HB1155ham004 98TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Rep. Barbara Flynn Currie

Filed: 2/25/2013

09800HB1155ham004 LRB098 08475 MRW 41602 a

AMENDMENT TO HOUSE BILL 1155

AMENDMENT NO. ______. Amend House Bill 1155, AS AMENDED, by inserting the following in its proper numeric sequence:

"Section 100. Firearm carry prohibition; State and local government.

(a) No person may knowingly carry a firearm into any building under the control of the State, General Assembly, General Assembly support service agency, including a building in which a committee of the General Assembly convenes for the purpose of conducting meetings of committees, joint committees, legislative commissions, and any property or parking lot area under control of the General Assembly that is adjacent to or near a prohibited building in this Section.

(b) No person may knowingly carry a firearm into any building owned or occupied by a governing body of a unit of local government, or any property or parking lot area adjacent to or near a local government building. For the purposes of this Section, "unit of local government" means a county, municipality, township, special district, and unit, designated as a unit of local government by law, which exercises limited governmental powers or powers in respect to limited governmental subjects, but does not include a school district.

(c) No person may knowingly carry a firearm into any building under control of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Secretary of State, Comptroller, or Treasurer, and any property or parking lot area adjacent to or near a prohibited building in this Section.

(d) No person may knowingly carry a firearm into any police, sheriff, State Police, or firefighting office or station, or onto any adjacent property or parking lot areas under the control of a police, sheriff, State Police, or firefighting office or station, without the consent of the chief law enforcement officer or chief firefighting officer in charge of that office or station, unless employed by the police, sheriff, State Police, or firefighting office or station and authorized by the chief law enforcement officer or chief firefighting officer to carry a firearm.

(e) No person may knowingly carry a firearm into any adult or juvenile detention or correctional institution, prison, or jail, or onto any adjacent property or parking lot area under the control of an adult or juvenile detention or correctional institution, prison, or jail, unless employed there and otherwise authorized to carry a firearm.

(f) No person may knowingly carry a firearm into any courthouse or part of a building that is occupied by the Circuit, Appellate, or Supreme Court, any room designated for court proceedings by any of these courts, and any property or parking lot area adjacent to or near courthouses and court buildings.

(g) The exemptions and provisions in subsections (a), (b), (f), (g-6), (g-10), (h), and (i) of Section 24-2 of the Criminal Code of 2012 apply to this Section.

(h) The United States Supreme Court in District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570, 128 S.Ct. 2783 (2008) has recognized that the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution does not confer an unlimited right and that states may prohibit the carrying of firearms in sensitive places. The Supreme Court stated in the Heller decision: "Although we do not undertake an exhaustive historical analysis today of the full scope of the Second Amendment, nothing in our opinion should be taken to cast doubt on longstanding prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill, or laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings . . ." The Supreme Court also noted in a footnote referencing this statement in the Heller decision that: "We identify these presumptively lawful regulatory measures only as examples; our list does not purport to be exhaustive." This recognition was reiterated by the U. S. Supreme Court in McDonald v. the City of Chicago, 561 U.S. 3025, 130 S.Ct. 3020 (2010), which incorporated the Second Amendment against state action. The Supreme Court again stated: "We made it clear in Heller that our holding did not cast doubt on such longstanding regulatory measures as "prohibitions on the possession of firearms by felons and the mentally ill," "laws forbidding the carrying of firearms in sensitive places such as schools and government buildings . . . We repeat those assurances here." Further, the federal 7th Circuit Court of Appeals in Moore v. Madigan, 702 F.3d. 933 (7th Cir., 2012) cited the "sensitive place" statement of the Supreme Court in both the Heller and McDonald decisions and concluded: "That a legislature can forbid the carrying of firearms in schools and government buildings means that any right to possess a gun for self-defense outside the home is not absolute, and it is not absolute by the Supreme Court's own terms." Therefore, the General Assembly finds that the places or locations set forth in this Section are sensitive places and the prohibition on the carrying of firearms will promote public safety in these sensitive places.".