aubrey and UIS Public Affairs Reporting (PAR)
SPRINGFIELD — A bill that would require gun owners to keep any firearms
in a locked box whenever a minor is present will soon head to Gov. JB
Pritzker.
Senate Bill 8, also referred to as the Safe Gun Storage Act, is the
latest gun safety measure pushed by Democrats in the General Assembly.
It passed the House 69-40, with Republican lawmakers warning that it
could be found unconstitutional if challenged in court.
The bill mandates that gun owners store their firearms in a secure,
locked box in any place where they know or “reasonably should know” that
a minor without permission to access a firearm, an at-risk person or
someone who is prohibited from obtaining a firearm can access the
weapon. Gun owners who violate the act would be subject to civil
penalties.
The law would apply to both handguns and long guns, such as rifles and
shotguns.
Under the state’s current criminal code, firearm owners are required to
store their guns in a place that’s inaccessible to a child under the age
of 14 – SB8 raises the age requirement to a child under 18 and mandates
that the gun must be locked away or equipped with a device making it
temporarily inoperable.
It also defines an at-risk person as someone who has shown behavior or
made statements that a “reasonable person” would consider indicative
that the individual may physically harm themselves or others.

“An estimated 30 million children in our country live in a home with at
least one firearm, with 4.6 million children living in homes with
unlocked and loaded guns,” bill sponsor in the House, Rep. Maura
Hirschauer, D-Batavia, said during floor debate. “We are all familiar
with the chilling statistics that guns are the No. 1 cause of death for
our children in the United States.”
The bill exempts firearms carried on a person who has a concealed carry
license. The gun owner also would not be liable if a minor, at-risk or
prohibited person uses the firearm in self-defense or uses it after
accessing it illegally – for instance, in circumstances like breaking
and entering.
The Safe Gun Storage Act also makes changes to a variety of existing
Illinois gun laws, including a mandate that firearm owners report a lost
or stolen firearm within 48 hours of the owner finding the firearm
missing, instead of the current 72-hour timeframe. Illinois State Police
would also be given the ability to revoke a firearm owner’s
identification, or FOID, card if a gun owner fails to report a stolen or
lost firearm twice or more under the bill.
If a minor, at-risk or prohibited person gains access to an unlocked
firearm, the bill provides the gun owner could face civil penalties
ranging from $500 to $10,000 if the gun to hurt or kill another person
in a crime.
A separate section of the bill allows for a $1,000 fine and a Class C
misdemeanor charge against a gun owner if a minor under the age of 18
causes death or bodily harm while accessing a firearm without
permission. That language previously only applied to minors under the
age of 14.
“Safe firearms storage and responsible gun ownership are practices on
which all of us in this room, gun owners and non-gun owners alike, can
agree,” Hirschauer said. “Safe gun storage can reduce unintentional
injuries, suicides and intentional harm, like school shootings, by
stopping unauthorized access.”
Under SB8, if a firearm owner fails to store their firearm in a secure,
locked box and a minor, at-risk or prohibited person illegally obtains
the firearm and uses it to hurt themselves or others – the owner could
be charged with negligence.
The Safe Gun Storage Act also requires Illinois State Police to expand
an online database that was required under a previous law to house all
information on the make, model and serial number of reported lost or
stolen firearms. By Jan. 1, 2027, ISP would have to make the portal
accessible to licensed firearm dealers, who would be required to
cross-reference the database to ensure any firearms they are selling or
transferring are not a firearm listed in the database.

