After the U.S. Supreme Court last week upheld a federal law that bars those under domestic violence-related restraining orders from owning guns, victim advocates say Illinois lawmakers should pass a measure to ensure firearms are actually confiscated in those situations.
The legislation for more than a year, despite efforts this spring and fall to resurrect it after the high-profile murder of Chicago resident Karina Gonzalez. She and her 15-year-old daughter Daniela were allegedly shot to death by her estranged husband less than two weeks after a judge issued an order of protection against him. Jose Alvarez remains in Cook County Jail and is next due in court on Tuesday.
But after Friday鈥檚 high court ruling, advocates say there is nothing else standing in the way of lawmakers taking up the bill, which last summer was rebranded 鈥淜arina鈥檚 Bill鈥� after Gonzalez鈥檚 murder. The bill would clarify existing state law and require law enforcement to take guns from those subject to certain domestic violence orders of protection.
Amanda Pyron, executive director of Chicago-based domestic violence advocacy organization The Network, said it 鈥渉it a lot of us really hard鈥� that Friday鈥檚 Supreme Court decision was published on the one-year anniversary of Gonzalez鈥檚 order of protection against her husband.
鈥淚 think it says a lot about our state that it took this long and we hope it will say something different about our state if we get it passed in (the General Assembly鈥檚 fall) veto session,鈥� Pyron said of lawmaker inaction on Karina鈥檚 bill during a call with reporters on Monday.
State Rep. Maura Hirschauer, D-Batavia, a chief sponsor of Karina鈥檚 Bill, said in a statement Friday that while the high court鈥檚 ruling is 鈥渁 great relief for survivors of gender-based violence,鈥� the decision 鈥渕erely preserve(s) the status quo.鈥�
鈥淗ere in Illinois, we should move forward by enacting Karina鈥檚 Bill, which will provide clear guidance for getting guns out of the hands of abusers, and ensure those weapons are removed sooner 鈥� all within a framework that justices have now overwhelmingly endorsed,鈥� she said.
Hirschauer pushed an earlier, broader version of the bill through the Illinois House in May 2023, but it failed to advance in the Senate. Gonzalez and her daughter were killed two months later.
Under existing state law, when petitioning a court for a domestic violence order of protection, a victim can ask for 18 specific 鈥渞emedies,鈥� including the confiscation of the alleged abuser鈥檚 firearms. But state law is less than clear on how firearms should be surrendered 鈥� or forcibly taken by law enforcement if need be.
Karina鈥檚 Bill would clarify that firearms must be surrendered or confiscated within four days of a victim being granted a domestic violence order of protection against their abuser 鈥� a change from an earlier version of the bill that stipulated a 48-hour timeline. It would also explicitly allow a judge to issue a search warrant for those weapons when law enforcement goes to serve the order of protection.
Although advocates had been waiting for Friday鈥檚 Supreme Court decision, they say lawmakers could have taken up Karina鈥檚 Bill this spring during the General Assembly鈥檚 regular legislative session.
But the pending high court case wasn鈥檛 the only barrier; law enforcement groups like the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police have expressed concerns about smaller, more rural police departments鈥� abilities to follow the law鈥檚 directive to confiscate weapons within four days of an order of protection being issued.
Even Gov. JB Pritzker, while generally supportive of the bill, pointed out last month that law enforcement officers could be going into volatile situations when serving a search warrant for firearms.
鈥淚n the instance where you鈥檝e got to go confiscate the firearm, literally you have to bring sometimes four officers to one situation in order to remove the weapon,鈥� he said. 鈥淎nd if somebody doesn鈥檛 want to give it to you, it becomes quite complicated and maybe dangerous.鈥�
The latest version of the legislation would allow federally licensed gun dealers to store any guns seized or surrendered by someone under a domestic violence order of protection with the firearm remedy 鈥� a change made after smaller police departments said they wouldn鈥檛 be able to store all of those guns themselves.
Pyron and other advocates said the bill has been tweaked and is ready for lawmakers to take it up again when they return to Springfield in November. She also warned that the General Assembly鈥檚 consideration of Karina鈥檚 Bill is made even more urgent by a recent 鈥渦pward trend鈥� in domestic violence-related gun homicides in Illinois.
According to The Network鈥檚 analysis of statistics compiled by the , of domestic violence shooting deaths from 2020 to 2023. Four years ago, 37 such victims died of gunshot wounds, compared with 70 last year. Pyron said that as of April 30, 34 people had died in domestic violence-related shootings in 2024 鈥� a 55 percent increase from the previous year.
The number of domestic violence victims injured, but not killed, in shootings is also increasing, she said. The Network鈥檚 latest annual report containing 2023 data has not yet been published.
is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service covering state government. It is distributed to hundreds of newspapers, radio and TV stations statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation, along with major contributions from the Illinois Broadcasters Foundation and Southern Illinois Editorial Association.
