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* Press release…

Building on historic action to protect Illinoisans from gun violence and just a day after the Illinois Supreme Court upheld the state’s assault weapons ban, Governor JB Pritzker signed the Firearm Industry Responsibility Act (FIRA) into law, holding accountable gun manufacturers who knowingly caused harm from unsafe marketing practices. Governor Pritzker signed the bill alongside lawmakers and gun control advocates at Gun Sense University, an annual training conference of more than 2,000 Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action volunteers and survivors, hosted by Everytown for Gun Safety.

“Today, I proudly signed the Firearm Industry Responsibility Act into law — finally holding gun manufacturers accountable for endangering the public safety and health of our people,” said Governor JB Pritzker. “We hold opioid manufacturers accountable. Vaping companies accountable. Predatory lenders accountable. Gun manufacturers shouldn’t get to hide from the law—and now, they won’t be able to. Here’s to an Illinois where everyone feels safe in every corner of our great state.”

“No single industry should be given a free pass to engage in unlawful, unfair or deceptive conduct,” said Attorney General Kwame Raoul. “The Firearms Industry Responsibility Act clarifies my office’s ability to use the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act, which is a tool to hold businesses accountable for fraudulent or deceptive practices through civil litigation. It is how my office has protected the public from opioid manufacturers, vaping companies, tobacco companies and predatory lenders. By signing this legislation, Gov. Pritzker has taken an important step to protect consumers and increase public safety.”

“Thoughts and prayers are hollow if we do not also act decisively. That is why we are continuing to rise to the occasion through this bill that will hold gun manufacturers accountable for advertising to our youth and promoting dangerous, illegal acts that jeopardize lives,” said Lt. Gov. Juliana Stratton. “For too long our communities have lost loved ones to gun violence. In Illinois, we are standing up to say ‘enough is enough’.”

“Depicting guns as tools for carnage is a dangerously irresponsible sales tactic that will undoubtedly lead to further murder and maiming of innocent people,” said state Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, D-Glenview. “It is tragic that we have to step in to ensure manufacturers exercise common sense. However, thankfully due to the law we are codifying today, any reckless companies participating in such behavior will face serious penalties for their wanton disregard for public safety.”

“As a society, we long ago established that it is irresponsible, unsafe and illegal to allow certain entities to target our children with their marketing,” said Illinois Senate President Don Harmon (D-Oak Park). You see that with cigarettes and alcohol. This new law holds gun makers to the same standards, telling them to stop marketing to an audience that cannot legally purchase the product. It’s common sense.”

Under the Firearm Industry Responsibility Act (HB 218), gun manufacturers that engage in unsafe and unlawful marketing and sale will be held accountable for actions contributing to gun violence in Illinois communities. The proposed measure will prohibit advertising and marketing that encourages para-military or unlawful private militia activity and advertising to individuals under 18 that encourages the use of a firearm in an unlawful manner including advertising the uses of cartoons, stuffed animals and clothing targeted towards children.

Earlier this year, Governor Pritzker signed legislation to ban assault weapons, cap sales of high-capacity ammunition magazines, ban “switches” that convert legal handguns into assault weapons and extend the ability of courts to prevent dangerous individuals from possessing a gun through firearm restraining orders.

Governor Pritzker has also signed legislation to ban unserialized, privately made “ghost guns,” the first Midwestern state to do so (HB 4383). In 2021, Governor Pritzker signed legislation expanding background checks on all gun sales in Illinois and modernizing and strengthening the Firearm Owners Identification Card System (HB 562). Additionally, Governor Pritzker signed legislation (SB 337) to combat the scourge of illegal gun trafficking, making Illinois the 16th state to require gun dealers to be certified by the state after more than a decade of work. Governor Pritzker’s Reimagine Public Safety Act also established the first ever Office of Firearm Violence Prevention, providing a historic investment in community-based violence prevention for the communities most affected by firearm violence.

This legislation is effective immediately.

* CBS 2…

“There’s an attitude in the gun industry that they’re not responsible for what happens with their products,” said David Pucino, deputy chief counsel of the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence.

Pucino said the Gun Violence Victims’ Access to Justice Bill, which passed both houses this week and is on its way to Gov. Pritzker’s office to sign, would make it easier for victims of gun violence and their families to take this type of legal action in the state of Illinois.

“There’s an explicit exception in the federal statute that says if a gun company is breaking state law, they don’t get any protection,” Pucino said.

* Tribune…

Prior to the measure’s passage in May, Senate Republican Leader John Curran, of Downers Grove, raised concerns about the “vagueness and the lack of notice and guidance” that the measure gives firearms businesses when they try to comply with such a law by implementing certain safeguards.

“We already heavily regulate those who sell and transact weapons in this state. What this proposal before us does, it really just sets a whole myriad of additional liabilities for gun dealers, and quite frankly there’s parts of it that would be impossible for them to follow,” Curran said during a Senate floor debate. He also said he thinks the measure could be challenged in the courts.

Before the bill passed, at least one of its other opponents argued it violates federal law, which provides protections for firearms manufacturers against civil liabilities. During the Illinois Senate floor debate, Senate President Don Harmon sought to assure others in the chamber that the bill “does not conflict with federal law.”

“I want to emphasize why we’re doing this. One of the key components of this is to prevent marketing to children,” said Harmon, a Democrat from Oak Park.

* NBC 5…

The measure passed on a party-line vote earlier this year, and Republicans warned at the time that it will face legal challenges on Second Amendment grounds.

“What we have here is, at best, a constitutionally-questionable bill that is going to require our state to expend resources in defending it because it’s already been said that a challenge is going to come,” Rep. Dan Ugaste said to the State Journal-Register. “It’s happened in every other state that’s passed this legislation.”

