05.16.23 Illinois Advocacy Day*

*The opinions and experiences below are my own and do not represent the organization I volunteer for. For the official Gun Violence Prevention Advocacy Day, please consult their website*

Bipartisan Issue: The Gun Violence Epidemic

May 16th Advocacy Day was motivating! My fellow volunteers and I personally met with 3 of our 6 Illinois District Representatives to promote getting Ethan's Law and the Cold Case Bill moving.

TL;DR: IL-52 McLaughlin and IL-69 Sosnowski show active willingness to work on gun sense laws and making our communities safer. IL-52 Reick is a roadblock.

IL-52 Rep McLaughlin was friendly, firm in his beliefs, and very willing to talk to us. He liked talking about the common sense of Ethan's Law that requires parents to lock up guns in homes with children. IL-47 Rep Sanalitro was also present and felt parental responsibility was a perfectly reasonable goal. He also liked the Cold Case Bill, but had concerns about how that would be funded. McLaughlin would prefer if each of these two were stand-alone bills and would also put more funds into Mental Health to address the Gun Violence epidemic. IL-47 Rep Sanalitro was also present and felt parental responsibility was a perfectly reasonable goal.

IL-69 Rep Sosnowski was polite, engaging, and inquisitive about our advocacy when we caught up with him. He appreciated Ethan's Law/Safe Storage and how it puts the responsibility of keeping the guns out of a child's hands on the parent/guardian, but would be keen to see an approach that actively fosters prevention and spitballed ways that could be accomplished. The Cold Case Bill went over well with him too, but he expressed concerns about law enforcement being stretched thin already.

IL-52 Rep Reick had us sit in the waiting area for about 5 minutes with a coffee table that had the May edition of GunNews on it. Said edition has a picture of Moms Demand Action on the front with Judge Rocheford, calling her tainted for being associated with MDA. That certainly set the tone for the meeting. 

Reick started out stiffly polite and ran into hostile territory. He was vehemently against Ethan's Law because he is convinced it will lead to door-knocking to confirm compliance and eventually to the confiscation of weapons. 

His comment about preventing the deaths of children was that it was unavoidable as it was a mental health issue that gun control would not solve. 

Despite us representing a nonpartisan organization, Reick frequently called it 'my side' and 'your side' when referring to our quest to end gun violence. 

When queried as to if he would sponsor a mental health bill on the topic of gun violence, Reick answered no, but he might consider voting for one. 

He also would refuse to support the Cold Case Bill as he believes that if cases are unsolved it's the local jurisdiction's problem and shouldn't be required if local departments don't think it merits a second look.