A far-reaching bill introduced in the Illinois General Assembly would force state residents applying for gun permits to…
A far-reaching bill introduced in the Illinois General Assembly would force state residents applying for gun permits to allow police to inspect their social media accounts as part of the license-approval process.
The state-level measure is part of an avalanche of legislative assaults on the constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms that followed high-profile fatal mass shootings such as the Feb. 14,2018, attack at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. Later that year, fatal school shootings took place in Texas and Indiana. In October, a gunman killed congregants at a synagogue in Pittsburgh, and a few days later, there was a fatal mass shooting at a bar in the Los Angeles area.
Daniel Didech and Jonathan Carroll, Democrats who represent District 59 and 57, respectively, in the Illinois House of Representatives, are championing the legislation that has earned the ire of Second Amendment supporters.
Didech couches his arguments for the bill in terms of compassion for the mentally ill.
“This is something my community is demanding action on,” Didech told reporters.
“A lot of people who are having mental-health issues will often post on their social media pages that they’re about to hurt themselves or others,” Didech said. “We need to give those people the help they need.”
The bill “gives Illinois State Police additional tools to make sure that dangerous weapons aren’t getting into the hands of dangerous people,” he said.
A summary of Didech’s bill says the measure, if enacted, would empower state police to “conduct a search of the [would-be gun] purchasers’ social media accounts available to the public to determine if there is any information that would disqualify the person from obtaining or require revocation of a currently valid Firearm Owner’s Identification Card.
