Thursday was just a spectacular day for gangbangers who rule their turfs through murder and mayhem. The Illinois House foolishly voted 69-42 to approve a bill that would require the destruction of state records on gun purchases after 90 days. The bill now heads to the Senate, which appears poised to celebrate a second rousing Gangbanger Day in Springfield.
Law-abiding citizens, gun owners included, may not know how crucial Illinois’ purchase records are to capturing “straw purchasers”–people with clean records whom drug gang chieftains hire to buy and deliver their guns. This bill, fraudulently billed as a protection for innocent gun buyers, would be a huge win for straw purchasers and gang chieftains alike. Here’s why:
A gun retrieved at a crime scene can be traced to whoever bought it. This bill wouldn’t affect that federal protocol, which does help cops find killers. But that’s a gun-by-gun process, which isn’t how the most effective gunrunning cases are built against the gangs’ weapons suppliers.
Illinois separately maintains a database of gun transactions by retailers. So when a gun used in a crime gets traced to purchaser John Doe, the authorities can ask all the retailers Doe has patronized through the years what kinds of guns he’s purchased.
If authorities learn that Doe collects shotguns, he’ll still have to explain the handgun that wound up at a crime scene–but law enforcement will know he’s probably not a straw purchaser for a gang. Suppose, though, authorities learn from talking to the retailers that John Doe has bought 20 semiautomatic pistols in the last two years at six locations. Now law enforcement has a picture of his gun-buying habits–and he still has that crime scene gun to explain.
None of which proves he’s a criminal. But in this scenario–which plays out all the time in Chicago–the authorities approach Doe. If he can’t explain all those purchases of guns favored by street gangs, he has two choices. He can confess to being the gunrunner he is, or he can become an informant. He has an incentive to come clean: He has no criminal record, which is why he could buy guns in the first place.
It is the John Doe purchasers who confess or cooperate–some agree to wear wires and engage their customers in incriminating conversations–who help build the big gun cases here.
Forcing the state to destroy purchase records after 90 days, as this bill would, robs police of their ability to create the picture from John Doe’s years of gun purchases. If this bill is signed into law, more straw purchasers will elude capture. And more innocent gun owners will find themselves answering questions–precisely because the database won’t let cops and federal agents rule them out as gunrunning suspects.
Don’t think the gangbangers won’t exploit this. They and their pet lawyers will be the first to appreciate the impact: Gutting the Illinois database will make it simpler for Illinois gangs to use Illinois straw purchasers to buy street weapons at Illinois gun shops.
Gov. Rod Blagojevich is disinclined to sign this sop to street killers into law. If this gets to his desk, he will have two options: veto the bill outright, or issue an amendatory veto to kill only the gun records language.
The same bill includes a very important provision to close the so-called “gun show loophole” that lets criminals buy firearms at gun shows without undergoing background checks.
But closing that loophole while undermining one of law enforcement’s best tools against homicidal drug gangs isn’t a compromise. It’s dangerous mischief, nothing more.
If Illinois lawmakers want this pro-crime stain on their records, that’s between them and their future election opponents. As for Blagojevich, he will be absolutely right to use his veto power to pre-empt another Gangbanger Day.
