Dems Introduce Bill Forcing Gun Buyers To Disclose Social Media Before Sale
Legislation is an effort to block gun sales following questionable social media comments
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Illinois Democrats will introduce a new bill that will require gun buyers to share their social media accounts to police before they are granted permission to obtain firearm license, according to reports.
The new legislation, which is sponsored by two state Democratic lawmakers, is part of an effort to prevent people from buying guns if they have made questionable comments on social media.
The Democrat behind the bill, State Rep. Daniel Didech, told CBS 2 Chicago: “A lot of people who are having mental health issues will often post on their social media pages that they’re about to hurt themselves or others."
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Pittsburgh Synagogue shooter, Robert Bowers, also made numerous troubling comments regarding Jewish people before carrying out his deadly attack.
A similar bill was introduced last year in New York which required gun buyers to submit to a state review of their social media histories before purchase.
Rochester area Assemblywoman-elect Jamie Romeo said: "we hear about these instances where there's a mass shooting, but there were all these red flags."
"People should've seen this activity or somebody should have… is there a way that we could've seen this before tragedy struck?"
But the bill was met with criticism before being approved last month.
Glenberg of ACLU says the bill doesn’t address what the police could do with the data, in addition to the First Amendment concerns.
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“A person’s political beliefs, a person’s religious beliefs, things that should not play a part in whether someone gets a FOID card,” Glenberg told the station.
According to Fox News: The Illinois State Rifle Association, meanwhile, said that everyone should be outraged by the intrusiveness of the bill.
“When people look at this everyone who has a Facebook account or email account or Twitter account will be incensed or should be,” Richard Pearson said.
But Didech defended his measure to the station, saying his bill “gives Illinois State Police additional tools to make sure that dangerous weapons aren’t getting into the hands of dangerous people.”
He noted that his measure is also less intrusive than the one proposed in New York.
Last December, House Democrats proposed a bill to block a Capitol Hill regulation that permits members of Congress to carry firearms on Capitol grounds and keep them in their offices.
The abolishment of the rule, which has been in place for 50 years, is being pushed by California Democratic Rep. Jared Huffman.
Huffman had expanded the support of the ban of Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi D-Calif., who is now attempting a return to the House speakership following the democrat majority win in November.
