CHICAGO, Ill. – Governor JB Pritzker has signed into law a bill banning so-called “ghost guns” in the state.
Pritzker did so at a news conference in Chicago.
“These firearms are often assembled from kits that can be bought online, and do not have serial numbers, sold without background checks, and easy for criminals to acquire, while difficult for law enforcement to check,” said Brendan Kelly, Director, Illinois State Police.
Kelly says such guns seem to be more accessible to teenagers, with at least two being arrested in Illinois this month — one of those teens alelgedly carrying such a gun, loaded, into a school.
“These are illegal guns. We’ve made them illegal. We’ve made them illegal to acquire. We think that will have a measurable impact,” said Pritzker. “Is there more that needs to be done? Of course. This is one thing.”
Pritzker says getting to the root causes of some forms of gun violence is also being worked on, along with other work.
“We’re engaged in a multi-intergovernmental effort to interdict the transport of guns across state lines illegally,” said Pritzker. “We know that 60 percent of the guns that are involved in shootings in the City of Chicago come from out of state.”
Peoria Police have also made ghost gun-related arrests in the recent past.
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