* Center Square…

Robert Bevis of firearm manufacturer and retailer Law Weapons in Naperville said the measure is another example of an infringement.

“Automobile manufacturers are not responsible for people that drive drunk and crash their cars,” Bevis said. “We can’t be held responsible for the way somebody uses a firearm if it’s in a nefarious way.”

Bevis is a lead plaintiff in one of the cases pending in the Seventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals challenging Illinois’ and Naperville’s gun and magazine ban. In a separate state-level case, the state’s ban was upheld Friday by the Illinois Supreme Court. […]

The new law mirrors one signed by California Gov. Gavin Newsom in 2022. Assembly Bill 1594 created the “firearm standard of conduct,” requiring members of the firearm industry to “enforce reasonable controls” to prevent the sale of firearms to a downstream distributor that does not enforce the same controls. The National Shooting Sports Foundation challenged the law in federal court in May 2023, asking the judge to stop it from taking effect while it’s litigated. Attorneys for Attorney General Rob Bonta and the NSSF on Friday agreed on a Sept. 11 deadline for the state to respond to the injunction request.

* G-PAC…

Today, Gun Violence Prevention PAC Illinois (G-PAC) released the following statement from Kathleen Sances, CEO of G-PAC, following Governor JB Pritzker signing H.B. 218 – also known as the Firearms Industry Responsibility Act — into law. This law will hold gun manufacturers accountable through the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act for their dangerous and deceptive marketing practices, including advertising encouraging para-military or unlawful private militia activity and advertising directed to children. The bill’s signing comes on the heels of the Illinois Supreme Court ruling to uphold the state’s ban on assault weapons and large-capacity magazines.

Three months ago, G-PAC launched the #NotInOurHouse campaign to educate Illinoisans on the immunity the firearm industry enjoys and how it has targeted kids as future customers — all to advocate for the passage of this bill.

“Today, we took an important step in the fight against dangerous disinformation from the gun industry. Governor JB Prizker’s signing of the Firearms Industry Responsibility Act into law will end the gun industry’s deceitful advertising tactics and hold manufacturers accountable for the harm they have caused.

“This win for gun safety comes a little over a year after the devastating Highland Park mass shooting. Since then, we have made tremendous strides in curbing gun violence in Illinois and setting the stage for our children to have futures free from this burden. We have shown the gun industry that we will not be complicit in their manufactured political wars to push their anti-public safety agenda for financial gain.”

* AG Raoul…

Attorney General Kwame Raoul today applauded Governor JB Pritzker for signing into law his Firearm Industry Responsibility Act to hold bad actors in the gun industry accountable for unlawful sales and marketing tactics.

“No single industry should be given a free pass to engage in unlawful, unfair or deceptive conduct,” Attorney General Raoul said. “The Firearms Industry Responsibility Act clarifies my office’s ability to use the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act, which is a tool to hold businesses accountable for fraudulent or deceptive practices through civil litigation. It is how my office has protected the public from opioid manufacturers, vaping companies, tobacco companies and predatory lenders. By signing this legislation, Gov. Pritzker has taken an important step to protect consumers and increase public safety.”

Raoul’s legislation amends the Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act to clarify that businesses in the firearms industry are and have always been subject to civil liability if they engage in unlawful business and marketing practices.

Illinois Senate President Don Harmon and Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz sponsored House Bill 218.

“At its core, this legislation will protect consumers,” said Senate President Harmon. “These are reasonable, manageable steps we can take to help curb the scourge of gun violence in our state.”

“In 2020, guns surpassed traffic fatalities as the leading cause of death for children in the U.S. In 2023 alone, there were 58 unintentional shootings by children,” said Gong-Gershowitz. “HB218 is designed to hold those in the firearms industry who violate Illinois law accountable and ensure families devastated by gun violence have a path to justice in Illinois civil court.”

The law is the most recent step in Attorney General Raoul’s work to comprehensively address gun violence throughout Illinois and across the nation. The Attorney General’s office has been defending, and will continue to defend, the constitutionality of the Protect Illinois Communities Act in both state and federal court.

Raoul created a state-of-the-art crime-gun tracing database for Illinois law enforcement called Crime Gun Connect. Raoul’s office also collaborates with local law enforcement to combat gun trafficking and has used the office’s jurisdiction to prosecute multi-county gun trafficking offenses. Additionally, the Attorney General’s office works with law enforcement agencies and prosecutors to increase awareness of Illinois’ red flag law and to address gaps in Illinois’ firearms licensing system. The office also continues to prosecute individuals who lie on FOID card applications.

The Attorney General’s office partners with the U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center (NTAC) to try to avert violence by hosting trainings for law enforcement officers, educators, religious leaders and other community members that are designed to prevent targeted acts of violence.

Attorney General Raoul has persistently advocated at the federal and state level to strengthen the regulation of 3D-printed guns and ghost guns. Illinois law now prohibits ghost guns, but the office continues to fight in federal court to help defend a recent rule closing the federal loophole.

Nationally, Attorney General Raoul successfully filed and resolved a lawsuit to get the federal firearm license of an unscrupulous arms manufacturer revoked. The office has also led several multi-state amicus briefs supporting commonsense gun safety laws in other states.

In addition to supporting law enforcement, the Attorney General’s office supports victims service providers around Illinois that offer trauma-informed services for crime victims and their families. Raoul’s Crime Victims Services Division administers a host of programs and services to assist survivors of violent crime. More information is available on the Attorney General’s website.

That’s all I have in my in-box so far.