PLUS: Rauner vetoes gun dealer licensing measure
Gov: Vetoed gun bill to do right thing, not to woo right wing
Gov. Bruce Rauner said Tuesday he and his aides were “working feverishly” to study the gun dealer licensing bill before he decided to veto it because “it was going to create a big layer of burden and bureaucracy, and really not keep our communities safer.”
“And so we decided let’s go ahead and veto the bill,” he said.
Speaking after a campaign stop in Naperville, the governor insisted his decision had nothing to do with trying to shore up conservative support a week before the primary.
“Not at all,” Rauner told the Chicago Sun- Times. “What we are focused on is winning in November against Pritzker and Madigan, and our message is a unifying message. It’s the right policy that everybody wants.”
“It just took time to study it to determine the right answer was to veto that one.”
“The right thing is to do a package, and I’m still going to push a package. I’m tired of waiting. The General Assembly still hasn’t passed what I think is really going to make sense. That was the only bill that got to my desk. It reallywasn’t going to improve anything. It was just going to create a bureaucracy that would be harmful.”
Rauner’s veto came after Democratic pressure from Mayor Rahm Emanuel, House Speaker Mike Madigan and J. B. Pritzker and other gubernatorial rivals just days before the primary election.
“Our team has beenworking feverishly, studying, talking, doing our due diligence on what other states have done, what’s the law here, and what it would do to our small shop owners,” the governor said after meeting with voters at Hugo’s Frog Bar in Naperville. “And we just decided it was going to create a big layer of burden and bureaucracy, and really not keep our communities safer. And so we decided let’s go ahead and veto the bill.”
One of the bill’s chief sponsors, state Sen. Don Harmon, D- Oak Park, on Tuesday accused Rauner of being a “lap dog” for the National Rifle Association “rather than listen to the people he represents.”
But the NRA in turn said the bill created “dramatic overreaches specifically designed to close as many Illinois federally licensed firearm dealers as possible.”
“Now it’s up to the law- abiding gun owners of Illinois to let their lawmakers know this type of infringement on their Second Amendment Rights is completely unacceptable,” NRA spokesman Lars Dalseide said in a statement.
And the Illinois State Rifle Association called it a “bad bill” while applauding Rauner’s decision.
Rauner had signaled his intentions earlier in the day during an interview with WJPF, a radio station in southern Illinois, while also revealing he is amember of the NRA.
“I have been [ anNRAmember] for many years. I’m a hunter. I’m a gun owner. I’m a Second Amendment supporter,” Rauner said.
The measure, which brought out everyone from Cardinal Blase Cupich to Chicago Police Supt. Eddie Johnson to advocate for it in Springfield, would have required gun dealers to be licensed by the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation, and not just the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The costwould have been limited to $ 1,000 every five years.
The gun dealer licensing bill was sent to the governor’s desk on Feb. 28, and he had 60 days to decidewhether to sign the bill, veto it or do nothing and let it take effect.
Since then, Emanuel and Johnson repeatedly publicly pressured the governor to sign it. Emanuel and Johnson on Monday held a news conference flanked by the parents of childrenwho have been killed on Chicago streets.
At a news conference at police headquarters Tuesday, Emanuel charged that Rauner had “abdicated his leadership” and let primary politics trump a governor’s “primary responsibility” to provide public safety.
“I’ve been in public life for 30 years. I know politics when I see it. This is about his primary election and not his primary responsibility as governor,” the mayor said.
“It was not cramming for his final examwhen hewas studying the legislation. He was getting a little political heat in the primary and he decided to end that heat. He doesn’t know what the heat of the general election is gonna look like.”
He added: “This has everything to do with politics and nothing to do with public safety and there are consequences to that decision because, after Florida, we’re at an inflection pointwe have not seen in a long time.”
“THIS HAS EVERYTHING TO DO WITH POLITICS AND NOTHING TO DO WITH PUBLIC SAFETY.’’ MAYOR RAHM EMANUEL, after Gov. Rauner vetoed a gun dealer licensing bill