By Jeremy Gorner
Chicago Tribune
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a measure Monday aimed at shoring up protections for domestic violence victims by spelling out when law enforcement is required to take guns from alleged abusers with orders of protection against them.
What was popularly known as “Karina’s bill” was named after a woman who was shot and killed in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood about two years ago after she had filed a restraining order against her husband. That action should have required him to give up his gun as the case went through the court system.
“Karina’s law will protect survivors of domestic violence and give them comfort, the comfort of knowing that their abuser will not have easy access to firearms,” Pritzker said at a news conference in Chicago. “Taking lethal weapons from those who have already done harm and are an immediate and present danger to do further harm is simply common sense.”
The law takes effect 90 days after Monday’s signing. It will require law enforcement agencies to remove guns and firearm identification, or FOID, cards from those subject to orders of protection within 96 hours of a search warrant being issued related to the order of protection.
When alleged abusers’ FOID cards were revoked in the past, they’d often be required only to surrender their guns to someone close to them with a valid FOID card. Under the new law, as a case progresses in court, a judge could determine it is safe for a third party to take possession of the guns for safekeeping, especially if they don’t live in the same household.
The third party must declare in court that they don’t live with the alleged abuser and that the alleged abuser doesn’t have access to the guns. The law allows law enforcement agencies to make arrangements with federally licensed firearms dealers or other law enforcement agencies to handle the “storage of any firearms seized or surrendered.”
State officials are still “having conversations” over concerns about how the measure might make it difficult for law enforcement to store all the guns officers confiscate, said State Sen. Celina Villanueva, a Democrat from Little Village who was one of the bill’s sponsors.
Karina Gonzalez, who lived in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, was shot and killed by her husband in July 2023, according to prosecutors. Her 15-year-old daughter, Daniela, also was killed and her son, Manny Alvarez, was wounded in the shooting. Gonzalez had obtained an order of protection against her husband and his FOID card had been revoked. The case against her husband is pending.
“As I look forward towards the future, I hope that future survivors won’t have to suffer as much as our family and countless others have had to at the hands of abusers,” Alvarez said at the news conference. “And while there is still much work to be done, the future’s brighter than ever.”
Villanueva was often emotional as she recalled the day of the shooting, which happened just blocks from her district office and not far from her home.
“There’s a lot of moments where as legislators, we also feel helpless. We don’t admit it very often, but we do. We’re in positions of power when we don’t always have the ability to change everything that we see fit and everything that we want to do,” Villanueva said. “Karina and Daniela’s life already meant something. Their lives were already worth it. But now they’re cemented in the history books.”
During the legislature’s lame-duck session in early January, the bill passed the Senate 43-10 with bipartisan support, then was approved 80-33 in the House.
“This policy sends a clear message to those living through trauma and the terror of domestic violence: Here in Illinois, we see you. You have the absolute right to leave your abuser, and we will do our best to keep you and your family safe,” said state Rep. Maura Hirschauer, a Democrat from Batavia who sponsored the bill in the House.
The Illinois State Rifle Association and the Illinois Federation of Outdoor Resources opposed the bill, arguing that it violated an alleged abuser’s right to due process.
“An individual has a right to a hearing and be found to be an abuser before we take away a constitutional right from them,” Josh Witkowski, who represents the federation, said last month at a Senate Executive Committee hearing. “Unfortunately this bill does not do that.”
In support of the bill, Kane County’s Democratic state’s attorney, Jamie Mosser, testified at the hearing that the measure properly allows due process and cited recent case law that she said allows someone to be disarmed “when there’s a court finding that that person is a danger to another individual.”
Meanwhile, a downstate judge ruled Monday that Illinois’ law requiring gun owners to carry a FOID card in order to keep a gun in their homeis unconstitutional. The same judge, T. Scott Webb, ruled in 2023 that the state’s assault weapons ban likely violated the Illinois Constitution before the state Supreme Court ultimately upheld the ban.
The latest ruling stemmed from a case involving a woman in White County who was charged with possessing a rifle without a FOID card after sheriff’s deputy found a rifle at her home in 2017. The state Rifle Association has said the woman had the rifle at the time because she was afraid of her husband. Previous iterations of the case have gone before the Illinois Supreme Court, which has steadily upheld the state’s FOID requirements.
Webb cited a landmark 2022 U.S. Supreme Court case, New York State Rifle and Pistol Association v. Bruen, that requires gun laws to be historically consistent with laws on the books when the Second Amendment’s right to bear arms was written in the 18th century. He ruled that there’s “no historical analogue” to the FOID Card Act.
“Quite frankly, it is asinine to think that in this ‘land of the free and home of the brave,’ one must petition the government and pay a fee to be able to enjoy the fundamental Constitutional right to protect oneself inside one’s home,” Webb wrote.
It was unclear what the next steps are in the case.
Richard Pearson, the state rifle association’s executive director, issued a statement blasting Pritzker for signing Karina’s bill in light of the White County case.
“It is the height of hypocrisy for Governor Pritzker to sign legislation today claiming to protect potential domestic violence victims, while at the same time the FOID card act is being used to disarm those same potential victims,” Pearson said in the statement.
A spokesman for Pritzker did not immediately respond for comment on Webb’s ruling.
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