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1		HOUSE RESOLUTION
2		WHEREAS, Gun violence is an ever present problem in the
3		State, as well as nationwide; an example of which is 8 persons
4		dying in Chicago in one week in October due to gun violence;
5		and
6		WHEREAS, In the past few years, court rulings, including
7		the United States Supreme Court in District of Columbia V.
8		Heller, in interpreting the Second Amendment to the United
9		States Constitution have overturned long standing precedent,
10		which had supported state and local authority to deny gun
11		possession when necessary to promote and protect public safety;
12		in order to reach its decision, the 5 member majority of the
13		United States Supreme Court either ignored or misinterpreted
14		much of the clear and plain wording of the Second Amendment;
15		and
16		WHEREAS, As stated by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stevens in
17		his well-thought out dissent on behalf of 4 Justices in Heller:
18		"The Second Amendment was adopted to protect the right of the
19		people of each of the several States to maintain a
20		well-regulated militia. It was a response to concerns raised
21		during ratification of the Constitution that the power of
22		Congress to disarm the state militias and create a national
23		standing army posed an intolerable threat to the sovereignty of

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1		the several States. Neither the text of the Amendment nor the
2		arguments advanced by its proponents evidenced the slightest
3		interest in limiting any legislature's authority to regulate
4		private civilian uses of firearms. Specifically, there is no
5		indication that the Framers of the Amendment intended to
6		enshrine the common-law right of self-defense in the
7		Constitution."; rather the Second Amendment's original purpose
8		was to act as a check on federal gun-making policy, not to
9		prevent individual states from creating gun policy as they saw
10		fit; and
11		WHEREAS, The legal view of the Second Amendment as a
12		collective, militia right, and not an individual right, held
13		for over 200 years until the Heller decision in 2008, which
14		invalidated a law barring individuals from possessing a handgun
15		not registered before the law took effect and annual
16		registrations for the remaining handguns; and
17		WHEREAS, The Heller decision and other pro-firearm
18		industry court rulings have resulted in a proliferation of guns
19		in numerous communities and have diminished the security and
20		freedom of our citizens to enjoy a life free of gun violence;
21		living with the fear of gun violence is contrary to living in a
22		free society; high levels of gun violence are a threat to the
23		security of whole communities; and

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1		WHEREAS, The cost of gun violence has been pushed onto
2		everyone except the people and companies that produce and sell
3		firearms; the firearms industry benefits financially when more
4		guns are sold; more firearms in circulation leads to more gun
5		crimes, homicides, and suicides to the extent that gun-related
6		deaths will soon exceed the number of deaths in automotive
7		crashes; but the Heller decision effectively said that most of
8		the Second Amendment should be disregarded in favor of the part
9		that is most profitable to the firearms industry, "the right of
10		the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed"; and
11		WHEREAS, Throughout the history of the United States,
12		federal and state laws have regularly placed restrictions on
13		who can legally own, possess, and use firearms; even prior to
14		the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, gun control laws
15		were enacted; therefore laws restricting gun access are not
16		anomalous to American law; and
17		WHEREAS, Before these court decisions, state legislatures
18		had been able to pass laws restricting gun access if it was in
19		the best interests of public safety; therefore, be it
20		RESOLVED, BY THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE
21		NINETY-NINTH GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF ILLINOIS, that we
22		urge the courts, especially the United States Supreme Court, to
23		restore interpretation of the Second Amendment as a right

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1		afforded to state-sponsored militias that as Justice Stevens
2		stated in his Heller dissent, " ... it does not curtail the
3		Legislature's power to regulate the non-military use and
4		ownership of weapons ... ".