After Georgia school shooting, Illinois lawmakers, firearms safety advocates push stronger gun storage law

Illinois Democrats are calling for stronger gun storage legislation just days after 14-year-old Colt Gray allegedly killed two teachers and two students at a Georgia high school with an AR-15 style rifle purchased by his father.

The legislation, sponsored by state Sen. Laura Ellman, D-Naperville, and state Rep. Maura Hirschauer, D-Batavia, would require gun owners to securely lock weapons in homes with anyone aged 18 or younger. Current state law requires storage in homes with those 13 or younger.

Similar legislation was introduced in the spring session, but Hirschauer said she’s hoping to pass a new version — with some changes negotiated with Gov. JB Pritzker's office, during the November veto session or in early January.

The Gun Violence Prevention PAC of Illinois is also launching an advocacy campaign to push for the measure, as well as another that would strengthen reporting requirements around lost and stolen weapons.

“We’ve just seen that that age is too young," Hirschauer said. "When we are seeing children access firearms and use them to harm themselves or others, they are usually at that adolescent teenage year, so we need to strengthen that law."

The measure would also prohibit someone from leaving a firearm outside of their possession unless it is unloaded and secured in a lock box that makes it inaccessible to anyone but the owner or another legally authorized user.

It would also prohibit “at-risk” people — those who have made statements or exhibited behavior that show they are at risk of attempting suicide or causing harm to others — from accessing guns.

A civil penalty for failing to safely secure firearms would also be added to state law, with violations beginning at $500 and escalating to $1,000 if a person obtains a weapon that they are prohibited from accessing. Those fines would go to a state fund for mental health services. A first violation could result in community service or restitution — instead of civil penalties.

Hirschauer said she also plans to push legislation that would provide a tax incentive for firearm safety devices.

"This policy is really common sense, best practice, responsible gun ownership that we've been working towards for many years now. And the Illinois Department of Public Health is moving forward with a state financed public education campaign that will go across the state to talk about how to properly store your firearms, and you know why it's necessary," Hirschauer said.

"So we feel good that we have an education component, policy component out there, and we're also looking at some incentives, tax rebates for safe storage devices," Hirschauer continued. "I feel like we've just set ourselves up in the perfect situation where we're education, we're incentivizing and we're strengthening of policy."

Colt Gray is charged with four counts of murder in the shooting that left four dead and nine wounded in Winder, Georgia, last week. His father, Colin Gray, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and second-degree murder — with his arrest warrant saying he caused the deaths of others “by providing a firearm to Colt Gray with knowledge that he was a threat to himself and others,” the Associated Press reported.

In May 2023, Colt Gray denied threatening to carry out a school shooting when authorities interviewed him about a social media post. No charges were filed then.

In April, Jennifer and James Crumbley became the first parents to be convicted in a U.S mass school shooting — sentenced to at least 10 years in prison for failing to secure a weapon at home and for failing to recognize signs of their son’s mental status before he killed four students at a Michigan school in 2021.

And in the deadliest mass shooting in Illinois — the Highland Park Fourth of July rampage that left seven dead and dozens wounded — the shooter’s father, Robert Crimo Jr. pleaded guilty in November 2023 to seven counts of misdemeanor reckless conduct for signing his son’s application for an Illinois Firearm Owners identification card in 2019, even after a police report was made about his son threatening to "kill everyone.”

Crimo Jr. was sentenced to 60 days in jail and two years of probation — but was released early for good behavior. He has also agreed to testify against his son, who in June backed out of a plea deal that would have sent him to prison for life.