Prairie State Wire

The National Shooting Sports Foundation’s spokesman, Whitney O’Daniel said HB5855 will create large problems for those in Illinois’ gun economy. 

O’Daniel testified at the House Judiciary Committee’s Dec. 20 hearing, the third and the last hearing on the Protect Illinois Communities Act.  

“We as an organization represent the firearms industry, we want to ensure that only law-abiding citizens can and do access legal firearms that our membership manufactures, distributes and sells under federal and state laws,” O’Daniel told the committee. “Unfortunately, this objective is sometimes clouded by criminals – in today's day and age – who give our members and their customers bad reputations. These criminals have clouded the state and our country with poor representation of armed usage. Yet I wanted to bring to the Committee's attention that while these criminals have done this action, this bill has some unintended consequences from our perspective as an industry that might be negative towards the state of Illinois.”

Glenn Garamoni, president of the State Line Rifle Association of Illinois, said the bill will impact arms manufacturers in the state. He said the bill, “Provides no exemption for federally licensed firearms dealers and manufacturers in Illinois. Goodbye to many jobs in Illinois at Springfield Armory, Rock River Arms, DS Arms, Rock Island Armory, Krebs Custom and Benjamin Tactical Inc. to name a few,” Garamoni said, Lake County Gazette reported.

State Rep. Dan Swanson (R-Alpha) said Rep. Bob Morgan's (D-Deerfield) measure will have an immediate economic effect on Illinois’ arms manufacturers and hunting stores. The legislation would outlaw many types of commonly owned firearms and magazines. “We're talking north of 1,000 employees between those three businesses that would be affected,” Swanson said in a Facebook livestream.

House Minority Leader Tony McCombie (R-Sterling) previously said the bill is unconstitutional. “While HB 5855 is likely far from in its final form, the constitutionality of the bill will certainly go before the courts,” McCombie told Prairie State Wire.