Another aspect of the bill classifies anyone traveling through the state
with a firearm that’s prohibited under state law as gun trafficking – a
felony charge that can result in up to a 15-year prison sentence.
Arguments of unconstitutionality
During debate about the bill on the Senate floor in April, Sen. Neil
Anderson, R-Andalusia, took issue with the bill giving Illinois State
Police the ability to revoke a person’s FOID card.
He said that aspect of the bill would not pass the Rahimi test –
referencing the 2023 United States v. Rahimi Supreme Court case, which
ruled a court can temporarily revoke a perron’s firearm rights if the
court determines the firearm owner is a threat to public safety when in
possession of a firearm.
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Rep. Maura Hirschauer, D-Batavia, speaks on the House floor on
Thursday, May 22, 2025. (Capitol News Illinois photo by Jerry
Nowicki)

SB8 would allow Illinois State Police to revoke a person’s FOID card,
which Anderson said is in direct conflict with the Rahimi decision –
which said only courts had the power to revoke a person’s firearm
rights.
Bill sponsor Sen. Laura Ellman, D-Naperville, disagreed with Anderson,
saying the Rahimi case did not exclude law enforcement from being able
to revoke a person’s FOID card. The bill passed the Senate on a vote of
33-19.
A similar debate happened on the House floor Wednesday before the bill’s
eventual passage.
Rep. Patrick Windhorst, R-Metropolis, took issue with the bill’s
creation of a potential negligence charge for gun owners who do not
safely secure a gun that’s used by a minor, at-risk or prohibited person
to harm someone. He said he believed such a burden shift to be
unconstitutional.
Hirschauer responded that the burden shift only applies when the
reasonable standard is met – when it’s reasonably found that the gun
owner should have known to safely store their firearm – or, if “some
terrible negligence” occurs.
Windhorst also raised concerns about the fact that cable locks, which
are locked cables inserted through a firearm’s chamber and out of the
magazine well, are not considered “safe storage” under the bill. Under
existing law about storing guns away from minors, a cable lock is
considered safe storage of a firearm. Windhorst said that conflicts with
the new language pertaining to gun storage, which does not mention
devices that render a gun temporarily inoperable.
“Under the criminal code of this bill where we are changing our current
child access protection law, a cable lock would suffice,” Hirschauer
said. “Under the new Safe Storage Act, it would not.”
He also argued that the bill impeded the rights of concealed carry
license holders who carry a gun in a vehicle, as some firearms owners
currently store their gun in the center console or glove box. Under the
Safe Gun Storage Act, the center console or glove box would have to be
lockable in order to render the firearm safely stored.

Windhorst also voiced concerns that the gun trafficking charges in the
bill could be brought against a person passing through Illinois with
firearms in their vehicle that are legal in their home state – a point
which Hirschauer responded to by reading language in the bill that
expressly excluded non-residents from the charges.
“If someone is a non-resident of Illinois and is passing through and
they are a legal gun owner in the state in which they reside, if that
state doesn’t have a FOID card system and if they are authorized under
federal law to own a gun, then they would not be subject to this,” she
said.
Rep. C.D. Davidsmeyer, R-Murrayville, raised concerns about the bill’s
definition of “lawful permission” and its limitations on minors who
hunt. The bill requires firearm owners to safely secure their firearm in
a locked box when around a minor who does not have “lawful permission”
from a parent or guardian to access a firearm. On the House floor,
Davidsmeyer asked what constitutes “lawful permission,” to which
Hirschauer answered it, “could be several things.”
When asked whether permission must be written down or notarized for
parental permission of a minor using a firearm to hunt to be considered
lawful, Hirschauer answered that “hypothetical points are fact
dependent.” Davidsmeyer said the question was not a hypothetical, and
that it is an issue that will crop up in “daily life” for minors who
hunt.
“This bill, I believe, violates recent Supreme Court decisions under the
Second Amendment and will likely be found unconstitutional,” Windhorst
said at the end of debate.
Hirschauer disagreed.
“Firearm theft compromises the effectiveness of our commonsense gun laws
and often results in these weapons being acquired by people who are
legally prohibited from possessing them,” she said. “The reporting
measures strengthened in this bill will give law enforcement the tools
they need to crack down on lost and stolen guns.”
Opponents to SB8 include the ACLU of Illinois, Illinois State Rifle
Association and the Illinois State Crime Commissions; the Illinois State
Police did not officially oppose or support the bill. SB8 passed the
Senate 33-19 last month and awaits approval from the governor before it
can become law.
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