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Why has Illinois’ “red flag” law not lived up to expectations?

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Illinois

* Annie Sweeney, Jeremy Gorner and Dan Petrella at the Tribune take a hard look at the state’s Firearms Restraining Order…

Since the [Illinois] law took effect in 2019, just 228 of the orders have been granted in Illinois, according to Illinois State Police. In Maryland, an estimated 2,000 red flag orders have been granted since the law went into effect in late 2018, according to data from the Center for Gun Violence Solutions at Johns Hopkins University. Researchers in California, meanwhile, say about 1,000 were granted there between 2016 and 2019.

* Why the difference? One reason…

In a statement to the Tribune this week, the Illinois attorney general’s office acknowledged that the firearms restraining order law rolled out without any funding for training.

“When the Illinois Firearm Restraining Order Act became law in 2019, it did not provide a process or funding mechanism for training,” the statement reads.

In late 2020, the office developed training and materials to raise awareness and has since trained “law enforcement agencies, state’s attorney’s offices, crime victims’ organizations, gun safety groups and veterans’ service providers,” the statement read.

DuPage County State’s Attorney Robert Berlin said after reviewing the red flag legislation in 2018, he immediately added the topic to his annual training for law enforcement. He has also assigned an assistant state’s attorney to help with the filing of the orders, and he met with the county’s chief judge to set up a process to handle the filings, which are all heard in the same courtroom.

According to the article, 228 firearms restraining orders have been issued in Illinois and DuPage County “has led the way with 70.”

Go read the rest.

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 9:44 am

Comments

“he immediately added the topic to his annual training for law enforcement”

DuPage is becoming quite the contrast to the adjacent Will County.

With the amount of out of control asset forfeiture coming out of the Will County State’s Attorney office, there’s no excuse for that same training not to be taking place in Will County.

Comment by TheInvisibleMan Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 9:50 am
It hasn’t lived up to expectations because - no offense to the people trying to make it work - it’s a half-baked, individualizing answer to a full-blown societal problem. That problem is the current interpretation of the Second Amendment.

Comment by GC Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 10:07 am
There’s a kind of unofficial thread to today’s CapFax rollout, that it’s easier to pass a shiny new law that looks like it achieves progressive or liberal Democratic goals, and issue a press release about it, than it is to really implement and fund the thing and make sure it works on the ground …

Comment by ZC Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 11:03 am
Blame a lack of training but what I see is reluctance to enforce from law officers and local prosecutors, many of which are big second amendment fans themselves, and not fans of time-consuming paperwork and effort going out to collect the weapons.

Comment by Give Us Barabbas Monday, Aug 8, 22 @ 1:03 pm