Senator Julie Morrison (Ill.-D) mocked a gun owner during an end of session town hall on June 11, where he raised the issue of proposed bill SB 107, a firearms regulation that proposes fines for keeping a commonly owned semiautomatic firearm in one’s home.
The initial sponsor of the Senate Bill 107 remarked that if gun owners don’t want to comply by registering or handing in their firearms, authorities might skip the fine and just move to confiscate their firearms straightaway.
The bill essentially bans all rifles with detachable magazines and would be more restrictive than the regulations in the state of California, which is considered to be one of the most restrictive states as it comes to gun ownership.
Under the current wording of the bill, owners of existing weapons would be allowed to keep them, but the weapons would have to be registered. Failure to register would be a felony.
Future bills will require firearm owners to provide a list of their social media accounts, and revoke Firearm Owner’s ID cards for those who had lost or had their firearms stolen more than three times in two years, and also restrict the possession of ammunition, The Telegraph reported.
The confrontation, in which the gun owner raised the issue of the upcoming bill, was videotaped by a member of the Illinois State Rifle Association and soon went viral.
The gun owner argued the purpose of it was “to take away [his] semiautomatic firearms,” after which Morrison replied that the intention was not to confiscate them but to prevent them from being sold in the future.
“You want me to turn them over to the state police unless I pay a fine for each firearm and register them, then I get to keep them,” the gun owner said.
Morrison agreed, saying, “Okay.”
The gun owner then asked, “If I get to keep it–if I pay a fine and register it–then, how dangerous is it in the first place and why do you need to ban it all?”
His remark was met with great enthusiasm and applause by the assembled crowd.
“Well,” Morrison replied, “you just maybe changed my mind. Maybe we won’t have a fine at all, maybe it’ll just be a confiscation, and we won’t have to worry about paying the fine.”
“Excellent,” the man said, seemingly content now that the real intention of the lawmakers was revealed.
The video went viral and provoked a huge outrage among Second Amendment proponents, nationwide.
NRATV’s Cam Edwards said, “It’s been interesting to see this push-back in Illinois. Obviously, over the last few years, we’ve seen a lot of counties outside of the Chicago-land area have been very vocal in pushing back. But I’ve got to tell you, I’ve been really impressed by the number of gun owners in northern Illinois … who have been speaking out.”
Blogger David Drake remarked on his website: “Morrison – in EPIC FAILURE MODE – attempts to make an analogy between her idea of post-registration of an already, legally purchased gun to annual car license (tab) registration. As pointed out to her, one of those items is a Constitutional Right; the other is a privilege.”
The Teaparty.com posted a statement on its website that says: “We, the People of the United States, will not stand by while these precious rights are taken from us. The Second Amendment guarantees security, it does not threaten it, and every man and woman in this great nation has a right to use it to protect themselves against tyranny or any other threat.”
