We're in the last week of the Illinois legislative session, and anti-gunners are working feverishly to pass a bill that would force gun companies to pay huge fees in order to keep their products available for sale in the state.
Busloads of gun control activists descended on Springfield on Tuesday to press lawmakers to pass the RIFL Act before the legislature adjourns, even though it would take some seriously underhanded moves by lawmakers to do so. HB 3320 hasn't even passed out of a single committee this session, and the deadline for bills to cross over from their chamber of origin hit more than a month ago.
Still, there are plenty of last minute tricks that Democrats could use to suddenly advance the RIFL Act, and the gun control lobby wouldn't be bussing in supporters unless they thought there was a viable chance of passage before sine die.
Advocates boarded buses on Tuesday morning, and leaders called the energy "electric."
"This is the most comprehensive gun violence bill the state and country have ever seen, so we feel like we are making history," Rachel Jacoby, gun violence prevention advocate, said on board one of the buses. "We want to encourage our lawmakers to be bold and courageous to get this bill over the finish line."
Again, HB 3320 hasn't barely left the starting gate at this point. Its last legislative action came more than a month ago, when the House Gun Violence Prevention Committee held a hearing on the bill. Opponents, by the way, outnumbered supporters by more than 2-1 in submitting witness slips to the committee, but that isn't likely to matter much to the Democrats in control of the legislature.
Advocates for the legislation claim that it would only require the firearms industry to pay it's "fair share" of the costs of gun violence, but there's a reason why this is the first legislation of its kind. What the firearms industry would really be required to do is pay for the criminal misuse of their products, with the amount of the licensing fee determined by how many firearms from a particular company were "recovered in a given years in connection with incidents involving firearm injuries and firearm deaths... regardless of the origin of purchase."
The bill is fundamentally flawed on multiple levels. First, it's facially outrageous to demand that a company cough up money because a small number of their products may be used in the commission of a crime. Is Illinois demanding the same of every brewery and distillery that wants to sell intoxicating beverages in the state, with the money going to pay for alcohol rehab treatments, liver transplants, and the costs associated with drunk driving? What about charging fast food companies a fee in order to sell burgers and fries that can lead to obesity?
The metric used to determine how much a particular company would have to pay is also screwy. Not every gun used in a crime is recovered and traced, and not every firearm that's traced is used in a crime. The clearance rate for non-fatal shootings in Chicago, for instance, has hovered around 5% in recent years, and in many of those cases a trace is never even conducted because police never get ahold of the firearm that was used. There's simply no way for the state to know how many guns sold by a particular manufacturer were used in a violent crime in a given year, but gun makers would still be charged based on flawed and incomplete data.
Even if the figures were 100% accurate, it would still be lunacy to require gun companies to fork over hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars a year just to keep selling their constitutionally-protected products to Illinois residents. If Democrats do move forward with the RIFL Act, several things will happen in short order.
First, lawsuits will be filed, and not just on Second Amendment grounds. The text of the bill arguably violates the Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act by imposing liability on gun makers for criminal actions by third parties, the dormant Commerce Clause by forcing out-of-state manufacturers to subsidize Illinois social policy and regulating (even indirectly) interstate commerce, and the Eighth Amendment's prohibitions on excessive fines (manufacturers who sell without a license can face $1,000,000 penalties).
If the law is not enjoined from being enforced, then you'll soon see gun companies decline to offer their products in Illinois, which is exactly what the gun control activists are hoping for. Companies big and small will decide it's no longer worth doing business in the state, while the few that remain will pass along the cost of a license to sell to customers.
Almost every small, independent gun shop would quickly go under, and big chains would either leave the state or, for those that offer other products like sporting goods stores, exit the gun-selling business.
The RIFL Act is a direct assault on the lawful commerce in arms, and both the producers of firearms and their customer base would be harmed by its enforcement. Anti-gun activists clearly thing they have a roadmap to passage this session, despite the legislative deadlines and the impending close of the session. Illinois gun owners need to continue speaking out against the RIFL Act until this year's session is gaveled to a close, and with any luck we'll be able co celebrate the demise of the bill in just a few days.
