Mandatory storage laws are billed as essential for keeping guns out of the hands of people who shouldn't have them, particularly young children. I get the thinking here, because I advocate for proper gun storage myself. The difference is that I don't want it mandated.
Why? Because mandates never work, and Illinois just proved my point.
As for January 1 of this year, the state is under a mandatory storage law. It was, as all such laws are, billed as necessary for keeping guns out of the hands of children.
And just a couple of days into the year, well, you can see for yourself.
Chicago police are still working to find out how exactly an 8-year-old boy was able to get his hands on a gun before allegedly shooting another child at a Northwest Side home on Thursday evening.
The investigation unfolded as a new state law, aimed at preventing scary scenes just like this one, took effect.
Questions remain unanswered on Friday morning outside the Humboldt Park apartment building where Chicago police say an 8-year-old boy found a gun and shot a 7-year-old boy just after 7 p.m. Thursday.
Police swarmed the scene near the intersection of Division and Spaulding.
Investigators say the 7-year-old boy was rushed to Stroger Hospital in serious condition, adding that a weapon was recovered on scene. Fortunately, the boy is expected to be OK.
But it is still not clear how the 8-year-old was so easily able to access a gun moments before he allegedly pulled the trigger.
The shooting happened as a new state law, the Safe Gun Storage Act, took effect on the same day.
Brilliant timing, let me tell ya.
If I actually wrote this in a work of fiction, people would roll their eyes at the timing because it's almost too convenient for the plot. However, fiction is forced to make sense. Reality? Less so.
Part of the problem with mandatory storage laws is that they don't work on illegal gun trafficking operations, and they don't stop irresponsible parents from being irresponsible. It's likely one of these two that led to this young boy getting a gun and ruining his life and the life of another in an instant, and over what? Probably some schoolyard beef that we used to settle with fists and then call it a day.
Now, we've got babies trying to kill babies.
The timing of this would be hilarious if the situation weren't so tragic.
Luckily, the victim is expected to recover, apparently, but it shouldn't have happened.
The issue is that mandatory storage laws slap a Band-Aid over the bicep when the wrist is bleeding. It sort of looks like it'll address the issue, but without actually understanding the underlying problems.
Kids getting guns is an issue. There's no question about that.
However, the issue isn't with the people who act responsibly, as they're already securing their guns. It's with those who aren't, and a law that lets them slap a charge on someone after the fact isn't likely to do all that much in the long run because most who won't comply figure no one will find out.
It's a sad, simple truth.
So, less than a week into 2026, and Illinois's mandatory storage law has already been shown to accomplish jack squat.
This report actually seems to hint at this fact, though I suspect most won't as the year goes on, and we'll later hear how this is some great success, as anything they can chalk up to this will be chalked up to this, even if it's just the continuation of an existing trend.
Kind of like they tried with the assault weapon ban back in 2004.
Anti-gunners are nothing if not predictable.
