County Gun Control Package Targets Straw Purchasers
By Chuck Sudo in News on Feb 5, 2013 9:40PM
The Cook County Board approved a gun control package by County Board President Toni Preckwinkle Tuesday that calls on firearms owners who lose, sell, transfer or destroy a gun to report its make, model and serial number to the Sheriff’s office within 48 hours.
Preckwinkle proposed the package last month and, while she stressed she believed the majority of gun owners in Cook County were responsible and law-abiding, said the bill was aimed at cracking down on “straw purchasers”—people who legally purchase guns and resell them to people, mainly criminals, who can’t obtain a Firearm Owner Identification Card.
“Far too often guns that were purchased legally wind up in the hands of criminals,” President Preckwinkle said. “This ordinance will help law enforcement crackdown on individuals who repeatedly fail to file reports yet claim their guns were lost or stolen after they are recovered from a crime scene.”
The new package calls for a $1,000 fine for gun owners who don’t report a change in their ownership of a firearm to the Sheriff’s office and for the Sheriff’s office to share that information with local law enforcement agencies. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said when the bill was proposed last month.
“As local law enforcement budgets continue to shrink, we need to be reasonable yet vigilant in our fight to ensure guns do not end up in the wrong hands and take illegal guns away from those who should not have them.”
Last week, Dart said he was backing legislation that would allow law enforcement agencies to seize guns from individuals who have had their Firearm Owner Identification Cards revoked.