SPRINGFIELD - Tuesday, all but one Republican House members and several Democrats racked up a slew of "NV"s when they refused to vote on floor amendments to House Speaker Mike Madigan's assault weapons ban proposal. Rather than move HB 1156 through the normal route of House committee vetting and testimony, Madigan manuevered floor votes which, Democrat State Rep Brandon Phelps (D-Carbondale) said, effectively banned all hunting rifles in Illinois.
"Hunting rifles would be banned in Illinois with the passage of Amendments 2, 3, and 4," Phelps said. "There are 1.3 million hunters in Illinois, and they brought $2.3 million into Illinois' treasury. We need all the money we can get in this state. This just doesn't make sense."
The sponsor of Amendment #2, State Rep Edward Acevedo (D-Chicago) rejected comments from State Rep. Dennis Reboletti (R-Addison) who said the amendment proposals were simply political games to obtain roll calls to use on campaign literature against Republican incumbents. Reboletti urged his GOP House colleagues to refrain from voting. Acevedo said the legislation was meant to "save lives" of innocent children.
During the roll call on Amendment #2, Republicans stayed in the chambers, but all but one - Rep Brad Halbrook who voted "no" - did not vote. Several Democrats chose to refrain from voting, and 13 Dems voted "no." 52 Democrats voted "yes." The roll calls on all three amendments are similar to the vote on Amendment #2. Follow the whole recorded debate on BlueroomStream HERE, beginning at approximately 19:00 into the discussion.
Amendment #3 would make it a Class 2 or Class 1 felony to be in possession of so-called "assault weapons" and allow an owner 300 days to get rid of any weapons that the legislation banned. The provision in Amendment #7 to grandfather in current banned gun owners was withdrawn later in the discussion.
Amendment #4 effectively "banned all firearms in Illinois," State Rep. Phelps said. It would have made it a felony to sell or transfer any semi-automatic firearms.
Amendment #5 to HB 1156 would ban the possession, sale or transfer of any firearm with a "large capacity ammunition feeding device."
Amendment #6 would require those exempted from the ban to keep their so-called "assault weapons" locked up.
HB 1156 with the adopted amendments was kept on second reading, needing one more vote on third reading to move to the Illinois Senate.
